Budget-Friendly Meals
Trying to bring your grocery bill down? Me too! Try these 4 recipes.
If you’re feeding growing kids who are hungry every 20 minutes, it’s a real challenge sticking to a fixed food budget these days.
Spending less money on groceries often requires spending more time and energy planning, shopping, prepping and cooking.
Raise your hand if you have extra time and energy right now (ha!)
We’re all stretched so thin already, that putting even more effort into dinner doesn’t feel possible.
But we’ve got to try, right? Here are 6 ways that I’m stretching my grocery budget. They won’t all work for you, but maybe one or two will.
Cook what you already have on hand
Dinner doesn’t have to be fabulous every night
Dinner can be a random assortment of food
More veg, less meat
Learn to love beans!
Also, Top Ramen
Suggestions #1, 2 and 3 give you permission not to make that extra run to the grocery store each week. Shop your kitchen first. This might mean that dinner will be a little bit random. That’s okay!
One night we had pasta mixed with a can of garbanzo beans and a handful of baby spinach. Maybe there’s a few cucumbers in the fridge you can slice? Or cut up those apples and bananas into a fruit salad and sprinkle cinnamon on top?
Throwing together dinner with what you have on hand is a learned skill. Some people enjoy it, some don’t. If you don’t, then just make sure to check your pantry and refrigerator before you make your grocery list. The items you already have on hand might inspire dinner recipes for the following week.
Suggestion #4 - the recipes below are all delicious, budget-friendly and vegetarian. I’ve also been serving “regular” meals with meat, but I make the meat more of a side dish and double the amount of veggies on the table.
Suggestion #5 - If only my husband and kids loved chili and bean soup, I could cut my food budget in half! I still sneak in some bean dishes here and there because they’re so affordable and filling.
Suggestion #6 - This dinner makes my kids so happy and costs about $0.80 to feed both of them.
This conversation about food budgeting is also happening on a recent Didn’t I Just Feed You podcast and the What To Cook substack newsletter.
Budget-Friendly Recipes
Instant Pot Vegetable Stew
A review from one of my readers says, “This might be the best vegetable stew I've ever made. So tasty!” I agree. Instant Pot Vegetable Stew warms your belly and is a really satisfying vegetarian meal. Try to add at least a few mushrooms because they add lots of flavor, but if mushrooms are too expensive, just skip them.
Pasta with Frozen Vegetables
Pasta + frozen veg is the definition of a simple meal. It’s all cooked in one pot at the same time to add as much flavor as possible. This is a great recipe when you’re trying to make a meal out of what you already have in your kitchen.
Easy & Fast Oven-Baked Tacos
If you like nachos you’ll love these oven-baked tacos. The most basic version of this recipe is just taco shells, grated cheese and refried beans. From there, you can add as many toppings as you like. The photo above doesn’t capture how crispy and cheesy these tacos are hot out of the oven. Mmmm! I’m craving them as I write this!
Slow Cooker 15 Bean Soup
A bag of dried 15 bean soup costs around $3.00 and makes about 8 servings of hearty bean soup. I always serve this soup with cornbread, which is also filling. You can add meat or veggies to the soup if you want, and you can use the seasoning packet that comes with the soup or add the spices suggested in the recipe.
Dinner Last Week
I’m always curious about what other families are eating. Aren’t you? Here’s what my crew ate last week.
Monday: Grilled pork chops, seasoned with lime juice and Lawry’s Seasoning Salt. You can put Lawry’s on anything and it will taste better. We also put it on boiled potatoes and served a side salad.
Tuesday: Shrimp tacos + frozen corn sautéed with a bell pepper and onion.
Wednesday: Leftovers, supplemented with frozen mac n’ cheese for the kids.
Thursday: Chicken sausage + slow cooker stuffing + kale apple slaw with lemon-poppyseed dressing. I’m recipe testing a Thanksgiving stuffing recipe for my blog so we had a little taste of Thanksgiving last week plus a delicious kale slaw that is on the blog now.
Friday: Spaghetti with pork and ricotta meatballs. The recipe makes a lot of meatballs, so we had plenty to eat over the weekend.
Reading
It’s Banned Books Week! The American Library Association has celebrated Banned Books Week for 40 years. This week spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools and reminds us “of the unifying power of stories and the divisiveness of censorship.”
So go out there and buy some banned books!
Have a good weekend!
Jenny
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