Money-Saving Main Dishes

Bread and other cereal foods ...

Reading edition

Bread and other cereal foods are truly the staff of life for some families and are used for all or part of the main dish for many of their meals. Griddlecakes, toast, or oatmeal is a favorite breakfast dish. And sandwiches, spaghetti, or macaroni may form the bulk of a noon or evening meal.

Bread and other cereal foods do not provide large amounts of protein in any one serving. But, because we eat bread and other cereals so often, grain foods contribute a fourth of the protein in diets in this country. The cereal foods also contribute to our diets more calories, more iron, and more thiamine than any other group of foods.

Grains cannot make an adequate main dish unless eaten in large quantities or combined with protein-rich foods.

A few figures on grain proteins may be helpful. A pound loaf of whole-wheat bread contains a little less than three-fourths as much protein as a pound of beef with a moderate amount of fat and bone. You would need to eat one-third of the loaf, seven or eight slices, for as much protein as you get in a fourth pound of the meat—an average serving.

A pound loaf of white bread contains somewhat less protein than a pound whole-wheat loaf. The use of nonfat dry milk solids in bread increases quantity and quality of proteins slightly.

Proteins from bread and other cereal foods are not of as high quality as proteins of animal products, although some are better than others. You can somewhat increase the protein values obtained from cereals by using whole-wheat bread and whole-grain breakfast cereals and by adding corn germ or wheat germ to other cereals. Milk, eggs, soy flour or grits, meat, or fish help to bring up the protein content and protein value of a cereal main dish.

Familiar examples of the cereal-extended main dishes are creamed chicken or fish—or meat in brown sauce—served with toast, noodles, spaghetti, rice, or hominy grits. Other popular combinations of cereals with high-protein foods are scrapple, macaroni or rice with cheese, eggs with toast, and meat loaf or patties with breadcrumbs. And we are also extending high-protein foods with cereals when we add biscuit to the meat stew, dumplings to stewed chicken, and waffles to the breakfast or supper sausages.

Oatmeal griddlecakes with sausages

2 cups milk 2 cups quick-cooking oats ⅓ cup sifted flour 2½ teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 2 eggs, separated ⅓ cup cooking fat or oil Cooked sausages

Heat milk and pour it over the oats. Allow to cool.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Beat egg yolks and add to oat mixture. Add melted fat or oil and stir in dry ingredients.

Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.

Drop the batter by spoonfuls on a hot greased griddle. When the surface is covered with bubbles, turn and brown on the other side. Oatmeal griddlecakes take longer to brown than plain griddlecakes.

Menu Suggestion

Serve the griddlecakes with sirup and the sausages. The rest of the meal may be a large fruit and carrot salad and gingerbread.

For Variety

Apple Griddlecakes.—Add ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, and 1 cup finely chopped, pared apples to the batter before adding egg whites.

French toast with tomato-meat sauce

2 eggs ⅓ cup milk ¼ teaspoon salt 8 slices bread Cooking fat or oil

Beat eggs, add milk and salt. Dip bread quickly into mixture. Brown on both sides in a little fat or oil, using moderate heat.

Tomato-meat sauce

2 cups canned tomatoes or 2½ cups chopped raw tomatoes ½ pound chopped raw beef 2 tablespoons chopped onion 2 tablespoons chopped green pepper Cooking fat or oil 1 tablespoon flour Salt and pepper

If using raw tomatoes cook them until soft. Press tomatoes through a sieve.

Brown beef, onion, and green pepper in the fat or oil. Blend in the flour, add tomatoes slowly. Season. Cook and stir over low heat until as thick as desired.

Menu Suggestion

Serve with a green vegetable, peanut and cabbage salad, and fruit and cheese for dessert.

For Variety

Serve the toast with cheese sauce and omit dessert cheese.

Whole-wheat scrapple

2 pounds fresh pork (bony cut) 1½ quarts water 1½ cups uncooked fine whole-wheat cereal 1 small onion, chopped fine Salt and pepper

Cook pork slowly in the water until the meat drops from the bones. Strain off the broth.

