Best wishes to Chainsaw and Crowbar! I made beef stroganoff for Vlad’s birthday a few weeks ago. They didn’t notice that I used only half the meat the recipe called for, because it was too expensive.
The local Seventh Day Adventist Church holds free cooking classes and they maintain that we don’t need all the protein we consume. They all seem to glow with good health, so....
When my mother was trying to feed a family of seven on mere pennies a week, it was common for her to grind carrots and/or potatoes and put them in meatloaf. One carrot and/or one potato would extend that meatloaf and we never left the table hungry.
Sometimes, if she didn't have those handy (just before payday) she would add rice to the meatloaf. Most of the time, we never knew that it was for economical reasons. We just knew it tasted good and we left the table full.
For those of us that played in the foothills or our friend's orchard all day, filling our stomachs was vastly important!