Your Favorite Budget Dinners for 2?

[AngieMouse86]

Looking for some new budget recipes/ideas to try because I feel like I've fallen into a food rut, always making the same few dishes. Just made some mini-meatballs to freeze and jazz up pasta nights, but aside from that I'm seriously lacking inspiration.

I do like making larger meals, like casseroles, to have leftovers, just not every night or the fridge gets overrun with leftovers no one ends up eating, so ideally meals aimed at adequately feeding 2 would be nice.

I do have a medium-size slow cooker, so some simple ideas for that would be great too, as I've only used thus far used it to replicate a soup my mom makes.

Also, anyone know of some great things to do with beans (any kind)? I try to have meatless nights but that usually just ends up being salad & pasta. I enjoy beans a lot, especially on salads and such, but interested in some hot dinner ideas using them. Chili and other ideas all welcome!

 

[ENSOCK]

We love lemon chicken:

Dust seasoned boneless, skinless chicken thighs with flour. Place a small amount of oil into a skillet. Add the chicken, and fry on both sides to a nice golden brown. Pour 1 can chicken broth over the chicken and squeeze one lemon over the chicken. Shake seasoning to taste, salt and pepper. You can add some capers but I leave them out. Cook until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced. I serve it over angel hair pasta.

Another thing we love is to take cubed steak, season then dust with flour. Fry in a little oil, pour 1 can of beef broth over. As it is cooking, you can add some flour to thicken it up. Serve over mashed potatos or rice. Add veggies and you have a quick easy meal.

 

[Strawberry's mom&dad]

Jeff Novick's Basic Bean Burger

Minutes to Prepare: 15
Minutes to Cook: 10
Number of Servings: 4


Ingredients
1 14oz. can of no salt added kidney beans (or 1.5 cups cooked kidney beans)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup cooked brown rice
2 tbsp. low sodium, or no salt added sodium salsa
spice


Directions
Mash beans with a hand masher
Mix in oats, rice and salsa
Form into 4 patties
Allow to sit uncovered in refrigerator for 20 minutes to set
Grill or broil on each side until golden brown

I often double this recipie and freeze the extras for lunch.

Look up Jeff novik he has lots of healthy recipies, as does http://www.drmcdougall.com/ in the newletters
enjoy

 

[msmama]

Bean and cheese burritos (I use canned black beans and mash 'em up in a skillet to make my own "refried" beans._ Add beans and cheese to a tortilla and eat them as is, or put them in a pan, cover them with enchelada sauce (I use from a can) and more cheese and bake. I've also done the beans on baguettes, just scoop out the insides and slather them in then top with lettuce and tomato (or your favorite taco toppings).

Chili with beans (can do sans meat or with).

Red beans and rice (google could probably find you a crock pot recipe)

Not a bean exactly, but I've made a lot of stuff with lentils - lentil soup, lentil burritos, lentil salads.

For a crock pot meal - put a couple of chicken breasts in with a jar of salsa (can add taco seasoning, but I usually omit). Shred and put on tortillas.

 

[SwimBikeRun]

I do a lot in my cp. there's a great blog. Crockpot365.blogspot

Anyway I do a lot of the following:

Chili use your fave recipe. I do brown the meat and drain it first. I usually make a turkey bean chili

Ribs or pulled pork. Just add your fave sauce. Pork pushes out a lot of water and fat so I do take the ribs out when they are done, add more sauce and "finish" them under the broiler.

I make gumbo and jambalaya in the cp too! I do the rice separately

Roast chicken in the cp is awesome. Just rub with fave seasonings. Garlic, lemon pepper, rotisserie blend. I do prop the chicken on small glass corningware dishes so it doesn't sit in fat all day.

I'm a single mom so it's like cooking for two!

My kids love individual meat loaves when I make them in muffin tins and I always make a double batch for an easy freezer meal

Other ideas that we've had recently:

Sausage and peppers
Monte cristo sandwiches. Ham and cheese, dip in egg wash and cook like French toast. Serve with syrup or raspberry preserves and fruit
Homemade crab stuffed flounder

Our winters been pretty mild for us so I've still been grilling quite a bit!

 

[ekmom]

My daughter shared this recipe with us.

Mexican Minestrone

1 can black beans
1 can pinto beans (garbanzo can be substituted)
1 can vegetable broth
1 can chicken broth
8 oz frozen or canned corn
1 cup potatoes, diced
1 cup frozen green beans
3/4 cup salsa
1 can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes

Combine all ingredients in crock pot. Cook on low for 11 hours. Can also be done on stove, just simmer until potatoes are cooked through (about an hour).

 

[girli565]

I have a cuban/puerto rican style red bean I make in the slow cooker that is amazing!

