5.00$ meals???

[SavingNut]

Hey I'm trying to cut my food budget by as much as possible so that I can get rid of my depts as soon as possible. Anyone care to share their cheapest recipes? Thanks a bunch in advance.

[irmanator]

Is that supposed to be $5 per person or per meal. If it is per person, I have some recipe's that are about $2 per person and some you can make ahead so they are quick easy and healthy helping you avoid fast food on busy nights. PM me your email so I can send them to you. They are an attachment and too big to cut and paste.

[disneysteve]

$5/meal for how many people?

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I saw on another thread that you have three people to feed, so I'm guessing you mean $5 for three people.

There are several other threads here about inexpensive meals, so you'll want to visit those.

I don't have any recipes at the ready. I tend not to cook by recipes anyway. I just finished for breakfast a dish that was pretty cheap, but certainly not a breakfast most USAer eat. It is sort of an ersatz eggplant parmesian, but simplified as I did not salt and drain the eggplant, nor fry it dipped in egg the way I was taught to do. Here's how I do it:

Slice my $0.94 eggplant and thickly sliced it. Drizzle some olive oil into a casserole dish and added the slices. Microwave to pre-cook the eggplant.

Make a sauce using two cans tomato paste, a couple sauteed onions, as much garlic, basil, and fennel as you like, and enough water to be able to simmer these together for a while to start blending the flavors. I love to use fennel in it. Sometimes I grate a carrot or two into the sauce. Today I added I handful of very finely chopped mustard greens to the sauce, though I would not serve it to just any company that way. I also had a ladded a lot of green onions to it as those are fresh from the garden right now. My basil and fennel were from the garden, though dried, not fresh. I crush the fennel to release the flavors better and thereby using less. You really can slip in most any vegetable you want, especially if you mince it.

Once the sauce is done, added it to the cooked eggplant and top with a heavy sprinkle of grated cheese. Actually I used pecorino Romano.

If this is your main dish and you feel it is not hearty enough as is, you can added ground beef, and/or more olive oil, and/or more cheese, especially between layers eggplant.

Cook in regular oven until sauce is much reduced at oh, maybe 350.

Mine made about 6 servings.
This serves up best if you let it cool for 15 or twenty minutes. I also love it cold out of the fridge.

[mom-from-missouri]

Cooking anything from scratch will save you big time. Right now at Aldi I can get a 20 lb bag of potatoes for $3.99. That will cover a lot of meals of mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, french fries, baked potatoes, potatoe soup. Any meals with dried beans or rice will do the same.

Bread is high (at least around here), my local store wants around $4 a loaf, but I can make it from scratch or if time is an issue, but frozen bread dough loaves, are $3.68 for a package of 5 loaves. (You just put in a bread pan let thaw, rise and bake at 325 for 20 minutes). You can also use the dough for making garlic bread or rolls.

My family loves home made bread and potato soup. In my potato soup I add diced potatoes, any left over cheese, bits of onion, carrots, bacon, some salt and pepper.

Bake a potato and add some veggies to the top. Its filling. I use our frozen garden veggies, but you can do the same with a bag of store bought frozen veggies. Just use what you need and put the bag back in the freezer.

Make and drink tea or water with your meals. A lot of people raise the price of their meals by adding soda or koolaide or juice as their beverage.

Ham and beans soup is very inexpensive. Plus, the bags of beans store well and contain enough beans to make several meals. This one makes soup for 6, so you may want to cut it in half.
Cook Time: 2 hours
Ingredients:
8 cups water
1 pound Great Northern beans or navy beans
2 cups cubed ham
1 ham bone or ham hock, optional
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon pepper or to taste
1 bay leaf
1 carrot, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped or sliced thinly
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
Preparation:
Bring water and beans to a boil; boil 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand 1 hour.
Stir in ham, ham bone or hock, pepper, bay leaf, carrot and celery. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover, and simmer until beans are tender (skim foam from top), about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. If soup is too thick, add a little water.
Remove ham bone or ham hock (if used) and trim meat from bone. Return meat to soup with tomato sauce and salt; simmer for about 15 minutes longer. Remove bay leaf.
Ham and bean soup serves 6.