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Just though it was a good idea for a thread even though we all are pretty good at it anyway. So post your ideas, tips & tricks and recipes that can help stretch that all mighty dollar when meal prepping.


I like this channel for most of her Mexican recipes. No fuss, no muss and she uses leftovers and gets every bit from her ingredients with very little waste. Anyway, in several of her videos she mixes leftover mashed potatoes with the meat to make it go further. I know using beans will do the same. Last night I had some leftover mashed potatoes and mixed it with some seasoned meat to make Birria tacos for supper and still have a bunch of filling leftover that I'll be doing the fried rolled tacos (taquitos?) and put them in the freezer for snacking or if there is enough could be used for a quick meal. Already made & cooked, just need to thaw & reheat add some sides or ?????





My attempt at this yesterday went pretty well even though I didn't follow her recipe or instructions to the letter and that was because of lack of planning on my part. I didn't use the peppers or make the sauce/salsa or season the meat as she did........again for lack of planning, but crispy fried tacos dipped in consume' just sounded too good to pass up. We had those and coleslaw with oil/vinegar dressing YUM Next time I'm in the mood for it, I'll start a day or two earlier.

With prices going up and up this is a good idea for a thread.

I love to "fill" with dehydrated veggies or grated veggies. A grated carrot will cook into invisible and add bulk to a lot of dishes as well as nutrition.

Don't forget about added fat in meals. We are so conditioned to eating things lean these days, but in times of hunger... real hunger... fat adds calories and fills your empty belly.

Yep and I've been saving or using fats alot more when I learned about making schmaltz. Before that I trimmed & tossed, but no more. For those tacos, I used a package of some chuck steaks that were starting to look a bit funky in the freezer. Stuck them in the crockpot with some seasonings in the morning and by late afternoon they were fall apart. I chopped them up a bit including the fat. Today I made about a dozen or so of the rolled taquitos with the extra meat filling and mixed it with some salsa, then rolled & fried them. I had a couple for lunch and stuck the rest in the freezer.



Another thought came to me today about making stuffed peppers. I haven't made them in years. Hubs liked them stuffed with a meatloaf like filling, but I remember when Ma made them when I was a kid, she added rice mixed in the meat.

I actually prefer them with some kind of rice and veggies added to the meat. You can kick the whole stuffed pepper idea up another notch too, just depending on which pepper you use.

You can use the meat and rice filling for cabbage rolls too! Of chop it all up and make deconstructed cabbage rolls.

Layered casseroles and salads are a good way to stretch bits of meat & cheese with vegetables and a starch to make them feed a crowd. Of course soups and stews do the same.

Yes for soups. I remember Ma saying 'Throw another tater in the pot, someone's coming for dinner' or something like that even if we weren't having soup.

Cabbage is another good stretcher as a matter of a fact. Added to all kinds of dishes. It adds a lot of fiber and fills you up.

I like to fry potatoes and onions together with a little bit of either bacon, sausage or ham. I cover it with cheese and toss a couple of eggs on top and serve with toast. There are really more potatoes and onions than meat in my skillet meal but it’s definitely filling and has a good amount of protein from the meat, cheese and eggs.

I also love to make quiches, frittatas and breakfast casseroles to stretch a small amount of meat and fill up on veggies.

I want to shred some potatoes and use them as the crust for my quiche next time I make one. I plan to toss the shredded potatoes and a bit of oil and then press them into a pie plate. I’ll bake them until they are almost done and pour in the filling in hopes that the potatoes get crispy.

Of course another favorite dish that uses potatoes is my loaded potato pancakes. This one stretches a very small amount of meat along with onions and peppers plus cheese and is very filling.

Don’t forget fried rice as another meal that stretches a small amount of meat to feed a crowd.

Our favorite stuffed pepper recipe:

LOVE LOVE stuffed peppers. but only the red, orange or yellow ones.