Cheap dinner ideas

Many people are used to spending much money on food, and cheap dinner ideas can help to save money. Nowadays good and healthy food is not cheap. That’s why some people have to miss lunch or dinner. In the evening one can go to sleep without eating anything. But at lunch and dinner time you must get enough to eat.

Even if you’re short of money, you can use cheap dinner ideas to keep your belly full.

First of all you should do a little planning. It depends on how many people you cook for. If your family is big, you can probably benefit from bulk purchasing.

Plan meals ahead of time and be sure that you will eat everything before it spoils.

You can save much money planning food and substituting more expensive dishes for cheap and tasty ones. For example, you can prepare pancakes and oatmeal for breakfast. It’s economical. You have a big bowl of hot delicious goodness. Moreover, it’s wholesome for digestive system.

For lunch you can cook a pork chop with garnish. Garnish gives you satiety and you will eat less meat. For side dish you can choose beans, potatoes or spaghetti. You will not get hungry too soon afterwards.

But the main question is:

What are the best cheap dinner ideas?

For filling and cheap dinner you can cook a bowl of vegetable soup. Ingredients for such dish are inexpensive. It’s especially a good idea if you are short of time.

Among cheap dinner ideas one can find recipes of salads. Salads can be a combination of fruits or vegetables, or both. You can also add some nuts and cooked legumes. Using the freshest ingredients you will have the tastiest and crispiest salad. The main thing that one should bear in mind is not to combine fresh ingredients with stale ones. They spoil the taste of the salad and bring nothing but harm to your health.

There are so many cheap and tasty dishes. Here is a short review of them:

• Potatoes. People are used to thinking that potatoes are one of the ideal cheap dinner ideas. If you have to go to the food market with little amounts of cash, potatoes are the best variant. Filling, delicious and cheap potatoes can be served in many ways. Baked, mashed, fried, grilled and so on. Fried potatoes with eggs and salad make little money and give satiety as well as a pork chop.
• Macaroni, spaghetti and noodles are especially good for children. They adore this food. Moreover, you can invent your own dish by adding available ingredients like cheese, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, cottage cheese and so on.
• Beans are also good for dinner. They are especially tasty with rice and tomato sauce. Another thing to be said is that beans are wholesome due to the immense reserve of vitamins and minerals.

Many people consider lasagna to be one of the best cheap dinner ideas. It is easy to cook. Furthermore, this dish will please even the pickiest eaters. There are so many recipes of this dish as well as variations of the beloved Italian favorite. Classic lasagna includes garlic, oregano and basil.

Here is a recipe of tasty inexpensive lasagna:

• 14-16 uncooked lasagna noodles
• 400 gr. ground beef
• 3 spoon tables of spaghetti sauce
• ½ cup water
• 400 gr. ricotta cheese
• 60 gr. grated parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons chopped oregano
• 2 teaspoons chopped basil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 pieces garlic
• A bit of ground black pepper

Do brown meat in a skillet for 10 minutes. Then stir sauce and water in spaghetti and simmer for 10 minutes. Prepare pasta according to the package directions and drain it. Heat the oven to 185°C. Take a big bowl and stir cheese, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, eggs, oregano, basil, garlic, salt and pepper in it. Put 4 tablespoons of meat sauce on the bottom of a glass baking dish. Take four pasta pieces lengthwise over sauce and overlap edges. Put 1/3 cheese on pasta and spread it with 3 tablespoons of meat sauce. Repeat these actions with other layers and top with meat sauce and a little bit of mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Use foil to cover the dish and put into the oven. Heat for 45-50 minutes. Having removed the foil, leave the dish in the oven for 10 minutes to make it lightly brown. Let it stand for 10 minutes before eating.

As you see, lasagna is a good variant of cheap dinner ideas.

Cheap dinner ideas

Many people like to have a soup for dinner. This hot delicious and nutritious dish is a good choice. What is better than come home after a hard day and have a bowl of steaming tasty soup, especially on a cold, rainy day? There are a great many of soup recipes. People cook this dish with meat, vegetables, noodles, buckwheat, dumplings, dentils and so on. Soup is really one of the most popular cheap dinner ideas. Here is a recipe of vegetable cheese soup. It’s rather inexpensive and quick meal.

• 1 onion
• 1 celery rib
• 2 small red potatoes
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• ½ cup water
• 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
• 4 tablespoons cold water
• 150 gr. low-fat cheese
• 50 gr. chopped fully cooked lean ham
• 10 gr. parsley

Take a big non-stick saucepan with a cooking spray. First of all, cook onion and celery until they are tender. Add potatoes, water and bouillon. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. Take a cup and stir cornstarch with cold water, and then pour it into your soup. Wait several minutes until the dish is slightly thickened. Stir in condensed soup until blended. Having reduced heat, add vegetables and ham. Let your soup simmer for 10 minutes. Add cheese and parsley. Bon appétit!

One can find plenty of cheap dinner ideas in the Internet. The fact is that all of us know lots of such recipes, but don’t use them. We think it’s easier to buy pizza and have it for dinner. Nevertheless, pizza can be cooked at home. It doesn’t need much time and you can add more cheese or tomatoes if you like.

Here is an interesting and reasonably priced barbecued chicken pizza recipe.

• 100 gr. boneless skinless chicken breast
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 100 gr. barbecue sauce
• 1 red onion
• 250 gr. shredded Gouda cheese
• 50 gr. minced fresh cilantro

First of all, make a layer for pizza. It’s not difficult. You can use a frozen layer bought in the supermarket, but if you do not have it, cook it by yourself. Take 2 cups of flour, 1 egg, 10 gr. of butter, 1 cup of milk and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Prepare dough, and then roll a circle. It shouldn’t be too thin. 2-3 centimetres are enough. Bake it for 10 minutes at small heat. Now take the ingredients for pizza. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Then grill it at medium heat for 5 minutes. Cut the chicken into pieces and spread on the layer. Add meat sauce, cubed onion, rubbed cheese and cilantro. Put pizza in the oven and let the bottom brown and cheese melt.

If you are short of money, just use these recipes. They are perfect cheap dinner ideas.

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