Separate bones from meat, taking care to get out all the tiny pieces. Cut meat fine.

Add water to the broth, if necessary, to make 1 quart. Bring to boil and slowly stir in the cereal. Cook until the mixture is thickened, stirring constantly.

Add meat and onion. Cook 15 minutes longer, stirring frequently. Season with salt and pepper.

Pour the mixture into loaf pans and let stand until cool and firm.

To serve, slice scrapple and brown slowly on both sides in a hot fry pan. If the scrapple is rich with fat, extra fat is not needed for browning.

Menu Suggestion

Serve with baked sweetpotatoes, scalloped or fried apples or applesauce, a green salad, and lemon meringue pie.

For Variety

One cup cornmeal may be used instead of 1½ cups whole-wheat cereal.

Rice with chicken

1½ cups diced leftover cooked chicken Chicken bones Salt 1 onion, chopped fine 1½ tablespoons chicken fat ½ cup raw rice Grated cheese

This dish may be made with more or less than 1½ cups chicken, but this amount is needed to give enough protein for a main dish for four persons.

Cover bones with water and simmer an hour or longer. Drain off the broth. Add any leftover chicken gravy and water, if needed, to make 1 quart broth. Add salt to taste.

In a large fry pan, cook onion a few minutes in chicken fat, add broth. When it boils up rapidly, add the rice slowly.

Cover the pan. Simmer rice about 25 minutes or until the grains swell and become soft. Stir with a fork from time to time to keep the rice from sticking.

By the time the rice is done, it will have absorbed the broth, and the grains will be large and separate. Then add the pieces of chicken and more salt if needed. Turn mixture onto a hot platter, and sprinkle generously with grated cheese.

Menu Suggestion

Serve with spinach and hard-cooked egg, celery and carrot sticks, fruit pickle, and apple or peach dumpling or pie.

Noodles, western style

3 ounces noodles (about 1¼ cups broken noodles) ½ small green pepper, diced 1½ tablespoons bacon fat or meat drippings 1½ tablespoons flour 2 cups cooked or canned tomatoes, or 2½ cups raw tomatoes cut in pieces 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley 1 cup chipped corned beef, spiced ham, or dried beef ¼ teaspoon salt Pepper

Cook noodles 10 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain.

Cook green pepper in fat in large fry pan until tender.

Blend in flour and add other ingredients. Simmer 5 minutes to thicken. Add salt and pepper.

Add noodles and simmer 10 minutes longer.

Menu Suggestion

Serve with cooked cabbage sprinkled with cheese, and cooked carrots. Add a salad of apple, celery, and raisins, and have jellyroll for dessert.

Noodles in Another Way

Noodle Omelet.—Drain the cooked noodles; fry in a little fat or oil until golden brown. Add to 4 eggs, lightly beaten and seasoned with salt and pepper. Turn back into fry pan, and cook slowly until brown on bottom and set on top. Fold onto a hot platter.

Tamale pie

1 cup cornmeal 3 cups boiling water 1½ teaspoons salt 1 onion, chopped 1 green pepper, chopped 3 tablespoons cooking fat or oil ¾ pound chopped raw meat, or 1½ cups chopped cooked meat 1½ cups drained canned or cooked tomatoes Chili powder and salt to taste

Stir cornmeal slowly into rapidly boiling salted water. Bring to boil over direct heat. Cover, and cook 45 minutes over boiling water, stirring occasionally.

Cook onion and green pepper in fat or oil until tender; remove. Add meat to fat. If raw meat is used, cook until done.

Add remaining ingredients and heat thoroughly.

Pour a layer of the cooked cornmeal into a greased baking dish, add meat mixture, and cover with the rest of the cornmeal.

Bake at 400° F. (hot oven) 30 minutes.

Menu Suggestion

Serve with crisp green salad with cheese dressing, and cherry tart.

Other Meat Pies

Leftover meat, gravy, and cooked vegetables may be used in meat pies. Heat together, put into a baking dish, and cover with rounds of baking-powder biscuit dough. Bake at 450° F. (very hot oven).