Who can make the cheapest meal for a family of 4 or 5 people?

[nelson84]

Let's here your cheapest meal please include ingredients.

 

[Disney_traveler]

5 packages of ramen noodle soup. Regular package kind, not that fancy cup o'noodle stuff!

 

[wendow]

I am from the south so I soak a lot of dried beans and cook them with onion and spices. Sometimes I add sausage or ham but not always. I serve over rice or quinoa (rice being a lot cheaper). I can make enough for two dinners and have some still to freeze for dinner another time. I never spend over $5 for the whole batch, which again makes three dinners and we are a family of six. Pretty cheap (and healthy) eating

 

[neatokimmo]

It varies depending on what is on sale. But you can bake leg quarters with Montreal steak seasoning and it tastes like rotisserie chicken. Then sauté 2 pounds of sliced red potato and onion in a little bit of water (to keep them from sticking). Drizzle the chicken dripping over them for gravy. Take a pound of carrot and stred it. Put salad dressing in it like a regular green salad. Cook a bag of peas.

Chicken quarters are $.30 each on sale at Kroger (not this week but they freeze great).
Red potatoes are five pounds for $1.50 at Aldi.
Onions are four for $1 at Aldi.
Carrots are $.40 pp this week at Aldi.
I have no clue how to calculate dressing.
Peas are $.89 at Aldi.

So $3.34 for a dinner for four.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Soaked beans??? That's a meal??

MG

 

[neatokimmo]

I am from the south so I soak a lot of dried beans and cook them with onion and spices. Sometimes I add sausage or ham but not always. I serve over rice or quinoa (rice being a lot cheaper). I can make enough for two dinners and have some still to freeze for dinner another time. I never spend over $5 for the whole batch, which again makes three dinners and we are a family of six. Pretty cheap (and healthy) eating

We love beans too. Navy beans, creamed up with an immersion blender with Tabasco and topped with caramelized onions are good.

 

[starry_solo]

OP: might want to tell us what kinds of foods your family likes or doesn't like.

 

[usnuzuloose]

I bought a whole chicken for about 5 dollars. You can add onions and spices. A bag of lettuce for salad and any type of dressing. And depending on the store you could buy a garlic bread. A whole chicken for two of us will go about 3 meals. But we don't eat a whole lot.

If you have chicken left over you could add the extra to beans and make another meal.

 

[nelson84]

Just looking for cheap meal ideas. Is anybody else feeling the economic down turn. Funny thing the stores never drop their prices when things are bad.

 

[jevs]

Boiled rice.

 

[Alesia]

Define "meal." Do you mean a healthy, well balanced meal or just something to fill up on without regard to nutritional value?

I mean, technically speaking you could just eat packaged ramen noodles as a meal, but they are terrible for you. I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[arthur06]

We do breakfast for supper quite often.

Dozen eggs (which is more then we need) 2 per person is usually the average.
Loaf of Bread.
Potatoes (washed and diced).
Package of sausage links.

Eggs are about .99 a dozen, bread on sale is .99, potatoes are probably about $1.00 for russets, and we get the sausage links for about $1.00 to $1.29 on sale. Sometimes we go with bacon but that is about 2.99 per package.

We can feed a family of 5 for under $5.00 on those nights.

 

[wendow]

I bought a whole chicken for about 5 dollars. You can add onions and spices. A bag of lettuce for salad and any type of dressing. And depending on the store you could buy a garlic bread. A whole chicken for two of us will go about 3 meals. But we don't eat a whole lot.

If you have chicken left over you could add the extra to beans and make another meal.

We do this too with the Costco rotisserie chicken. There are six of us and my kids and dh all eat pretty good portions so we get two meals from the chicken. The first we just eat chicken and I make potatoes and a vegetable to go with it. The second I make broth from the leftover meat, skin and bones. Then I make a chicken noodle soup with the broth, chicken, vegetables and noodles. Again, very cheap and pretty healthy.

