by Beks
Inspired by my new, extra tiny grocery budget, I did a Google search a few weeks ago to add a few different meals into my rotation and discovered these great recipes:
http://family.go.com/food/pkg-budget-recipes/cheap-dinner-recipes-pg/
I posted quite a while back asking readers to share their cheap, easy, healthy dinner recipes. I got such a great response, I thought I’d do it again.
Do me a favor, share your inexpensive dinner ideas! My savings account depends on you!
Beks is a full-time government employee who enjoys blogging late into the night after her four kids have gone to sleep. She’s been married to Chris, her college sweetheart, for 15 years. In 2017, after 3 long years working the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps, they paid off more than $70K and became debt free. When she’s not working or blogging, she’s exploring the great outdoors.
Great recipes, thanks! I use Plan To Eat to make my menus and grocery lists and I love it. You input recipes from other sites and I have quite a catalog of recipes now. I add the recipes to my queue and it adds it to my grocery list. Love it! Here’s a link:http://www.plantoeat.com/ref/aqkskzualu
Have you checked out: http://www.5dollardinners.com/
Great site, with lots of ideas! I also love:
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/
You can search by the type of meat you have in your freezer (or fridge) and adjust the ingredients based on what you have in your pantry. Being a new mom, a crockpot meal makes life a little easier.
I think most people stick to casseroles & the like to save money. I like to have a “breakfast” for dinner once a week too! Eggs, pancakes, etc…
I find it is less expensive to cook from scratch – I only buy the staples and go from there. I also cook larger meat quantities, like roasts or whole chickens, and use that meat for lunch meat instead of buying any (especially great because no nitrates), keep out only enough for about 5 days and freeze the rest in 5 day portions. I use my slow cooker or use a high heat type of roasting method which is quite fast and delicious (just google high heat roast chicken)
I make my own hamburger buns – see recipe on “raising olives” blog page – it is my favourite, I using only make 1/3 of the recipe and even then 1/2 of them go in the freezer
we also tend to eat pasta at least once or twice a week – mostly meatless or add any leftover meat into the sauce (plus we love to add peas to our pasta sauce)
friday night is homemade pizza night (using Jamie Oliver’s recipe for pizza dough) but I know you already have a recipe (love your description of your family get togethers! Our are exactly the same!) I love all recipes from Jamie and I love his message about feeding families and our children good food.
One night is “clean out the fridge”.
I find my best save money advice is PLAN AHEAD! make a menu for the week and prepare anything and/or shop on the weekend – so much easier to think during the weekend then to try to rush around after work and “think” when everyone is hungry and looking to eat (kids generally early eaters – at least mine) especially if you do not have the right ingredients around.
good luck – going back to work after having a child is way hard.
Lynne
Chicken enchiladas! You need Flour tortillas, 1 can of enchilada sauce (which is like .89) chicken…any part, and it’s especially good for left overs! and shredded cheese.
Cook the chicken thoroughly. Cut it into strips or bite size pieces. Place in a frying pan with about 1/2 the can of enchilada sauce. Add a couple handfuls of shredded cheese (chedder is fine, but so is the mexican blend) Heat thru until the sauce is bubbly. Place meat mixture into tortillas and roll them up, enchillada style. Place them in a baking dish, with the seam down. We ususally do 4 big tortillas at a time. You could certainly do more, or less depending on what you need. Spread the rest of the sauce on top of the enchilladas and another handful or 2 of cheese on top and bake for 15 mins at 350. Add a can of refried beans (.50 at Walmart) and presto! mexican dinner! you can of course add sour cream or any other sides you want…
I would imagine this is inexpensive since it’s really simple… But I haven’t priced it out. It’s simply sauteed cabbage and noodles. I buy a head of savoy cabbage (although I think any cabbage will do) and a bag of egg noodles, and throughout the week I chop up what I need to eat.
I chop the cabbage leaves into pieces roughly the same size as the noodles. The volume of pre-cooked cabbage should be close to the volume of dry noodles. I then cook the noodles while sauteeing the cabbage with butter, salt, and pepper. I start cooking the cabbage on med or med-high to get it going quickly. Plus, I like the cabbage best when it has brown edges from the cooking.
