Frugal Feasts of the 1970s: Casseroles, Skillets & Stretch Recipes From a Tough Decade & Niche Cooking Book

Frugal suppers aren’t a trend—they’re a survival skill.In the 1970s, families watched prices climb faster than paychecks, gas lines wrapped around the block, and every grocery trip felt like a small math test. Yet somehow, the table still filled up: casseroles that stretched a pound of meat for two or three nights, skillets that turned “just potatoes and eggs” into something that felt like a real meal, church-basement classics that always came home scraped clean.Frugal Feasts of the 1970s: Casseroles, Skillets & Stretch Recipes from a Tough Decade reaches back to that era of rising costs and steady kitchen wisdom, then brings those lessons forward for today’s tight budgets.Inside, home cook Patricia Ann Doyle shares 70 thrifty, family-style recipes organized into 7 practical chapters:Budget Casserole Classics – tuna bakes, layered hamburger hot dishes, and pantry “dump and stir” dinners that really do feed six.Skillet Suppers & One-Pan Comforts – stove-top meals that save you on time, dishes, and electricity.Stretching a Sunday Roast All Week Long – smart ways to turn one pan of meat into multiple nights of suppers.Potato, Pasta & Rice Workhorses – the starches that quietly filled plates when meat had to shrink.Church Basement & Community Classics – funeral potatoes, tamale pie, potluck chili, Sloppy Joes for a crowd, and more.Salads, Sides & Jellied Things – three-bean salad, picnic potato salad, coleslaw, Jell-O “salads,” and retro favorites that traveled in every Tupperware bowl.Making Do and Making Supper – egg and potato bakes, beans and franks, creamed eggs on toast, lentil and bread-based casseroles built from “what’s left.”If you’re already cooking your way through When Money Was Tight: Old-Fashioned Meals That Fed Whole Families, this book is its natural companion—zooming in on the 1970s, when wages stalled, prices climbed, and casseroles did the heavy lifting.If you loved the retro charm of Wiggly Wonders: 60 Retro Jell-O Salads for Potlucks, Parties & Holiday Tables and the hard-times grit of Great Depression Suppers: 54 Hearty, Thrifty Meals That Fed Families Through Hard Times, you’ll recognize the same mix of nostalgia and practicality here: honest food that remembers where it came from, but still works on a Tuesday night.Fans of fast, realistic cooking from 100 Rotisserie Chicken Recipes: Quick Dinners, Smart Shortcuts, Big Flavor and One-Handed Meals: Real Food for Real Life, When You’ve Only Got One Free Hand will find plenty to love too. Many of these dishes:Use leftover chicken, ham, or roast to start a new mealCan be assembled during naptime and baked laterLean on pantry standbys like rice, pasta, potatoes, canned vegetables, and cream soupsWhether you’re:Trying to lower your grocery bill without living on takeout and toastFeeding a family on one income (or one that feels like it)Building a retro comfort-food collection to match your shelves of When Money Was Tight, Wiggly Wonders, Great Depression Suppers, 100 Rotisserie Chicken Recipes, and One-Handed MealsOr simply nostalgic for the casseroles, Jell-O salads, and potluck pans you grew up with…Frugal Feasts of the 1970s will earn its place in your regular rotation.These are not “show-off” recipes. They’re keep-the-lights-on, everyone-gets-seconds recipes—meals that understand what it’s like to do the grocery math in your head, to open the fridge and think, All right, what can I make out of this?