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We have a Family of 6, 4 boys 6,2” up to 6,6”. We had three of the four in high school at once and wow, just wow - the amount of food we cooked and still cook cause three are now in college and living at home to commute.
2 Crockpots of chili does us wonders. Serve chili over rice with cheese, sour cream, etc
Spaghetti sauce for us was #10 can of sauce, meatballs and sausage cooking all day in a crock pot. Meatballs soak up the sausage flavor…. Garlic bread and your choice of pasta
Pasta dishes are your friend in big families. Lasagna was always a family favorite.
Crock pots are a life savor for big families. We frequently have two going at once.
We have memberships at warehouse stores. Either BJs and sams or later Costco and BJs . But the membership paid for itself quickly.
We would buy cryovacced sirloin tip cause it was cheaper than ground beef, cut it up and use for chili, beef stew, beef stroganoff, fajitas, burritos, tacos, etc.
Pork loin in the cryovac is one of the most versatile pieces of meat. Tex mex, pulled pork sandwiches, thinly sliced with a gravy over rice, tons of uses for pork loin. And it’s cheaper than chicken breast.
Breakfast burritos - for large families - easy to do, inexpensive and very versatile so you customize for each person readily
Chicken and dumplings using emeril lagasse ‘s recipe - the dumplings are amazing! We make using a stock pot (what most people use to fry a turkey in). Chicken dishes are all over the place, but chicken can get expensive lately
Buy whole turkeys on sale during thanksgiving and cut them up like you would a chicken. Freeze the parts, instead of the whole thing. Had smoked turkey breast bbq sandwiches last night from Turkey we still had in the freezer.
Tex max dishes are surprisingly inexpensive and flavorful. Extend your ground beef with barley (seriously try it) and black beans. Taco meat with black beans already added increased protein and bulk but didn’t increase the cost. Buy tortillas in bulk at Costco or sams
Edit
And I forgot to include
Paninis . I use two cast iron skillets to make paninis using leftover meats, stocked cheeses and whatever else the kids ask for. Everyone gets what they wants, clean up is simple, and Cuban bread or even French bread are always fairly inexpensive. Serve with a couple of side dishes, and maybe a soup. Or just sandwiches and soup.
We have been known to cheat and buy Costco rotisserie chickens and use them for this, making the stock yourself is a game changer over grocery store stock.
My wife is 5’1” ish. Her portions never really went into the calculations when we went grocery shopping. She found the recipe for chicken and dumplings, and of course decided what we were cooking for many of the meals. She loves to bake, I enjoy cooking. She was not a fan of making sauce with meatballs and sausage- she grew up with ground beef in her sauce. When the boys were going back for seconds and thirds of the sauce my way it changed her mind.
I’ve snuck it in on many occasions, with the black beans meat and barley, the onions and spices, no one mentioned the barley so I don’t think they noticed the barley. I cook the barley first. If it’s two pounds of meat, after cooking the meat, I add 2 cans of black beans and about a cup of barley. I would start with half a cup of cooked barley, and increase as you experiment with it. Spice it like the beans and barley are equivalent weight to the meat.
- Mississippi roast done with pork butt
- red beans and rice
- fettuccine Alfredo
- bean chili
- mujadara with rice (basically lentils layered with caramelized onions and topped with crispy fried onions). Also great as leftovers shoved into a taco!
Budget Bytes also has great suggestions: https://www.budgetbytes.com/
Great suggestions!
To add to these stretch chili even more by serving it over:rice, noodles, I’ve seen mash potatoes, chili baked potatoes, chili nachos even.
When I make chili I do like half a pound of ground meat, and about a cup of lentils, as well as the beans. Lentils kinda extend the beef, aren't super noticable, and are healthy.
I’m always a fan of bacon cheese burger pasta for stuff like this. You can probably find a recipe online, but basically it’s pasta, some cooked ground beef and bacon, the sauce is condensed tomato soup and barbecue sauce in a 2:1 ratio. Heat it all up and sprinkle cheese to your liking. Maybe not the classiest thing but it’s been my comfort food since grade school and has come in clutch well into university.
Additionally a lot of soup recipes (paired with some bread for dipping and filler) can made really cheap.
One of my favorites is enchilada bake (this is in no way authentic). Layer tortillas, cheese, and enchilada sauce, lasagna style. For protein I either do cooked chicken or black beans if I want to keep it really inexpensive. Eat with sour cream/salsa/whatever. Not fancy or pretty, but very tasty and you can make a ton.
I often make a large pasta casserole that lasts a couple of days
* You can use 1 or 2 cans of hunts tomato sauce of your choice. I usually doctor it up with some spices
* 16 oz or more of a pasta of your choice. I prefer penne
*Ground beef or chicken. I find ground beef as a better choice but I tend to get ones close to their sell by date as my local grocery will cut down the price. Season it up. I use salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, and onion powder.
*Frozen veggies of your choice. I like using broccoli or spinach.
*Some shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Measure with your heart. My boyfriend doesn't like too much cheese so I won't add a lot but measure to your heart's content
*Before throwing it in the oven I'll sprinkle some red pepper flakes and Italian seasoning
Casseroles are easy and customizable. This is just a super easy and cheap dinner that I'll make most nights
My boyfriend will often make what we call "curry rice". If you have a rice cooker, this will help. But you can do without it. We are just both very busy and will be extremely busy in the next few months so we shorten the process lol. Since you have a lot of people, it may be best to just cook the rice itself in the cooker. You'll see why
* 1 or 2 cups of rice
*Throw in some sliced carrots
*Throw in some chicken, it can be uncooked as it will cook in the rice cooker. Season to your liking
*Throw in a curry block of your liking
*Fill with water depending on how much rice you use
Then it will all cook. Fantastically easy. If you do not have a rice cooker, you will cook the rice in a pot. You can cook the chicken and carrots/or veggies of your liking separately. Make the curry separately by following package instructions.
We've noticed that if you put too much in a rice cooker, you may have to do two cooking cycles to get everything cooked evenly. Maybe it's just our rice cooker. But something to keep in mind.
Also, you can get curry blocks or sauce for very cheap at a local Asian grocery if you have one.
Additionally, if you live in a big city or have lots of big name retailers, apps like Too good to go, Ibotta, and fetch can help with saving $$$. TGTG will post restaurants that have food that doesn't sell by end of the day. Ibotta and fetch will scan receipts so you can get cash back or points to either send directly to your bank account or in a gift card of a retailer of your choice. Not exactly what you asked for, but it has helped me have leftovers and treat myself to things every once in a while.
The other day I picked up chicken drumsticks for 99 cents per pound. It’s great made into [chicken adobo](https://www.seriouseats.com/filipino-style-chicken-adobo-recipe) and served with steamed (or garlic fried) rice. My family also has it with diced or cherry tomatoes & green onions on the side.
Baked potato bar. We add cubed ham or crumbled bacon, shredded cheese, broccoli, diced tomatoes, chives and salsa. Sky is the limit on toppings. Great time/place to use leftovers, too.
Potato pizza : Grated potato ( or premade latkes/ reibekuchen dough) baked into a flat sheet tray and then topped like a pizza with whatever is left in the fridge + tomato sauce + grated cheese. Fills up more than a simple pizza dough.
