Tight Budget Dinner Recipes Wanted

This is not vegetarian, but cheap and filling:

About 4-6 cups of cooked white rice.
10-12 slices of bacon, chopped into 1/4 inch slivers
4 eggs beaten for scrambling.
2 cloves of garlic chopped.
Black pepper and soy sauce

Fry bacon till almost crisp, drain and put aside.
Cooked scrambled eggs, do not over cook put aside.
Clean out the skillet and add 2 tablespoons of fresh cooking oil.
Microwave rice 2 minutes to get it warmed up, prior to frying.
Add garliic too skillet at med-high heat, add rice saute for a couple of minutes, add bacon saute for another minute.
Add pepper and soysauce to taste. Maybe 2 tablespoons.
Lastly add scrambled eggs saute one last minute.
Then serve.

http://www.5dollardinners.com/recipes

anything with pasta, rice, or beans is pretty cheap.

chicken + spaghetii noodles + jar of salfredo sauce = cheap chicken alfredo
chicken + rice + frozen paeas & carrots + scrambled eggs + soy sauce = chicken fried rice
use spagetti noodles and a bag of frozen stir fry veggies instead = chicken lo mien

Here is a site that shows how you can make 5 different meals from just 5 chicken breasts.

http://www.parentingmiracles.net/2011/01/prepping-five-me...

And here is a recipe for $2 Chinese noodles. We had it and it's good!

http://www.cheekykitchen.com/2010/05/2-chinese-noodles.html

My favorite recipe for a quick, cheap dinner:

1 lb ground beef
1 onion
1 can tomato soup
1 bag of frozen mixed veggies

Chop the onion. Brown the ground beef and the onion. Add the tomato soup (no water) and the frozen veggies. Cook until thoroughly heated. Salt and pepper to taste.

I've cut the budget by serving less meat and more veggies and protein. Quinoa has more protein than meat! Using flavored broths with small amounts of meat and quinoa and veggies on the side, I can still eat healthy but for less.

Good luck!

I make a pasta dish that goes really far and is super inexpensive that you can make vegetarian if you want. Actually, you can pretty much add or omit the spinach and carrot, I mean they are interchangeable with other veggies.
you need:
2Tbs olive oil
3 cloves of garlic chopped
3 strips of bacon chopped(you can omit if you want)
32 oz of chicken stock
2 15 oz cans of cannelli or old navy beans
24 oz can crushed tomato
1 box frozen chopped spinach
3/4 cup red wine
1 cup shredded carrot
1 box of any small shaped pasta
Heat olive oil in a dutch oven and add bacon,onion and garlic until onions are soft. Add all other ingredients except pasta. Bring to a boil, turn heat down and simmer 20 min. Cook pasta according to directions on box. Place a scoop of pasta in a bowl and top with sauce. You can top with parmesan if you like. Serve with bread or salad and you have a complete, fairly healthy, inexpensive dinner.

How much time do you have to spend on cooking? Do you have a slow cooker?

Dried beans are cheap, and while they do take time, they're not the kind of thing you have to watch. A small chunk of ham bone or fat pork will season a whole pot, and can be fished out at the end. And dried beans cooked up taste better than canned beans.

Once you've made a pot of basic black beans or pintos or red beans, you have lots of things you can do with them. Saute onion, garlic, and peppers, toss in any of those cooked beans and simmer a little, add Mexican oregano and a dash of cider vinegar, serve over rice. Chopped chicken or ham are good in this dish but not necessary. Or saute garlic, onion, celery, and bell pepper, add cooked red beans, a little tomato sauce or tomato paste, and a touch of cayenne and you've got red beans and rice, cajun style. If you have it and want to add it, put in a little sausage, but again, the meat is not necessary. Cooked red beans or white beans (such as canellini beans) added to red sauce is a cheap, tasty way to boost protein in a spaghetti dinner, and if your kids get weird about beans in pasta sauce, the beans can be pureed and made invisible.

