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How to Make Dinner Go Further Without Anyone Feeling Short-Changed
There are nights when dinner needs to stretch.
Perhaps someone brings a friend home. Perhaps everyone is especially hungry. Perhaps there are leftovers that need using, but not quite enough of them to make another full meal. Or perhaps it is simply getting close to grocery day and you would rather make what you already have work than head back to the supermarket.
Whatever the reason, knowing how to make a meal go a little further is one of those wonderfully practical Cheapskates skills.
And it does not mean serving tiny portions, watery soup or meals that leave everyone wandering back into the kitchen an hour later looking for something else to eat.
It simply means learning how to combine expensive ingredients with cheaper, filling ingredients so the meal still looks generous, tastes good and leaves everyone satisfied.
We have all heard the old saying about adding more water to the soup.
Yes, you can do that.
But I have to say, watery soup has never been one of my favourite money-saving strategies!
I would much rather add something that makes the meal heartier as well as larger.
Over the years I have relied on a handful of very ordinary ingredients to do exactly that: rolled oats, pasta, rice, TVP, vegetables and mashed potato.
There is nothing particularly glamorous about any of them; that is probably why they work so well. They sit quietly in the pantry, fridge or freezer until they are needed, and then they can turn what looks like a meal for three into a meal for five, or a little leftover meat into an entirely new dinner.
Make the Expensive Part of the Meal Go Further
Most of the time it is the meat, chicken or fish that costs the most.
So instead of increasing the expensive ingredient, increase the cheaper ingredients around it. A small serving of chicken casserole may look a little mean sitting by itself on a plate. Spoon it over steamed rice or pasta and suddenly it becomes a filling dinner.
The amount of chicken hasn't changed, the meal has.
The same principle works beautifully with steak. One steak may not seem enough to feed four people. But slice it thinly and combine it with cooked rice, capsicum, tomato, zucchini and onion, then use the mixture to fill burritos. Now that single steak is part of a generous family dinner.
This is what meal stretching should do.
It should make the meal better, not merely bigger.
Rolled Oats Quietly Stretch Mince
Rolled oats are one of my favourite additions to mince.
They absorb flavour, help bind the mixture and disappear into the finished meal remarkably well.
Add them to rissoles, hamburgers, meatballs or meatloaf.
As a starting point, try around half a cup of rolled oats to 500g mince.
If your family is happy with that, you can experiment with a little more.
The oats take on the flavour of the herbs, seasonings and meat, and most people would never know they were there.
Yet that small addition can give you several extra serves.
And with the price of mince these days, several extra serves can make quite a difference.
Let Pasta Carry the Meal
Pasta is another brilliant stretcher because it is filling, inexpensive and goes with almost anything.
A small amount of leftover chicken can become a chicken pasta bake.
A tin of tuna can become tuna pasta.
A handful of roast vegetables can turn into a pasta salad for lunch the next day.
Pasta can also be added to soups, casseroles and stews.
Usually one or two cups is enough to make a noticeable difference, depending on the size of the dish.
If you are adding dry pasta directly to soup or a casserole, remember that it will absorb liquid as it cooks, so you may need to add extra stock, water or sauce.
There is nothing frugal about stretching dinner with pasta only to discover the pasta has soaked up every drop of gravy!
Rice is One of the Best Pantry Stretchers
If I could choose only one inexpensive pantry ingredient for stretching meals, rice would be very high on the list.
It works with meat, chicken, fish, beans and vegetables.
It can be served underneath a meal, mixed through it or added directly to it.
Cooked rice stretches taco and burrito fillings beautifully.
It works well mixed into meatballs, rissoles, hamburgers and meatloaf.
It can turn a small quantity of cooked chicken and vegetables into fried rice.
And it can bulk out soups, casseroles and stews.
For mince mixtures, try adding half a cup to one cup of cooked rice. You may need another egg, or an egg substitute, to help hold the mixture together.
For burritos, tacos and salads, one or two cups of cooked rice can turn a small amount of meat into quite a generous family meal.
And if you are adding raw rice to a soup or casserole, make sure there is enough liquid for it to cook properly.
