Here I Go Being Cheap Again.

Some great things to do are pasta bakes, spaghetti or lasagne - they are really cheap to make & you can put anything you like in them. I always grate vegies like carrot & zucchini into my spaghetti and lasagne sauces and sometimes just make vegetable lasagne with no meat. I could probably come up with heaps more ideas but my brain is in slow mode today! I love to cook & am always making up new recipes.

A Ramen noodle idea: to one package cooked add 2-3 tablespoons ranch dressing, and any of the following; bacon bits, tuna, crutons or dry stuffing chunks, peas, corn the list is almost endless as there are so many varieties of the noodles. It is a personal taste thing. There is a website that offers free membership. It is called allrecipes.com I use it all the time. Over 40,000 recipes. There is a how to type section, a recipe box to keep your favorites, and all kinds of tips and helps. Hope this helped.

What I made last night was Sweet and Sour chicken. Chicken cut into chunks Red Bell Pepper cut into cubes White onion, diced 2 tbls soy sauce 2 tbls Molassis (sp) 1/4 cup flour 1/2 tsp salt Olive oil Rice (enough to serve everyone) Coat the chicken in the flour and salt...I use a zip lock bag and just shake shake shake until the chicken is covered in it. Then I heat the olive oil and cook the chicken for 5 minutes, put the red bell pepper and the onion in. Add the soy sauce and the molassis (why can't I spell that right?) and stir it up and let it cook another 5 minutes. Cook the rice, which I cook in the microwave) and serve the chicken onto of the rice. It is really tasty. I made it last night and the hubby asked me why I don't make it more often. It is really easy to make also.

Well I can't say that these will be the most original meal ideas, but in my opinion it's cheap. 1. Ramen Noodles are usually cheap, especially if you find somewhere you can buy them in bulk. They are also filling. Your kids might be expecting a side dish, so just buy rolls. 2. Get a bag of potatoes and some flour. Cut the potatoes up and then boil them as if you are going to mash them. Mix the flour with water and then drain most of the water from the potatoes, add the flour mix and cook on the stove for awhile longer. I call them syrupy potatoes, and it's an old recipe my great grandma used to use. It's delicious, and filling.

I made this recipe last night, its cheap and easy. Its called "spicy meal in one potatoes." You can use regular potatoes, it calls for baking potatoes, but it can be expensive if you have a big family, here its just me and my hubby. You take: 1 lb roll of ground turkey (cheaper than beef) however many potatoes you need, usually one per person 1/2 cup chopped onion 1 16 oz jar of picante sauce or salsa 1/2 tsp salt optional sliced cheese, cut diagonally in quarters( I use shredded cheese instead) 1 green onion (optional) Scrub potatoes, using fork, poke several holes in potatoes, cook in microwave on high for 10 mins. you have to check them every few mins. and turn them over or they will get hard on one side. Cook turkey and onion in skillet till turkey is fully cooked. Then add picante sauce or salsa to skillet with turkey and onions, stir and heat thoroughly. Cut potatoes in half when they are done cooking, fluff inside with fork. Spoon equal amounts of turkey mixture over each potato, top with cheese. Garnish with green onions if you want to. Serve with a green salad or some kind of vegetable. Its real easy to make, and its good. I've also tried making it as a casserole, instead of the baked potato, I just make instant potatoes, spread them on the bottom of a baking pan, and put the meat mixture and cheese on top and bake it at 350, for 20 mins. just enough to melt the cheese and for it to heat thru. Its not as good as with the baked potatoes but its still good, you can also boil potatoes and mash them and use them that way, but it takes a little longer. Hope this didn't confuse you too much, it really is easy and not alot of ingredients.

I have one maybe you'll like buy a box of Augratin potatoes, the store brand is fine, mix as directed, fry 1 lb of hamburger add it to mixure, add a can of corn, and dice up some olives , and banana peppers or whatever you like, bake it for about 45 minutes..ohh and about 10 minutes before it is done you can add parmasen cheese or any other cheeses if you desire. Makes a great casserole and no need to make any side dishes, sometimes I make garlic bread to go with it...real simple to make and delicious.

PInto beans , fried taters and salmon patties

Rice and Beans, pasta, sloppy joes, taquitos, quesadillas, hot dogs and beans. These are a few ideas I came up with.

