What are your top 3 cheap meals?

[Ponderer]

What are your top 3 frugal meals, minus beans & rice?

Just want to see about maybe getting some new ideas here.

Thanks for sharing!

[krbshappy71]

Breakfast burritos:

Cheap version:

tortillas
scrambled eggs

Have more money version pick any of these variations:

different types of cheeses, salsa, sour cream, spinach, mushrooms, skillet potatoes, beans or rice. <---ha! for you!

Tomato Pasta stuff:

Cheap version:

Any pasta you found on sale
1 can of tomato sauce

Have more money version:
Fresh garlic bread, parmasean cheese, shredded cheese, veggies, meat, chili instead of tomato sauce, sautee' your own mushrooms, garlic, etc for the sauce, green salad of various combinations, etc.

Bulls Eye Eggs (also known as picture eggs, egg in a basket, etc.)A Mothers Ramblings: Breakfast - Bullseye Egg

Serve as is or turn it into a side dish with other breakfast items such as bacon, sausage, muffins, fruit.

[Contrary Housewife]

Soup/salad/sandwich

Tomato soup (can tomato, can broth)
Tuna sandwiches
Onion soup (onion, beef broth)
Egg salad sandwiches
Barley soup (beef broth, scraps of meat, carrot)
Garden salad: lettuce and whatever we have, tomato, cucumber, zuchinni, egg, cheese, leftover meat...
pork bbq sandwiches -- country ribs/pork shoulder is always under $2 a pound, and often much less so, with bbq sauce and some buns it makes great sandwiches.

[IntlMom]

Chicken noodle soup

several years ago I posted my method for very good, and very VERY cheap homemade chicken soup

it's still a staple in our home

(sadly, you don't see those prices anymore, however!)

I tried to "linky" it, but it didn't work.
here it is: from 4/7/07

My homemade chicken noodle is more of a method than a recipe, but here goes:

Get a bag of cheap ckn hindqtrs - i can sometimes find them for .29 a pound, but not lately, I just used a bag the other day that was .39 a pound
(.39 a pound times 10 pound bag = 3.90)

Skin the chicken and boil. I add whatever kind 0f veggies I have on hand, or none if I don't have any. (carrots, onion, celery - use it up!)
Boil till the meat falls off the bone - about an hour, or much longer - it doesn;t matter. I then take the chicken out and strain the broth getting rid of the mushy veggies (I just use them for flavour). Let the broth sit overnite and then take off the fat in the AM. Take the chicken off the bone and separate into casserole portions. I get about 5 bags of nearly 2 cups each or so.
OK - so you have the broth and 5 bags of chicken (5 meals)
3.9/= .78 A MEAL for the meat (it's only .58 a meal at .29#)

Now, for the soup - put the broth and ONE BAG of chicken in a big pot - (.78 cents so far), let it heat up and make noodles/dumplings:
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 t salt
mix and add 2 cups flour
roll to desired thickness and let rest a few minutes.
then slice and drop in hot soup for an hour or so.

THAT'S IT!! I fugure the noodles have MAYBE 30 cents in them with the price of eggs going up 78 cents plus 30 cents = 1.08 FOR THE WHOLE MEAL I can feed my family fo 5 this meal and it will feed us two nights, plus a few bowls for lunches!!!!!!!!! We put crackers, or bread in it if we have it. If we don;t - it's still great!!

Thanks for letting me share this - it is truly my most tightwad meal!!

[larabelle]

vegan meat loaf + oven baked potatoes + veggie or salad

[peanut]

Beans and rice

Curried mung beans and rice

Soup and biscuits

[Ramona]

Pancakes (homemade Bisquick mix) and scrambled eggs.
If bacon has been on sale, I put a few slices on the plate.

Pasta with marinara sauce (both on sale for $1).

Western omelets.

[dancemommy]

Spaghetti and pasta. $1 or less for sauce. $1 or less for noodles. We always put meat in ours- ground turkey is about $1.25 or a bag of meatballs is about $2.

Any kinds of breakfast foods- cereal, eggs, hashbrowns, etc

Ham and cheese quiche- super cheap

Homemade cheese pizza- homemade crust, jar of sauce ($1) cheese ($1.50) any lunch meat or vegis we have around.