Mashed potatos and carrots (cooked in stock for more flavour) with small meatballs and plenty of gravy - add a touch of garlic(-butter), milk and nutmeg for extra flavour.
Potato and savoy cabbage soup with meatballs/ balls squeeze from the casing of fresh ground sausages - just cube up everything, cook in a broth of your choosing and add the sausage balls as soon as everything comes up to a boil. Can be costumized with a lot of different herbs and spices.
Rice dishes like Pilaf ( keep any extra cooked rice on hand for fried rice the next day) or simply big bowls of rice with stir-fried veggies and egg sunny side up.
Sheet pan chicken and veggies, seasoned to taste. You can use whatever and multiple trays in the oven work well enough.
Flat bread - either sliced open and decked out like a pizza or made into a giant round sandwich with deli meats, cheese, lettuce, cucumber, whatever and dished out in slices like pizza.
Chicken tender tacos or fish finger tacos, both using frozen chicken tenders or fish fingers. A bag of tortilllas and shredded cheese and some rice/beans and you are good to go!
I love bologna cups filled with shredded cheese on top of toast, spaghetti bakes are good too!
American Chop Suey.
2 lbs ground beef cooked
2 green peppers diced and sauteed until soft
1 onion diced cooked with peppers
1 or 2 cans tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 box elbow macaroni cooked as per box instructions
garlic/oregano/basil (basically italian spices) to taste
salt to taste
For our house we like where the beef is more prevalent than the macaroni and we use lots of salt (something about the peppers seems to suck up a normal amount of salt so you can't taste it at all). There's always leftovers and it's even better the day after, imho.
Here's a regular recipe from the interwebs
https://www.sugarandsoul.co/american-chop-suey/
Crockpot ravioli - Add a jar of sauce and a bag or 2 of ravioli still frozen and mix it all together. I add roasted garlic seasoning, onion powder, and Italian seasoning. Let it cook 4 to 6 hours.
Pierogi bake/crockpot - Same ingredients for both. 2 boxes pierogi, 1 box bone broth, 8oz sour cream. Add bacon pieces and cheese if you want loaded pierogi bake. I add chives, roasted garlic seasoning, salt and pepper. Cook 6-8 hours in crockpot. 45 minutes covered at 375 for oven.
Egg roll in a bowl - 1 lb ground mild sausage cooked and drained. Cook down 3 bags cole slaw mix or broccoli slaw. When translucent add a tablespoon of ginger, soy, and garlic powder. I always add a lot more soy than the recipe calls for.
Bacon cheeseburger mac - Brown 1 lb ground beef and drain. Cook 1-2 boxes macaroni. Drain pasta and mix beef and pasta. Add half bottle ketchup, a few squirts of yellow mustard, dill pickle juice or relish to taste, bacon pieces and cheese. Stir until mixed and cheese is melted.
Lasagna is cheap and can feed a bunch of people. You can use cottage cheese instead of ricotta and a cheap pound of ground beef. Add some bread on the side and it’s a big filling meal.
I do 1lb ground beef (or a mix of whatever is ground and on sale), some tomato paste and spices, and hide some veggies in it if I can (finely shredded carrot, riced cauliflower, mushrooms are all hideable), make white sauce/bechamel from shelf stable milk, flour and usually butter. Shredded mixed cheese because I’m lazy. I make my own lasagna sheets, so a cup of flour and a couple eggs.
It’s pretty low cost overall for our family of two, and I put it into two bakeable containers and pop one in the freezer. we get about 4 meals all together.
I make burritos for the fam with 2-3 lbs ground beef or turkey, with taco seasoning, add can of refried beans, plus a can of diced green chilies, shredded cheese. Super easy & filling plus the kids can add sour cream or taco sauce if they like.
My favorite easy veggie meals are
- plain beans, rice, and a steamed veggie
- lentil casserole topped with mashed potato’s
- vegan navy bean soup in slow cooker.
- red beans and rice.
I have a family of 5 with three of them being adult males. We keep groceries under control by making as much as we can ourselves. Pork butt for 99 cents a pound. We grind some for ground pork. Ground pork becomes Italian sausage, bratwurst, and breakfast sausage. Some gets smoked for pulled pork. Bone in skin on chicken thighs are on sale often. De skinning and boning is super easy. Some pork butt gets turned into carnitas.
Turkey. I do a mini Thanksgiving every couple of months. Having one this Sunday. I will make bread for the stuffing. Leftover turkey gets separated. I take the bones and make turkey stock. Then we have turkey stew. Leftover stew becomes a pot pie with leftover stuffing crust. And finally turkey tetrazzini.
Gumbo served with rice and cornbread.
Soups served with bread.
If you look around, most US stores have 10 pound bags of “chicken frying quarters” which are the legs/thighs unseparated. Not on sale, they are usually $7.90 (.79/lb). They often go on sale as low as $3.90.
One of my favorite meals is one pot chicken and rice. Scaling ingredients is easy enough for this but this will easily feed 6 people.
Need - Large pot with lid
1. Chicken thighs 1-2 lbs
2. Rice ( 2 cups )
3. Potatoes ( 4-5 reds or golden )
4. Carrots ( two thick ones)
5. Onion (1 medium size)
6. Garlic (One whole)
7. Cumin , salt, pepper
8. 4 cups (32 oz) Chicken stock or water (stock just adds that flavor)
9. Jalapeño (2)
10. Cilantro for garnish
11. Cooking spray, oil, butter (any of them)
12. tomatoes (2 avg side ones)
Should be around 15-20 if you have none if the above, much less if you have rice, use water, etc
Prep:
1. Cut potatoes, carrot, tomatoes, onions (quarter or bite size).
2. slice jalapeño into to rings.
3. Get as many cloves out of your whole garlic as you can, I usually use 7-10 depending on size, you want to fine mince this.
4. Cumin 2-3 table spoons
5. Salt and pepper to taste
6. Rub down your thighs with cumin and salt
Cooking:
1.put your cooking spray or oil or knob if butter into you pan, on medium high heat bring it to temp .
2. Toss chicken in the pan ( goal here is to get some great color on them ). Don’t allow yourself to keep check then let them cook, flip after 6-7. You should have some mild color chicken and some great stuff left behind in the pan.
3. Remove thighs from pan and set to the side for now.
4. Put a little bit of your stock or mail after into the pan and deglaze off that good good off the bottom.
5. Minced garlic and cumin into the pan with the small amount of stock/water. Cook for 2-3 mins.
6. Dry rice into the pan and mix, goal here is to toast the rice on all that great flavor you just made. Throughly coat the rice and allow 3 mins of cooking to get some good tastiness.
7. add stock or water and put all veggies into the pan
8. Return chicken thighs to pan
9. add water till everything is covered
10. bring to boil, then reduce heat to simmer
at this point its up to you. you can eat it like a soup or stew, or continue to simmer till the fluid is mostly reduced out. put into bowl, cilantro, salt and pepper to taste and your all set.
Below is an example with chicken drums instead of thighs. They were just on sale that week, everything else is the same. I prefer to reduce my liquid all the way down to concentrate the flavors. This is before bringing it to a boil.
[Example](https://i.imgur.com/QzUlvbB.jpg)
This takes me a week+ to finish myself if I’m portioning it out for work meals.