I don't have a bunch of recipes to give you but I do know what it's like on that shoestring. I'm still there. One trick that helps stretch a buck is to mix rice in with meals. Rice is fairly inexpensive and filling. You can get a huge sack of it at costco for about 20 bucks and it lasts forever. I will make small dinners with a small helping of meat, and veggies on a bed of rice with some sliced up fruit for desert.

Buy in season. It's cheaper to get the fruits and veggies that are in season at the moment rather than just getting the same fruits and veggies that everyone likes year round, in season or not. In season food is usually cheaper than stuff that has to be imported or grown in an artificial environment.

Try to have meatless meals every other night. Meat is more expensive than anything else in my experience so having meat infrequently saves cash. I usually make bean burritos or serve stir-fried veggies up on a bed of rice on our meatless nights.

Chicken with the bone in seems to be the best deal in terms of animal protien. At 89 to 99 cents a pound you can't go wrong. We eat a lot of chicken in this house. A whole chicken can mean multiple dinners. The first dinner is just the roast chicken with a side of potatoes and veggies, fruit for desert.

The next day the cold meat can be cut up and tossed in with some salad fixings for a big chicken salad. With a little meat left on the carcass, I put the whole thing in a large pot, just cover it with water, add herbs and spices and make chicken soup out of it. Half a bag of egg noodles, some carrots and celery and that's another big meal that provides leftovers for a couple of days. One chicken can be dinner for a few nights for a family of three. Add a cup of rice instead of egg noodles and it's chicken and rice soup!

I guess my whole post can be summed up with, make judicious use of starches like rice, potatoes and pasta, which are inexpensive and don't let leftovers go to waste. Ever!

I love to make vegetarian chili which is relatively cheap to make especially when you shop sensibly. I also love to do veggie stir-fry dishes and serve with either rice or noodles. I've found that occasionally frozen veggies are cheaper than fresh and are generally speaking just as healthy. I use lots of potatoes and make things such as SOS or roasted root vegetables.

Homemade Alfredo Sauce with Noodles
1 Pint Heavy Whipping Cream (You can use just whipping cream too)
1 Stick Butter
1 1/2 Cups grated (Kraft powdery like) Parmesan Cheese
2 tbsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Onion Powder
Salt and Pepper
1 tbsp cream cheese
1 Pack Noodles of any kind

In a sauce pan combine butter, cream cheese, and whipping cream, bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and add remaining ingredients. Stir every few minutes as sauce will thicken. Boil noodles and combine.
Note; If you want thicker sauce fast add more parmesan cheese.
PRESTO !!!!! You have a creamy homemade alfredo sauce with noodles.
(If you want go to local grocery store buy a rotisserie chicken and add chicken for a chicken fettucini alfredo)

Pasta. You can add a lot of things to pasta or keep it simple. Jar of sauce, some cheese, some pasta, maybe a salad - dinner. Or if you see a good sale on veg, cut squash and peppers and maybe a bit of onion up to mix in to long noodles of some variety.

You can also stretch meat with pasta. Tuna fish can be added to elbow macaroni with a tiny bit of mayo. You can add peas (canned is fine). You can also add hamburger to mac and cheese for a kid-pleaser.

Tuna can also be added to cream of mushroom or cream of celery soup and rice for a hot casserole.

Beans are a good filler and source of protein.

Try pricing dark meat (like chicken thighs) vs breasts. They tend to be less expensive and I think they taste better.

Lower end cuts of meat can be used in a crock pot for a stew or in a stir fry.

Potatoes can fill in a stir fry, be a side, or be added to the top of Shepherd's pie. I used to make Shepherd's pie with instant potatoes made with water when necessary, and whatever veg I had on hand, and some hamburger on the bottom.

Eggs and bananas are often inexpensive if you don't get the fancy ones.

