How much does a typical meal cost for your family? I don't usually pay attention to details, but yesterday I went to buy the bagels and lox for dinner and that was all I bought and was shocked at how much it cost.

6 bagels - $4. 8 0
1/2 lb. lox - $7.50

I already had cream cheese at home, same with cucumbers and onion. My son picked a tomato (and some cherry tomatoes) from his aunt's garden yesterday so we had that for the right price .

This means that to for one dinner I spent $12. Is that reasonable? We did have 2 leftover bagels and enough lox for at least 2 more sandwiches, but since I didn't count in veggies/cream cheese, I'm still counting full price.

How much does it cost you to feed family and what does family consist of? For us it's 2 adults + 3 mini eaters.

My husband eats a lot of meat. Plus, he often has friends over who eat a lot of meat. I shudder when I think of our food bills.

I was comparing it with cost of breakfast and breakfast seems a whole lot cheaper. I can use one box of cereal over a good 3-4 days for all 3 kids (no adults) and they just have a bit of milk in each, so a gallon lasts about a week or more.

We're expensive there too (soy milk).

Oatmeal is a cheap and yummy breakfast (I use a big canister, not the little flavored baggies) but Hubby doesn't like it enough to have it more than 1-2 times a week.

Oh, well here it's cy which can be costly, but we don't use much.

Yes, but cereal is faster/easier for me and I don't think the little people like oatmeal. Also, as I said, it's only the kiddies that eat breakfast.

Tiny Terror LOVES oatmeal. I think he'd live off it if I'd let him.

I was just watching a cooking show challange where the cooks had to make a nice meal for less than $3. Of course when you don't buy kosher, it a whole lot cheaper...

MH and I were just commenting when we saw a subway sign that offered $5 for a footlong sub, (shortly after having read the menu for new kosher subway) and was wondering what a random stranger would think if walked into a kosher subway and was charged $10+ for the same sub they bought yesterday at a different subway for $5. They would go nuts.

My office doesn't patronize the Kosher Subway b'sheeta b/c of the crazy prices.

Here's a typical meal:

1 lb ground beef: $6
2 lb spaghetti: $3
3 cans tomato sauce: $3
Assorted veggies (onion, pepper, sometimes eggplant, mushrooms) $5

That's $18 for 8 people.

If I make stir fry and rice, it's even cheaper. A bag of rice is about $2-3, and I use half the bag per meal.

Rice: $1.50
Chicken breast: $3 (a whole chicken is $6, so the breast $3)
Vegetables (carrots, zuchinni, mushrooms, sprouts, whatever else I'm in the mood of): $7

That's $11.50 and it feeds 8 people.

I actually don't think it's unreasonable, given the higher cost of kosher meat. Most of the footlong subs at subway are more than the advertised $5, and the kosher subs are actually pretty tasty. They also have stuff that treife subways don't, like shwarma () hot dogs and chicken nuggets, which is great for the kinderlach.



How can one chicken breast feed 8 people?




I don't know why, but our grocery bills are always ridiculously high. I guess because I buy CY, lots of meat, and lots of fresh veggies - all high-ticket items. I pretty much never buy canned stuff and often don't do pasta meals. I also don't typically have cheaper "lunch food" like sandwiches for lunch (I'm a steak for breakfast kind of girl ).

A cheaper meal for me is still not cheap. Tonight was pasta with veggies:

Dreamfield's low-carb pasta: $3
veggies (2 zucchini, one onion): $1
1.5 packages cherry tomatoes: $4
1 package mushrooms: $2
olive oil/butter for sauce: $1

Total: $11 for two adults and one toddler. There was only enough left over for lunch for one.

Once you add dairy or fleish, the cost shoots up. Chulent last week:

bag of chulent beans: $1
chulent meat: $7
hotdogs (for yingele): $6
onion/potatoes/garlic: $3
barley: $1
kishke: $5
seasonings/spices: $1

$24 for that alone, plus the gefilte fish ($6), grape juice ($6), challah rolls ($5), cold-cuts for sandwiches ($10)...that's just shabbos, and that's a SMALL shabbos.

Because it's not the ikkar. The ikkar is the rice and vegetables. Sometimes I even make it parve with just rice and vegetables, and maybe tofu.

It doesn't really sound like a meal, then, if all you're having is rice and veggies. Do you at least crack a few eggs in for protein? Do you find hubby or kids hungry afterwards? I guess I'm just used to what my husband preferred, which was fleish at every meal, with at least two distinct sides, and at least one (and preferrably two) desserts afterwards.

How much protein do you think you need in a typical meal? Rice has protein in it, and when combined with vegetables/legumes/seeds is a complete protein for itself.

I dunno, the national cattlemen's beef association tells me it's a lot.

Honestly, like I said, I'm just used to fleish/chicken at every meal. Fried rice at our house was one of three side dishes accompanying, and main-course stir-fries were always HEAVILY laden with meat.