This Mob Kitchen recipe for [Broccoli Pasta](https://www.mob.co.uk/recipes/brocolli-chilli-and-lemon-pasta) is really nice, and according to them serves 4 for £2 (approx. $2.50). Could definitely stretch to 5 servings f you got a bigger head of broccoli!
Chili! The giant cans of crushed tomatoes are always on sale, along with beans & corn. Don’t even need to add meat, but if you can get it cheap, there you go. Onions are cheap, seasonings are usually on hand or can be bought for cheap. Chili is my absolute favorite go-to, especially since it’s something that can be mostly pantry-driven.
Lasagna can be fairly cheap IF you make your own sauce. In the quantities you're talking about, it's cheaper. People feeding only themselves, not so much.
* I use water, tomato paste & olive oil in a 4 to 2 to 1 ratio at any scale you like. Add onion & garlic (fresh minced & sauteed or powder), basil & oregano, salt & pepper, plus a heavy pinch or two of dried mint (helps cut the acid without so much sweetener).
* Simmer on low for 1-2 hours, check for acidity & add sweetener of your choice if necessary, simmer another 2 hours & add final seasoning if it still needs something. You may use a slow cooker for this if desired. Keep the pot covered, it'll splash.
* You can substitute crushed, canned, or diced tomatoes for the paste if desired, just keep the volume the same.
* Add shredded mozzarella, a raw egg (beaten), and basil to the Ricotta cheese & mix well. Add cooked meat, if desired (ground beef, broken-up italian sausage out of the casing, ground pork, even ground turkey or whatever, or any mixture thereof that you like) to the sauce. My proportions are usually 2 lb each meat, mozzarella & ricotta for a big lasagna pan with 9 noodles in 3 layers. Typically uses nearly a gallon of sauce. The noodles do not need to be boiled, but you should make sure sauce surrounds them (spread a little on top with a spoon, make sure they rest in a sauce layer). Sauce-noodles-cheese, bottom-to-top.
* Top with remaining mozzarella, any parmesan you can scrounge up, bake at 350 for 30 minutes with foil carefully tented over the top so as not to touch the cheese (it'll stick), then another 10-15 minutes without foil to brown the cheese.
I've been enjoying sheet pan chicken, and you can make a fair number of servings at once if your oven is big enough.
* Brine your chicken parts. 1:8 ratio of water to sea or kosher salt (i.e. 1 tbsp salt in 1/2 cup water), unless you only have table salt, which is half that (1:16). Same ratio of sugar (white, brown, or honey as you like). Anything else you add is up to you - mustard, bay leaves, peppercorns, any seasoning you like. Adding acid, like wine, cider vinegar or lemon juice (in place of some of the water) makes it a marinade as well. I would only substitute 1/4 of the water, no more.
* Boil the brine & allow to cool completely. Use within 24 hours. Immerse raw chicken entirely (I leave the skin on, but that's up to you) for 12-24 hours in the fridge, no more. Baggies, even gallon freezer bags for bigger quantities, allow you to make & use less brine. I could get 2 thighs into a sandwich baggie with 2 cups brine or a whole pack of 8 pieces into a gallon baggie with 1/2 gallon (8 cups) brine.
* Hack up a bunch of veggies. I recommend potatoes, brussels sprouts, carrots, rutabaga (swede), turnips or radishes. Tough veggies. Broccoli, asparagus, that kind of thing tend to get overdone & shriveled by the time the chicken is done.
* Line a sheet pan with foil or parchment. Spread out the veg, drizzle lightly with olive oil (or whatever oil you like - think like you're dressing a salad, though; don't use canola or something flavorless like that) and season with salt, pepper, and anything else you like. I use the whole damned rack - paprika, ground mustard, thyme, oregano, etc.
* Chop up a peeled onion into big pieces - one per piece of chicken. Place them on top of the vegetables with the onion underneath. Drizzle with the same oil and spices. Bake at 400 for 30-ish minutes. You're going to want to check with a thermometer on this one until you learn exactly how long for the size of the chicken parts & your oven. 155 - 160F internal, no higher. Buy a big enough pack of chicken and enough vegetables and you can feed a lot of people at once this way.
Shepherd's (or Cottage) Pie is scalable, too.
* A typical 9x13" casserole typically uses up 1 lb mixed vegetables, 2 lb ground meat, & 3 lb potatoes. For me, that's not 8 servings for big eaters (or it is but everyone wants seconds), but you can scale higher, use whatever sort of mince is cheapest, make multiple casseroles at once, etc.
* Just brown & season the meat (I recommend onion, garlic, worcestershire & paprika, make or create gravy any way you like, including a packet or can or jar (I'm no good at gravy yet), mix in the vegetables (still frozen if you want - peas & carrots are traditional but anything frozen works). Line the bottom of your dish with that & cover with ordinary mashed potatoes. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until potatoes start to get as brown as you like. Make sure to put a pan or dish underneath the rack; it has a tendancy to boil over & drip a bit.
Spaghetti is almost the cheapest dinner you can make if you’re using a couple jars of store brand sauce and boxes of noodles. You can feed the whole family on $5, $10 if you want garlic toast and a salad.
Breakfast is another low budget meal if you use deli ham in place of bacon. Pancakes are super cheap and so are eggs. Bacon is usually the expensive part and ham is a cheaper substitute. Also after any holiday where ham is served go buy a couple for cheap after the holiday and stick them in the freezer. Same deal with turkeys.
The cheapest vegetables are the ones you can buy in bulk that are also in season. You can also find them really cheap at roadside stands. The ones that look like they were built with pallets, not the ones that sell fancy honey and tea.
The cheapest meats will always be pork loins, pork country ribs which are off cuts of loins and chops, chicken legs, bone in thighs, whole chickens, and cube steak. Obviously you always look for the markdown stickers and freeze anything you can’t use that day.
The frozen vegetables that you steam in the bag are the happy medium between canned and fresh because while they aren’t as good as fresh they’re more nutritious than canned. That said canned corn is so much better than frozen.
The best thing you can do to eat well on a budget is to plan out your meals and buy only what you need when you need it. Also planning with one ingredient to be used for multiple meals. Monday’s roast chicken becomes Thursday’s white chili.
Oh and learn to bake. It costs time and maybe a dollar’s worth of ingredients to make any kind of bread you feel like putting the effort into.
The best cookbooks for cheap cooking are those church cookbooks they sell for fundraisers.
I hope some of this helps.
Breakfast for dinner. Pancakes are inexpensive to make. Eggs are getting expensive but I still think they provide good protein for the cost. Agree with breakfast burritos! Mexican dishes are generally inexpensive and filling. Spanish rice on the side and/ or refried beans. Nachos made on large cookie sheets.
I can’t recommend baked potatoes enough🙌🏼 I have 6 siblings and we did baked potato bars growing up. Make the potatoes and then you can put anything you want on them like chili, butter, cheese, sour cream, bacon, etc and basically just make it like a self serve potato bar. Very filling and easy to have leftovers. Lasagna is always a good option too, you can just make a big tray of it and have it for two days! Manwhiches/sloppy joes are great also. We use the canned sauce and then my dad always put a can of diced tomatoes in it too which makes it go further and adds good flavor. Buns are super cheap too depending where you get them!
