We are talking about some techniques for stretching meals in an emergency, from hosting unexpected company to having to make due with the food resources that you have. If you missed part one, click here: Emergency Meal Stretching.
Vegetables are a good choice when you don’t have time to really cook extra food. Canned or frozen, and even fresh, they are generally easy to prepare. You can have large helpings as a side dish or make the vegetable the main ingredient. And here is a trick to make it seem as though your meal is larger than it is. Offer at least two varieties of vegetables. Instead of offering a cup of peas, for example, offer a half a cup of peas and a half a cup of corn side by side. The variety fools the stomach into thinking there is more food.
Salad is a great choice to stretch a meal. Not only is it healthy and inexpensive, but it is easy to serve a lot of it, if needed. Here is a little trick. Serve the salad in the Italian style, at the end of the meal. Many people forego salad or pick at it sparingly in anticipation of spoiling their main meal. Serve it at the end, and anyone who is still hungry can have his fill.
I have mentioned it a few times here, but casseroles are great meal stretchers. You can throw a lot of odd stuff together and make it a hearty meal. Think about it. If you served a can of corn, a can of peas, a can of chunky soup and a can of chicken to four or five people, the meal would seem pretty paltry. But take those same ingredients, throw them together in a casserole dish and top it with some biscuits for a full meal.
Another great device for stretching a meal is a stew. It goes on the same principal as the casserole, lots of little things mixed together. In addition, the sauce or broth in a stew fills out the meal quite nicely. In a stew, half of a roast chicken, which might normally feed three or four, could be stretched out to feed six to eight people.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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