TVP Can Double a Mince Mixture
TVP — textured vegetable protein — is another useful pantry ingredient, particularly for mince dishes and is my favourite stretcher for mince based meals.
It doesn't have a strong flavour of its own. Instead, it absorbs the flavour of whatever you cook it with.
That makes it useful in pasta sauce, chilli, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, lasagne, casseroles, meatballs and rissoles.
To prepare it, soak one cup of TVP in one cup of boiling water for about 15 minutes. Once it has softened, stir it through the mince mixture. If you want to add a little more flavour, brown it in a little oil, butter or ghee before adding it to the meat. This creates a savoury depth to an otherwise very bland flavour.
In many dishes you can use roughly equal quantities of prepared TVP and mince. So 500g mince combined with prepared TVP can suddenly become enough filling for two meals rather than one. That is a substantial saving from one simple pantry ingredient.
Vegetables Stretch Meals and Reduce Waste
Vegetables may be the best meal stretcher of all because they add bulk, colour, flavour and nutrition at the same time.
They are also a wonderful way to use vegetables that are reaching the point where nobody is particularly excited about eating them on their own.
That slightly limp carrot? Grate it into pasta sauce.
The zucchini that needs using today? Grate it into mince.
A small piece of pumpkin? Dice it and add it to a casserole.
Mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, pumpkin, sweet potato, cabbage, beetroot, squash, swede, turnip and parsnip can all disappear happily into soups, stews, sauces and pie fillings. Potato, zucchini, carrot, cabbage, tomato, onion and celery can be grated into mince mixtures, sausage rolls, meatballs and rissoles.
This is especially useful when you are feeding someone who insists they don't like vegetables. Sometimes what they actually don't like is seeing the vegetables sitting in a separate pile on the plate!
Mixed through a savoury sauce or casserole, they may happily eat them without a second thought.
And instead of those vegetables ending up in the compost because they were forgotten in the fridge, they become another meal.
That is good household management.
Mashed Potato is Made for Leftovers
Never underestimate a bowl of mashed potato.
It is cheap, filling and extraordinarily useful when you are turning leftovers into another meal.
A little leftover roast meat can be chopped and mixed with mashed potato to make patties of become French Shepherd's Pie.
One tin of tuna can become a generous batch of tuna patties.
Leftover vegetables can become vegetable croquettes.
Mashed potato can top shepherd's pie, cottage pie or a leftover casserole pie; it can even be added to sausage roll filling.
Not only does the potato make the meat mixture go further, it helps keep the sausage rolls moist and tender too.
Perhaps someone brings a friend home. Perhaps everyone is especially hungry. Perhaps there are leftovers that need using, but not quite enough of them to make another full meal. Or perhaps it is simply getting close to grocery day and you would rather make what you already have work than head back to the supermarket.
Whatever the reason, knowing how to make a meal go a little further is one of those wonderfully practical Cheapskates skills.
And it does not mean serving tiny portions, watery soup or meals that leave everyone wandering back into the kitchen an hour later looking for something else to eat.
It simply means learning how to combine expensive ingredients with cheaper, filling ingredients so the meal still looks generous, tastes good and leaves everyone satisfied.
We have all heard the old saying about adding more water to the soup.
Yes, you can do that.
But I have to say, watery soup has never been one of my favourite money-saving strategies!
I would much rather add something that makes the meal heartier as well as larger.
Over the years I have relied on a handful of very ordinary ingredients to do exactly that: rolled oats, pasta, rice, TVP, vegetables and mashed potato.
There is nothing particularly glamorous about any of them; that is probably why they work so well. They sit quietly in the pantry, fridge or freezer until they are needed, and then they can turn what looks like a meal for three into a meal for five, or a little leftover meat into an entirely new dinner.
Make the Expensive Part of the Meal Go Further
Most of the time it is the meat, chicken or fish that costs the most.
So instead of increasing the expensive ingredient, increase the cheaper ingredients around it. A small serving of chicken casserole may look a little mean sitting by itself on a plate. Spoon it over steamed rice or pasta and suddenly it becomes a filling dinner.