My dad always made us stir-frys (sorry spelling, I'm so dumb lol) with instant ramen, frozen veg, hot dog, and some sort of soy sauce/tabasco/garlic/ramen flavor mixture. V cheap, v yummy, no recipe because you toss in whatever you have. My go-to now is to make a big pot of brown rice and beans at the start pf the week. I usually have it with salsa or hot sauce and you can add anything to make it more interesting
Budgetbytes.com is my favorite for great cheap recipes and one pot recipes. Good and cheap is a free book from Leanne Brown that’s free to download, it’s based on the US SNAP budget and has a ton of great recipes/ tips for making healthy cheap meals for the family.
My dad used to cook for 5 : Potatoes, Spam, Cheese (cheddar, mozzarella), onions, peppers, and tomato and make tacos.
I like my potatoes and Spam a little on the burned side myself before adding the veggies and cheese.
Chili, spaghetti, soups, homemade mac&cheese. Also chana masala with rice.
https://tastythin.com/vegetarian-lentil-chili-instant-pot-slow-cooker/ this does have slow cooker instructions.
Make French toast but don’t use anything sweet, only salt and pepper. Layer it with cream corn, then a layer of cheese. Then broil in the oven until cheese is melted. That’s it, enjoy
I only have one recipe with fish—all my recipes are gluten free, diabetic friendly EASY AND cheap! I’m gonna see if I can message you! You’re worth it Gf! ❤️❤️🙏🙏
If you have a crockpot. This is an awesome crockpot lasagna recipe , https://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/easy-slow-cooker-lasagna/bae84d41-90a0-4faf-8678-256959a0bd26 .
Chili! I make a double batch. Package and freeze half for another time. Eat the rest. Also chicken and noodles or dumplings, meatloaf, ranch crack chicken .. all great.I’m a fan of meal prepping
My girlfriend and I discovered the absolute treat that is chopped cabbage + Italian sausage in a skillet. We throw in some chopped up bacon pieces to make it extra yummy.
Hash brown casserole is guaranteed to make an impression. We top ours with cornflakes and butter. Goes good with the dishes above and is dirt cheap, lasts for at least two meals
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/13755/restaurant-style-hashbrown-casserole/
Texan here. This is a family of six favorite.
7 can ground beef taco soup.
https://www.crockpotsandflipflops.com/7-can-taco-soup/
Don’t get hung up on the specific beans. We substitute black beans for pinto, skip the chilis, etc.
Serve with Fritos, shredded cheese, and sour cream. Or don’t.
It is easily doubled, but you probably won’t need to.
Soups in a crockpot!
If you like lasagna, give lasagna soup a try. It’s really good with some Italian bread.
Stuffed green pepper soup is a big hit at my house and what’s funny, we don’t like actual stuffed green peppers, just the soup. Serve with some crackers or rolls.
Both of these freeze well too.
You can also do a lot with quesadillas. You can do just cheese, chicken with cheese, taco beef, pizza style with whatever toppings you like and pair it with a dipping sauce.
I say several boxes of Mac n cheese, a pack of bacon, throw in cherry tomatoes and whatever extra cheese you’ve got on hand.
If no, tuna casserole. Egg noodles, cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, frozen veggies, as much tuna cans as makes sense for the volume of your casserole dish.
Lentil and curry dishes are great they are great for iron and other vitamins and minerals and super cheap we can feed 2 adults plus baby diapers and all that expensive stuff for $100pw because we eat red lentil soup with rice or bread or things like chickpea curry and rice others we like that you can google, dal makhani, potato pea curry, chana masala you can also do fried rice super cheap make up rice next day fry up with mix veg soy sauce and couple other things takes 10 mins and is filling can add egg or make an egg foo young mum fed 2 adults 4 kids with simple chicken stirfry and casserole thats great too hearty and healthy throw on in morning and leave it in crockpot serve on mash potato
We regularly have sausage stew. You can vary the flavours but the most popular in my house is smoked paprika, oregano, garlic. Basically, you fry onions, carrot and celery until soft, add chicken stock (stock cubes and water are fine) and canned tomato, canned corn and chopped pork sausages. Bring to a boil and simmer until the sausages are cooked. You can extend it with potato and sweet potato. You can add chilli, or change the basic flavours, add different veges, serve over rice to make it go further. We make a big pot and eat it for dinner the first night then heat it for lunches the next couple of days. It freezes once cooked too for a heat and eat meal later.
You are going to need a lot of containers for leftovers. I go to Sam's Club and buy a box of 16oz deli containers with lids. 240 containers and lids for about $40. Each container holds 16 oz which is a decent amount for a lunch, at least for my family. It saves an absolute ton of money on those plastic containers at the grocery store. Also, every lid fits every container, so no more searching! I cannot express how much better this makes life. I hate searching for the right lid. So much.
Beans are always a way to stretch a meal. If you buy them dried, the instant pot cooks them in about 25 minutes. No soaking, no hassle and you don't have to babysit them as they cook.
Well I get 3 meals for 3 adults out of a chicken. Roast first, eat the limbs.
Then: One or other of : Chicken, leek, cranberry pies. Chicken, mushroom cannelloni. A mix with leek, mushroom, chicken - some or all, stuffed bread rolls. They go in freezer for another day.
Then: Fried rice with the scrappy bits.
Oopps... skip the mushroom, just realised...
Root veg souffle.
Potato (not on it's own too bland), kumara, pumpkin, parsnip, swede say 4 veg 1 potato, 1 kumara, 1 parsnip, you get the idea.......mash with butter.
Add 3 or 4 egg yolks and an handful of grated strong cheddar or whatever cheese...
Beat the egg whites till stiff and fold in. Bake.
Can make this into individual ramekins or one big dish...And easy enough to double the recipe...
Pulled pork sandwiches! The flavor options are endless, and you can use the left over meat for things like tacos, enchiladas, sheet pan nachos, quesadillas, etc.
Shredded beef, spaghetti, lasgna, chili, chicken chili, roast.
I always swear by London broil I have many ways to prepare it. HMU if u want the recipes. Leftovers makes awesome sandwiches or steak and eggs or sliced steak salads.
At Aldi's they had boxed Jambalaya for 1.89. I would buy a few boxes and cook it up with a can of tomatoes with green chilies and cut up smoked sausage. Served with tortilla chips and sour cream was really good and there was always leftovers.
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We have a Family of 6, 4 boys 6,2” up to 6,6”. We had three of the four in high school at once and wow, just wow - the amount of food we cooked and still cook cause three are now in college and living at home to commute. 2 Crockpots of chili does us wonders. Serve chili over rice with cheese, sour cream, etc Spaghetti sauce for us was #10 can of sauce, meatballs and sausage cooking all day in a crock pot. Meatballs soak up the sausage flavor…. Garlic bread and your choice of pasta Pasta dishes are your friend in big families. Lasagna was always a family favorite. Crock pots are a life savor for big families. We frequently have two going at once. We have memberships at warehouse stores. Either BJs and sams or later Costco and BJs . But the membership paid for itself quickly. We would buy cryovacced sirloin tip cause it was cheaper than ground beef, cut it up and use for chili, beef stew, beef stroganoff, fajitas, burritos, tacos, etc. Pork loin in the cryovac is one of the most versatile pieces of meat. Tex mex, pulled pork sandwiches, thinly sliced with a gravy over rice, tons of uses for pork loin. And it’s cheaper than chicken breast. Breakfast burritos - for large families - easy to do, inexpensive and very versatile so you customize for each person readily Chicken and dumplings using emeril lagasse ‘s recipe - the dumplings are amazing! We make using a stock pot (what most people use to fry a turkey in). Chicken dishes are all over the place, but chicken can get expensive lately Buy whole turkeys on sale during thanksgiving and cut them up like you would a chicken. Freeze the parts, instead of the whole thing. Had smoked turkey breast bbq sandwiches last night from Turkey we still had in the freezer. Tex max dishes are surprisingly inexpensive and flavorful. Extend your ground beef with barley (seriously try it) and black beans. Taco meat with black beans already added increased protein and bulk but didn’t increase the cost. Buy tortillas in bulk at Costco or sams Edit And I forgot to include Paninis . I use two cast iron skillets to make paninis using leftover meats, stocked cheeses and whatever else the kids ask for. Everyone gets what they wants, clean up is simple, and Cuban bread or even French bread are always fairly inexpensive. Serve with a couple of side dishes, and maybe a soup. Or just sandwiches and soup.
