Enexpensive meals at home?

[Ali3jr]

Okay so we are a family if 5 meat eaters!
What are some good meals for cheap?

 

[Minnesota!]

I would try extending your meat by adding other (cheap) things to do - beans, lentils, quinoa, etc.

Make 1 - 2 nights a week a non-meat night....veggies, beans, rice, etc.

Breakfast for dinner - eggs are cheap. Pancakes and eggs and fruit.

 

[Gigi22]

You can also use TVP (textured vegetable protein) to extend ground meat in burgers, chili, pasta sauces, meatballs and meatloaf.

 

[kymom99]

One of my son's favorite meals (after steak!):
rotini pasta cooked
spaghetti sauce
ground Italian sausage, meatballs, or rope sausage cut up
provolone cheese and mozzarella cheese on top
Bake in oven until heated through

We get pasta really cheap when on sale
We make our own pasta sauce when tomatoes are in season and preserve in jars (Mrs. Wages)
Find a deal on the meat and cheese

I also use buns that are getting stale and make garlic bread.

Another favorite is cheese coneys (or chili dogs, depending on where you are from)
$1 buns
$1 hot dogs
a can of chili
shredded cheese

 

[abmitch01]

home made mac-n-cheese, double the recipe and eat for lunch the next day

my kids love ham and egg quiche

 

[*pixie*dust*]

Okay so we are a family if 5 meat eaters!
What are some good meals for cheap?

When you say "good" do you mean good and healthy or do you mean just taste good? Meat is really expensive right now, is your family open to having meat as a seasoning or as part of a larger dish or do they require a piece of meat each meal?

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

I try to cook things that use meat in them instead of serving meat by itself. For example, it takes 3 lbs of ground beef to make hamburgers for my family of 7 (big eaters). It only takes 1 and 1/2 lbs of ground beef to make tacos or sloppy joes. I can get away with 1 lb in pasta dishes.

Same with chicken. I will buy less boneless, skinless chicken breasts and mix it with brown rice, broccoli and cheese or other similar casseroles. Or make chicken noodle soup. It requires much less chicken than giving each person a breast. (You could do this even cheaper if you buy a whole chicken to cut up, but I don't).

 

[hydrotony]

When making chili or spaghetti sauce, use about 50% ground turkey and 50% ground beef. When mixed and seasoned and all saucy looking, you can't tell which is which. Even 75% ground turkey and 25% ground beef has a big beefy flavor.

 

[Ali3jr]

Thanks!

 

[kymom99]

There is a thread called Eat at Home that may help you

 

[worm761]

Try making meals that stretch beyond one meal.

Taco meat for tacos one night, leftovers become burritos or taco salad another.

Ham dinner. I normally have a ton of ham leftover. I make mashed potatoes, green beans, dinner rolls, and homemade gravy to go with it the first time. Then leftovers become cheesy ham, brocccoli and pasta bake.
http://www.ohsweetbasil.com/2013/12/cheesy-ham-and-potato-bacon-casserole.html
http://goodenessgracious.com/2012/04/ham-pineapple-kabobs.html

Turkey. Target regularly has turkey breast for .99/lb here. I buy one and roast a turkey breast. Make potatoes, gravy, a veg, and homemade dinner rolls. Leftovers are then separated for other meals. I keep the bones and make broth. Cool off and refrigerate overnight so you can skim the fat off before freezing. With leftover turkey I make wraps, quesadillas, and turkey pot pie. Only my pot pie is not a true pot pie. I basically make a turkey stew. Put it in a 9x13 pyrex. Top with homemade biscuit dough with stuffing seasonings mixed it. And turkey tetrazzini is a favorite here. I use farfalle pasta and cook in the oven. http://www.traegergrills.com/teamtr...Leftovers-Turkey-Tetrazzini.aspx#.U81uwvldVvV

Roast a chicken and serve with your favorite sides. Use leftovers for more meals...wraps, quesadillas, in pasta.

Sausage is nothing more than seasoned ground pork. We season our own. (Grind it too but most people don't own a meat grinder.)

Here is my frugal meals board on Pinterest. The Egg Roll in a Bowl and the Italian Chicken are favorites here! http://www.pinterest.com/disneybug/frugal-meals/

Some websites you might want to check out are Budget101 and Poor Girl Eats Well.

 

[aliceindisneyland]

DH unfortunately thinks he's being punished if I try to pass off a vegetarian dish, so that doesn't work for us. I do make sure I have raw fruit/veggies and/or salad on the table and I may or may not take a couple extra minutes getting the main dish to the table so the "appetizers" take the edge off and no one eats 2 plates full of the main dish before they feel satisfied.
I am making a price list of all of the meals I make; I just write the ingredients and portions on an index card as I cook because I don't use recipes. Once I fill in the prices I will know exactly how much each meal costs.
I read somewhere that you shoud figure out which 5-10 family favorites are the cheapest, and make those more often, so that's my plan.

 

[chris31997]

I add lentils when I cook hamburger or ground pork.

