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.