My neighbor's 75 cent lentil trick changed my meal planning

I was complaining to my neighbor Carol last week about how my grocery bill was getting out of hand, and she just looked at me and said 'you're overthinking it, honey.' She showed me how she buys a bag of dried lentils for 75 cents at the bulk bin at our local Food City here in Phoenix. She soaks them overnight, then uses them to stretch out ground beef in tacos, meatloaf, even spaghetti sauce. I tried it with her recipe for lentil tacos and my family didn't even notice the difference. It cut my meat usage in half for those meals, saving me like $8 a week easy. Has anyone else found a simple swap like this that actually works without making things taste weird?

3 comments

3 Comments

angela_wilson784d ago

Oh yeah, my sister got me into mixing grated zucchini into ground meat for burgers and meatloaf. I was skeptical but it keeps everything moist and you hardly taste it, plus it stretches the meat way further without that lentil texture change you mentioned.

stellag214d ago

Honestly, I gotta disagree a bit here, @angela_wilson78. Lentils have a way of just tasting like whatever you cook them in, but zucchini gets watery if you're not careful and can mess with the texture way more. I'd rather take the 75 cent lentil hack over a veggie that might turn my meatloaf into mush.

veraramirez3d ago

Right, because what I really need in my life is a meatloaf that sweats at me from the plate. @angela_wilson78 must have a magic zucchini that doesn't turn into a sad, wet sponge the second it hits heat. I've had too many "moist" burgers that were just straight up swimming in veggie juice. Lentils at least have the decency to just sit there and absorb flavor without crying all over my dinner.