Super saver: Sandra Lee's new show promises to cut your grocery bill

ALTHOUGH she's never claimed to be clairvoyant, Sandra Lee had a hunch 17 months ago that the economy was going to go south. While she's the first to say the only economics she speaks is the home variety, Lee had a feeling that economic forces were going to put most Americans on a budget.

She figured busy working people were going to need help feeding their families for less. Which is why Lee, cookbook author and star of the series "Semi-Homemade Cooking With Sandra Lee" on the Food Network, came up with an idea for a new show in late 2007.

"I went to them and pitched the idea of a series about cooking on a budget, and everybody said no - that it wasn't a relevant idea that was meaningful to a broad group of people."

Tell Lee no, and she digs her heels in.

"I figured I'd write the book anyway - and sales were 36 percent higher than any other book I've done."

She was clearly onto something, and the doors that had been closed now opened. Her new show "Sandra's Money Saving Meals," premiered Sunday and will continue each Sunday on the Food Network at noon.

The opposite of a food snob, Lee subscribes to what she calls her 70/30 Semi-Homemade philosophy: "I use 70 percent ready-made products combined with 30 percent fresh ingredients, and the results are family-friendly and delicious."

Her frugality is something Lee comes by honestly. The oldest of five children born to teen (and soon divorced) parents, she cared for her younger siblings and took care of the household bills, living off welfare and food stamps while going to school.

Taught to cook by her maternal grandmother, Lee met the challenge of turning packaged foods into tasty meals for her family while stretching every dollar.

Her rags-to-riches story has been much chronicled. A natural tinkerer, Lee came up with something called Kurtain Kraft, a home-decorating tool that uses a wire rack and sheets to create the appearance of decorative drapery. The product caught on, and she was soon selling it on QVC, both in the U.S. and Germany.

A series of home-improvement videos for DIY Network was up next, along with a stab at a lifestyle show, "Simply Living," which faltered.

With her homegrown cooking knowledge, and a two-week stint at Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa, Lee decided to leave home decor behind in favor of home cooking and dreamed up her "Semi-Homemade" mantra, detailed in 16 books, her original Food Network series and her new endeavor, "Sandra's Money Saving Meals."

Lee's approach to shopping and cooking will save her viewers anywhere from 22 to 50 percent on their grocery bill, she promises. "Take meat for instance. If I don't have meat in my meal, it's not a meal. And I'm talking breakfast, lunch and dinner. And meat is one of the most expensive things in your grocery cart."

Depending on pricing, she may opt for ground chicken over turkey, and go with 80 percent lean ground beef at $2.19 a pound over 90 percent lean beef, priced at $2.99 a pound.

Lee believes in cooking once, then stretching the main course into one or two more meals. "Make a meatloaf and, from the same mix, make tiny meatballs to serve over pasta the next night. And you have leftover meatloaf sandwiches, so you're saving time and money."

Time is a priceless commodity to most shoppers, so why pay 99 cents for a boxed pie crust mix when $1.99 gets you a frozen pie shell?

"It's worth $1 to save an hour," Lee said. "And graham cracker crusts are actually more expensive from scratch than ready-made."

In most of her recipes, Lee recommends specific brands, products that she says ensure the recipe's success. "All brands have great value, and I'm open to trying new products," she said. "But when I find something that works, I share it."

Lee's a fanatic for price comparison, so she and her staff spend hours researching price trends around the country, info she uses in the show. "We've seen that name-brand products go on sale the first of every month, and private label generic brands tend to go on sale at the end of the month. Those are the kinds of tips we want to pass along to our viewers."

In upcoming shows, Lee's money-saving recipes include slow-cooker cheesecake with peach topping, spaghetti and meatball calzones, rigatoni with grilled veggies and grilled lemon herb drumsticks with grilled flatbread.

Each show features a "round two" recipe to stretch the original meal, with a round three recipe offered on the show's Web site.

While most chefs won't have anything to do with packaged flavoring agents and pre-made salad dressings, Lee, a cooking show host, not an accredited chef, believes her approach resonates with real people trying to juggle busy lives and keep their families fed and happy.

And she's not averse to buying organic local products, when it's affordable.

"Wal-Mart has partnered with local growers all around the country, so that's a place you can buy good organics at reasonable prices," she said. "Buying seasonally saves money and tastes better."

But her specialty is what she calls "good, wholesome, mama meals."

As for working parents who feel guilty about not doing it all and fret over not having time to make everything from scratch, Lee says not to worry.

"Your job, all of our jobs, is to be smarter and live happier, fuller lives," she said. "If that means buying a box mix to make a special birthday cake for your child because you forgot to buy cake flour, then so be it. The point is sharing the food together, being a family. That's what really matters." *