The amount of chicken hasn't changed, the meal has.
The same principle works beautifully with steak. One steak may not seem enough to feed four people. But slice it thinly and combine it with cooked rice, capsicum, tomato, zucchini and onion, then use the mixture to fill burritos. Now that single steak is part of a generous family dinner.
This is what meal stretching should do.
It should make the meal better, not merely bigger.
Rolled Oats Quietly Stretch Mince
Rolled oats are one of my favourite additions to mince.
They absorb flavour, help bind the mixture and disappear into the finished meal remarkably well.
Add them to rissoles, hamburgers, meatballs or meatloaf.
As a starting point, try around half a cup of rolled oats to 500g mince.
If your family is happy with that, you can experiment with a little more.
The oats take on the flavour of the herbs, seasonings and meat, and most people would never know they were there.
Yet that small addition can give you several extra serves.
And with the price of mince these days, several extra serves can make quite a difference.
Let Pasta Carry the Meal
Pasta is another brilliant stretcher because it is filling, inexpensive and goes with almost anything.
A small amount of leftover chicken can become a chicken pasta bake.
A tin of tuna can become tuna pasta.
A handful of roast vegetables can turn into a pasta salad for lunch the next day.
Pasta can also be added to soups, casseroles and stews.
Usually one or two cups is enough to make a noticeable difference, depending on the size of the dish.
If you are adding dry pasta directly to soup or a casserole, remember that it will absorb liquid as it cooks, so you may need to add extra stock, water or sauce.
There is nothing frugal about stretching dinner with pasta only to discover the pasta has soaked up every drop of gravy!
Rice is One of the Best Pantry Stretchers
If I could choose only one inexpensive pantry ingredient for stretching meals, rice would be very high on the list.
It works with meat, chicken, fish, beans and vegetables.
It can be served underneath a meal, mixed through it or added directly to it.
Cooked rice stretches taco and burrito fillings beautifully.
It works well mixed into meatballs, rissoles, hamburgers and meatloaf.
It can turn a small quantity of cooked chicken and vegetables into fried rice.
And it can bulk out soups, casseroles and stews.
For mince mixtures, try adding half a cup to one cup of cooked rice. You may need another egg, or an egg substitute, to help hold the mixture together.
For burritos, tacos and salads, one or two cups of cooked rice can turn a small amount of meat into quite a generous family meal.
And if you are adding raw rice to a soup or casserole, make sure there is enough liquid for it to cook properly.
TVP Can Double a Mince Mixture
TVP — textured vegetable protein — is another useful pantry ingredient, particularly for mince dishes and is my favourite stretcher for mince based meals.
It doesn't have a strong flavour of its own. Instead, it absorbs the flavour of whatever you cook it with.
That makes it useful in pasta sauce, chilli, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, lasagne, casseroles, meatballs and rissoles.
To prepare it, soak one cup of TVP in one cup of boiling water for about 15 minutes. Once it has softened, stir it through the mince mixture. If you want to add a little more flavour, brown it in a little oil, butter or ghee before adding it to the meat. This creates a savoury depth to an otherwise very bland flavour.
In many dishes you can use roughly equal quantities of prepared TVP and mince. So 500g mince combined with prepared TVP can suddenly become enough filling for two meals rather than one. That is a substantial saving from one simple pantry ingredient.
Vegetables Stretch Meals and Reduce Waste
Vegetables may be the best meal stretcher of all because they add bulk, colour, flavour and nutrition at the same time.
They are also a wonderful way to use vegetables that are reaching the point where nobody is particularly excited about eating them on their own.
That slightly limp carrot? Grate it into pasta sauce.
The zucchini that needs using today? Grate it into mince.
A small piece of pumpkin? Dice it and add it to a casserole.
Mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, pumpkin, sweet potato, cabbage, beetroot, squash, swede, turnip and parsnip can all disappear happily into soups, stews, sauces and pie fillings. Potato, zucchini, carrot, cabbage, tomato, onion and celery can be grated into mince mixtures, sausage rolls, meatballs and rissoles.
