Save Grocery Money and Serve Bread for Dinner

Bread is inexpensive, hearty, healthy (yes, if it's real whole grain), and filling. This makes it the perfect food to serve when money is low. It's also a great food to serve when spirits are low as well, since it's so comforting.

I recommend learning to bake bread from scratch. I recently estimated that my homemade bread costs about $.32 a loaf for me to make, and one loaf is cut into 12-14 fairly generously sized pieces. They are larger than store bought bread and one sandwich made with them is plenty for my husband's appetite. When made with whole wheat they are even more economical, since whole grains are digested more slowly, don't spike blood sugar, and release their energy into the body more slowly than processed grains do.

Baking bread doesn't have to be very time-consuming and complicated though, and a bread maker can make very short work of it, producing wonderful homemade bread more conveniently than buying it at the store, since I don't have to leave the house to have it! The book, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes, is also a good source for would-be bread bakers. Even so, there is something to be said for doing it by hand at least once in a while, just for the enjoyment of it.

But man does not live on bread alone, if I can mangle a quote, and sooner or later, PB&J or buttered toast with jam for dinner is going to look more like a harsh economy and less like a treat. So, how does one continue to serve bread for dinner without looking like that's what they're doing? Here are five ways to disguise bread, serve it for dinner, and call it something else.

French Toast

Any breakfast for dinner is a delicious, but very affordable treat, and French Toast is one of the cheapest. It's unusual and involves syrup, so the kids love it, but it's basically a way to make a couple of eggs stretch around a whole family and back again. It's best made with slightly stale bread, or slices that have been toasted on the lightest setting or dried out in the oven. To make it seem even more gourmet, nutmeg and cinnamon could be added to the batter.

Stuffing Bake

First the bread will have to made into stuffing cubes by being cut up, tossed in butter and seasonings and dried thoroughly in the oven or food dehydrator, but after that, it's a simple to job to toss together the dried cubes, some stock or broth, a bit of leftover chicken and lots of frozen veggies to make a yummy casserole. This could be topped with cheese, of course, but is every bit as good without it, if it's too expensive. Here is a good example of this sort of dish.

Stuffed Bread

Using a long loaf of bread like Italian or French filled with lots of veggies and cubes of cheese for dinner is an elegant and frugal dish. The bread should be hollowed out slightly (the insides can be dried and chopped for bread crumbs) and then stuffed with any number of things. Leftovers of this and that can be mixed together, steamed veggies and greens, maybe a white sauce or cream soup to hold it all together. A bit of strong cheese will go a long way to add flavor, as will herbs and chopped onions and garlic. A "sandwich" like this can be filled with scrambled eggs and ham pieces, meatballs and marinara, or any number of things, the contents depending on what's in the fridge that should be eaten and the money on hand.

Stretching Other Ingredients

Bread can be great for stretching whatever else is being served at dinner. Whether it is served as a side to a soup, or used as an ingredient for another dish, it's a cheap filler upper. Bread crumbs allow less meat to be served to more people by adding bulk to dishes such as meatballs, dumplings, and stuffed peppers or tomatoes. Bread can be torn and used in baked egg dishes, where it will blend right in, and stretch more servings from a couple of eggs. It can be toasted and floated on soups, or served with spreads as a side, to make a more filling dinner from salads and broths.

Bread Pudding

Bread pudding is a classic comforting dish that can be flavored in innumerable ways. Chocolate, berries, bananas, and warm spices such as cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon are just a few of the things that can be added to bread cubes, a little milk, and a couple of eggs, to make a dessert that will please and feed a number of people. It can be adjusted depending on what ingredients are affordable and always seems like a treat.

When stretching the food budget, good homemade food is always the best way to get a great deal, and one of my favorite homemade treats is bread served in many different ways.