Inexpensive Meal Examples & Ideas

[Aspychata]

For those in hot places, take a can of white beans, blend with sesame seeds, olive oil, lemon, garlic anything and instant hummus. I have added avacado, ranch powder. Or add Sriracha on top for spice. Then dip toasted pita chips, tortilla chips, layer on French bread, mix into a chicken soup, anything you want to do. Or add tofu cubes and chopped lettuce and cherry tomatoes, and a nice salad on a 90 degree day.

 

[Outdated]

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 ]

That's another old fashioned trick that I grew up with and still do sometimes today, The Perpetual Pot. A big soup pot that lives on the stove for a few months each winter because it's too big and heavy to put in the fridge.

You heat the soup every day and eat from it, and when the pot gets a little low you just add more ingredients and boil it again. You can thin it down for soup or thicken it up for stew, do all sorts of different things with it. There's an old fashioned trick for keeping your soup or stew fresh this way, it's called Pasteurisation.

Make sure your soup is boiling fiercely with the lid on the pot, then turn the heat off and do not lift the lid off of the pot. As long as that lid remains undisturbed the contents of the pot is pasteurised. If some idiot lifts the lid on you then you'll have to bring it back to the boil to repasteurise it.

But that works out easy to live with, every day you heat the pot and serve a few bowls out of it while it's boiling, then put the lid back on the pot while it's still boiling, and then turn the heat off.

Pasteur didn't invent pasteurisation by the way, he was just the first person to describe how it worked in a scientific manner.

Pease Puddin' hot
Pease Puddin' cold
Pease Puddin' in the pot
Nine days old

 

[ra49]

That's another old fashioned trick that I grew up with and still do sometimes today, The Perpetual Pot. A big soup pot that lives on the stove for a few months each winter because it's too big and heavy to put in the fridge.

You heat the soup every day and eat from it, and when the pot gets a little low you just add more ingredients and boil it again. You can thin it down for soup or thicken it up for stew, do all sorts of different things with it. There's an old fashioned trick for keeping your soup or stew fresh this way, it's called Pasteurisation.

Make sure your soup is boiling fiercely with the lid on the pot, then turn the heat off and do not lift the lid off of the pot. As long as that lid remains undisturbed the contents of the pot is pasteurised. If some idiot lifts the lid on you then you'll have to bring it back to the boil to repasteurise it.

But that works out easy to live with, every day you heat the pot and serve a few bowls out of it while it's boiling, then put the lid back on the pot while it's still boiling, and then turn the heat off.

Pasteur didn't invent pasteurisation by the way, he was just the first person to describe how it worked in a scientific manner.

Pease Puddin' hot
Pease Puddin' cold
Pease Puddin' in the pot
Nine days old

Neeps and taties in the pot with brown lentils if you have Scottish ancestry but are vegetarian like me

 

[ra49]

Love this every time: parsnip, carrot, sweet potato, and yellow potato with fenugreek seed & coconut oil in the crock pot ~ 4 or 5 hours, then mandarin squeezed over when done

 

[MROSS]

I've learned to cook healthy foods at home inexpensively. It helps to remember serving portions of meats which are the size, and thickness of a deck of playing cards.

 

[Gerontius]

Biscuit Island:

1/2 recipe of your favorite baking-powder biscuit dough.
Beans. Any beans will do. Season to taste.
1 Onion, chopped up reasonably coarse, raw.
Broth, stock, more soup, anything will do. Make it work with the beans.
Anything else you'd like to throw in.

Beans go in a covered Dutch oven or Pyrex with a lid. Any thrift shop should set you up for $4 or so. Make some biscuits & put them over it. Bake 30mins, remove lid to brown biscuits. Be sure you have enough broth or potliquor to your beans otherwise the biscuits will soak them up.

I made a mistake doing this the first time & made a biscuit continent instead hence the name. It can taste like anything you want it to and can cost very little.

 

[Aspychata]

Biscuit Island reminds me of the current noodle dish l been seeing. Just grab tomatoes, and slice into chunks. Pour some olive oil on them, drop basil anything, garlic bulbs or anything, then drop feta cheese in the middle, bake for a bit, maybe 350 for twenty mins. When cheese is heated up, stir all up, throw in your fav cooked noodles, and voila, you are in for a treat. I think you could do this with any type of cheese. Maybe not cottage cheese. A lot of people throw cream cheese in also, will make it creamier, or add in a plant based milk or cream.

 

[Mary Terry]

Burritos: Roll up some cooked beans and grated cheese in a flour tortilla. Put on a baking sheet in a 350 degree F oven, uncovered, and bake for about 15-20 minutes until the filling is hot. You can even microwave it to get it hot.

You can add just about anything to make a burrito. Chopped meats, chopped vegetables, or just plain cheese. It's a good way to use up leftovers, too.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Neeps and taties in the pot with brown lentils if you have Scottish ancestry but are vegetarian like me

Gasp!! I know what neeps and tatties are! Much of my father's family is Scottish.