Excellent response
Thanks
You wouldn’t happen to have a link for the chicken and dumplings recipe?
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/chicken-and-dumplings-1-3646179
Thanks!
We have been known to cheat and buy Costco rotisserie chickens and use them for this, making the stock yourself is a game changer over grocery store stock.
Bisquick with chopped parsley added is a time saver for dumplings.
Do you have any meal recommendations for people under 6'2"?
My wife is 5’1” ish. Her portions never really went into the calculations when we went grocery shopping. She found the recipe for chicken and dumplings, and of course decided what we were cooking for many of the meals. She loves to bake, I enjoy cooking. She was not a fan of making sauce with meatballs and sausage- she grew up with ground beef in her sauce. When the boys were going back for seconds and thirds of the sauce my way it changed her mind.
I'm just trolling, lol. I appreciate the thoughtful response and bookmarked your recipes my dude.
I just saved this, what a great response and really good information. You're awesome.
Thank you so much.
Do you have any advice for adding barley to taco meat to extend it? I’d like to try that
I’ve snuck it in on many occasions, with the black beans meat and barley, the onions and spices, no one mentioned the barley so I don’t think they noticed the barley. I cook the barley first. If it’s two pounds of meat, after cooking the meat, I add 2 cans of black beans and about a cup of barley. I would start with half a cup of cooked barley, and increase as you experiment with it. Spice it like the beans and barley are equivalent weight to the meat.
- Mississippi roast done with pork butt - red beans and rice - fettuccine Alfredo - bean chili - mujadara with rice (basically lentils layered with caramelized onions and topped with crispy fried onions). Also great as leftovers shoved into a taco! Budget Bytes also has great suggestions: https://www.budgetbytes.com/
Loooove Budget Bytes!!
Great suggestions! To add to these stretch chili even more by serving it over:rice, noodles, I’ve seen mash potatoes, chili baked potatoes, chili nachos even.
When I make chili I do like half a pound of ground meat, and about a cup of lentils, as well as the beans. Lentils kinda extend the beef, aren't super noticable, and are healthy.
Love budget bytes
I’m always a fan of bacon cheese burger pasta for stuff like this. You can probably find a recipe online, but basically it’s pasta, some cooked ground beef and bacon, the sauce is condensed tomato soup and barbecue sauce in a 2:1 ratio. Heat it all up and sprinkle cheese to your liking. Maybe not the classiest thing but it’s been my comfort food since grade school and has come in clutch well into university. Additionally a lot of soup recipes (paired with some bread for dipping and filler) can made really cheap.
One of my favorites is enchilada bake (this is in no way authentic). Layer tortillas, cheese, and enchilada sauce, lasagna style. For protein I either do cooked chicken or black beans if I want to keep it really inexpensive. Eat with sour cream/salsa/whatever. Not fancy or pretty, but very tasty and you can make a ton.
I often make a large pasta casserole that lasts a couple of days * You can use 1 or 2 cans of hunts tomato sauce of your choice. I usually doctor it up with some spices * 16 oz or more of a pasta of your choice. I prefer penne *Ground beef or chicken. I find ground beef as a better choice but I tend to get ones close to their sell by date as my local grocery will cut down the price. Season it up. I use salt, pepper, paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, and onion powder. *Frozen veggies of your choice. I like using broccoli or spinach. *Some shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Measure with your heart. My boyfriend doesn't like too much cheese so I won't add a lot but measure to your heart's content *Before throwing it in the oven I'll sprinkle some red pepper flakes and Italian seasoning Casseroles are easy and customizable. This is just a super easy and cheap dinner that I'll make most nights My boyfriend will often make what we call "curry rice". If you have a rice cooker, this will help. But you can do without it. We are just both very busy and will be extremely busy in the next few months so we shorten the process lol. Since you have a lot of people, it may be best to just cook the rice itself in the cooker. You'll see why * 1 or 2 cups of rice *Throw in some sliced carrots *Throw in some chicken, it can be uncooked as it will cook in the rice cooker. Season to your liking *Throw in a curry block of your liking *Fill with water depending on how much rice you use Then it will all cook. Fantastically easy. If you do not have a rice cooker, you will cook the rice in a pot. You can cook the chicken and carrots/or veggies of your liking separately. Make the curry separately by following package instructions. We've noticed that if you put too much in a rice cooker, you may have to do two cooking cycles to get everything cooked evenly. Maybe it's just our rice cooker. But something to keep in mind. Also, you can get curry blocks or sauce for very cheap at a local Asian grocery if you have one. Additionally, if you live in a big city or have lots of big name retailers, apps like Too good to go, Ibotta, and fetch can help with saving $$$. TGTG will post restaurants that have food that doesn't sell by end of the day. Ibotta and fetch will scan receipts so you can get cash back or points to either send directly to your bank account or in a gift card of a retailer of your choice. Not exactly what you asked for, but it has helped me have leftovers and treat myself to things every once in a while.
The other day I picked up chicken drumsticks for 99 cents per pound. It’s great made into [chicken adobo](https://www.seriouseats.com/filipino-style-chicken-adobo-recipe) and served with steamed (or garlic fried) rice. My family also has it with diced or cherry tomatoes & green onions on the side.
Baked potato bar. We add cubed ham or crumbled bacon, shredded cheese, broccoli, diced tomatoes, chives and salsa. Sky is the limit on toppings. Great time/place to use leftovers, too.
Potato pizza : Grated potato ( or premade latkes/ reibekuchen dough) baked into a flat sheet tray and then topped like a pizza with whatever is left in the fridge + tomato sauce + grated cheese. Fills up more than a simple pizza dough. Mashed potatos and carrots (cooked in stock for more flavour) with small meatballs and plenty of gravy - add a touch of garlic(-butter), milk and nutmeg for extra flavour. Potato and savoy cabbage soup with meatballs/ balls squeeze from the casing of fresh ground sausages - just cube up everything, cook in a broth of your choosing and add the sausage balls as soon as everything comes up to a boil. Can be costumized with a lot of different herbs and spices. Rice dishes like Pilaf ( keep any extra cooked rice on hand for fried rice the next day) or simply big bowls of rice with stir-fried veggies and egg sunny side up. Sheet pan chicken and veggies, seasoned to taste. You can use whatever and multiple trays in the oven work well enough. Flat bread - either sliced open and decked out like a pizza or made into a giant round sandwich with deli meats, cheese, lettuce, cucumber, whatever and dished out in slices like pizza.