My take on Shepherds Pie
1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup of cold water
1 brown gravy packet
4 medium potatoes
Shredded cheddar cheese
Dash of garlic powder to taste
Bag of frozen peas

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray some non stick cooking spray into a casserole dish. Peel the potatoes, dice, and add to a pot of boiling water to make mashed potatoes. Brown the ground beef with chopped onion, adding a dash of garlic powder to taste.
Once the meat is cooked, mix the 1 cup of water with the gravy packet and add to the meat mixture. Bring it to a boil and remove from heat. At some point here, I heat up the frozen peas so I am layering the hot meat, then hot peas then mashed potatoes spread on top. Sprinkle with cheese and cover with foil. Bake for 25 minutes and youre done. Leftovers of this are great :)

The other night I made BBQ beef for sandwiches. I threw a 2 lb chuck roast in the crockpot and poured a packet of onion soup mix mixed with a cup of water on top. Cook on high for 5 hours and when the roast shreds easily, its done. Remove the roast from the pot into a serving dish. Add your fave bbq sauce to the meat. Mix to coat it all, and done. My husband couldn't stop talking about that one for days. How easy it was, LOL.
We like to put it on some nice deli style french rolls usually. I have put it on top of a baked potato before and that was really good also. Looks like you have a bunch of meat eaters here :)

M.:

I don't have any vegetarian meals - sorry!!

Rice and chicken or pork.
Rice is $1.48 for a medium sized bag here and that will give us 3 meals.

Pasta - noodles, spaghetti, macaroni
Make your own sauce - alfredo, marinara, etc.

I don't know how many you have in your family or what their ages are, but my family loves:

meatloaf - you can make 1 lb of ground hamburger with 1 lb of sausage. Add your faves and bake.

stuffed bell peppers - guess you could make this veggie style - we use any type of bell pepper - cubanos, green, red, yellow - especially if the package of 4 is on sale. Make my rice, add diced tomatoes and bread crumbs - bake.

Home made pizza is cheap. You can even make your own sauce - finely diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and paste...add your spices...and toppings. Yes, the initial purchase can be expensive - the olives, flour, yeast, pineapple, whatever you like on your pizza - but you can save by buying whole olives and slicing them in an egg slicer yourself.

I don't know if you use coupons or shop at Wal-Mart, but i do know that for what I get at my normal grocery store, I can pick up at Wal-Mart for about half of what I would spend and still use coupons.

Don't forget left-overs. Sunday night is leftover night at our home. It's like a smorgasbord and we all get something we liked again and all I have to do is re-heat!

Buy what is in season. Eggplant Parmesan is DELISH!!! Served with rice or pasta - my family like pasta!! YUM!!!

I make Tuna casserole when I'm feeling cheap. Partially cooked egg noodles (or whatever pasta is left in your pantry), can of Campbells cream soup (usually mushroom), can of tuna (drained) cup of frozen peas (or whatever frozen veggies are left in the freezer. Add some milk to thin it all out, add some grated cheese in it and/or on top, and voila! You have to get the proprotions the way way you like it.

Beefaroni
1 lb. ground beef
1 box elbow macaroni
Tomato sauce (jar or homemade)

Brown the ground beef & add the sauce.
Cook & drain the elbow mac.
Top the mac with the meat sauce for Beefaroni. Add salad/breadsticks.

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Tuna/Apple Salad
2 cans tuna
Mayo
1 apple, diced

Mix all & serve on buns. Add chips on the side.

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Tater Tot Casserole
2 lb. ground beef (might be able to use turkey)
2T Onion soup mix
1/2 can evaporated milk
1 can cream of chicken soup.
Tater tots
Layer in 13x9 pan: press beef into the bottom, sprinkle w/onion soup mix, mix soup & evap milk & spread over meat. Tope with rows of tots, covering completely.
Bake at 350 for about an hour or until beef is cooked
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These aren't vegetarian but cheap!