Mom's penny pinching ways

My Mom was good at being economical. She used to make spaghetti sauce with just 1/4 pound of ground beef. It was a thin sauce with not too much meat. I got used to it being like that. She used Lawry's Spaghetti Sauce Mix, it had to be Lawry's. I really think it's better than any other kind.

I talked to a lady once who said her mom used to cut a 1 lb. package of ground beef into 5 portions. She had grown up during the depression.

Mom would just cut a pound into 4 parts and then she would freeze it. Besides the spaghetti sauce, she also used it to make chili, sloppy joes and a dish our family called sloppy O'Brien, which was made with cabbage and mushroom soup. The latter we would eat with rice.

We had canned tomatoes that came out of our garden that she used in the chili. Daddy was good at growing tomatoes, they tasted so good and a few plants just produced bushels full. Besides canning the tomatoes whole they would also make something that we called chili sauce, which however was quite different than anything commercially available. We used it to make homemade salad dressing, mixing it with mayonnaise. Growing up I didn't like the commercial stuff and had to acquire a taste for it.

We rarely went out to eat and even at home Mom prepared mostly low budget meals. We had quite often pinto beans and cornbread. She added tuna fish to Kraft macaroni and cheese, other times she would add ground beef and canned tomatoes. Interestingly enough these frequently eaten meals are among my favorites still today.