Aggie Barnes’ tip for cost savings is a cookie recipe that recycles leftover cookies, graham crackers and bits of chocolate.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

How are you coping with the rising cost of food?

The Barnes family sets a budget and sticks to it. The Bessette family enjoys the cooking of the family’s resourceful chef. Bob D’Orio has reverted to making basic family recipes. In Manhattan, Rhode Island native Donna R.Goldman specializes in cost-effective recipes.

These are just four of the many who responded to our question, but all four offered recipes they use to make something special while keeping down the food bill.

Kathleen Bessette of Cumberland loves to look around the table and see everyone eating and enjoying the food.

“It’s just my love of cooking,” she said adding that she watched and learned from her mother and grandmother.

In her household, which includes husband, Jim, and sons Bryan, 12, and Corey, 9, she is known as a resourceful and creative cook.

“On a weekly basis, I usually scan sale items for each grocery store that I frequent. Often times, I create our family meals using the meats and produce that are on sale. She stocks up every two weeks or so on staples at a wholesale club.

“Winter is a great season where one can make soups and stews that can stretch on during the week. I may skip a day or two in between and serve the soup with sandwiches or serve it before the main course. I do remind my family that soup just gets better and better from one day to the next. I usually don’t get to freeze what I make because, between my husband and my boys, I’m lucky if there is any left after day two.”

She shared a recipe for minestrone soup.

“I have been making this soup for years,” she said. “I believe it started with my grandmother who passed it around to everyone. I have been making it ever since. It’s quick, fun and easy.”

In Warwick the Barnes family, Aggie, husband Paul and 2 1/2-year-old Sullivan and 1-year-old Meredith, stick to a $50 a week budget for food and household items.

“Yes, it’s possible!” Aggie, who was born in Poland (her full name is Agnieszka) and came to the United States when she was 4. But it is her resourcefulness and her time in the kitchen that allows them to budget so well.

“I only shop at the major supermarkets for loss-leaders (products sold at a loss to bring in customers). I only buy what’s on sale that week. I shop mostly at my local Seabra, since they have the best sale prices on produce and occasionally meat. I cook using that week’s sale items. I buy the rest of the groceries I need at PriceRite,” she said.

“I cook most food from scratch and rarely buy prepared meals,” she said. “We use our Crock Pot. Even the cheapest cut of meat melts in your mouth once out of the slow cooker! I only buy meat that’s priced 1.99 lb or cheaper.

“There are some things I don’t pay for — bread crumbs, chocolate syrup, chicken broth, pizza dough — I make them myself.

She shared her recipe for Recycled Cookies, adapted from a bread crumb cookie recipe.

Bob DiOrio of North Kingstown wrote, “We recently sold a home and did not make a profit at the closing, which meant nothing for renovations for the new house.”

With money tight, they’ve adapted in several ways that are easy and enjoyable.

When they go to a restaurant, they order appetizers for meals. “This helps on portion control, stretches the food budget and offers a variety of different foods when eating out,” he said.

“When shopping at a grocery store, never, never shop hungry. You’ll be amazed on how many more items ‘happen’ to make their way into your shopping cart then when you shop hungry. You should always shop on a full stomach. And when you grocery shop, use a list. The grocery stores have many items in it to distract you away from your basic list of “needs” and you’ll wind up with something that’s in the back of your closet with a 6 month expired date saying, ‘What was that for?’ ”

In the kitchen, DiOrio has reverted to family recipes.

“I’m from Italian descent and as a child ate many traditional Italian peasant dishes like broccoli and macaroni, my absolute favorite as a child.”

He’s taken some fat out of it and added his own flavor touches and shared his recipe.

Donna Goldman was born and raised in Providence and Edgewood and now lives and works in New York City. She wrote, “Growing up in a diabetic home, square meals and nutrition was very important to my mother and an interest I took to heart.”

In the late ’90s, she developed, Recipe$ 4 $urvival, a cooking show on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network. She is a graduate of New York’s Natural Gourmet Institute and considers herself an authority on cost-effective, resourceful, efficient and mindful cooking.

She shared the recipe for one of her favorite cost effective dishes, cole slaw.

“It feeds many, lasts a long time, its delicious and healthful,” she said.

She calls it D’s D’lectable Purple and Gold Cole Slaw.

“The name of the dish came naturally to me as the ingredients I use are all in the purple and gold color family,” she said.

RECYCLED COOKIES

1 1/4 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup cocoa

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2/3 cup shortening, melted

2 cups cookie crumbs (see note)

Sift together dry ingredients.

Combine wet ingredients and add to dry mixture. Add melted shortening and crumbs. Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until done.

Note: This recipe makes use of all those unfinished boxes of cookies, graham crackers, chocolate bits, etc. in the pantry. Create the cookie crumbs by running all the cookie leftovers in the food processor and reuse them in this recipe.

