Cheap Meal Ideas

[luckey-lasvegas]

Beef, pork or chicken burrito meat made in crock pot.
1 - cut of beef like a brisket or other cheap cut, or a pork shoulder , or a whole chicken.
1-small can of ortega chilies diced
1 med onion chopped
1 pkg taco seasoning 1/4 cup of vinegar
Rub meat with taco seasoning
Place meat and all othee ingredients in a crock pot (spay crock w/ pam first)
Cover and cook on low. Meats aroun 8hrs chicken about 1/2 the time.
When done shred meat and and return it to the crock , let in continue to cook as lomg as you like. Fill tortillas w/ meat ,cheese, lettuce etc.

Also baked Ziti, Cooked pene noodles, riccotta cheese, mozzarella,and a jar of spag. sauce. Mix the noodles ,sauce and riccotta top w/ Moz and bake.
If you live a Trader Joes get the Penne Rustica sauce it's AWESOME!!!

 

[ButterflyJen]

How many points is the mexican lasagna? It sounds yummy!

Wouldn't you know, I didn't write that down! I will check and get back to you!

 

[sap1227]

Subscribing.

Thanks for the great ideas!

 

[Shagley]

This is one of my favorites -

1 lb. ground beef
1 - 2 eggs
1 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
chopped onion

Mix together and make into burger size patties. Cook on grill, indoor grill, or fry in pan. When done, brush on glaze (equal parts ketchup and brown sugar) and put on a hamburger bun.

You can use any meatloaf recipe - just form them into patties and fry them. Yummy!

 

[mickeyluv'r]

the Polish were/are masters of cheap meals:

The noodles and cabbage dish (also called lazy pierogi) can also be made with saurkraut. It is best to buy the kind in a plastic bag (meat section), drain it and lightly rinse it (even then it will still have plenty of flavor). We use plenty of black pepper, and real butter.

Another pierogi filling is to use farmer's cheese instead of cottage cheese. I sometimes have had a hard time finding this, but recently have had better luck. Farmer's cheese should be soft like cream cheese, and it does taste a little like cottage cheese, but it has very fine curds. (Also similar to hoop cheese.) The best kind I have found is a special brand that comes out of PA, and actually has the Polish name for this cheese on the label, but I forget the name of the brand.

Another dish that is cheap to make is stuffed cabbage (golumpki = 'little doves' in Polish.) This is one of those recipes where none of the measurements are really precise. If you want more meat, you can add more meat. If you have less meat, you can add more rice. Be sure to have plenty of tomato soup on hand as quite a bit of it gets soaked up!
My mom used to make this with ground beef/Minute rice and Campbell's tomato soup, but I use real rice (white or brown), ground turkey/chicken (you could also use ground lamb or pork), and a mix of tomato soup and chopped canned tomato (less sugar/tastes better) or even chopped fresh tomato. This is a wonderful recipe if you have your own tomatoes! It is also a great winter dish/comfort food.
Last, this is one of those dishes that actually tastes better as leftovers than it does the first day, so if you are making this for company, you could CERTAINLY make it ahead of time!

head of green cabbage
one/two pounds of ground meat (more or less depending on how much you need to stretch the meat)
at least three cans of condensed tomato soup (plus water as directed)
2 cans of Delmonte or similar cut tomatoes (or more soup)
two cups of rice (precooked measure, will be more after it is cooked)
Optional: olive oil, black pepper, salt, fresh mint (or parsley, cilantro)