I add quinoa to chicken salad. I also add quinoa to rice.

 

[TwoMisfits]

Get skin on chicken thighs on sale - even now, these can be found for 99 cents a pound...drizzle with salt, pepper, and olive oil and bake in the oven for 400 for 30 minutes and then 350 for 10-30 min more depending on size and amount of thighs. If you need to crisp the skin (if you eat it) broil for 3-5 minutes before serving. You can top with a bottled BBQ sauce, a bottled Italian sauce, a homemade honey mustard, etc in the last 5-10 minutes of cooking (heck, you could top with anything in the oven or serve with any cool sauce on the side). This meal gives you a lot of meat for little money and little effort (no need to have to break down and prep a whole chicken and then to carve it). If you serve it with equally inexpensive sides, your family and pocketbook would be happy.

And if you really want to extend it, save the bones and the chicken pan juices in the fridge, skim the fat the next day, and make a homemade stock with the bones and juices and use that to make a soup with any leftover meat no one wanted and some cheap veg (or leftover veg sides from the night before)...very cheap lunch...

And if you make too many thighs, save a few deskinned thighs, cook 1/2 lb of bacon the next day and make club sandwiches (bread with lots of veggie filler - lettuce, tomato, onion, even green pepper or cukes if they are cheap - with both leftover chicken and a touch of bacon no one will feel like they are "missing out" or getting "cheaped out")...to make it decadent, caramelize the onion in a touch of the bacon grease (like a tsp) to make the meat flavor really sing...serve with salad and have sandwiches and salad...

 

[tinkerone]

I often cook fried rice and use one chicken breast for a bit of meat and flavor. dh loves it, thinks its one of the best meals ever. its very inexpensive and very easy to make. I double up on the white rice when I cook it so I have some in the fridge ready when I am.

 

[dcfromva]

I have been mining some of the recipes on the Budget Bytes web site. There are loads of recipes for all kinds of things. (DH and I love the Oven Roasted Ratatouille recipe).

This is my favorite recipe (so far):
Hearty Black Bean Quesadillas

The Quesadillas are very filling and they are awesome.

 

[ashleyfallis]

buy a crock pot/slow cooker! they turn even boring joints of meat in to lovely ones that fall right off the bone. I love a gammon joint with butter beans in some brown sugar and soy sauce then leave it to cook for about 8 hrs on low. Makes a dinner and amazing sandwiches the next day too

 

[pjlla]

I will admit I haven't read all of the replies, so sorry if this is a repeat.......

Add stuff to fill out the meat if you are using a ground meat (ground beef, ground turkey)... roasted chopped mushrooms, shredded zucchini (and other veggies), rehydrated TVP (textured vegetable protein), brown rice, mashed beans.

I made sloppy joes last night that had TVP, mushrooms, and carrot pulp (from making carrot juice) and it was delicious, cheaper (especially since the carrot pulp would otherwise go in the composter) and healthier.

Make "less meat" meals like stews and double the veggies without doubling the meat portions.... like beef stew with just a pound of beef.... but double the carrots, onions, and potatoes. Beef stew and curried chicken stew are two big favorites in my house.

Fried rice is a great way to use lots of (cheap) brown rice, healthy veggies, and just a bit of meat and egg! Sometimes if I have just a bit of ham or chicken or beef leftover from a meal, I chop it small and freeze it specifically to save for fried rice (or in my household, fried "cauliflower" rice).

Stir-fry.... and you AGAIN can double the veggie portions but not the meat.

Enchiladas, quesedillas, stuffed shells.... all of those have a meat FILLING, but use very little meat per portion... especially when you use veggies along with the meat. One of our family favorites is "skinny chicken enchiladas" and "chicken salad stuffed shells" (you could probably google these recipes).

Soups!! Lots of veggies and broth to fill the bellies and just enough meat to taste! Actually, my family's two favorite soups are meat-free.... light broccoli cheddar (served in a homemade bread bowl occasionally) and curried carrot (served with a side of sliced cheese for some protein).

Whatever you do, try to limit those meals that are essentially a "slab" of meat per person (whole chicken breast, whole hamburger, whole steak, whole pork chop). Best of luck...................P

 

[MSSANDRA]

Also, choose carefully what meat to buy and where to buy it. I try to be very aware of what sales are going on at each store and try to stock up when there is a sale going on. I also like to shop on Monday mornings when I can, as they often mark down meat that they had too much of for the week-end. The meat is just fine, just take it straight home and pre-portion and cook or freeze it. When there are not good sales going on, I shop at Sams club. The prices are better than the regular grocery store prices. Often buying the same meat in different forms can also save a ton. I recently bought a pork loin for less than 2.00 a lb and had them cut it into one inch chops. The chops in the meat case were double that!!! Roast are often less expensive than stew meat. Just take home and cut it up. I also freeze in small packs. I will only allow one chop each for example and know that we will add lots of veggies to the meal....cheaper and healthier!