[Grayce]

Whole wheat spaghetti $1.59 with jarred tomato sauce 99¢, for extra vegetables I will add carrots to the sauce .

Grilled cheese and soup- for the soup I use the envelope type 33¢ and add extra noodles.

Pancakes

[mndtrp]

Beans and rice

Curried mung beans and rice

Those would be awfully difficult, since the OP was wanting meals minus the beans and rice.

Spaghetti
Tomato soup
Peanut butter and honey sandwiches

[pollypurebred39]

pierogies, ate them ALL the time growing up

Polish pierogi, pierogies - probably the most popular Polish food ever


Discovered Poppycosh when I married my DH. He's Hungarian.

HUNGARIAN CHICKEN POPPYCOSH
1 onion
1/4 c. oil
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 tbsp. paprika
4-5 lb. chicken, cut up (I NEVER use that much, ever! Dark chicken, legs. After cooked, pull off the bone if you like. But, a chicken leg each is fine too)
1/2 pint sour cream
1/2 pint light cream
Brown onion in oil. Mix seasonings. Add chicken and brown 10 minutes. Add water. Cover and simmer until tender. Remove chicken. Add sour cream to the drippings in pan and mix well. If more gravy is desired, add light cream.

I make extra sauce and serve with spatzle

Spaetzle - Hungarian Recipe - Food.com - 399


AND

FUNNEL CAKE!!! Seriously, I make funnel cake. I cover mine in powdered sugar, but some like them with pie filling on them.

Pocahontas County Fare: Funnel Cake Recipes

I know you said 3, but I'm going to give you 4. I make homemade waffles and fill with ice cream too.

[Uniwolf]

hummm lets see, our version of goulash, (I think that there are about 20 million versions of it) 1 jar pizza sauce,($1) 1 box of pasta($1), usually about 1/4-1/2 lb of ground beef (this varies depending on sale price) and either grated mozz, chedder or parm, what ever is on hand.Total has yet to be over $5 for batch. This will usually do at least 2 meals, and can also go up to 4. Depending on who all shows up.

Sheppards pie, (done a little differently) mashed potates, corn (opt) left over meat, and shred chedd. or cheese sauce. Put in the oven and bake.

Breakfast for dinner, always a cheap and fairly easy dinner.

And good ol southern Chicken and pastry
Chicken boiled till falling off the bone,
southern pastry ( the flat dumplings that are like 1 inch wide)
Pick chicken off of the bones (remove any skin ... like it boiled out, don't like to eat it)
place back in broth, bring to boil, add pastry stir to seperate, bring back to boil, lower heat and let cook until pastry is done. Add salt and pepper to taste. yummm
Now I have to go see if I have any left in the freezer.

My hubby is a very picky eater, he will eat pizza sauce, and spaghettie sauce, but he wont eat regular tomato sauce... go figure, he also doesn't like green beans, hence the corn.

[lisaflex]

pork chops and potatoes and onions and mshrm gravy in the CP

[banana]

potatoes and eggs, just love this and sooo inexpensive to make.

5 lb bag of potatoes
1 dozen eggs
1 large sweet onion
1 bottle of tomato ketchup

peel and wash potatoes, cut them in rather large chunks try to cut them all the same size. Put potatoes in large stock pot add water just enough to cover the potatoes, bring to a boil and simmer. Cut the onion in large ring pieces, break apart and put in pot. add some salt and pepper if you would like. Add 1/2 the bottle of ketchup, let simmer for 2-3 hours or until potatoes are really tender. Taste the broth add more ketchup if you like, I usually use 3/4 of an average size bottle. Crack the eggs, one at a time in a cup and and slowly add each egg to the pot, try not to place any eggs on top of each other. Let it simmer for another 20-30 minutes or until the eggs are done, they will be poached. Delicious, simple and cheap!

My son loves this.

[leighcat]

I have more than 3

Buttered noodles with parmesean cheese

Pancakes

Soup and sandwiches (egg salad, tuna or chicken salad, grilled cheese)

Eggs and Toast or egg sandwiches with hashbrowns

Tacos

Meatball subs

Spaghetti and meatballs

Homemade pizza

Veggie burgers

Loaded baked potatoes

Raviolis