How to Stretch Your Ground Beef Budget

Quality meat can be expensive. Even lower quality meat is more expensive than a can of beans. Are you trying to stretch your grocery budget but don't want to give up ground beef? Do you have a family full of beef eaters?

You can still eat ground beef and save money without sacrificing taste. There are tricks that will help you do that. Many of them not only have the benefit of lowering the cost of your grocery bill, but they are good for you and your family's health as well. But don't worry, you don't have to tell them that.

Some of the common recipes you can use meat extenders and substitutions with are stuffed peppers, chili, spaghetti, Mexican favorites such as tacos and burritos, meatloaf, Hamburger Helper, stuffed cabbage and soups. If you have parents or grandparents who grew up during the era of the Great Depression, many of these tips may be familiar to you as using meat extenders was one way people stretched their food budget.

According to this article by the Mayo Clinic staff, oatmeal is a good source of soluble fiber which helps reduce the bad cholesterol in your body which in turn helps prevent heart disease. This is a great reason to substitute part of your ground beef in recipes with oats.

For specific recipes, I refer you to the Quaker Oats beef recipe page. The site has some classics such as meatloaf and meatballs. But you can easily adapt your own recipes. Your average meatloaf recipe calls for 2 pounds of meat, so just start out by substituting 25% of that (or 1/2 cup) with uncooked quick or old-fashioned oats and use it in your favorite meatloaf recipe but remove the bread crumbs.

Try this substitution with hamburgers and see what you think. You probably won't be able to tell a difference especially if you use seasoning such as onion soup packets to spice up your burgers.

Beans are low in cholesterol and calories and high in fiber, protein and minerals including calcium and iron. They're cheap and easy to prepare and an excellent substitute for meat in your favorite ground beef dishes. You can substitute the meat completely in recipes such as stuffed cabbage and peppers or use them with beef in whatever ratio you want. Here are some of my favorite tips:

• Cook lentils and mix 50/50 with beef in stuffed peppers or cabbage.  For vegetarians just skip the meat and use beans and rice.
  
• Make up a batch of red beans or pinto beans and make beef and bean burritos.
• Beans make great veggie burgers or you can substitute some for just a portion of your beef as a burger meat extender.

Dry beans are cheaper than canned but if you aren't sure about these substitutions and want to make it easier on yourself, start off with canned beans. One can of black beans drained, slightly mashed and mixed with one pound of ground beef with taco seasoning and cooked like burgers is a great way to introduce your family to this way of cooking. Use your imagination and cater to your tastes.

Textured vegetable protein, also known as TVP, is a soy-based product used as a meat substitute. One of the traits of soy is that it is generally tasteless and takes on the flavor of the food your cooking it with. It's come a long way over the years. Nowadays, you can buy beef-flavored TVP or use the usual unflavored.

It also has the advantage of being relatively inexpensive compared to ground beef, especially if you buy it in bulk. Some health food stores have bulk sections where you can buy TVP or you can get the prepackaged product. Some mainstream supermarkets sell it as well or you can order it online. I've found the Bob's Red Mill brand in my local market.

TVP is dried and needs to be soaked in water to rehydrate it for use. Brands differ but here are some general guidelines for TVP conversion:

• 1/2 cup dried TVP granules to 1/2 boiling water yields the equivalent of 1 cup meat.

• 2 cups ground beef equals approximately a pound.

• Therefore, if you wanted to cut the beef 50/50 with TVP, you would use the half cup amount as above.

Let the TVP rehydrate for about 15 minutes stirring occasionally. Be sure to check the package directions for the specifics of the brand you buy. Once it's reconstituted, you can use it as you would beef. I've substituted both plain and beef-flavored TVP for 50% ground beef in chili, tacos and meatloaf and they all were delicious.

TVP is also excellent to have on hand if you have a vegetarian in the family but you don't want to cook two separate meals. For instance, if you're making tacos, you can make one batch for the meat eaters only substituting part of the meat with TVP and make a separate portion for the vegetarian by substituting the meat completely with TVP and mixing it with taco seasoning, then cook as usual.

Once you start cooking with meat extenders, you may have to adjust the temperatures and cooking times in your recipes to accommodate for lower fat content.  I've noticed that meatloaf is done about 15 minutes earlier than the recipe calls for.  While this way of cooking may take some getting used to, it's worth it once you see the results in the health of your family and lower grocery bills.