This is especially useful when you are feeding someone who insists they don't like vegetables. Sometimes what they actually don't like is seeing the vegetables sitting in a separate pile on the plate!
Mixed through a savoury sauce or casserole, they may happily eat them without a second thought.
And instead of those vegetables ending up in the compost because they were forgotten in the fridge, they become another meal.
That is good household management.
Mashed Potato is Made for Leftovers
Never underestimate a bowl of mashed potato.
It is cheap, filling and extraordinarily useful when you are turning leftovers into another meal.
A little leftover roast meat can be chopped and mixed with mashed potato to make patties of become French Shepherd's Pie.
One tin of tuna can become a generous batch of tuna patties.
Leftover vegetables can become vegetable croquettes.
Mashed potato can top shepherd's pie, cottage pie or a leftover casserole pie; it can even be added to sausage roll filling.
Not only does the potato make the meat mixture go further, it helps keep the sausage rolls moist and tender too.
Stretch the Meal, Not the Disappointment
There is an important difference between stretching food and making a meal feel stingy.
I don't want anyone leaving our table thinking, "Well, that didn't touch the sides."
A stretched meal should still look inviting and generous.
That may mean serving a casserole over rice instead of serving a larger helping of casserole. It may mean turning leftover roast meat into a pie with vegetables and mashed potato rather than trying to divide three slices of meat between five people. It may mean adding pasta, beans or vegetables to a soup so it becomes a proper meal rather than simply adding another litre of water.
The aim is not to pretend there is more food than there really is.
The aim is to use what we have intelligently.
And there is nothing miserable about that.
In fact, some of our favourite meals have probably developed this way over generations — people taking a little meat, adding potatoes, grains, vegetables or pasta and turning it into something delicious that could feed the whole family.
It is a Skill Worth Practising
Meal stretching is one of those old-fashioned household skills that becomes more valuable every time grocery prices increase.
Once you start thinking this way, it becomes automatic.
You look at half a casserole and think, "That will be lovely over rice."
You see two leftover sausages and think, "I'll slice those into a pasta bake."
You find some limp vegetables in the fridge and think, "They're going into tonight's sauce."
Instead of asking, "Is there enough?" you begin asking, "What can I add to make this enough?"
That little change in thinking can reduce food waste, cut down supermarket trips and help keep your grocery spending under control.
Most importantly, it lets you put a generous meal on the table using the food you already have.
And that is very much the Cheapskates way — live well, use what you have, get the best value from every grocery dollar and make sure nobody leaves the table hungry.
There is an important difference between stretching food and making a meal feel stingy.
I don't want anyone leaving our table thinking, "Well, that didn't touch the sides."
A stretched meal should still look inviting and generous.
That may mean serving a casserole over rice instead of serving a larger helping of casserole. It may mean turning leftover roast meat into a pie with vegetables and mashed potato rather than trying to divide three slices of meat between five people. It may mean adding pasta, beans or vegetables to a soup so it becomes a proper meal rather than simply adding another litre of water.
The aim is not to pretend there is more food than there really is.
The aim is to use what we have intelligently.
And there is nothing miserable about that.
In fact, some of our favourite meals have probably developed this way over generations — people taking a little meat, adding potatoes, grains, vegetables or pasta and turning it into something delicious that could feed the whole family.
It is a Skill Worth Practising
Meal stretching is one of those old-fashioned household skills that becomes more valuable every time grocery prices increase.
Once you start thinking this way, it becomes automatic.
You look at half a casserole and think, "That will be lovely over rice."
You see two leftover sausages and think, "I'll slice those into a pasta bake."
You find some limp vegetables in the fridge and think, "They're going into tonight's sauce."
Instead of asking, "Is there enough?" you begin asking, "What can I add to make this enough?"
That little change in thinking can reduce food waste, cut down supermarket trips and help keep your grocery spending under control.
Most importantly, it lets you put a generous meal on the table using the food you already have.
And that is very much the Cheapskates way — live well, use what you have, get the best value from every grocery dollar and make sure nobody leaves the table hungry.
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