Inexpensive Meal Examples & Ideas

[Magna]

Inspired by a recent food related thread by one of our loved and valued members, I thought a thread discussing, sharing, posting, etc food, meals and recipes that share a common trait: Being inexpensive and therefore easier on the budget might be useful. Hopefully ideas in this thread can be helpful to anyone.

I put together some ingredients and incorporated some leftovers to make a sort of hash (ie a mélange of diced vegetables typically including potato and then fried in a skillet). I'd never made this exact combination before using these specific ingredients but it was what I had on hand and I envisioned it being good before I made it.

I'll call it: Magna's Hash

Why should you care? The entire dish cost approximately $2.71 USD and yielded two good sized portions. I priced the dish using mainly current costs featured on the Walmart online shopping site. The total dish comes to approximately 752 Calories for those who count calories (I do). I only ate half of it for supper and saved the other portion for tomorrow (probably lunch). It was filling and satisfying. For full disclosure I did eat an evening snack of some melted sharp cheddar cheese in corn tortillas but I like to often have a smaller supper meal and then a light snack 2-3 hours later.

Anyway, let's get to it!

Ingredients:
1 carrot peeled & diced $0.11
1/2 medium onion diced: $0.46 < save the other half for later
1 small potato diced (2 oz): $0.08
2 slices of summer sausage diced (1.4 oz): < or use anything else on hand (e.g. Spam, hot dog, cooked chicken, deli meat, etc)
Olive Oil 1 Tbsp: $0.22 < butter or any other kind of cooking oil could be used here
Eggs (2) scrambled: $0.20 < or cook them any way you like. Cracking them on top, chopped hard boiled, etc.
Sauerkraut 1 cup: $0.83 < I had this leftover from a dish I made. Thinly sliced and chopped fresh cabbage would work just as well and would be a few cents cheaper.
Quinoa 1 cup cooked: $0.32 < I had this leftover. Remember to rinse your uncooked/dry quinoa well under water to wash away the bitter saponins that coat the grain's exterior.

Season with spices you prefer. Even just salt and ground black pepper, soy sauce (any leftover packets from previous meals?), hot sauce, etc.

Part of the ingredients diced and ready for the cast iron skillet.

Then I heated the olive oil in the skillet and added the carrot, onion and potato and the diced sausage and covered the skillet, stirring well every few minutes.

When the carrots and potatoes were somewhat done I added the cooked quinoa, sauerkraut and scrambled egg and cooked the mixture covered for a few minutes, stirring as needed until done. If using raw cabbage instead, you'd want to add the cabbage at the beginning with the carrot, onion and potato.

All done!

The recipe is completely interchangeable and serves as an unlimited framework; in essence, it's a combination of a grain, vegetables, protein/proteins and a little healthy fat of some kind.

Instead of the quinoa any other grain can be used. Rice, barley, buckwheat, kamut, wheat, bulgher wheat, even cooked rolled oats!

Put any other kind of vegetables you have in the dish such as: cauliflower, broccoli, garlic, squash, yam, sweet potato, parsnip, beet...anything

Want to make it vegetarian or vegan? Certainly! What about tofu or tempeh instead of egg and sausage?

Enjoy! I love cooking and also challenging myself to make healthy and ideally inexpensive meals. Maybe some may find things like this helpful.

Peace

 

[VictorR]

I'm a big fan of split pea and ham soup, but when I prepare it, I change it up a bit so it has...

lentils
split peas
carrots
ham

sometimes I may substitute other things for ham, such as chicken. I may also add other vegetables and things I find on sale (celery, okra, etc.)

spices to taste (garlic and paprika are two that come to mind, but sometimes I'll also go with kimchi and/or ground seaweed).

I don't have portion sizes since I kind of eyeball things, and it depends on whether I want a heartier soup.

Lentils are pretty awesome.

 

[Outdated]

I'm a big fan of split pea and ham soup

A traditional favourite here, in fact I just bought more split peas for that specific purpose. I disagree with lentils though, as they usually disagree with me. For best taste we use Bacon Bones, bones that have been put back in the smokehouse after most of the meat has been taken from them. Any smoked meat will add a great flavour.

