Many people are suffering under the illusion that in order to have a cheap meal you have to eat Ramen noodles or macaroni and cheese. The good news is that this is just not true. There are plenty of great ideas out there for low cost dinners that taste delicious. It does take planning, however, and it means that you should be on the lookout for deals. But you can eat for less, and eat fairly healthily, when you plan out possibilities.
One of the best ways to make a low cost dinner on a regular basis is to own a crock pot. Not only do these slow cookers make great tasting meals whose ingredients are fairly inexpensive, but they also save you time. Just put your food in during the day, and five to eight hours later (depending on what you are cooking), it comes out ready to go. To save time in the morning, I prepare my pot before bed and keep it in the refrigerator. Then all I have to do is put the pot in the warmer and head out the door.
Crock pots are fairly inexpensive at most discount stores and many of them come with great recipe ideas. You can cook just about anything in a crock pot, from roast to chicken to stew to beans. Buy your meat and chicken on sale (stock up when it is cheap — it will save you money in the long run) and freeze it. Then you have different meats available. You can put the proper number of chicken breasts or thighs in the crock pot with a can of chicken broth (cheap), cream of mushroom soup (optional), a few spices like oregano, time, and sage, a small onion (cut in half) and let it cook on low for four or five hours. Serve it with minute rice (cheap) or egg noodles (also cheap). There are tons of similar crock pot recipes that yield the same tasty and inexpensive results.
You can turn notoriously unhealthy Ramen noodles into something less offensive in the health department by using them in a “pasta” salad. Cook them as usual, but without the spice packet (throw that out). Drain, rinse, and add salt, pepper, and mayonnaise. Drain a can of tuna and add that as well. To add vegetables, cook some frozen vegetables (less than a dollar for a bag at the store) with the noodles. Leftovers can be used for the next day’s lunch.
If health is not an issue, or at least not all the time, you can stretch your already cheap mac and cheese even farther by adding eggs to it. Scramble the eggs, and then add them to your mac and cheese. It makes a great treat (hot dogs added can do this as well) and can extend the meal to lunch the next day.
There are plenty of delicious ways to stretch your dollars. All it takes is a little creativity and planning. And you can often do it paying between 99 cents and two dollars per serving. Not bad for a delicious dinner. Not bad at all.