— From Aggie Barnes

D’S D’LECTABLE PURPLE AND GOLD COLE SLAW

For the dressing:

1 cup olive oil mayonnaise

1/4 cup mirin, rice or apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup honey or maple syrup

Pinch sea salt

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

For the slaw:

1 head of purple cabbage, thinly sliced

Kosher salt

1 red onion, thinly sliced

1 Jana Gold apple, diced

Golden raisins, rehydrated

To make the dressing: Put the mayonnaise in a large mixing bowl. Thin it out with the orange juice, the mirin or the vinegar of your choice honey or maple syrup. (If you’re ever in a pinch to make this dressing, adding a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of bread and butter pickle vinegar works.) Mix until the mayo is not lumpy and perfectly creamy. I add three grinds of pepper to this and a pinch of sea salt and mixed well again.

To make the slaw, tear off and discard the tough outer leaves of the cabbage. With a sharp knife cut the cabbage head first in half. Do this by standing the cabbage on its stem end, hold firmly and slice down. Lay each half flat on the cutting board and cut into quarters. Starting from the top of a quartered section, not the root/stem end, thinly slice methodically across the cabbage section. Cut close to the stem, keeping in mind the cabbage is tougher and quite spicy there.

Each time you cut a section of the cabbage add it to the bowl with the dressing mixture and stir to coat it. Add a pinch of kosher salt each time you do this.

Add the onion, diced apple, hydrated golden raisins. You can also add chopped dates, and toasted sunflower seeds.

If you feel you don’t have enough dressing mixture, repeat as above but in another bowl and add to the preparing bowl. I like my slaw light on dressing.

Refrigerate. Best served very cold after some time marinating.

— From Donna R. Goldman

BROCCOLI AND MACARONI

One head broccoli, cut into bite-size pieces

4-6 pieces off garlic cloves (depending on personal taste)

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes Italian Style (Tuttorosso)

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 teaspoons dried basil

1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper

1 pound macaroni (tubetelli or fusilli, wheat preferred)

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Make the sauce by adding the olive oil to a wide 4-quart pot and sautÉ the chopped garlic for 1 minute. Don’t brown, the flavor is released in the short time.

Add the can of tomatoes, herbs and salt and pepper. If you are a real garlic lover, you can add 1 teaspoon garlic powder at this point (optional). Bring to a boil and then lower temperature and let simmer for 10 minutes.

While the tomato sauce is cooking bring a 6 quart pot of water to boil about 3/4 ways up (approximately 6 cups) with chopped up broccoli in it. When water is starting to boil, throw in macaroni. Cook to macaroni package directions.

Drain only half the water, since this is “soupy,” and then dump in the tomato sauce and stir.

Serve in bowls with freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top.

Serves 6-8 people.

— From Bob DiOrio

MINESTRONE SOUP

1 16-ounce package frozen mixed vegetables (Birdseye)

2 pounds lean ground beef

1 29-ounce can Hunt’s Tomato Sauce

2 14.5-ounce cans beef broth (College Inn)

2 packages Lipton Onion Soup Mix

1 8-ounce can mushrooms (stems & pieces)

1 1/2 cups orzo pasta

Fill a stock pot 3/4 full with water. Bring water to a boil then add the frozen mixed vegetables. Turn heat down and simmer slowly.

In a skillet, fry the beef and break up the meat using a spatula until it’s cooked. Drain, set aside.

Slowly add the tomato sauce to the stock pot, stir until combined. The broth is now red in color. Add the beef broth to the mixture and stir to combine. Add the onion soup mix and stir. Bring mixture to a slow rolling boil.

Drain the mushrooms and add to the soup.

Lastly, carefully add the orzo pasta and stir.

When the pasta is cooked, add the drained meat and gently stir to combine.

Note: You can always add more beef broth, mushrooms, tomato sauce or pasta for a thicker stock. Change it around, have fun with it, but mostly enjoy it with a fresh loaf of bread.

This soup serves a crowd.

Try cutting the ingredients in half for a smaller crowd. Leftovers can be frozen for later.

— From Kathleen Bessette

Terry Murphy, executive director of the Cranston Department of Senior Services, wants those over the age of 60 to know about an affordable lunch option.

“There are many senior centers and senior meal sites around the state where a hot meal is served Monday through Friday for a suggested donation of $3,” she said.

Check in your own city or town because these meal programs are statewide.

At Cranston Senior Services, 1070 Cranston St., they serve lunch at 11:45 a.m. Monday through Friday for anyone 60 or older (or anyone who is disabled regardless of age). A typical menu would consist of soup or salad, a meat, fish or pasta entrÉe, a vegetable, a starch item and dessert. Coffee, tea and water are also served. Recent menus offered brunch for lunch, chicken cordon bleu, sloppy Joes, pork chops and stuffed peppers with sauce. Upcoming meals include red chowder and beer-battered fish for today, the first day of Lent; kielbasa, Swedish meatballs and heart healthy salmon for Valentine’s Day.

“There aren’t many places where you can get a complete meal for $3. It’s not only affordable — it’s also nutritionally well balanced and for many … it is their main meal for the day,” Murphy said.

They also sell cooked entrees such as lasagna, chicken Parmesan, and other dinner items daily.

“They are packaged so an individual doesn’t have to purchase more than enough for themselves which avoids waste and overspending,” Murphy said.

Anyone who would like a menu for Cranston can call (401) 780-6000 or go online to www.cranstonri.com and click on DEPARTMENTS P-Z then SENIOR SERVICES. The menus are on the right.