What's for dinner? Was it "budget"?

[labgeek]

we had BBQ shake n bake chicken. I got a pack of 10 breasts marked down. I did 4 tonight and froze the other 6. I had leftover mac-n-cheese that I had added extra milk and shells to so it would go farther. Kids had that. I baked a potato for dh. I also did a salad. I wasn't hungry for an early supper before gymnastics and archery so I just had a muffin a few minutes ago. Took the leftover chicken and sliced it to go over a salad for work tomorrow.

I would say 3.00 for the chicken, 2.00 for everything else.

Dh and I went out to breakfast today since I took the day off to be home with him. First time we had eaten out in 17 days. I only ate a bit of my breakfast, so I brought it home and ate some for lunch and still have enough for breakfast tomorrow. Dh has roast carrots and mashed potatoes for lunch tomorrow and I have a veggie plate fixed for another meal for me. I love veggies and side dishes, so I tend to clean those up with lunches for me.

 

[dznyacct]

A local restaurant has BOGOF on any carry-out purchase on Monday or Tuesday in January. I had a $20 giftcard. I was able to get 1/2 rack of ribs dinner for DH and 3 wraps and sides (saved a wrap and side of fruit for my lunch for tomorrow ) for $4.12 after the BOGOF discount and my $20 gift card . I LOVE a bargain. If only we could eat that cheap at WDW !

 

[Swimnoid]

I'm definitely not as "budgety" as most of you here but for all of our meals so far this week I bought the meats in bigger packages and split into 2 or three portions so that is pretty budget concious for me.

Tonight was cheeseburgers and tater tots....beef and tots on sale

Yesterday was Italian sausages and rigatoni...NOT on sale, oh well

Tomorrow will be beef stew...one third of a big package on sale

 

[Grendalynn]

Breakfast for dinner night!
Couple of cans of corned beef hash, cooked on the griddle till crispy. Mashed potato pancakes (made with some leftover taters), and over-easy eggs. Probably a can of peaches too.

We had that tonight, too!! DH worked late and today was our day at school to ski. So we didnt get home til 5:30 and I wanted the kids in bed early tonight. Quick clean up and everyone ate a great dinner! Not DHs fave, so it workd out pretty well.

Tonight in our house is sort of a mixed bag. I pulled out some frozen lasagna rollups I made in November (this was half the batch). I made them to use up a box of lasagna noodles that had been sitting in my pantry (I don't make lasagna). I put the frozen rollups in the crockpot on low with the remainder of a can of spaghetti sauce. Those are for DH and DS. DD and I are watching our weight (plus there weren't a lot of the rollups in the batch and DH has a big appetite), so we will probably have oatmeal or Special K or such. I just got a HUGE box of Special K from the "dent and ding" shelf at the grocery story. $2 for the big double bag box (warehouse size). I buy very little cold cereal because of the price, but I do like my Special K.

Can't tell you what our dinner cost, but my educated guess would be well under $5.

I also spent some time today getting food prepared for the rest of the week. Tomorrow night is a hamburger vegetable soup in the crockpot (got the recipe from a crockpot thread here on the DIS.). 1 lb. of browned hamburg, 3 large chopped potatoes, two chopped onions, a few chopped celery ribs, one can of soup and some watered down leftover spaghetti sauce (obviously I am not following the recipe exactly... trying to use what I have). I'm sure that the soup will cost under $5 also. I may make cornbread to go with this, so add about $1.

Thursday night is "ski lessons 2:30 until 4:30, dinner on the run, swim practice 5:30 to 8pm-where-did-our-evening-go", so not sure what/where we will eat that night. I do occasionally pack sandwiches to have in the car, but the kids like something warm after skiing. And I refuse to pay the exhorbitant prices for food that they charge in the ski lodge!

