Cheap Meal Ideas?

[vibrantflame]

What do you guys like to make for an inexpensive meal? My favourite is cottage pie. It's easy, so very comforting to eat, and cheap, especially if you can get the ground beef, potatoes, and cheese on sale!

I just made a huge pan full tonight, will feed my family of 3 for the next 4 days at least. Cost me between $6-$7 to make because I paid $1.70/lb for the ground beef and the cream corn was also full price. Still pretty cheap for 12+ meals!

[jenna321]

Mince- Scottish dish of peas carrots tators and ground beef and spices, also eating vegetarian with curry- I find the fruit markets way cheaper to get produce and fruit. I only buy meat when it's a great price and I stock up!

[Littlemoe0]

Homemade hamburger helper. Pound of beef, third of a bag of noodles, can of cheap tomato sauce, add some veggies like onions, celery and peppers, and there you have it. Around $2.50. Also alot of times I'll make beef stew, but buy a crappy steak and cut up myself. Stewing beef has gotten so exspensive. And the cottage pie, we do that one alot. Another, cook a chicken and have as main meal, then next day boil it up and add veggies and taters to it and have chicken stew, 2 meals for one price.Got lots of cheaper meal ideas if you need any, just let me know.

[jenna321]

Breakfast for dinner, soup and tuna melts, tacos/homemade quesdillias, beef stew made from leftover pot roast or roast. I could write pages of this kind of stuff. Biggest thing is to have your pantry with the basics
Pantry Basics : Staples (standard kitchen supplies)
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Beans, canned: black beans, red kidney, white
• Beans, dried: red kidney, great northern, lima, lentils, split pea, black, pinto
• Bread crumbs
• Broth, dried and canned: beef, vegetable, chicken
• Cereal
• Chocolate: unsweetened squares, semisweet chips, cocoa powder
• Coffee: beans, ground, instant
• Cooking spray
• Cornmeal
• Cornstarch
• Crackers
• Dried fruits: raisins, apricots
• Extracts: vanilla, lemon, almond, orange
• Flour: All-purpose, whole wheat, cake, bread
• Fruit preserves, jam, jelly
• Garlic, fresh
• Gelatin: powdered, unflavored
• Lemons, fresh
• Limes, fresh
• Milk: boxed, powdered, evaporated milk
• Nuts: almonds, peanuts, walnuts, pecans, pine nuts
• Onions: red and yellow
• Pasta, dried: spaghetti, linguini, angel hair, fettuccine, penne, noodles
• Peanut butter
• Potatoes, fresh
• Rice: long-grain, wild, basmati, arborio
• Soup: canned and dry bouillon
• Sugar: granulated, confectioner's, light and dark brown
• Tea
• Tomatoes: canned whole, crushed, chopped, puree, sauce, fresh
• Tuna, canned
• Yeast, dry active
Pantry Basics : Refrigerator and Freezer Foods
• Butter, margarine
• Cheese: Parmesan, Cheddar, Romano
• Eggs
• Fruits
• Mayonnaise
• Milk and/or heavy cream
• Orange juice: fresh or concentrated
• Salad dressing
• Sour cream
• Vegetables: various frozen
• Wine: red and white-optional
• Yogurt, plain
Barbecue sauce
• Capers
• Chili paste and sauce
• Chutneys
• Hoisin sauce
• Honey
• Horseradish
• Hot pepper sauce
• Ketchup
• Maple Syrup
• Marmalades
• Molasses: dark
• Mushrooms: dried or canned
• Mustards
• Oils: olive, canola, sesame, peanut
• Olives, black and green
• Pickles, sweet and dill
• Soy sauce
• Teriyaki sauce
• Tomatoes, sun-dried
• Vinegars: balsamic, cider, red wine, white wine, rice
• Worcestershire sauce
Hope this helps you out! Even when I'm tired and don't want to cook I can whip together a quick healthy meal with some basics and doesn't cost an arm & a leg! Also usually quicker than having pizza delivered!

[FreebieChick]

Is cottage pie Sheppard's pie? And if so, you said you use creamed corn???

For inexpensive meals here i make Sheppard's pie or spaghetti

[Alixana]

Spaghetti goes a long way for a cheap meal.

[smb127]

I do Sheppard's pie (I use creammed corn in it)(sometimes will add peas too), spaghetti.

If I make a chicken and have left overs I make a pot pie with it. Just add the cut up left over chicken to a can of cream of chicken soup, add frozen veggies of your choice or leftover veggies a bit of extra water if you want it more moist and top with a Bisquick dough (the recipe is on the box). OF course you can make beef pot pies with leftover roast beef too.