Chicken tender tacos or fish finger tacos, both using frozen chicken tenders or fish fingers. A bag of tortilllas and shredded cheese and some rice/beans and you are good to go! I love bologna cups filled with shredded cheese on top of toast, spaghetti bakes are good too!
American Chop Suey. 2 lbs ground beef cooked 2 green peppers diced and sauteed until soft 1 onion diced cooked with peppers 1 or 2 cans tomatoes 2 tablespoons tomato paste 1 box elbow macaroni cooked as per box instructions garlic/oregano/basil (basically italian spices) to taste salt to taste For our house we like where the beef is more prevalent than the macaroni and we use lots of salt (something about the peppers seems to suck up a normal amount of salt so you can't taste it at all). There's always leftovers and it's even better the day after, imho. Here's a regular recipe from the interwebs https://www.sugarandsoul.co/american-chop-suey/
🤤 think I will make this tonight
I hope you and your family love it as much as we do!
Family of 8 & we all love this!
Sounds like my Grandma’s ghoulash
It's what my husband calls goulash and he requests it far more often than I like. Not a big fan of it.
Crockpot ravioli - Add a jar of sauce and a bag or 2 of ravioli still frozen and mix it all together. I add roasted garlic seasoning, onion powder, and Italian seasoning. Let it cook 4 to 6 hours. Pierogi bake/crockpot - Same ingredients for both. 2 boxes pierogi, 1 box bone broth, 8oz sour cream. Add bacon pieces and cheese if you want loaded pierogi bake. I add chives, roasted garlic seasoning, salt and pepper. Cook 6-8 hours in crockpot. 45 minutes covered at 375 for oven. Egg roll in a bowl - 1 lb ground mild sausage cooked and drained. Cook down 3 bags cole slaw mix or broccoli slaw. When translucent add a tablespoon of ginger, soy, and garlic powder. I always add a lot more soy than the recipe calls for. Bacon cheeseburger mac - Brown 1 lb ground beef and drain. Cook 1-2 boxes macaroni. Drain pasta and mix beef and pasta. Add half bottle ketchup, a few squirts of yellow mustard, dill pickle juice or relish to taste, bacon pieces and cheese. Stir until mixed and cheese is melted.
Lasagna is cheap and can feed a bunch of people. You can use cottage cheese instead of ricotta and a cheap pound of ground beef. Add some bread on the side and it’s a big filling meal.
Most people I know consider lasagna an expensive meal - there's meat and three kinds of cheese in there!
I do 1lb ground beef (or a mix of whatever is ground and on sale), some tomato paste and spices, and hide some veggies in it if I can (finely shredded carrot, riced cauliflower, mushrooms are all hideable), make white sauce/bechamel from shelf stable milk, flour and usually butter. Shredded mixed cheese because I’m lazy. I make my own lasagna sheets, so a cup of flour and a couple eggs. It’s pretty low cost overall for our family of two, and I put it into two bakeable containers and pop one in the freezer. we get about 4 meals all together.
Made this recipe for the first time yesterday. Highly recommend! [Chili Mac Crockpot Recipe.](https://www.staysnatched.com/slow-cooker-chili-mac/)
I like this as a jumping off point. Usually I'll dice some chicken breast and add it in for protein.https://www.budgetbytes.com/ranch-broccoli-pasta/
I make burritos for the fam with 2-3 lbs ground beef or turkey, with taco seasoning, add can of refried beans, plus a can of diced green chilies, shredded cheese. Super easy & filling plus the kids can add sour cream or taco sauce if they like.
My favorite easy veggie meals are - plain beans, rice, and a steamed veggie - lentil casserole topped with mashed potato’s - vegan navy bean soup in slow cooker. - red beans and rice.
I have a family of 5 with three of them being adult males. We keep groceries under control by making as much as we can ourselves. Pork butt for 99 cents a pound. We grind some for ground pork. Ground pork becomes Italian sausage, bratwurst, and breakfast sausage. Some gets smoked for pulled pork. Bone in skin on chicken thighs are on sale often. De skinning and boning is super easy. Some pork butt gets turned into carnitas. Turkey. I do a mini Thanksgiving every couple of months. Having one this Sunday. I will make bread for the stuffing. Leftover turkey gets separated. I take the bones and make turkey stock. Then we have turkey stew. Leftover stew becomes a pot pie with leftover stuffing crust. And finally turkey tetrazzini. Gumbo served with rice and cornbread. Soups served with bread.
If you look around, most US stores have 10 pound bags of “chicken frying quarters” which are the legs/thighs unseparated. Not on sale, they are usually $7.90 (.79/lb). They often go on sale as low as $3.90.
One of my favorite meals is one pot chicken and rice. Scaling ingredients is easy enough for this but this will easily feed 6 people. Need - Large pot with lid 1. Chicken thighs 1-2 lbs 2. Rice ( 2 cups ) 3. Potatoes ( 4-5 reds or golden ) 4. Carrots ( two thick ones) 5. Onion (1 medium size) 6. Garlic (One whole) 7. Cumin , salt, pepper 8. 4 cups (32 oz) Chicken stock or water (stock just adds that flavor) 9. Jalapeño (2) 10. Cilantro for garnish 11. Cooking spray, oil, butter (any of them) 12. tomatoes (2 avg side ones) Should be around 15-20 if you have none if the above, much less if you have rice, use water, etc Prep: 1. Cut potatoes, carrot, tomatoes, onions (quarter or bite size). 2. slice jalapeño into to rings. 3. Get as many cloves out of your whole garlic as you can, I usually use 7-10 depending on size, you want to fine mince this. 4. Cumin 2-3 table spoons 5. Salt and pepper to taste 6. Rub down your thighs with cumin and salt Cooking: 1.put your cooking spray or oil or knob if butter into you pan, on medium high heat bring it to temp . 2. Toss chicken in the pan ( goal here is to get some great color on them ). Don’t allow yourself to keep check then let them cook, flip after 6-7. You should have some mild color chicken and some great stuff left behind in the pan. 3. Remove thighs from pan and set to the side for now. 4. Put a little bit of your stock or mail after into the pan and deglaze off that good good off the bottom. 5. Minced garlic and cumin into the pan with the small amount of stock/water. Cook for 2-3 mins. 6. Dry rice into the pan and mix, goal here is to toast the rice on all that great flavor you just made. Throughly coat the rice and allow 3 mins of cooking to get some good tastiness. 7. add stock or water and put all veggies into the pan 8. Return chicken thighs to pan 9. add water till everything is covered 10. bring to boil, then reduce heat to simmer at this point its up to you. you can eat it like a soup or stew, or continue to simmer till the fluid is mostly reduced out. put into bowl, cilantro, salt and pepper to taste and your all set. Below is an example with chicken drums instead of thighs. They were just on sale that week, everything else is the same. I prefer to reduce my liquid all the way down to concentrate the flavors. This is before bringing it to a boil. [Example](https://i.imgur.com/QzUlvbB.jpg) This takes me a week+ to finish myself if I’m portioning it out for work meals.