Friday night will be baked ziti (or whatever pasta shape I have in the pantry) with spaghetti sauce and italian sausage (bought on markdown when they were short-dated, frozen immediately, and defrosted and cooked today. I'll put it together Friday morning and put it in the oven with the auto timer set to cook. It will be ready when we get home from swim practice about 7:30 pm!! (I love that feature on my stove!) The sauage was about $2 (gotta check the wrapper), sauce is about 99 cents, and pasta was less than $1 for the box (and I won't use the whole thing). I will forgo the usual melted cheese on top (not diet friendly) and serve it with a side of a green vegetable (planning broccoli) and MAYBE some rolls or such, if they have any on the markdown bakery rack. (I never pay full price for that stuff). Or if I have time I will throw the ingredients into the breadmachine in the morning.
Again, I would estimate that this dinner wouldn't exceed $6... max $7. (Not including drinks, which are usually just water for DD and DH, 1 glass of milk for DS, and a selter for myself.) ...............................P

Hi Neighbor!! Where is South Central NH exactly? You dont really have to give me the exact town, I am just curious!! I wanted to say HI! We skiied this afternoon - it was great til the rain came in! Then it was a little painful. Kinda like little frozen rain bebe's being shot at your face!! Oh well, the kids had fun and it was great skiing!!

 

[Elvis33]

Thai soup I made ( coconut milk, left over chicken, fish sauce, broth, scallions, cilantro) and a Vietnamese chicken sandwich from this month's Gourmet mag. Easy and good.

Yesterday was grilled salmon cooked by DH and a salad. DD had fish sticks.
Sunday was Rachel ray's quick french onion soup from 30 min meals and cheese toast on homemade bread that DH baked. DD (6 yo) loved that.

Today she asked if she could take chinese potstickers in a thermos for lunch tomorrow. Kinda upscale for the 1st grade!

Tomorrow- pizza party for 6 6 yo

 

[OceanAnnie]

Tonight we're having chicken fried rice. I won't have time to babysit the chicken so I'm cooking it in the crockpot. I'll add it to the fried rice mix later.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Spaghetti and Meatballs, and garlic bread. Please look for my post as I am looking for a great meatball recipe.

Spaghetti .50
2 jars sauce $2.00
2# hamburger $4.00
garlic bread $1.00

Expensive for us but it will be 2 dinners and a few lunches... (I am really waiting for the meatball bombers say goodbuy to the diet)

 

[mom2my3kids]

Tonight we are having homemade beef stew, big crock pot full for probably under 10.00 I had most of the items already and the meat was on sale for around 4.00 for two pounds. Potatoes, carrots, onions and celery..

 

[Disneychix]

Last night was Omaha steaks and baked potatoes. Cheap for us since the steaks were a Christmas present!
Tonight is sweet potato soup and grilled cheese sammies. Also cheap cause DM made the soup for us!
So I guess I cheat at the budget part a bit!

 

[marcyinPA]

I've got country style pork ribs in the crockpot. I bought a big package at BJ's and divided and froze. I think they were $1.69/lb. I bought "designer" bbq sauce this time around instead of the usual 99c Kraft sauce. I think it was $2 a bottle. But it looked good... We'll probably have mashed potatoes or oven roasted potatoes (I'm leaning toward the roasted ones...). Those are free...my mom gave me a bag that she got B1G1. And a half bag of frozen veggies ($1) or a ceasar salad (.75 for the lettuce). I know I'll have ribs leftover because my DS8 hates them. He'll eat potatoes and salad

 

[Plantlady]

I have vegetarian chili in the crock pot!

It's been simmering for two days. I can hardly wait to dive in!

It costs about $4 for the pot.. including fritos and cheese.

 

[babytrees]

tonight is sloppy joes I think it will be something with hamburger for sure.

 

[beckanoah]

Eating some of our sash of frozen food. Schwan's Mini Pizzas. Not budget exactly, but easy, and that's important today.