When the noodles are done, I drain them and add them to the cabbage and butter mix. I stir it up well to make sure it’s all mixed together, and heat up the noodles some. After that, I put it all ina big bowl and eat!
Rotisserie chicken from Costco/other grocery places are great. Most of the time it is cheaper than buying the fresh chicken and cooking it. I always get one when we go there and have it for night supper. Plus, then I don’t have to cook after grocery shopping.
You can get at least 3-4 meals out of it.
1. Rotisserie chicken with rice/potato + sides
2. Chicken casserole/enchilada – or whatever you want with the shredded chicken
3. Chicken soup with the carcass (Just dump all the chicken bone in a crockpot and fill it up with water. Cook on low 6-8 hrs. Add nooddles, vegetables, etc.
4. Leftovers….
I second the rotisserie chicken idea, although my go-to grocery store tends to make theirs too dry for us to eat as-is. I also buy a couple of whole chickens when I find them on a really good sale and roast them using this recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Roast-Sticky-Chicken-Rotisserie-Style/Detail.aspx
(I changed the servings to a huge number and keep a jar of the seasoning on hand for ease of use.) After our initial eating of the chicken I debone whats left and freeze it in small bags separated by dark or light meat. Perfect for easy stir fry, pasta, dumplings or to pop into a home made soup or mexican chicken dish. With fall around the corner home made soups can be inexpensive and easy to freeze in small portions for quick meals. Taco soup, red beans and rice, and veggie soup are favorites. Veggie soup is easy with frozen veggies, tomato juice/V8, and some meat from the freezer. I always have browned burger in the freezer too, useful for soups and pastas. Spaghetti is also super inexpensive if you make a basic meat sauce with the ground beef, canned tomato sauce, and whatever seasoning makes you happy.
Another tasty freezable meal –
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Marinated-Baked-Pork-Chops/Detail.aspx
I buy pork chops in bulk in the reduced section, make a huge batch of the marinade, divide up based on the number of chops I have, and freeze enough for one dinner serving per gallon freezer bag in the marinade. It’ll soak while defrosting, which you can do in a bowl of hot water if you’re in a hurry. I also reserve about 1/2 a cup of marinade for each batch I put in the freezer (in small freezer bowls) to use as a topping sauce when I bake the chops. Just zap in the microwave. Add a couple of sides and dinner is easy. I don’t usually have to cook them as long as the recipe suggests, though. Marinade can also be used on chicken.
Sorry, easy, inexpensive home made meals are a weakness for me. I could do this all day. In my house (with a nearly 2 year old in tow and one in the oven) half the battle is buying meat on sale and finding ways to pre-prep and freeze it. It keeps us from eating out on nights I’m losing my mind, and keeps me from making emergency grocery trips that always end poorly.
One more if you like veggies and pasta –
http://weelicious.com/2011/03/08/carrot-broccoli-cheese-orzo/
I use leftover raw or frozen veggies and whatever pasta I have on hand, which makes it a much cheaper dish! I have also added some shredded chicken to make it more of a “meal” than a side.
I found an easy and quick way to feed my wife and kids.
Get one bag of those large Pita breads.
Make a pizza out of it.
Since it is a Pita bread the one thing you have to do is cook it slow and low (read this as 320c for thirty minutes).
I also put olive oil on the bottom of the pan to crisp up the Pita without burning it.
I can make a nice one with all the veggies and meat for me and the wife and a plain old cheese and pepperoni one for the kids.
They get destroyed by my family and plus they are healthy and light so no hurting full feeling after eating half… or a full one like I do 🙂
I just made this tonight for the first time with great results! I haven’t priced it out but I figure it’s pretty cheap since it’s basically pasta and broccoli. Plus, I think we’ll have leftovers for a few days.
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/07/easiest-pasta-and-broccoli-recipe.html#more
We make the quick black bean soup here:
http://www.nealhendrickson.com/McDougall/2004nl/040400purecipes.htm
Delicious! We serve it over lots of brown rice…makes it even cheaper.
The smoky refried bean soup here is also good in the same fashion, just a little more work and ingredients:
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2008nl/aug/recipes.htm