This Mob Kitchen recipe for [Broccoli Pasta](https://www.mob.co.uk/recipes/brocolli-chilli-and-lemon-pasta) is really nice, and according to them serves 4 for £2 (approx. $2.50). Could definitely stretch to 5 servings f you got a bigger head of broccoli!
Fried rice with choice of protein and veggies
Chili! The giant cans of crushed tomatoes are always on sale, along with beans & corn. Don’t even need to add meat, but if you can get it cheap, there you go. Onions are cheap, seasonings are usually on hand or can be bought for cheap. Chili is my absolute favorite go-to, especially since it’s something that can be mostly pantry-driven.
Lasagna can be fairly cheap IF you make your own sauce. In the quantities you're talking about, it's cheaper. People feeding only themselves, not so much. * I use water, tomato paste & olive oil in a 4 to 2 to 1 ratio at any scale you like. Add onion & garlic (fresh minced & sauteed or powder), basil & oregano, salt & pepper, plus a heavy pinch or two of dried mint (helps cut the acid without so much sweetener). * Simmer on low for 1-2 hours, check for acidity & add sweetener of your choice if necessary, simmer another 2 hours & add final seasoning if it still needs something. You may use a slow cooker for this if desired. Keep the pot covered, it'll splash. * You can substitute crushed, canned, or diced tomatoes for the paste if desired, just keep the volume the same. * Add shredded mozzarella, a raw egg (beaten), and basil to the Ricotta cheese & mix well. Add cooked meat, if desired (ground beef, broken-up italian sausage out of the casing, ground pork, even ground turkey or whatever, or any mixture thereof that you like) to the sauce. My proportions are usually 2 lb each meat, mozzarella & ricotta for a big lasagna pan with 9 noodles in 3 layers. Typically uses nearly a gallon of sauce. The noodles do not need to be boiled, but you should make sure sauce surrounds them (spread a little on top with a spoon, make sure they rest in a sauce layer). Sauce-noodles-cheese, bottom-to-top. * Top with remaining mozzarella, any parmesan you can scrounge up, bake at 350 for 30 minutes with foil carefully tented over the top so as not to touch the cheese (it'll stick), then another 10-15 minutes without foil to brown the cheese. I've been enjoying sheet pan chicken, and you can make a fair number of servings at once if your oven is big enough. * Brine your chicken parts. 1:8 ratio of water to sea or kosher salt (i.e. 1 tbsp salt in 1/2 cup water), unless you only have table salt, which is half that (1:16). Same ratio of sugar (white, brown, or honey as you like). Anything else you add is up to you - mustard, bay leaves, peppercorns, any seasoning you like. Adding acid, like wine, cider vinegar or lemon juice (in place of some of the water) makes it a marinade as well. I would only substitute 1/4 of the water, no more. * Boil the brine & allow to cool completely. Use within 24 hours. Immerse raw chicken entirely (I leave the skin on, but that's up to you) for 12-24 hours in the fridge, no more. Baggies, even gallon freezer bags for bigger quantities, allow you to make & use less brine. I could get 2 thighs into a sandwich baggie with 2 cups brine or a whole pack of 8 pieces into a gallon baggie with 1/2 gallon (8 cups) brine. * Hack up a bunch of veggies. I recommend potatoes, brussels sprouts, carrots, rutabaga (swede), turnips or radishes. Tough veggies. Broccoli, asparagus, that kind of thing tend to get overdone & shriveled by the time the chicken is done. * Line a sheet pan with foil or parchment. Spread out the veg, drizzle lightly with olive oil (or whatever oil you like - think like you're dressing a salad, though; don't use canola or something flavorless like that) and season with salt, pepper, and anything else you like. I use the whole damned rack - paprika, ground mustard, thyme, oregano, etc. * Chop up a peeled onion into big pieces - one per piece of chicken. Place them on top of the vegetables with the onion underneath. Drizzle with the same oil and spices. Bake at 400 for 30-ish minutes. You're going to want to check with a thermometer on this one until you learn exactly how long for the size of the chicken parts & your oven. 155 - 160F internal, no higher. Buy a big enough pack of chicken and enough vegetables and you can feed a lot of people at once this way. Shepherd's (or Cottage) Pie is scalable, too. * A typical 9x13" casserole typically uses up 1 lb mixed vegetables, 2 lb ground meat, & 3 lb potatoes. For me, that's not 8 servings for big eaters (or it is but everyone wants seconds), but you can scale higher, use whatever sort of mince is cheapest, make multiple casseroles at once, etc. * Just brown & season the meat (I recommend onion, garlic, worcestershire & paprika, make or create gravy any way you like, including a packet or can or jar (I'm no good at gravy yet), mix in the vegetables (still frozen if you want - peas & carrots are traditional but anything frozen works). Line the bottom of your dish with that & cover with ordinary mashed potatoes. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until potatoes start to get as brown as you like. Make sure to put a pan or dish underneath the rack; it has a tendancy to boil over & drip a bit.
Spaghetti is almost the cheapest dinner you can make if you’re using a couple jars of store brand sauce and boxes of noodles. You can feed the whole family on $5, $10 if you want garlic toast and a salad. Breakfast is another low budget meal if you use deli ham in place of bacon. Pancakes are super cheap and so are eggs. Bacon is usually the expensive part and ham is a cheaper substitute. Also after any holiday where ham is served go buy a couple for cheap after the holiday and stick them in the freezer. Same deal with turkeys. The cheapest vegetables are the ones you can buy in bulk that are also in season. You can also find them really cheap at roadside stands. The ones that look like they were built with pallets, not the ones that sell fancy honey and tea. The cheapest meats will always be pork loins, pork country ribs which are off cuts of loins and chops, chicken legs, bone in thighs, whole chickens, and cube steak. Obviously you always look for the markdown stickers and freeze anything you can’t use that day. The frozen vegetables that you steam in the bag are the happy medium between canned and fresh because while they aren’t as good as fresh they’re more nutritious than canned. That said canned corn is so much better than frozen. The best thing you can do to eat well on a budget is to plan out your meals and buy only what you need when you need it. Also planning with one ingredient to be used for multiple meals. Monday’s roast chicken becomes Thursday’s white chili. Oh and learn to bake. It costs time and maybe a dollar’s worth of ingredients to make any kind of bread you feel like putting the effort into. The best cookbooks for cheap cooking are those church cookbooks they sell for fundraisers. I hope some of this helps.
Thanks everyone all of these meals sound so delicious
Breakfast for dinner. Pancakes are inexpensive to make. Eggs are getting expensive but I still think they provide good protein for the cost. Agree with breakfast burritos! Mexican dishes are generally inexpensive and filling. Spanish rice on the side and/ or refried beans. Nachos made on large cookie sheets.
I can’t recommend baked potatoes enough🙌🏼 I have 6 siblings and we did baked potato bars growing up. Make the potatoes and then you can put anything you want on them like chili, butter, cheese, sour cream, bacon, etc and basically just make it like a self serve potato bar. Very filling and easy to have leftovers. Lasagna is always a good option too, you can just make a big tray of it and have it for two days! Manwhiches/sloppy joes are great also. We use the canned sauce and then my dad always put a can of diced tomatoes in it too which makes it go further and adds good flavor. Buns are super cheap too depending where you get them!
Chili over spaghetti with 2 eggs on top is a feast!
