Some of this stuff is just making me shake my head. I hate canned food, and buy it only so my sitter has something easy to cook for the kids at lunch (I would rather her spend more time with them then in the kitchen)..
Cheap/easy meals around here:
throw some boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the crockpot with 1 cup of salsa, and 1 cup of frozen corn. Cook all day on low. Shred, mix in some fat free cream cheese and get it all incorporated. Serve over brown rice, or on tortillas with taco fixings.
I do lots of "leftover" soups - take whatever meats/veggies/starches are leftover from the week, throw it in a pot with some broth that I have thawed out (I do the same as a pp - use all veggie scraps for broth and freeze the batches), add in whatever spices you like, and voila. Serve with grilled cheese (a weakness of mine).
I got this one off some site - might have been this one?
Lentil Brown Rice Casserole
Just over 3 cups broth, just use whatever you have on hand.
3/4 cup lentils
1/2 cup brown rice
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup of chopped green pepper
1/2 grated carrot
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Dash pepper
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
Mix everything together in 9x13 dish except for cheese. Cover in aluminum foil and bake at 300 degrees for about 1 hour. Remove foil and add cheese. Throw back in oven until cheese is melted.
Total cost of this dish to $1.25.
ORIENTAL CHICKEN
chicken breasts (I'd say 4-6) plus 1/2 cup light soy sauce, 1/2 cup of honey, and 2 TBS sesame seeds. Put the chicken in the crock pot, stir the honey, soy, and seeds together and pour over chicken breasts. Cook on low 4-6 hours. I recommend doing some brocolli and rice along with it
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I stock up on meat for the family (I am a vegetarian). We bought 1/4 a buffalo this year and had 75# made into ground, some steaks, some roasts, etc. So that really comes in handy. It was about $300 for that meat.
I do a lot of eggs - Costco has it 36/$2. Can't go wrong with scrambled eggs, fruit, and a piece of toast. Mmmm.
My kids do love hotdogs. I buy the turkey ones. Still overly processed and disgusting, but I don't feel as guilty. They love fish, love shellfish, and the buffalo is very lean, so they eat very healthy most of the time.
