[paulaedwina]

I'm trying to eat on the skinny right now because between semesters I have no income so what I have is what's in my bank account.

So I'm making my shopping list and decide to buy the fixings for a lasagna: ground beef, sausage, ricotta, parmesan, some kind of sauce, and lasagna noodles. I'm tallying this in my head and I'm thinking it might actually be cheaper to buy a frozen lasagna.

Am I wrong here?

Paula

[SLW]

I think so and that is why a store bought, frozen lasagna is cooking in my oven right now.

[happymom]

It's cheaper, but my heart goes into the "real" stuff!

[LauraKY]

Probably. Leave out the ground meat, substitute some veggies and cottage cheese for the ricotta, and I'll bet it will be quite a bit less expensive.

[monstrpony]

Possibly, but just going meatless would probably cut the cost in half. Put in some mushrooms, broccoli, whatever instead.

Honestly, the cost of meat these days is making me an involuntary vegetarian!

[Chief2]

Stouffers is your friend on this one. The large party size meat lovers lasagna is excellent! I brought it to a Christmas pot luck buffet and it vaporized! Tell 'em it's home made. They'll never know the difference!

[Alagirl]

even cutting out the meat, you are still looking at a substantial investment into 'real food' vs premade.

Some foods are just like that. Like Pizza. You can have a loaded ready made pizza for 5 bucks, but I doubts you can make it for that!

That does not mean you should abandon making either yourself, but when $$ is an issue....

[Liberty]

Stouffers is your friend on this one. The large party size meat lovers lasagna is excellent! I brought it to a Christmas put luck buffet and it vaporized! Tell 'em it's home made. They'll never know the difference!

This! Stouffers makes the best frozen lasagna. Even better is when you find it on sale.

[paulaedwina]

And it's a $$ issue. I imagine the quality of the ingredients is probably better when I make it at home, but times is hard. I'm also going to pick up a cheap piece of bone in meat to crock some black beans under.

Thanks for the Stouffer's endorsement.

Paula

[Alagirl]

This! Stouffers makes the best frozen lasagna. Even better is when you find it on sale.

and since it's a brand, you can actually find coupons for it!

Yep, I loff that lasagna! Better than DHs, and he cooks like a dream!


Just a side note for all you people on a tight budget:
If you know somebody who hunts or know the local processor, you can have a freezer full of deer meat for the cost of processing in many cases!
Too many only hunt for the trophy, or shoot more than they can eat, and the vast majority of people cannot tell deer from beef! I have used tons of ground deer in spaghetti and chili and could hardly ever tell it wasn't beef!

Plus it is super lean. You won't end up pouring a third of the volume out in fat!

[Cashela]

Lasagna is super expensive to make.

If you like ham and soup buy yourself a spiral ham (I got one for $10 the other day) and cut it up for soups and freeze it. I made soup, and now have enough in my freezer to make four more batches of soup that give you a couple of meals.

[Liberty]

and since it's a brand, you can actually find coupons for it!...

Absolutely!. My biggest "score" was finding it 1/2 price while my grocery store was also doubling coupons up to $2.00. With my $1.50 coupon, it was almost free.

[Mozart]

I think cheaper to buy than make but as others have said, you can lighten the cost by using cottage cheese instead of ricotta and using roasted veggies instead of meat.

I just find it quite hilarious that if anyone suggested to you (or anyone else on this board) that maybe the horse should be eating something cheap you would be appalled.

[Alagirl]

I think cheaper to buy than make but as others have said, you can lighten the cost by using cottage cheese instead of ricotta and using roasted veggies instead of meat.

I just find it quite hilarious that if anyone suggested to you (or anyone else on this board) that maybe the horse should be eating something cheap you would be appalled.

LOL, or buy store brand pet foods...

[paulaedwina]

Oh thank you for reminding me! I have a ham end (bone in) from my meat guy in the freezer! I'll crock that over black beans!

Excellent suggestion Alagirl, BTW. Venison is a good protein.

As for the vegetarian stuff -I don't mean to ignore it, but I don't like vegetarian lasagna I'm afraid.

ETA
RE: I just find it quite hilarious that if anyone suggested to you (or anyone else on this board) that maybe the horse should be eating something cheap you would be appalled.

You are not kidding. It would be applied to my other pets though since horsey is boarded (LOL BTW I paid my January board ahead because of the income gap -I know where my priorities lie).

But yes, I'll eat crap so my animals eat well. Isn't that what parents do for their kids? It's what I'll do for my animals. Heck I scored a coup when I found generic Rimadyl for Yoshi -it cut his $100/month prescription in half. Sure that's $50 I could have put somewhere else, but he's my responsibility right?

Funny thing about store brand pet food -they've improved a great deal. Also, I got tired of being lied to about the high end stuff. When Innova got sued for misrepresenting its ingredients I realized that I was going though alot of trouble to optimize my dog's food without accurate information. So now I'd as soon as buy regular food and optimize it with home stuff anyway, or just go home cooked all the way. Little bit of a digression.

Paula

[SmartAlex]

I split the Ricotta with half Cottage Cheese anyway. I like it better. In our neighborhood this is known as "Swedish Lasagna"

[stolen virtue]

I do make lasagne and what I make is a much larger portion than what is prepared in the freezer. You can make your own, buy sauce on sale buy the cheeses whole and bake one half and freeze the other.

I don't think the frozen pre-made is cheaper when you look at the portions. I make everything homemade so i would never consider frozen pre-made and I can taste the difference.

[wsmoak]

It's cheaper, but my heart goes into the "real" stuff!

I was happy to find Michael Angelo's brand frozen lasagna. Absolutely _no_ unpronounceable ingredients on the label.

We make most things ourselves, but lasagna is one thing I'll buy pre-made. As the OP pointed out, buying all the ingredients in small quantities is quite expensive, and it's time consuming to put it all together.

[Chief2]

Another vaporizing buffet addition: BJ's 1.5 inch meatballs in marinara sauce, kept warm in a crock pot. My brother, who teaches culinary, sarcastically pooh-poohed me when I brought this to his pot luck dinner. Hah! Those meatballs flew out of the crock pot! People were coming over for seconds and thirds until the container was empty. Then, he costed out his homemade meatballs and sauce versus the BJ's/Francesco Rinaldi Marina Sauce combo I brought, and waved the white flag! Cheaper and Delicious!

[WildBlue]

Premade may be cheaper, but almost certainly is not healthier. I was a food chemist between degrees and handled enough Stouffer's lasagna to put me off it for life.

I use cottege cheese with garlic and basil, plus several eggs for extra (cheap, invisible)protein, instead of ricotta. It's less rich, but tasty. Before I was able to raise my own meat, I bought very little meat or dairy from the grocery. It doesn't take much meat or cheese (especially strongly-flavored ones like sausage and parmesan) to give you the flavor. Use part of a package and save the rest for another dish.