I’m sick of the boring food I’ve been eating on my grad student budget, I’ve been living off pasta bakes, spaghetti, etc. lately. Does anyone have any favorite recipes that are easy to make and relatively cheap as well? I’m willing to try (almost) anything!
Here’s what I’ve had M, T, W for dinner this week (I’m a grad student but I work full-time as well, so I’m not completely broke): 4 fried eggs with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top, one can of Campbell’s Italian-style Wedding soup, a massive salad, and a glass of water. Cheap and very tasty!
Meat loaf
Ground beef, one egg , garlic, chopped onion,basil, pepper, can of cambells tomato soup two cans tomato sauce,Breading, potatoes, onions
mix beef ,egg, garlic, basil,pepper, breading, chopped onion ( save some)tomato soup. Form into a torpedo.
quarter potatoes and mix with onions around meatloaf in pan season with garlic basil pepper.
Put two cans of tomato sauce around meatloaf and over potatoes and onion. ( you can put some on top of meatloaf)
Cook about a hour 350-400 degrees
You can also fill middle of meatloaf with cheese. I did this tonight and kids and freinds loved it. probly cost around 10.00 to make.
Chili beans
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Beans and rice, or for variety, rice and beans. :)
Beanie Weinies Deluxe - Basically beanie Weinies in a casserole dish with velveeta cheese on top. Broil until browned.
Black bean and turkey tacos. Brown some ground turkey, if you want to get fancy saute and onion and some garlic first, toss in a can of drained/rinsed black beans and lots of taco seasoning. Flour or corn tortillas, some cheese if you like. Yum. Dinner and lunch for a few days.
Tomato soup and grilled cheese are always a great dinner. Add fries and I’m in heaven. Very inexpensive and great comfort food.
I also like the burrito dinner. Beans, cheese, salsa, veggies, etc.
Lately I have had crockpot fever. Here are a couple of good/easy recipes.
Chicken Verde 4-5 boneless skinless chicken breasts 1 (16 ounce) jar salsa verde 1 (4 ounce) can diced anaheim chilies 1 (15 ounce) can great northern beans, drained 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained steamed rice Toss everything but the rice into the crock pot. You can use fresh chicken breasts, but frozen are easier to keep stocked. Cook on low 8 hours or high for 4. Quickly shred chicken with two forks (or don’t.) Serve over rice or in a tortilla
Barbecue Chicken 1-2 lb boneless skinless chicken breast 1 (18 ounce) jar of your favorite barbecue sauce 1 medium sweet onion, sliced 4-6 hamburger buns Remove all visible fat from the chicken and toss it in the crock pot. Place the onion slices on top of the chicken. Pour the barbecue sauce over top. You may not need the entire jar, just enough to cover the chicken. Cook it on LOW for 8 hours or until the chicken is nice and tender. Shred the chicken with a fork and knife; scoop the mixture onto the bottom buns and top it with the top buns. you might prefer leaving the breasts whole and eating it that way.
Peter’s infamous hash-browns casserole:
1 bag frozen hash browns
1 can cream of mushroom or celery soup
1 cup sour cream (fat free works fine here)
1 bag shredded cheese (can use a little less than full bag and still be OK)
Mix it all up in a pan and bake in the oven at 350 for about an hour, or until edges and/or top crust turns brown. Defrosting hash browns first could speed up cooking time.
Should feed one for at least 3 meals.
Thanks the salsa one looks great, I need to get a crockpot! Question: Can you just put frozen chicken right in without defrosting? Thanks!
you can throw them in frozen.
although i never do.
yes, you should get a crockpot. they are fairly cheap. like $25.
I like to find recipes on www.recipezaar.com
L
I don’t know about “Good” but we live on chicken breasts. Go to Aldi’s and they have a bag of frozen chicken breasts pretty cheap. We have a small toaster oven. Throw them frozen, cook for 20-25 minutes and they are pretty dam good.
You can do all sorts of things with them from pasta to pretty much anything. Chicken goes with everything.
~Matt
You can make pit bbq meat without the pit with a crock pot. Get a tri tip, pork roast, pork loin, turkey breast. Season heavily and wrap in 3-4 layers of foil. Cook slowly all day. The meat just falls apart, it is so tender and tasty.
Pour a little tomato sauce in a pyrex dish, layer in sauteed zucchini and eggplant, bake at 350 till hungry. I normally bake the eggplant so it does not get greasy (plus, I am going to have the oven on anyway) and also make my own tomato sauce. Cheese-minded individuals may opt to grate cheese on top.
Grilled cheese with cucumbers (thinly sliced) and a little curry or paprika sprinkled inside.
Tuna fish. Splurge on the all white albacore. Mix up as you like with salsa or mayo or mustard, etc. Put on toast with cheese on top and broil.
Find a recipe for beer bread, add mushrooms and cheap stew meat. Bake as directed for a poor man’s beef wellington.
Progresso soups.
spam with rice!
Ate a lot of spam with rice and when the spam ran out, rice with ketchup.
Subscribe to the allrecipes.com daily e-mails and the Kraftfoodsandfamily.com e-mails. Both have recipes that are relatively simple and cheap, and you can alsways customize them to suit your needs.
Are you willing to do a little work or do you want something cheap and easy? If you don’t mind spending about 30 - 45 minutes prepping, then you should look into making homemade soup. Any kind of soup will be less expensive than other dinners, you will likely get 4 or 5 meals out of it and you can cook it up on the weekend to eat during the week. Lots of great recipes on the net. One of my favorites is minestrone.
Eggs are cheap and easy too. Omelets, egg sandwiches, etc are easy to make.
I used to make this once a week when I was in college:
1 cup long grain rice (cook according to package)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can tuna fish
Mix the soup and tuna into the rice after it’s cooked. Yum!