1. Remove the core of the cabbage. Whatever you can cut away easily. Do not damage the leaves! If you don't have a sharp knife you can omit this step.
2. Prepare the rice according to package directions. You can add some tomato to the rice, or not.
Use a large pot to boil the cabbage. Gently remove the outermost leaves as they become soft. If needed, run the cabbage head under cold water briefly to do this (use colander). Boil the peeled leaves a little longer until they are soft (if needed), but not completely limp (starting to become translucent). Drain well in a large colander, and allow to cool.
3. Preheat oven to around 350 degrees. (325 to 375 is fine)
4. Meanwhile, brown the ground meat. You can add a little olive oil to the meat if you are using a low fat meat. Conversely, if you are using beef or pork, you can save some of the fat for added flavor.
5. Mix meat, rice, 1/3 the tomato, fresh herbs, pepper to taste
6. Place spoonfuls of meat/rice mixture inside individual leaves. Roll leaves around mix (like you would roll a burrito shell) and tuck in ends. Place stuffed cabbage rolls in a deep casserole dish, with the edge side down. Pack golumpkis next to each other, so they stay rolled.
7. Cover golumpki with 1/3 of the tomato, cover loosely with foil, and bake for 45 minutes. Be careful allow some room in the casserole dish, or the tomato will bubble over the sides and drip in your oven. You can also put a drip pan under the casserole dish.
8. Serve golumpki with the remaining 1/3 tomato soup, and a sprig of fresh herbs for color.

 

[rjthkids]

Another cheap way is make just about everything yourself. We are pretty big on preservatives, no dyes, all natural foods, and all organic, although on vacation we'll "splurge" and eat out. We make our cheese, we make our own butter. (it's really easy by the way, you just take heavy whipping cream, throw it in a jar and shake it for 10 minutes and voila! You have butter for half the price of buying it at store!)

A bag of white flour, a bag of wheat flour, yeast, eggs, milk and cheese and rice can give you a never ending variety of meals you can make. All you need for pizza crust is 2 1/4 cups of flour, 1 tablespoon of yeast in 3/4 cups of water. This will easily make you dough for a 14 inch pizza, or six calzones. Dice up a couple of tomatoes and sprinkle with cheese, or put whatever you want on in the inside of the calzone crust.

Pancakes and waffles are simply flour, milk, salt, butter and tsp. of baking powder. Those "pancake" mixes they sell at the grocery store cost almost *three* times as much as it costs to buy some flour and make your own. Again, you can add whatever you want to make them interesting...a little splash of vanilla or fresh berries.

Eggs are great for quiches, casseroles. Again, it is much cheaper to buy potatoes than frozen hash browns or tater tots. It is easy enough to cut them up and store them in a bowl of water in the refrigerator so they don't brown up and dry out on you. Throw them in the bottom of a pan, mix some eggs and cheese and pour on top and you have a great casserole dish.

You can make your own bread out of non organic flour for about 50 cents a loaf or cheaper, depending on the brand of flour you buy. Making dinner rolls and biscuits is also a great, cheap addition to dinner.

Corn Tortillas are also *very* cheap to make and can once again be filled with whatever you want. I will usually mash up some potatoes and add cheddar cheese and put them on the inside and then fry them up in light oil.

It sounds like work, but you can really prepare all your doughs ahead of time and refrigerate them or freeze them until you want to use them. If you plan it out, you won't find yourself slaving away in the kitchen and will still have fresh, homemade hot-cooked meals that cost only a fraction of prepared and processed foods!

I have a ton, and I do mean a ton of recipes if anyone is interested.

 

[Clancycat]

I have a ton, and I do mean a ton of recipes if anyone is interested.

I'd love it if you'd share more!

 

[PrincessSophie'sMom]

Every time I have any left over veggies from dinner (even if it's just a
spoonful I save it in a ziploc bag. After about 2 weeks I have a ziploc bag of frozen veggies, add 1 can of chicken or a left over chopped chicken breast and a can of cream of chicken soup. Either serve over egg noodles or pour in between 2 frozen pie shells.

Great idea!

Here's a tip for a super quick crockpot chicken recipe:

Throw a couple chicken breasts (still frozen is okay) in the crockpot and cover with either a jar of spagetti sauce or BBQ sauce (homemade is inexpensive). Set it on Low for the day. Add a salad and bread and you are all set!

This "recipe" is good for people who stockpile and have 20 jars of sauce in their pantry!!!