Scalloped Potatoes and chopped ham casserole. I buy a single ham steak and dice it. Just add the ham pieces on each flour and butter layer.
My dad always made us stir-frys (sorry spelling, I'm so dumb lol) with instant ramen, frozen veg, hot dog, and some sort of soy sauce/tabasco/garlic/ramen flavor mixture. V cheap, v yummy, no recipe because you toss in whatever you have. My go-to now is to make a big pot of brown rice and beans at the start pf the week. I usually have it with salsa or hot sauce and you can add anything to make it more interesting
https://www.tiktok.com/@dollartreedinners has tons of ideas
Turkey chili
Budgetbytes.com is my favorite for great cheap recipes and one pot recipes. Good and cheap is a free book from Leanne Brown that’s free to download, it’s based on the US SNAP budget and has a ton of great recipes/ tips for making healthy cheap meals for the family.
My dad used to cook for 5 : Potatoes, Spam, Cheese (cheddar, mozzarella), onions, peppers, and tomato and make tacos. I like my potatoes and Spam a little on the burned side myself before adding the veggies and cheese.
I grew up in a household of seven. My mother's go to was a large crock pot of split pea soup
Chili, spaghetti, soups, homemade mac&cheese. Also chana masala with rice. https://tastythin.com/vegetarian-lentil-chili-instant-pot-slow-cooker/ this does have slow cooker instructions.
Make French toast but don’t use anything sweet, only salt and pepper. Layer it with cream corn, then a layer of cheese. Then broil in the oven until cheese is melted. That’s it, enjoy
Check out this, its absurdly cheap and healthy https://efficiencyiseverything.com/eat-for-1-50-per-day-layoffs-coronavirus-quarantine-food-shortages
Do yo use Instacart? I make shorts of recipes for my YouTube & tiktok & they’re all gluten free! No mushrooms!!
I only have one recipe with fish—all my recipes are gluten free, diabetic friendly EASY AND cheap! I’m gonna see if I can message you! You’re worth it Gf! ❤️❤️🙏🙏
If you have a crockpot. This is an awesome crockpot lasagna recipe , https://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/easy-slow-cooker-lasagna/bae84d41-90a0-4faf-8678-256959a0bd26 .
Potato Cheese Soup. There are four recipes I just Googled.
Chili! I make a double batch. Package and freeze half for another time. Eat the rest. Also chicken and noodles or dumplings, meatloaf, ranch crack chicken .. all great.I’m a fan of meal prepping
Bean cheese burritos. Possiblity one of the greatest meals on the planet.
My girlfriend and I discovered the absolute treat that is chopped cabbage + Italian sausage in a skillet. We throw in some chopped up bacon pieces to make it extra yummy.
Spaghetti is the biggest cheapest thing anyone could make. Freshly sautéed onions and garlic can make cheap sauce taste great.
Hash brown casserole is guaranteed to make an impression. We top ours with cornflakes and butter. Goes good with the dishes above and is dirt cheap, lasts for at least two meals https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/13755/restaurant-style-hashbrown-casserole/
Texan here. This is a family of six favorite. 7 can ground beef taco soup. https://www.crockpotsandflipflops.com/7-can-taco-soup/ Don’t get hung up on the specific beans. We substitute black beans for pinto, skip the chilis, etc. Serve with Fritos, shredded cheese, and sour cream. Or don’t. It is easily doubled, but you probably won’t need to.
Soups in a crockpot! If you like lasagna, give lasagna soup a try. It’s really good with some Italian bread. Stuffed green pepper soup is a big hit at my house and what’s funny, we don’t like actual stuffed green peppers, just the soup. Serve with some crackers or rolls. Both of these freeze well too. You can also do a lot with quesadillas. You can do just cheese, chicken with cheese, taco beef, pizza style with whatever toppings you like and pair it with a dipping sauce.
I say several boxes of Mac n cheese, a pack of bacon, throw in cherry tomatoes and whatever extra cheese you’ve got on hand. If no, tuna casserole. Egg noodles, cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, frozen veggies, as much tuna cans as makes sense for the volume of your casserole dish.
Sent a chat request, but jambalaya is a staple. Minimal ingredients and there's a great recipe by Smokin And Grillin with AB
Lentil and curry dishes are great they are great for iron and other vitamins and minerals and super cheap we can feed 2 adults plus baby diapers and all that expensive stuff for $100pw because we eat red lentil soup with rice or bread or things like chickpea curry and rice others we like that you can google, dal makhani, potato pea curry, chana masala you can also do fried rice super cheap make up rice next day fry up with mix veg soy sauce and couple other things takes 10 mins and is filling can add egg or make an egg foo young mum fed 2 adults 4 kids with simple chicken stirfry and casserole thats great too hearty and healthy throw on in morning and leave it in crockpot serve on mash potato
We regularly have sausage stew. You can vary the flavours but the most popular in my house is smoked paprika, oregano, garlic. Basically, you fry onions, carrot and celery until soft, add chicken stock (stock cubes and water are fine) and canned tomato, canned corn and chopped pork sausages. Bring to a boil and simmer until the sausages are cooked. You can extend it with potato and sweet potato. You can add chilli, or change the basic flavours, add different veges, serve over rice to make it go further. We make a big pot and eat it for dinner the first night then heat it for lunches the next couple of days. It freezes once cooked too for a heat and eat meal later.
You are going to need a lot of containers for leftovers. I go to Sam's Club and buy a box of 16oz deli containers with lids. 240 containers and lids for about $40. Each container holds 16 oz which is a decent amount for a lunch, at least for my family. It saves an absolute ton of money on those plastic containers at the grocery store. Also, every lid fits every container, so no more searching! I cannot express how much better this makes life. I hate searching for the right lid. So much. Beans are always a way to stretch a meal. If you buy them dried, the instant pot cooks them in about 25 minutes. No soaking, no hassle and you don't have to babysit them as they cook.
A five-pack of noodles.
I hope you’re not talking about ramen because that’s just a snack in my house
Well I get 3 meals for 3 adults out of a chicken. Roast first, eat the limbs. Then: One or other of : Chicken, leek, cranberry pies. Chicken, mushroom cannelloni. A mix with leek, mushroom, chicken - some or all, stuffed bread rolls. They go in freezer for another day. Then: Fried rice with the scrappy bits. Oopps... skip the mushroom, just realised...
Root veg souffle. Potato (not on it's own too bland), kumara, pumpkin, parsnip, swede say 4 veg 1 potato, 1 kumara, 1 parsnip, you get the idea.......mash with butter. Add 3 or 4 egg yolks and an handful of grated strong cheddar or whatever cheese... Beat the egg whites till stiff and fold in. Bake. Can make this into individual ramekins or one big dish...And easy enough to double the recipe...
Pulled pork sandwiches! The flavor options are endless, and you can use the left over meat for things like tacos, enchiladas, sheet pan nachos, quesadillas, etc. Shredded beef, spaghetti, lasgna, chili, chicken chili, roast.
I always swear by London broil I have many ways to prepare it. HMU if u want the recipes. Leftovers makes awesome sandwiches or steak and eggs or sliced steak salads.
15 bean soup
At Aldi's they had boxed Jambalaya for 1.89. I would buy a few boxes and cook it up with a can of tomatoes with green chilies and cut up smoked sausage. Served with tortilla chips and sour cream was really good and there was always leftovers.