Budget Dinners

[peainapod]

I need some budget dinner recipes that are also gluten free. I can't eat regular pasta...so a lot of pasta recipes end up being expensive with $4 per bag pasta.

I have unpaid maternity leave for 6 weeks, so will have to eat budget while the baby gets all the money spent on him


Thanks

 

[Soulsearching]

I need some budget dinner recipes that are also gluten free. I can't eat regular pasta...so a lot of pasta recipes end up being expensive with $4 per bag pasta.

I have unpaid maternity leave for 6 weeks, so will have to eat budget while the baby gets all the money spent on him


Thanks

If you have a Shoprite Supermarket near you the Gluten Free Corn Pasta is pretty reasonable. It runs about $1.99 per bag and they have many varieties of pasta. Penne, Fettuccine, etc.

The brand is Sam Mills, its an all natural pasta, 100% Corn, egg free, dairy free, cholesterol free and of course, Gluten Free. Easy to digest and only 10 minutes of cooking time.

My daughter gives it two thumbs up.

 

[Diet Dr Chill]

Not GF, but I eat a lot of soups and salads. Lentil soup, beef pot roast soup, chicken veggie, etc.

Salads are easy. I just pick up the bags of romaine hearts at Costco, chop up enough to fill a whole dinner plate and top with thinks like grilled meats, onions, thinly sliced red cabbage, feta cheese, shaved carrots, bacon, hard boiled eggs, etc.

Nachos with bean dip. You can use the leftovers from a baked chicken make corn tortilla enchiladas. Here is a recipe for GF enchilada sauce. That site has a lot of other good ideas.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Whole chicken, I try to get it when it's 99cents a pound. cook it with Lemon juice, butter, dried basil and oregano. Cook it at 375 for 1 1/2 hours, basting every 30 minutes.
sorry I don't have ingredient measurements, I don't use measurements for this recipe anymore. I think the butter was 4 tablespoons and the lemon juice was 6-8 tablespoons. The herbs might have been 1 tsp or 1 tbsp each.

Anyway. After we have that for dinner, I usually have enough to make chicken salad sandwiches for a few days as well as chicken and barley salad. I know barley has gluten in it, but if there was a substitute that you could use that would be good.

My barley salad is:
barley
chicken
roasted corn
cranberries
field greens
topped with balsamic vinegar.

after all that is done, you can boil the bones to make chicken stock for the base for soups. Add veggies and any chunk chicken you have left over and you should have a good size pot of soup.

when money is tight, we do breakfast for dinner. DH makes waffles, crepes and pancakes. Every time we make them, we always do up extras and throw them in the freezer. The kids will pop them in the toaster in the mornings. for the crepes, DD just loves jarred jam, like Smuckers Strawberry, and sliced bananas. I roll them up like a burrito.

Buy a small ham and have it for dinner one night, ham sandwiches the next day and fry up some ham slices for breakfast or breakfast for dinner.

 

[chimilady]

We're GF and I've never paid that for a bag of pasta. I've paid $2 or $2.50 but not $4. I make my own meatballs, boil up a package of spaghetti (I do the quinoa/corn blend) and then a can of plain tomato sauce and cook the meatballs in the tomato sauce. Really cheap and easy to reheat for when you're up in the middle of the night. Potroast in the crockpot is also good. Rice, tacos with corn shells, baked potato with fixins.

 

[SwimBikeRun]

Chili is really good - can make a couple of different ways.

I enjoy a quinoa salad - toss in whatever veggies you like - I make mine Greek style with tomatoes, cucumbers, feta.

Meatloaf and baked potatoes.

My fave GF pasta is the Tinkyada which I can occasionally find on sale or at Amazon. So you can look there.

We do lots of simple meals of a grilled meat and veggie, like fajitas (I don't eat the tortillas) or sausage and peppers or burgers without the bun.