I have fried up that tasty breakfast since my daughter was tiny.

I fry up turnips and potatoes, with fried eggs on the side!

 

[Mary Terry]

We're going out of town for several days this week, so I need to cook and use up fresh vegetables in the refrigerator before they rot. So, this morning, I oven roasted half a cauliflower, some limp broccoli, wrinkled cherry tomatoes, garlic cloves, an onion, and a wedge of cabbage. I put all that in the slow cooker on high temperature with a piece of parmesan cheese rind and added both chicken and beef stock. When everything cooks and the vegetables are softened, I'll use an immersion blender to make a creamed vegetable soup. If it's too thick, I'll add some milk. Then I'll make homemade croutons with some stale French bread and grate some more parmesan cheese to go on top of soup bowls.

It's cheap, for sure, and quite filling on a cool autumn night. Hubby won't be very happy - he will want meat so he can eat up the leftover corned beef brisket - but he'll eat it. I can freeze any leftover soup.

Edit: I also added a couple of carrots. It occurs to me that I can look at the grilled cheese thread and make some grilled cheese toast to go with the soup.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

There's the good old Macaroni and Cheese with Tuna and Peas. That's always a hit.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Last night I made a Shepherd's Pie.

Make a pot of Stew with Meat and lots and lots of Vegetables. Thicken it to the consistency of gravy, using whole wheat flour .

Line an oven pan with foil

Divide a pot of mashed potatoes in half. I always keep the skins on when I make mashed potatoes.

Spread half of the Mashed Potatoes across the bottom of the Oven pan, to be sort of a pie crust.

I then spread a can of beans over the mashed potatoes.

Then pour in about 3/4 of the thickened Stew. Spread it out evenly.

Cover it with the other 1/2 of the Mashed Potatoes.

Spread the rest of the stew on top, to be sort of a gravy.

Put it under the broiler for about seven minutes.

Serve in bowls. It's really good.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

For those in hot places, take a can of white beans, blend with sesame seeds, olive oil, lemon, garlic anything and instant hummus. I have added avacado, ranch powder. Or add Sriracha on top for spice. Then dip toasted pita chips, tortilla chips, layer on French bread, mix into a chicken soup, anything you want to do. Or add tofu cubes and chopped lettuce and cherry tomatoes, and a nice salad on a 90 degree day.

I used to own a food processor, but it burnt out about a year ago.

Do you think a cheap blender would puree the beans?

*P.S. I love making Tzatziki and Hummus. No heavenly delicious baba ganoosh though. Le Sigh. Of all the weird allergies, I am allergic to eggplant.*

 

[Aspychata]

I threw my beans into a little Cuisinart blender that was left behind in a rental. It's small but works for one can of beans. Maybe with enough beans, blender may work. @Yeshuasdaughter

 

[Outdated]

I find a stick blender incredibly useful because you can also use it on stuff that's still boiling away on the stove. I do that with all of my sauces but you have to let them cook for a good while afterwards, something about using the blender changes the taste for a little while.

 

[Cryptid]

Bachelor's Chili

1 can Corned Beef
1 can Salsa
1 can Black Beans
2 tbsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tbsp Cayenne Pepper (optional)

(Cans should be about the same size.)

Fry corned beef in a skillet to melt the fat. Drain off the melted fat. Add remaining ingredients. Cook until thick, stirring often. Remove from heat.

Serve over cooked rice or in cooked tortillas. Top with sour cream, cheddar cheese, and other favorite embellishments.

 

[Aspychata]

I tried making pumpkin coffee latte like Starbucks and failed. But l have a frother coming soon, and l hope to try a second time.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Navajo Tacos are really good. It's poverty food that makes you feel like you're living large.


Make a simple yeasted bread dough, pick off a piece the size of a golf ball. roll it and then pat it thin with your hands. It can be about 1 cm thick.

Carefully drop it into a pot of oil and deep fry on med/low on both sides until brown on the outside and dry on the inside.The bread will get puffy as it fries.

Let the frybread dry on a plate lined with paper towels.

Repeat the process as many times as necessary, so that everyone gets their own frybread.


Meanwhile, heat up hamburger and pinto or black beans. Chop lettuce, tomato, and onions. Grate Cheese. Bust out the hot sauce and sour cream or plain yogurt. Or whatever tex/mex toppings you have on hand.

Cover each frybread with the aforementioned taco makins.

Enjoy.


For dessert, you can make more frybread and cover it with butter and cinnamon sugar. It tastes like an elephant ear.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I tried making pumpkin coffee latte like Starbucks and failed. But l have a frother coming soon, and l hope to try a second time.

Pumpkin pie spice (or even just cinnamon, and maybe ginger), and lots of sweetness. The ratio of coffee to milk should be nearly 50/50.