There's a few threads in this forum relating to cheap and simple meals but one thing never gets mentioned - how much money you can save simply by changing your shopping habits.

Doing a proper shop once a month is much cheaper than buying bits and pieces every few days.

Changing that habit saves a huge amount of money and also prevents you from going hungry when unexpected bills arrive. It's mostly to do with maintaining a stock of food in the home, this means you can buy bulk items at cheaper prices.

It also makes it a lot easier for you to make use of discounts and sales. Eg: I keep on average a 3 month supply of coffee at home. Because I have that stock at home I never pay full price for coffee, I only ever buy it when it's on special. This is the same for many of the products I regularly use.

Loyalty to one brand of supermarket will also cost you a lot more money than most people would like to believe. Use the online shopping apps to check the different prices in different shops and plan your shopping accordingly.

 

[TBRS1]

OK, now I'm hungry...

Potatoes are magic food because they are cheap, taste good, and can be used in a million distinctly different ways. Here's and easy one:

Potato pancakes.

Drop 2 eggs in a blender.
Add 2 tablespoons of corn starch.
Add 1 chopped onion
Add a couple cloves of garlic (or garlic powder), salt, pepper (use enough to get the taste you like. I like spicy)
Chop up two smallish potatoes and add.

Run the blender until you have a grainy slurry.

Add oil to a fry pan, heat till hot enough to create fry bubbles when you drip a drop of water in.

Laddle in little puddles of potato slurry, fry till brown on the bottom, flip, fry, finish.

Serve with sauerkraut.

Total cost about 1 - 2 dollars for two regular people, but only enough for one hungry me.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Traditional Finnish pasties (pa-stees)

The nice thing about these is that you can make a large batch of them and freeze them in bulk for future meals.

https://www.food.com/recipe/finnish-pasties-234796

 

[Mary Terry]

Red beans (dark red kidney beans) and rice is a great, inexpensive meal. Add some kielbasa sausage to the beans and add a side salad. Serve with your favorite hot sauce. It's easy to do in a slow cooker while you go to work and you come home to that wonderful smell of dinner ready to eat. Plus, it tastes even better the next day.

 

[autism-and-autotune]

Red beans (dark red kidney beans) and rice is a great, inexpensive meal. Add some kielbasa sausage to the beans and add a side salad. Serve with your favorite hot sauce. It's easy to do in a slow cooker while you go to work and you come home to that wonderful smell of dinner ready to eat. Plus, it tastes even better the next day.

I LOVE beans'n'rice! Especially with a nice, tomato-grilled-cheese sandwich.

 

[Magna]

Red beans (dark red kidney beans) and rice is a great, inexpensive meal. Add some kielbasa sausage to the beans and add a side salad. Serve with your favorite hot sauce. It's easy to do in a slow cooker while you go to work and you come home to that wonderful smell of dinner ready to eat. Plus, it tastes even better the next day.

I love making red beans! One thing I learned about them some years ago about them is that they have a high level of a certain kind of protein that can cause GI problems. Easily remedied with the proper cooking methods. Although, I've cooked them in different ways and I've never had any issues myself.

How to Safely Cook Kidney Beans & Cannellini Beans in a Slow Cooker.

 

[Mary Terry]

I love making red beans! One thing I learned about them some years ago about them is that they have a high level of a certain kind of protein that can cause GI problems. Easily remedied with the proper cooking methods. Although, I've cooked them in different ways and I've never had any issues myself.

How to Safely Cook Kidney Beans & Cannellini Beans in a Slow Cooker.

I always soak the red beans in cold water for at least 6 hours and rinse them before I cook them in fresh water. I think that takes care of the digestive issues that many people experience.

I love beans. Black beans and rice is another one of my favorites. I was a vegetarian for years and practically lived on beans and rice for protein. Then I ate a ribeye cooked in butter and fell off the vegetarian wagon but I still don't eat much meat.

