Your favorite delicious, yet low-cost meal to cook?

[angelicagapit]

Can you guys suggest low-cost meals I can cook for my family?

We’ve just recently started our journey towards a healthy lifestyle, so I want to cook up a meal for my loved ones. Any suggestions for yummy, affordable meals?

 

[Caffajake]

Check out A Girl Called Jack: http://agirlcalledjack.com/tag/recipes/

It's a blog by a writer who lived on the extreme end of poverty for a couple of years and now writes low-cost and healthy recipes to help out others in similar situations. She's gathering a big following here in the UK as food bank usage soars and more and more people struggle to afford healthy food.

 

[MyPaperBleedsInk]

Crockpot chicken noodle soup. Onion, Carrots, Celery, Chicken (use the cheapest type you can find, doesn't have to be breast meat), Salt, Pepper, Broth, egg noodles or pasta. The veggies alone are pretty cheap and can be used in many other dishes, as can whatever chicken you have leftover. Can be made in a regular ol' kettle. Crockpot is just nicer if you want to set it and forget about it for a couple of hours, except the good smell.

Plus the leftover soup is perfect for packed lunches the next day or so for school/work.

Mainly you need to plan your meals around the weekly sales at your local stores.

 

[Jade]

Any noodle dish like spaghetti or one of those Chinese noodle dishes seems fairly cheap to make to me, as they require only a few ingredients and could probably feed a lot of people with one preparation. I personally prefer going for fried rice because you get to chop up the ingredients and distribute it equally and therefore "extend" the quantity.

 

[Sweetkymom]

A very cheap yet delicious and healthy meal I grew up on was called "hot stuff." Hot stuff consisted of 2 pounds of hamburger, 1 can of green beans and 1 potato sliced. You also need 1 tablespoon of pepper to sprinkle in. Fry the hamburger, drain the grease, add the green beans and potato slices. Fry for about 15 minutes and add your pepper.

 

[apike]

Shepard's Pie is a cheap meal for me to make. Hamburger meat and onion sauteed together, canned corn, instant mashed potatoes and sharp cheese. Another one I make is hashbrown casserole. It's just Hungry Jack Cheesy hashbrowns ($1.50 here for a box), hamburger meat, onion and cheese. I make the hashbrowns, fry them for a couple minutes, brown the beef and onion together, throw it all in a dish and top it with cheese. Then I bake it. My husband loves it. I'll also do broccoli cheese casserole or potato soup when I need something filling but cheap. My friend does taco crescents. He browns the taco meat and adds seasoning, rolls out the crescent rolls, adds the meat, tops the meat with cheese, rolls up the rolls and bakes. Those are pretty quick and easy and they don't use up much meat so they are more affordable!

 

[zararian]

I have started How to Cook Adobong Kangkong/Water Spinach on the recipe threads here, that dish is very affordable. Another low cost dish you can prefer is mongo sprouts with slices of tofu. Just saute garlic, onion and then add the mongo sprouts and slices of tofu.

 

[Willie84]

My favorite quick, healthy and affordable dinner is also super easy. Pan sear a piece of salmon, brown rice (boil in bag) and microwave a veggie! Does not get any easier!

 

[isabbbela]

Pasta!! It's inexpensive, really easy and convenient to prepare, and of course so delicious. It's also a versatile dish, you can make it with various different sauces, fron a simple and affordable red tomato sauce to fungi or pesto.

 

[Tara]

Lentils with rice topped with caramelized onion. Absolutely delicious. The grill onions really make the dish. It's really cheap to make (less than 3 USD) and only takes around 45 to 50 minutes to cook. It's actually a Lebanese dish called Mujadara.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Lentils with rice topped with caramelized onion. Absolutely delicious. The grill onions really make the dish. It's really cheap to make (less than 3 USD) and only takes around 45 to 50 minutes to cook. It's actually a Lebanese dish called Mujadara.

mine is lentils (red lentils) with potatoes (and some herbs & spices) topped with caramelized onions! And it tastes divine as well. Usually keep some in the freezer and make the caramelized onions up as needed.

 

[OhioTom76]

Homemade manicotti. It's so easy and inexpensive to make up a huge batch of these little crepes, then you can stuff them with just about anything and top them with your favorite sauces and cheeses. It's even easier if you go down to the dollar store and pick up a cheap small pan, like 5-6 inches wide at the bottom, so it makes all the crepes the exact same size every time. I measure my batter out with a mini ice cream scoop which is just enough to cover the bottom of the small pan. Then I stack each crepe between sheets of wax paper until I am ready to use them. A ricotta, egg and herb filling is traditional, with some tomato sauce on top, but they are also good stuffed with spinach and cheese too. A caramelized onion and mushroom filling with a cream sauce on top would also be cool.

Sardines are a great option too, and go well with eggs. There is a "fisherman's breakfast" recipe which simply calls for some sardines places into an oven safe bowl, topped with some tomato sauce and a couple eggs cracked into it, then you bake the whole thing. Sardines have omega 3's and lots of calcium and other nutrients.

Curried potatoes with peas over steamed rice is also very filling, and something out of the ordinary if you don't normally eat curries.

It's also really easy to stretch inexpensive meat, when making chicken or steak philly sandwiches. Just pick up some green peppers and onions that are on clearance and about to go bad, and chop them all up to bulk up the meat - freeze whatever extra you can't use right away. If you take the time to partially freeze the meat, then shave it super thin, it will make it look like a lot more than it really is when cooked with the peppers and onions.