Make sofrito according to this recipe. I cook it just like hers but I know mine is done when the oil (which will be orange looking from all the seasonings) starts to float to the top of the sauce in little pools. I also add 1-2 packets of badia tropical sazon (it's orange) to the recipe. It deepens the color and taste.

I also make like 5 batches of this at a time and freeze it because you can add ground beef, or ground turkey, or bone in chicken pieces, or stew meat with a little stock/broth to cover the meat and cook for 45-60 minutes and you have tons of meals! Serve them with rice and fried plantains and you have cuban night!

So back to the beans... I use 4 cans but since you cook for just two people you can make 1 or 2 cans of small red kidney beans (I like the small pink beans from Goya) pour the beans, juice and all, in the crock pot. Mix in your sofrito well, add a bit of water or chicken stock until it's kinda runny and you can put it on low all day, my last pot went form 8am to 5pm when I got home and they were perfect! When you come home you'll have the best tasting beans ever!

If you want to add meat to your meal you can put in a ham bone piece that has meat on it and let that cook all day with it too. You'll get chunks of ham and beans. We eat that with white or brown rice and it's always a hit!

 

[AngieMouse86]

Thank you all! Keep those ideas & recipes coming.

ENSOCK, think I'm going to try that chicken tomorrow since I have the ingredients on hand.

Strawberry's mom&dad, that bean burger recipe looks perfect, simple & few ingredients, and meatless!

msmama, don't know why I never thought of simple bean burritos, that's a perfect lunch for when we're home. The crockpot chicken sounds good & easy, too.

SwimBikeRun, thanks for the link!

ekmom, like the sound of that soup, it's similar to a faux-tortilla soup I've made before.

girli565, I reeeally like that sofrito recipes and how it can be made as batches to freeze. I shop at the Latin markets around here a bit but have never specifically seen that seasoning (haven't been looking for it either, lol), possibly because it's a Mexican heavy area around here, not Cuban/Puerto Rican; Are there other similar seasonings that would work, should I not find it?

 

[girli565]

girli565, I reeeally like that sofrito recipes and how it can be made as batches to freeze. I shop at the Latin markets around here a bit but have never specifically seen that seasoning (haven't been looking for it either, lol), possibly because it's a Mexican heavy area around here, not Cuban/Puerto Rican; Are there other similar seasonings that would work, should I not find it?

Yeah, having ready made sofrito is amazing and makes having dinner ready in 30 min or less really possible.

I use the sofrito and make picadillo (which is when you add ground beef or ground turkey to the sofrito) and all I add is a good shot of cooking wine, pimento stuffed olives, sometimes raisins, and some broth or stock and you have dinner ready in 30 minutes.

I also make fricase de pollo, which is adding a cut up whole chicken to 2 batches of the sofrito along with the cooking wine, olives, potatoes, and broth/stock, cook it until the chicken is cooked through and your sauce is a bit thick.

And a favorite in my house is carne con papas (meat and potatoes). Two batches of sofrito, a pound of stew meat in chunks, broth or stock to cover, cooking wine, and olives. Braise that until it's tender, about 20 minutes before the meat is done add in chunks of potatoes and you can eat when you sauce is thick and potatoes and meat are tender.

I serve all these meals over rice and fried sweet plantains.

There's a similar product from Goya that you may find more readily available than the badia product. I like the badia one because it's MSG free but I used to use the Goya one before I found the badia product. I don't know of anything else that matches the taste it gives.

 

[swilshire]

My son's favorite food is chili, so we have "bean Monday". My husband makes a large pot of pinto or mixed beans. We have beans and fried cornbread. Sometimes potatoes with it.

On Tuesday, he turns the beans into chili. He and I might eat chili once during the week in a bowl with crackers or fritoes, sour cream, and cheese or on nachos or a hotdog. My son eats the rest of the pot. Sometimes DH also makes a vegetarian pot for my daughter. Basically the same recipe minus the hamburger meat.

Sheila

 

[pigletto]

This one is meatless. It doesn't sound half as delicious as it actually is. The cream cheese just makes the dish. It's easy too
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/salsa-corn-chowder/

I also love Loaded Baked Potato soup and we leave out the bacon pieces because dd is vegetarian.
If you pair either one with a nice bread and a salad they are very filling.

 

[megsoro]

A favorite around here is:

Frozen filled pasta (tortellini or mini ravioli)
Jarred Pasta Sauce (we like Alfredo)
Frozen veggies

Boil pasta, add frozen veggies the last two minutes of cooking. Drain- add sauce to heat.

This is really versatile, ready in under fifteen minutes, and you can add meat, fish, garlic bread, etc to round it out and make it a meal!