 

[Metalhead]

I like canned black beans, brown rice, cooked fresh spinach, frozen peas and corn, canned chipotle peppers, mixed together in a casserole with a little bit of shredded cheddar and some hot sauce.

 

[TBRS1]

Beans are one of the common foods that are mildly toxic. Boiling & tossing the first boil water solves the problem completely & they become hugely nutritious.

This is only a problem if you start with dried beans.

 

[Mary Terry]

Our youngest daughter, her husband, and two small children came for dinner last night. I made sweet potatoes baked in the oven, thin bone-in pork chops sauteed in my enormous cast iron skillet, a big pot of mixed turnip, mustard and collard greens, gravy with the pork drippings for the baked potatoes, and frozen tater tots for the kids. I don't know what it cost but not very much $$ to feed 4 adults and 2 kids, with leftovers for the next day.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

This is a really neat thread!

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Loco Moco (Hawaiian Comfort Food)

In the bottom of a bowl layer:

Rice, Hamburger patty, a fried egg, and gravy on top of it all.

It is soooo good.

 

[Metalhead]

Buldak Spicy Chicken Ramen in the black packaging.

Not health food at all.

Still damn tasty and inexpensive.

 

[Outdated]

The cheapest meat you can buy where I live is chicken legs. Usually around Aus$4.50/Kg. In US$ and pounds that works out to around $1.40/lb.

There's a lot you can do with them. Easiest and simplest thing to do with them is sprinkle them with salt and let that sit in the fridge overnight, then chuck them in a hot oven until obviously well cooked. They're great while fresh straight out of the oven and great cold the next day too.

Also, once they're cooked and sitting in your fridge it's so easy to use the meat in other recipes or even to just make sandwiches with. A common product we use here gets called Chicken Salt, a mixture of salt and our favourite herbs and spices. (for putting on chicken, not chicken flavoured) Just put your favourite herbs and spices in a mortar with some cooking salt and grind them together. Very handy to have around for lots of recipes.

Tinned peeled tomatoes are a lot cheaper than fresh tomatoes.
Tinned mixed vegetables are a lot cheaper than buying fresh vegetables.

A simple tasty Chicken Cacciatore, feeds 2 adults:

1 tin (450gram/1 lb) peeled tomatoes
1 tin mixed vegetables
3 large chicken legs
1 large onion peeled and diced

Chuck all the ingredients in a large saucepan along with a couple of cups of water and your favourite herbs and spices, put on a low heat and simmer for 90 minutes. It doesn't get much easier than that, and it goes really well with some steamed rice.

Big tip: After 60 minutes your chicken is at a stage where the meat can easily be stripped from the bones but the tendons and sinews are still in tact. If like me you have sensory issues you can use tongs to pick up the legs one at a time and use a kitchen fork to just flick all the meat off of the bones and throw the bones out. If you let the chicken cook for any longer than that then when you try to pull the bones out they fall apart and you end up with all the knuckles and bits of gristle in your stew.
.

 

[Mary Terry]

The cheapest meat you can buy where I live is chicken legs. Usually around Aus$4.50/Kg. In US$ and pounds that works out to around $1.40/lb.

View attachment 117738

There's a lot you can do with them. Easiest and simplest thing to do with them is sprinkle them with salt and let that sit in the fridge overnight, then chuck them in a hot oven until obviously well cooked. They're great while fresh straight out of the oven and great cold the next day too.

Also, once they're cooked and sitting in your fridge it's so easy to use the meat in other recipes or even to just make sandwiches with. A common product we use here gets called Chicken Salt, a mixture of salt and our favourite herbs and spices. (for putting on chicken, not chicken flavoured) Just put your favourite herbs and spices in a mortar with some cooking salt and grind them together. Very handy to have around for lots of recipes.

Tinned peeled tomatoes are a lot cheaper than fresh tomatoes.
Tinned mixed vegetables are a lot cheaper than buying fresh vegetables.

