Does anyone have any yummy, budget friendly meals?

Question

My husband and I are really strapped for money right now. I need some recipes for some cheap meals.

Answer 1

first you should give us an idea of your budget.

Answer 2

I have two favorite cheap dinners for weeknights, and they're fast too.  One is to get a box of Zatarains dirty rice and about 12 oz. of cheap burger.  Make that, roll it up in a tortilla and serve with salsa and sour cream.  Another is to fry up 12 oz. of burger with taco seasoning and a little can of green chiles, and add it to a box of Velveeta shells and cheese.  It's like a homemade Hamburger Helper.  Serve it with a salad and you've got dinner.  



A good random side for dishes is a can of corn, can of lima beans, can of green beans, nuked with butter, garlic powder and pepper.  It's sort of like succotash.

Answer 3

Chicken Parmesan.... If you have chicken b*****s, bread, pasta, spaghetti sauce, flour, salt/pepper, egg, cheese,  butter or oil you're good to go.

I toast the bread in the oven and make it really crispy and crumble it to make bread crumbs the mix it with salt and pepper. Then I dip the chicken breast into flour, then egg, then the bread crumb. Then I fry it on the frying pan with a little butter or oil. Then in a baking pan, I put spaghetti sauce on the bottom, then put the fried chicken on top, then put a slice of cheese on top of it. Cook that in the oven on 350 for like 20 min. or so. While it's cooking in the oven, make the spaghetti- cook noodles, drain then mix it with the spaghetti sauce. it's really good.

Or you can have taco's just brown up some beef. put it in taco shells and top with lettuce, cheese, sour cream tomato, hot sauce, and cheese.

Or you can have fajitas , french toast and omelets, breakfast burritos (just potato, egg, tortilla, and any meat you want to put in there), nachos. and soo much more

What ingredients do you have? I can think of more recipes knowing what you have already.

ETA: 2 Step Chicken Meal (this recipe serves 4)

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

4 skinless, boneless chicken b*****s halves

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Cream of Mushroom Soup

1/2 cup water

Directions:

Heat the oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook for 10 minutes until it's well browned on both sides. Remove the chicken from the skillet.

Stir the soup and water in the skillet and heat to a boil. Return the chicken to the skillet.  Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

You can serve this with all the beans that you have making like a 3 bean salad or something.

***If you have onion and bell peppers, you can saute those and then cook the chicken, add the canned tomato and season with chili pepper flakes, pepper, salt and whatever other season you like. let it simmer for a while and you can make a sandwhich out of it.

***or you can just cook the chicken. season it with salt and pepper and any other seasonings you like and cook it on the frying pan or in the oven.

*** if you have BBQ sauce and an orange, (this serves 6)

1 cup KRAFT THICK 'N SPICY Honey Barbecue Sauce

1 Tbsp.  grated orange peel

1/4 cup orange juice

1   broiler-fryer chicken, quartered (3-1/2 lb.) (i'm sure you can use whatever chicken you have- just cook it for less time)

MIX barbecue sauce, orange peel and juice in resealable plastic bag or glass baking dish. Add chicken; turn to coat. Seal bag or cover dish; refrigerate at least 30 min. to marinate.

PREHEAT oven to 400°F. Remove chicken from marinade; discard marinade. Place chicken, skin side up, on rack in foil-lined roasting pan.

BAKE 40 to 50 min. or until chicken is cooked through.

Answer 4

one of my faves is tuna casserole. this will feed at least 4:

cook 8 oz pasta (like shells, bowties, or rotini) according to package directions.

mix together 1 can tuna, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, & about 1 cup shredded cheese. add cooked noodles & stir together.

place into casserole dish. sprinkle more cheese if desired, and some seasoned bread crumbs (or crushed ritz crackers or even potato chips). bake at 350 for 30 minutes or so.

that's it! sounds simple, but it's really good. you could probably try it with canned chicken if you don't have or don't like tuna. my vegetable of choice for this is peas, canned or frozen. yum!

Answer 5

Go the The King and You'll be Lovin It, or just try and think Outside The Bun.

Answer 6

Belly Filler (that's what my mum called it):

Macaroni noodles

lean ground meat

1 can of diced tomato

diced onion

Parmesan cheese  

Poor Man's Lobster:

1 pound whitefish (of your choice)

steam in a large pot with 1/2 inch water, 1 T. vinegar

when it flakes with fork, take out squeeze some lemon on it and dip in melted butter

it will have the taste and consistency of real lobster.

Navy Bean Soup:

1 ham hock

1 bag of navy beans soaked

1 onion diced

1 large can of chicken stock

water

Homemade Noodles:

2 c. flour

1 egg

water (add until you have a thin batter)

mix in a pyrex measuring cup

pour through a sieve into a pot of rapidly boiling water with salt

strain and serve however you like! my mum always used them for chicken soup noodles.

Anchovy Spaghetti ( i know they are an acquired taste, but in this recipe, the anchovies is completely melted away so you are left only with a garlicky taste, no fuzzy fish at all.):

1 package of thin spag. noodles boiled

1 can of anchovies with oil

2 T. olive oil

parmesean cheese

pepper

1 T. minced garlic

place all ingredients in a iron skillet and cook until you don't see the anchovies anymore.  

Rice N' Stuff:

1 cubed steak

1 green pepper sliced in strips

1 onion sliced in strips

salt and pepper

(saute the above ingredients)

add 1 envelope of mccormick brown gravy mix to 3c. water (not 1 like the package says) to the above and bring to slow boil.

pour over prepared brown rice.  

Good  luck.  This is how I grew up.  My husband and I are doing a little better financially now, but these are comfort foods I grew to love and still easy on everyone's budget.  

Answer 7

canned food is always cheap.

=]