Soups are good and easy to make. I sometimes keep the water I cooked veggies in and use it as the base for my soups. Add leftover chicken and forzen veggies some rice and/or pasta and soup is made.

One of my fav dishes is mini hamburger patties fried with onions boiled potatoes and pan gravey. Remove the hamburgers and the onions but keep the fat dripping. Brown some flour in the pan witht the fat and slowly add water to from a thick gravey. Pour over the hamburgers and potatoes. Yummy, think I might do this for tonight!!

[vibrantflame]

Homemade hamburger helper. Pound of beef, third of a bag of noodles, can of cheap tomato sauce, add some veggies like onions, celery and peppers, and there you have it. Around $2.50. Also alot of times I'll make beef stew, but buy a crappy steak and cut up myself. Stewing beef has gotten so exspensive. And the cottage pie, we do that one alot. Another, cook a chicken and have as main meal, then next day boil it up and add veggies and taters to it and have chicken stew, 2 meals for one price.Got lots of cheaper meal ideas if you need any, just let me know.

Oh I know, stewing beef is so expensive.....saw it for $3/lb the other week and that was supposed to be a sale! I picked up some kind of beef roast for $1 and something a pound and made my stew with that.

[vibrantflame]

Is cottage pie Sheppard's pie? And if so, you said you use creamed corn???

For inexpensive meals here i make Sheppard's pie or spaghetti

It's basically the same thing, just technically sheppard's pie is made with lamb, so a lot of people call it cottage pie when made with ground beef. And yep, me I just use ground beef (spiced up and onions in it), creamed corn, mashed potatoes and lot's of shredded cheese.

[vibrantflame]

I do Sheppard's pie (I use creammed corn in it)(sometimes will add peas too), spaghetti.

If I make a chicken and have left overs I make a pot pie with it. Just add the cut up left over chicken to a can of cream of chicken soup, add frozen veggies of your choice or leftover veggies a bit of extra water if you want it more moist and top with a Bisquick dough (the recipe is on the box). OF course you can make beef pot pies with leftover roast beef too.

Soups are good and easy to make. I sometimes keep the water I cooked veggies in and use it as the base for my soups. Add leftover chicken and forzen veggies some rice and/or pasta and soup is made.

One of my fav dishes is mini hamburger patties fried with onions boiled potatoes and pan gravey. Remove the hamburgers and the onions but keep the fat dripping. Brown some flour in the pan witht the fat and slowly add water to from a thick gravey. Pour over the hamburgers and potatoes. Yummy, think I might do this for tonight!!

Oooh what a great idea for pot pie, I will have to try that! I love using Bisquick. I found a recipe to make my own, and I have a ton of Bisquick recipes saved on my computer. So easy to throw a meal together with that stuff!

[Glo_Majada]

those little mr. noodles and I add veggies and some or all of lettice, cabbage, parsley, tomotes, mint, and hot sauce.. I used to have a chinese friend that ate this all the time.

noodles (with any type of pasta), but the sauce is yougart with a bit of fresh garlic, parsley and brown pine nuts.. its all four food groups and is fast...

[travel-mum]

It's just my husband and I at home now, but I still cook big meals and freeze the leftovers.
I make a HUGE spaghetti sauce every fall, when tomatoes and peppers are cheap. I make about 15 to 20 tubs worth, and freeze it.
One of my favourite things to do is cook a big turkey. We get one meal out of it, and then I freeze the rest. This is how I do it:
I make sure there is LOTS of liquid when I cook the turkey. After it cools, I cut the turkey up and put it in freezer containers. I also use the containers left over from cottage cheese, margarine, etc. I put the turkey in the container, and pour over some of the liquid. I label it and put it in the freezer. When you take it out of the freezer, chip off as much of the fat as you can. It rises to the top and freezes as a white liquid. When thawed, this turkey tastes almost as good as when you first cooked it, because it is so moist with all the liquid in it. I use the leftovers to make turkey tetrazzini, turkey fried rice, turkey chimichangas, turkey tacos, etc. etc.

[ergo2]

Is cottage pie Sheppard's pie? And if so, you said you use creamed corn???

For inexpensive meals here i make Sheppard's pie or spaghetti

true sheppards pie is made with ground lamb. cottage pie is made with ground beef.

[Judstir]

Thanks everyone I learned a lot in this thread...will try some of the tips.

[FreebieChick]

Really? I've always used Ground beef for my Sheppard's pie, never lamb, so i guess i've been making Cottage pie all these yrs hahahaha

Learn something new everyday.