 

[Clancycat]

Here's a tip for a super quick crockpot chicken recipe:

Throw a couple chicken breasts (still frozen is okay) in the crockpot and cover with either a jar of spagetti sauce or BBQ sauce (homemade is inexpensive). Set it on Low for the day. Add a salad and bread and you are all set!

This "recipe" is good for people who stockpile and have 20 jars of sauce in their pantry!!!

You can also do this w/ a jar of salsa, a can of Golden mushroom soup or cream of mushroom soup (no water added). It also works well w/ pork chops or a pork roast.

 

[sap1227]

I have a ton, and I do mean a ton of recipes if anyone is interested.

These are great, I would love to hear more as well!

Christy

 

[gdulaney]

One thing that we do is take leftovers from the meal -- even if it's just two spoonfuls --- and pop it in a tupperware sectioned dinner container. Then put that in the freezer. After doing this for a couple of nights, you have an entirely new meal, which is good to take for lunch (or for dinner).... sometimes you do end up with some strange combinations, which is why I now use more than one container. Also, I don't call them "leftovers" (hubby hates leftovers)....but I call them "planovers" --- because I cooked extra knowing he'd want to plan on eating it again, since it was so tasty. It's all in his head, but it works.

Ginny

 

[Reese]

I use TVP for my chili and shepherds pie instead of ground beef. It saves on cooking time and clean up and money. I can buy a big container for $3 and can make six meals with it (we are a family of seven).

Another cheap and easy one is macaroni and tomatoes, just boil the macaroni, drain and mix with a can of stewed tomatoes. Toss in some cheese and stir.

 

[deadhedjen]

I use TVP for my chili and shepherds pie instead of ground beef. It saves on cooking time and clean up and money. I can buy a big container for $3 and can make six meals with it (we are a family of seven).

LOL when I read this.
I used to use TVP in my chili recipe. DH loved it so much he was always begging me to make more. ALso, I had my parents over for dinner one night and we were having TVP chili. They also raved about it. They had no idea tvp was in it though.
I remember once we were dining out at Pizza Hut and I read on the menu that the "meat lovers" pizza really didn't contain all meat toppings...but rather they were tvp. Said so right on the menu. Dh couldn't believe it either.
In any case, TVP is super cheap. Makes great chili, and I've also added it to sloppy joes to help stretch it.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

maybe a dumb question, but what is "tvp"?

 

[marshallandcartersmo]

just subscribing.........great ideas! keep them coming!!

 

[Reese]

maybe a dumb question, but what is "tvp"?

TVP is texturized vegetable protien. It looks a little like large bacon bits and you rehydrate it. In chili it soaks up the flavour. For shepherds pie I soak it with some veggie/beef broth and than add some spices.

 

[aprild]

just subscribing!! love the recipes

 

[OceanAnnie]

TVP is texturized vegetable protien. It looks a little like large bacon bits and you rehydrate it. In chili it soaks up the flavour. For shepherds pie I soak it with some veggie/beef broth and than add some spices.

Is that soy or tofu? Just wondering. I have no experience using those products. It sounds interesting. I'd be open to it.

 

[DisneyForLife]

I love this thread.
Thank you for all the wonderful recipes.

 

[mom2alix]

Great idea!

Here's a tip for a super quick crockpot chicken recipe:

Throw a couple chicken breasts (still frozen is okay) in the crockpot and cover with either a jar of spagetti sauce or BBQ sauce (homemade is inexpensive). Set it on Low for the day. Add a salad and bread and you are all set!

This "recipe" is good for people who stockpile and have 20 jars of sauce in their pantry!!!

We do this too! I use 2 chicken breasts, 1 jar bbq sauce, and 1/4 cup Italian dressing. Cook on low in the crock pot. Then I take out the breasts and shred them with 2 forks and add sauce as desired to make sandwich filling. This ends up making about 3 cups sandwich filling, or about 8-10 sandwiches out of just 2 chicken breasts!