 

[usnuzuloose]

We do this too with the Costco rotisserie chicken. There are six of us and my kids and dh all eat pretty good portions so we get two meals from the chicken. The first we just eat chicken and I make potatoes and a vegetable to go with it. The second I make broth from the leftover meat, skin and bones. Then I make a chicken noodle soup with the broth, chicken, vegetables and noodles. Again, very cheap and pretty healthy.

So much can be done with chicken that is cheap and healthy. I have a turkey and I use that in portions for so much that costs so little.

 

[baldy6060]

Frozen pizza

 

[kymom99]

We do this too with the Costco rotisserie chicken. There are six of us and my kids and dh all eat pretty good portions so we get two meals from the chicken. The first we just eat chicken and I make potatoes and a vegetable to go with it. The second I make broth from the leftover meat, skin and bones. Then I make a chicken noodle soup with the broth, chicken, vegetables and noodles. Again, very cheap and pretty healthy.

Add to this list, pull a little bit of meat off the chicken and make some chicken enchaladas. Just get some cheese, a red onion, some tortillas and a can of enchalada sauce. I just did all this with a chicken I baked. However we are only 3 in our family

 

[scrapquitler]

soup! Use bullion cubes or broth to supplement whatever meat and bones you have or get on sale for the best price (ham hocks are really cheap or use the bones from that leftover rotisserie chicken somebody used in a previous post), add either rice/noodles, beans or potatoes and whatever veggies are on sale (or free from a neighbor with too many zucchini) or that are bruised and past the pretty stage but in the clearance section at the back of the produce aisle. YOu can even use frozen or canned if they are less expensive. Pretty much any combination of things can work.

 

[jsmla]

I posted my favorite dried bean and cheap pasta recipes on a thread a while back:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/wh...at-isnt-breakfast-food.3454486/#post-54563821

I'm a huge fan if investing in a good set of spices. The initial outlay is high but having a range of spices really helps to add variety to basic pasta and bean recipes


Not a favorite of mine but DH likes it and it is cheap!

Potatoes with Sausage and Peppers

1/2 lb thinly sliced smoked sausage
4 c potatoes cubed in a 1/2-1 inch dice
1 large onion, coarse dice
1large green pepper, diced
Creole seasoning (to taste)

Sauté sausage in a large heavy skillet till browned. Remove and drain on paper towels.

Deglaze skillet with 1/2 c water and add potatoes. Cover and simmer 5 minutes.

Remove lid and simmer until water has evaporated.

Add sausage, onion, pepper and seasoning to potatoes.

Sauté until veggies are tender crisp and potatoes are browned.

This is a summer meal here when we have peppers in the garden. I usually serve it with a side of whatever else is ready to pick.

 

[3Gsandme]

I was actually not aware that we are in the midst of a economic downturn? Is this the same one as before? Does that make me sound like a jerk?

Locally, I can make spaghetti and salad for dinner pretty cheap. Boxes of pasta and jars of sauce go on sale for about $1/each and I can usually get some lettuce or some frozen veggies for about a dollar a bag.. We tend to have dressing on hand. Garlic bread at Aldi is under $2, so we would have very carb heavy meal, but it would come in around $5 and be pretty filling. Depending on how much everyone ate, we may have enough left over for more meals.

The best way, IMO, to stretch your grocery dollar is by using store loss leaders to comprise what you eat for the week. For instance, our local grocery store has whole chickens on sale for .68/lb. If I was looking to stretch my grocery dollars hard, we'd be eating a lot of chicken this week. I'd buy two or three, serve one as a roast chicken and then use the other two to comprise different recipes from soup to casseroles.

 

[McKelly]

Stock up on turkeys when they go on sale (coming up here). We make a turkey, eat it the traditional way the first time (mashed potatoes and veg), then with the leftovers, I make casseroles, hot turkey sandwiches, turkey a la king, turkey noodle soup, etc. I can get at least 3/4 meals out of one turkey. If you can't eat turkey four days in a row - many of the leftover meals can be put in the freezer and pulled out later.