A simple tasty Chicken Cacciatore, feeds 2 adults:

1 tin (450gram/1 lb) peeled tomatoes
1 tin mixed vegetables
3 large chicken legs
1 large onion peeled and diced

Chuck all the ingredients in a large saucepan along with a couple of cups of water and your favourite herbs and spices, put on a low heat and simmer for 90 minutes. It doesn't get much easier than that, and it goes really well with some steamed rice.

Big tip: After 60 minutes your chicken is at a stage where the meat can easily be stripped from the bones but the tendons and sinews are still in tact. If like me you have sensory issues you can use tongs to pick up the legs one at a time and use a kitchen fork to just flick all the meat off of the bones and throw the bones out. If you let the chicken cook for any longer than that then when you try to pull the bones out they fall apart and you end up with all the knuckles and bits of gristle in your stew.
.

Whole chickens are probably cheaper than legs. But legs are the least expensive of the various uniform cut pieces that you can buy. Wings are very expensive, for some unfathomable reason.

That recipe sounds good!

I like to make 'sticky apricot chicken legs'.
Whisk together the marinade:
1/2 cup apricot jam (or any kind of jam you like or have on hand)
1/2 cup French dressing
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
6 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper to your taste

*Reserve 1/2 cup of the marinade for later.*

Put the remaining marinade on 10-12 chicken drumsticks for 4-6 hours in the fridge
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Put legs on baking sheet and bake for @45 minutes
Flip over the legs and raise oven temp to 425 degrees F
Spoon reserved marinade over the legs and bake another 15-20 minutes or till done.

Can sprinkle 1/4 cup of brown sugar over the legs for extra stickiness for the last 5 minutes of cooking but watch it because sugar burns easily.

 

[Outdated]

I like to make 'sticky apricot chicken legs'.

Reminds me of another cheap and simple recipe used to teach children how to cook.

Apricot Chicken

1 450 gram tin of Apricot Nectar
1 packet of Continental French Onion powdered soup (homebrands are rubbish here)
2 cups of water
Whatever cuts of chicken you want to use

Just throw all the ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for 60 to 90 minutes. Serve with steamed rice. The trick to that recipe is to Not add any of your own herbs and spices, just keep it simple.

 

[Aspychata]

Living in hot weather for me, means cool foods with minimal preparation. So something like sweet potatoes nuked in microwave, then chopped into cubes, than refrigerated can become a cold black bean salad with salsa, or a creamy ranch dressing. Add tofu or faux crab and sesame seeds and Asian dressing and it's a different beast. I have become so lazy, l have taken black beans, slightly mashed, added lettuce, salsa, avacado, stuff a corn tortilla or three, instant meal with no cooking. And ramen pkg, with shredded cabbage, and slithers of carrots and some type of protein, and Asian dressing is another go to. I am making more bowels which was very popular in LA when l lived there. On really hot days, cold brew coffee, protein yogurt, and a banana, in the blender, so yummy.

 

[ra49]

My friend Cindy's soup recipe:
Boil a kettle of water.
Look in the frig, see what you have that you like the tastes together. Dice all of those in similar size pieces, in separate little piles on a dinner plate.
[Don't go nuts unless you are cooking for 6 intentionally, you will end up with gallons of soup ]

Decide what oil or butter you want and heat a tablespoon in the soup pot until melted or nicely warmed.

From most dense to most delicate, add each vegetable one at a time to the pot and stir a bit, put the lid on to steam a minute, then [lid off to add the next, stir, steam], until everything is in the pot.

Add to the pot your appropriate amount of salt and pepper and whatever herb, she likes oregano, I prefer basil. Stir that in, the enough boiling water from the kettle just to cover.

Bring to boil with lid on, reduce heat, and simmer 20-30 minutes, depending on how crisp or soft you want the veges.

Serve with a spoonful of pesto or pistol or parmesan shavings or . . Pick your garnish, or a spoon of red wine vinegar or splash of lemon juice.

Every time I make it, it is different but always delicious

Oh, and if you want to drop dumplings on top the last 15 minutes of cooking, that works great
or noodles already cooked but in the bowl to serve