Budget friendly but tasty dish. What's yours?!
Answers: Trying to really s--t--r--e--t--c--h a tight grocery budget. What low budget, but creative dish do you make that your family loves? The key word is "creative". I'm looking for something a little out of the ordinary.
have you tried just adding cut up hot dogs to mac-n-cheese? it is really tasty
Or add to baked beans: a little brown sugar (to taste), a little yellow mustard (1 tsp) a little ketchup and bacon bits, plus cut up hot dogs
Put two cans of chili in an 8X8 pan, and mix up one box of Jiffy cornbread mix, adding 1 T sugar. Pour the cornbread mix over the chili and bake according to package directions for corn bread. (I use Campbell's Roadhouse chili for this)
Chicken leg quarters are the cheapest, I like to dip in melted butter, then bread them with Parmesan which I have seasoned with garlic powder and Italian seasoning and cayenne, then bake at 325 for one hour.
I also like to dip the chicken leg quarters in butter, then douse with Frank's Red Hot for Buffalo chicken, (bake at 325 1 hr)
I also like to just douse the chicken with bottled barbecue sauce, cover and bake at 325 one hour
I like to make tuna casserole with 1 can tuna, 1 box mac-n-cheese, 3 oz cream cheese and 1 can cream mushroom plus frozen peas (cook first)
Sloppy Joes
2 cups cooked ground beef
1 can tomato soup
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon prepared mustard.
Mix all and heat covered over med-low heat, simmering 10 min. Serve or
freeze. I play with the ingredients a bit and tend to add more mustard and work it to taste.
Make 2 gravy packets into gravy, then mix with one pound browned ground beef, and pour over mashed potatoes.
Having french toast, pancakes, or omelets for supper is very cheap and usually tastes better at night. Loaded baked potatoes are yummy and very inexpensive. Use any veggies, meats or cheeses to make a filling meal that is fun to make.
Shepard's Pie,
1 pkg. of ground beef
salt & pepper to taste
frozen veg
gravy mix
potatoes
Brown beef with chopped onion salt & pepper, drain any excess fat.
Boil and mash potatoes. In a casserole dish place meat on bottom, and a layer of frozen veg. Make your favourite gravy and pour over meat mixture. Top with mashed potatoes and bake in preheated 350 oven for 30 minutes.
Chicken Pot Pie is always a hit! You'll need the following:
2 deep dish pie crusts,1 sm can crm of chicken soup,1 sm can crm of potato soup,1 bag of frozen peas&carrots,1 3/4 cups of milk,1 cooked chix breast. Heat all the ingrediants together in soup pot till almost boiling. Place contents into one of the pie crusts,Then place the other pie crust directly over the other one lining up the edges. Next, you'll need tin foil to cover the edges of both pie pans so that the crust doesn't burn during the baking process. I do this on all of my pies( trick of the trade ) Bake for 60 mins and then take out of oven and remove the top pie tin, return to oven for 15-20 more minutes till golden brown.You can add other items like cranberries,broccoli or anyother combination of you choice,even almonds.
Hey there are a few I like but my partner loves keema rice (spiced mincemeat and rice) so I made up my own version which doesn't cost a lot and goes down a treat,
You will need to boil some rice (basmati pref) and leave it to cool, when the budget is tight I also boil brown lentils (you can puy if you can't find the brown ones) they bulk up the dish and add texture too- using the dry ones is cheapest just boil in hot water.
To make the keema: soften onions in a pan with a small amount of oil then add minced ginger and garlic and chilli(optional).
Add the mince and brown.
Add 1 tbsp of curry powder- i make my own but you can use a store bought powder it's up to you- mix and add a small amount of water, you don't want a soup just to loosen the mixture and keep it from sticking.
Add lentils(strained) and simmer on a medium heat for 20-30mins add salt and pepper to taste,
it does actually taste better if you can allow it cook down for longer if you've got the time but you will need to keep adding small amounts of water to stop if from sticking.
Once you are done with that mix the rice in with the keema and serve- i hope that helps and u can follow the receipe, if not let me know and i'll try and make it clearer.
Also making Curries with pulses - chick peas, kidney beans etc is a great cheap option, cans of either of these are really cheap and you can serve them with rice or naan depending on your preference.
One my mum used to make a lot is beetroot salad it's easy and tasty-
boil beetroot, potatoes and carrots, towards the end add a couple of eggs and once they're all boiled slice and add to a mixing bowl,
then slice some onions into a small bowl add 1 tbsp of olive oil black pepper and rock salt mix well and then mix into the salad,
best served cold with fresh bread.
My partner's often also makes pasta with pesto- you can get jars at the supermaket quite cheap and you only need 1 Tbsp of the paste for a pan of boiled pasta, to add a bit of texture he often adds some grilled chopped bacon and sauteed mushrooms- we lived off this as students and belive me the budget was REALLY tight!
Ok that's all I can think of for now, if i can think of more I will come back and add them hope that helps!