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

On tonight's menu:

2 (large!) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Cost: $0.00 (DMIL stocks our freezer with meat everytime she visits! )
Lipton Chicken Rice
Frozen Broccoli

 

[Adi12982]

We're having Jambalaya - enough for a couple of meals. . . two boxes of Zatarans ($3), Chicken ($2) and Sausage ($0.75), so $5.75 total for 2-3 two adult serving meals. . . . I'll probably have a veggie on the side, but those won't cost us since they have been accounted for, in full, before. . .

 

[babytrees]

On tonight's menu:

2 (large!) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Cost: $0.00 (DMIL stocks our freezer with meat everytime she visits! )
Lipton Chicken Rice
Frozen Broccoli

can your MIL come and visit me???

 

[bookgirl]

Having left overs tonight of beef and broccoli I made in the Crockpot yesterday.

I usually make it the night of in a big skillet with strips of beef and fresh veggies, but I had stew meat in the freezer that I got for less than a dollar a pound at Target and I had canned and frozen veggies and no time. I also wanted the meat to have plenty of time to get tender.

So I put meat (2 pounds), beef stock, soy sauce, worshershire sauce, garlic and onion salt, in the crock pot all day while I was at work on low, then when I got home I added a can of carrots, a bag of frozen broccoli, a can of water chestnuts, some celery and a thickner of corn starch water and more soy sauce. It actually came out really well. The stew meat did break all apart but that was fine and it was really good on rice with garlic toast for dinner.

Whole thing fed 3 for dinner plus it's enough for one more dinner for all and a couple of lunches.

b and b was about 5 dollars
rice was less than 1 dollar
bread was frozen wal mart brand so 1.50 maybe I can't remember.

 

[stacy347]

Six servings:

Stuffed pork chops ($8.00 for the pork chops ~ and that was on sale , $1.00 for the stuffing, $1.00 for the gravy), mashed potatoes (about $1.00 for what I used), applesauce (leftover from my Mom's canning so $0.00).

Total $11.00 to feed all six of us ~ not too bad but I'm trying to do better. I think I'm going to drive the extra 15 miles and start going to Aldi's once a month to stock up on pantry items, freezer stuff, etc. and see how much that helps the budget.

 

[Sorsha]

Tonight I did "semi-homemade" chicken noodle soup. Usually when I make chicken noodle soup, I do it from scratch... boiling a chicken, making stock, etc. But when (like today) I decide I want it and don't have time to go through all that, I take shortcuts.

Bought a rotisserie chicken and picked all the meat off it. Sauteed some finely diced celery and finely minced garlic, then put it and the meat in the soup pot with a couple of boxes of organic chicken broth, and a bag of mixed soup veggies. Cooked that for about 45 minutes, tasting and seasoning constantly. Then added a bag of egg noodles and cooked another 15 minutes. Served it with a can of Pillsbury crescent rolls. SO yummy!!

Chicken was $6, 2 boxes of broth $3 each, veggies $1, noodles $1, rolls $1.50. So $15.50 total, and we have enough leftovers for several lunches for both DH and I. Not too bad! Also soothing and gentle for the ones with touchy tummies from our bout with the icky bug.

 

[babytrees]

Tonight I did "semi-homemade" chicken noodle soup. Usually when I make chicken noodle soup, I do it from scratch... boiling a chicken, making stock, etc. But when (like today) I decide I want it and don't have time to go through all that, I take shortcuts.

Bought a rotisserie chicken and picked all the meat off it. Sauteed some finely diced celery and finely minced garlic, then put it and the meat in the soup pot with a couple of boxes of organic chicken broth, and a bag of mixed soup veggies. Cooked that for about 45 minutes, tasting and seasoning constantly. Then added a bag of egg noodles and cooked another 15 minutes. Served it with a can of Pillsbury crescent rolls. SO yummy!!

Chicken was $6, 2 boxes of broth $3 each, veggies $1, noodles $1, rolls $1.50. So $15.50 total, and we have enough leftovers for several lunches for both DH and I. Not too bad! Also soothing and gentle for the ones with touchy tummies from our bout with the icky bug.

that sounds yummy!!!