I was curious as to the cheapest most nutritious meals you all make. Posting names and recipes would be great! I will add mine in a little bit trying to finish cleaning the house.

Baked potato with butter, sour cream, green onion (or chives), and a teaspoon of grated cheese. Salad (from the bag at the store - or from the garden, in season). Slices of warm light delicious homemade bread.

Homemade bread. Hard-boiled egg. Fruit. - That's the dc's lunch at least twice a week.

Stir fry - I don't really have a recipe. I just stirfry a ton of vegetables (about 10 cups cooked - always at least 4 carrots, 3 ribs celery, a pound of brocolli florets, a whole onion, and more), a cup or so of bits of chicken, a couple of scrambled eggs, 3 - 4 cups rice or noodles. A bit of oil and a splash of soysauce. Cheap, healthy and delicious.

Soup made from leftovers, served with homemade bread, and maybe a salad.

I think the key to a healthy meal is to remember the "plate rule." One half your plate should be vegetables. One fourth of your plate should be starchy carbohydrates. One fourth should be meat/protein (eggs, etc). My stir-fry definitely fits the bill.

This is my emergency menu I keep on hand in case money gets very tight.

Breakfast:
toast and cocoa
oatmeal
muffins
hash browns and spam
cinnamon bread
oatmeal
eggs & toast


Lunch:
peanut butter sandwichx3, banana,apple, orange
crackers and leftover soup from dinnerx2,canned fruit or fresh
any leftover from dinnerx2
tomato soup, grilled cheese

Dinner:
lentil soup, home made bread
chili soup, corn bread
spaghetti and home made sauce, broccoli, home made garlic bread
ground beef casserole
ramen noodle with peas/carrots
chicken and home made noodles
vegetable soup

Snacks:
leftover muffins
crackers and peanut butter
popcorn
apples,bananas, oranges in moderation
graham crackers
ramen noodles
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I make Frijoles about everyother week or so. It's inexpense and nutritious. I serve it in bowls with either tortillas or homemade corn muffins. I use any leftovers up by mashing them into refried beans for burritos.

Frijoles -
1 lb dry pinto beans (about 3 cups)
1 tlbs. olive oil
1/4 lb bacon finely chopped
1 cup chopped onion
1 jalapeno finely chopped
1 tbls garlic, minced
6 cups water
1/4 tsp comino (ground cumin)
salt to taste

Sort and rinse beans, soak overnight. Rinse and drain, set aside. Heat oil in large pot over medium high heat. Add bacon, cook for 2 minutes until brown. Reduce heat to medium, add onions and jalapeno, cook 4 minutes. Add garlic, cook 1 more minute. Add beans, water and comino. Bring to a boil, reduce heat; cover and simmer until tender, approx. 1 hour. Add salt.

I don't make this on the stove but use my slow cooker instead. I follow the above recipie cooking the bacon and adding the other ingredients, then transfer to my crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours. Don't add the salt until the last half hour, after the beans are already soft.

Tuna noodle casserole , with ready made bag salad, and homemade biscuits.
Coffee or water to drink.

Snacks-- Homemade cookies or cakes.
fruit

I thought of a few of mine
Tallerine
Something I made up with ham, tomatoe sauce, garlic and noodles
Hamburger casserole, hamburger, potatoes and green beans
Homemade soup is always cheap and nutritious cause you can use all your leftovers.

I come from an Asian household, so the cheapest meal I make is something called "montu" soup. It takes just three ingredients: soup stock (Hon Dashi, a powdered soup base that you can buy by the boxload), and egg, and flour. Heat up some water, add the Hon Dashi, scramble the egg a bit in a small bowl and add it to simmering stock. Take flour and add enough water to make it a manageable dough. Flatten and stretch thin strips of this dough and add to stock. Cook for a few minutes. Voila!!! Very YUM!! And since I have chickens, I get my eggs for free! :-) (Well, for the cost of chicken feed.)

One of our favorite meals:
1lb chicken tenders, breaded in bread crumbs/ parm cheese and pan cooked
4-5 baking potatoes, sliced for homemade fries in the oven, seasoned with various spices from the pantry
steamed broccoli

Since we buy chicken & broccoli in bulk, and potatoes are cheap, that's a fairly inexpensive meal.


Another favorite is vegetable soup= save leftover bits of veggies from meals in a container in the freezer. When full, put in crockpot along with some tomato juice/ water, and cook on low all day. Can also add a pound of stew meat if desired.

These are some great suggestions!

My faves:

- Stir fry, as already mentioned.
- Hearty soup or stew
- Chili
- Quiche, omelettes, or a fritatta.

I can make the chili entirely from pantry ingredients when I have to, and the other three ideas are really flexible and good to use up leftovers and scraps. :tay:

Mine are listed in this thread:

http://www.frugalvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22759&highlight=cattail+biscuits


Although some of the prices have increased since this thread, my meals are still the cheapest , when I use these ingredients.

One of our favorite frugal meals is French Toast. Sometimes we will have eggs and grits for dinner.

Quesadillas
Potato soup
Beans and cornbread
Pasta or Rice-a-Roni (free or very cheap on sale with coupons) add a can of tuna and a cup of frozen veggies.

I guess we eat alot of meatless meals. I also like to buy the frozen, boneless, skinless chicken tenders. It is easy to cook a few of these and add to Rice-a-roni or use in a stir fry.

Rice and Beans...using dry beans will make it cheaper.

I usually sautee half an onion, TONS of chopped garlic, a green onion (parent's garden) Parsley(parents garden), and some chopped up carrots with a little bit of olive oil...Add 1-2 cans of beans, half of a small can of plain contadina or store brand tomatoe sauce (freeze the other half) and let that cook for about 25 min. Oh I also add Pepper, and sometimes red pepper flakes.

Serve over brown rice. YUMMY.