BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Home Cooking Meals that are cheap when ur on budget. Post it.

One of our is Black beans and rice with polish sausage.

It is easy to make. Maybe the total cost will be 5 dollars and should be able to feed like 8ppl.

Cook ur rice and then add the black beans and slice up the sausage. Let it heat up and u can add ur favorite side dish. Green bean, carrots, or corn.

Any type of pasta is cheep and easy to make

Ground beef and pasta.With a little cheese. There are so many recipes out there.

Chicken and yellow rice. That is good mmmm

Now, some of you may gag at this, but we love fried chicken livers and they're very inexpensive, a little over $1.00 per carton. We buy 2 cartons so we'll have leftovers for the next day. My husband has to cook them though. I can't stand to look at them raw. lol.....

Sharon

Curried Lentils & Rice
- lentils are cheap, are a great meatless meal and with rice, makes a complete protein. Granted, you will have to procure some curry powder, but a little goes a long way and is a good kitchen investment.

Diced sauteed onion, Lentils, a chopped carrot or two, broth of your choice, water, curry powder to taste, salt and pepper and if you like it spicy- a bit of hot pepper flakes or a portion of a fresh hot pepper/chile.

Cook over med. heat till creamy or to the consistency you enjoy - adding water or broth as this cooks down.

After cooking to package instructions, flavor the rice with a bit of salt, lime zest and fresh cilantro.(Both inexpensive flavor boosters.)

Serve with a cucumber, green onion and plain yogurt salad, toasted pitas or baked & buttered flour tortillas and you have a great 'fake' Indian meal.

We also had a really good frozen coffee granita for dessert. (Make strong, sweetened coffee - instant coffee is really great for this - with or without milk/creamer & freeze till almost firm...scrape it around with a fork to make a grainy/slushy/snowball-like sort of consistency. Top with either chocolate syrup and/or whipped topping.)

Made this for lunch on Sunday and ended up freezing the abundant & delicious leftovers. The cost was under 8 dollars and there were three of us.

Actually, any dried beans give you alot of bang for the buck....they take on flavors well and can be served in almost infinite ways. Dips, snacks, soups, stews - even in some cases, desserts!

Try allrecipes.com for some interesting and inexpensive meal ideas.....it's an amazing resource for all sorts of food info!

Happy Cooking! <img src="/images/graemlins/rolling.gif" alt="" />

We do a turkey/rice casserole that's pretty inexpensive.

1 lb. ground turkey (usually around 99 cents if you get the frozen variety and not the fresh)
2 cups uncooked rice
1 can 16 oz coarse cut tomatos (or you can use tomato sauce)
1 small can chopped peppers (of your choice... we use jalepenos)
1 cup water
1 Tbs. Mexican variety tomato bullion or 1 chicken bullion cube
spicy things to taste (cumin, cilantro, chopped onion, garlic, whatever you like)

Bake in 350 oven for 30 - 45 minutes (depending on your elevation... may take shorter or longer) until rice is cooked.

S.O.S. Meaning S**t on the shingles. Sounds gross but but that what it looks like roflmao. Hamburger gravy w/ boild potatoes. U can put baked beans cold on top its good. Plus it is cheap.

Has anyone ever tried Turkey Ham? I buy them all of the time. I think they're a little over a pound in weight and the cost is appr. $2.25 or so at Walmart. I cook it whole in the crockpot with liquid smoke (in foil). For just two people, it'll last 2 days plus maybe an extra slice or two for sandwiches.

Sharon

Try to incorporate more vegetarian meals into your diet.

Invest in spices - you can do amazing things with a few cheap basics.

Butternut Squash Soup

1 1/2 T oil
1 1/2 chopped onion
1 1/2 lb butternut squash (peeled, seeded, cubed)
1 t salt
black pepper to taste
1/2 t cumin
1 1/2 c water
1 bouillon cube - chicken

Fry onion on medium until soft. Add squash, salt, pepper, cumin. Cover. Continue cooking over low-medium until soft (about 15-20 minutes). Mash with back of slotted spoon. Add water and bouillon cube. Heat thoroughly over medium heat and serve.

Add a salad and/or homemade bread. Cheap, relatively quick, and easy.

We have baked potato soup and it is great...you can use your leftover baked potatoes for this. We have cornbread muffins with it.

I like to freeze the leftover spagetti sauce (I make home made) and when I get enough it makes a quick meal when you are short on time.

[color:"blue"] Mexican food is somewhat economic, and I can understand where you come from since I have a large family that sometimes exceeds my budget, anyways, feel free to check my blog, I keep the budget in mind in every recipe, hope you like it.
Feel free to send me your recipes, or any other comments you might have, also if you need a specific recipe, ill give it to you <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. [/color]

jordyscorner.baboonsoftware.com <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue2.gif" alt="" />

[color:"red"] Enjoy [/color]
recipes for us <img src="/images/graemlins/heart.gif" alt="" />

Beef Stew

Take Beef bones for the both cook with water until
all meat of the bones fall off. Add potatoes, a can of corn, a few carrots and what ever else you have. cook and add salt and pepper throw in some noodles. Remove the bones. Add some rice.

we had this a lot growing up and it is still one of my favorites. It is cheap and so simple to make.

Riddle Soup (actually Rivel soup)

1 stalk celery sliced thin
1 small onion diced
2 potatoes diced or sliced
1 cup flour
1 egg
seasoning salt
butter

Cook celery and onions in lots of water until tender, add potatoes and let come back to boil. Add riddles stirring so they break apart, a few at a time. Cook until done season with salt and butter

Riddles (Rivels)
for each cup of flour use 1 egg. put egg (beaten up) into flour and mix until it resembles pieces the size of peas or a little larger. Make sure all flour is mixed in good.

When hams are on sale I pick up a smaller one with the bone in (not spiraled). Warm up your ham in the oven for an hour for a great meal, but no sweet stuff on it like brown sugar, etc. I just pour a good amount of ginger ale on it to help draw out the salt. Serve it with mashed potatoes and veggies.

After a meal or two of that, get out your big stock pot and fill with water. Add one or two pounds of dried split yellow peas (cheap) depending on how much soup you want (rinse them first and check for foreign debris). I use two pounds and a huge stockpot. Add a good sized chopped onion for each pound of peas, a couple of bay leaves, and the ham bones with meat removed. You can add big chunks of the fat from the ham if you wish for more flavor, which can be removed later, or leave it out altogether.

Bring to a boil and then simmer for a couple of hours and reduce until the peas have thickened your soup to desired consistency. Remove the bones, any fat or cartilage the bones may have shed, and bay leaves. Chunk up your leftover ham and add it to the soup. Salt and pepper to taste. You now have a very tasty split pea and ham soup that will last a few meals, or you can freeze some.