Oh there are so many cheap meals. Do you make those casseroles with rice, cream of chicken soup and a veg in them? Paula Deen has a great recipe on food network for this one. Will they eat beans? if they do, burritos are as cheap as you can get - refried beans, shredded cheese and anything else you want.

to me its spaghetti and meat balls, pasta and tomato sauce and tuna, good old mac and cheese with coleslaw, beef stew with carots and onions and celery and green peppers simmered long and so rich and tender. chili whodoesnt love chili with corn bread yet.oh and meatloaf with veggies sort of snuck in and tomato sauced a bit thats some of what I feed myself on my social security check and mylot money.

Buy a turkey and you can make several meals out of it. I bake the turkey and we have that the first night. I then debone it as much as I can. I boil the carcass to make broth. I then use the broth to make dumplings by using can biscuits dividing them into fourths I usually use 2-3 cans of them, putting the heat on simmer and covering for 15 minutes(don't lift the lid during this time it makes the dumplings go flat.) After we have that meal I save the broth to make a casserole. I make sure I have 2-3 cups of broth If not add water to it. I cook two cups of rice in the broth. I put that into a casserole dish and add left over turkey, 2 cans of broccoli and cheese one can of cream of celery stir well. Then I take a bag of Italian croutons Chop them up with a food processor. I heat up three heaping tablespoons of butter and mix in the croutons and use that as a topping. the next day if I still have left over turkey I will make turkey salad using mayo and pickles and we have sandwiches. there is four meals out of one turkey.

Do you eat rice? It's easy to make and good value for money. One of my favourite is fried eggs and sausages with boiled rice. I also add a bit of soya sauce on top for extra flavouring. Hope you like it :)

One thing that we have done in the past is to fix something like chili or soup (a large pot) then we would freeze it in quart freezer bags. When you want something quick and easy, or maybe just one person wants something to eat, just pull out a bag heat it in the microwave and there you have a snack or an entire meal if you desire.

the cheapest thing i can think of is grilled cheese. a pack of bread and a pack of cheese will last you forever. Ramen is always cheap, but it is also not very healthy. you could also make like tuna melt or something like that. noodles, cheese, peas, and tuna...its pretty cost effective and you sure will have leftovers to boot lol

Here is something good, cheap and easy, the grandkids love it. I chunk up some potatoes, fry them some, then I add some onion some garlic (optional). I then chop up some hot dogs add that to the pot, then I add a can of corn or some frozen corn. Let that all cook, You also have to sprinkle some chili powder on top, it doesn't make it hot it blends the flavors together. You can also add some salt n pepper and garlic powder unless you already added garlic. Here is a fun idea for Ramen noodles, I do this for the grandkids. I add food coloring to them and call them worms. You can get inventive, they loved having fear factor worms. Another cheap and good dinner. Brown some ground chuck, add onion and garlic. Then you add a can of baked beans, let that cook and call it a cowboy dinner, make some fried potatoes to go with it and its good. If you don't use the baked beans and use the pork n beans, just add some brown sugar to make it sweet and give it color.

I make tuna or chicken cassarole - Heres how I do it and its pretty cheap. 1 box of mac n cheese (the powder kind) 1 can cream of mushroom 1 can of peas or corn 1 can of tuna or chicken Make the mac n cheese like the box directs, add every thing stir. Put in cassarole dish top with cheese and french friend onions (both optional) put in stove on 350 till cheese is melted (about 15 mins) All toghether your looking at like 30 mins and 3 dirty dishes: the pot the dish and the spoon. Your obvously going to need more then one box - so if you add 1 box add 1 of every thing else. Or add 2 boxes add 2 of every thing else. I make this pretty often then put it in 1 size serving containers and freeze it. Its a great thing to heat up, it reheats VERY well. I pack my lunch for work so for me its great when I don't feel like packing I just grab it and go.

Oh noodle soup with egg on it would be great. Do have some carrots and dips. In the mornings I serve bread and butter or margarine to my kids and they just have it heated on the oven toaster. I have a maid who cooks cheap dishes as well a few meat or pork mixed with any kind of veggies. She experiments on different mixtures but they all taste great.

Boil macaroni or twisty noodles until done or almost done. Pour a layer of jarred spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a casserole dish. Put the noodles on top. Then add a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese. Repeat the layers, ending with sauce. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Sprinkle more mozzarella on top and bake for 10 more minutes. Easy and pretty cheap. If you have it, brown up some hamburger and layer that too. Otherwise packaged pepperoni is good.

I'm not sure if this counts as cheap but my mom used to make a casserole that i love making now. Its a bag of hashbrowns, a container of sour cream (the sm container not big) a can of celery soup and grated cheese. You mix everything into a casserole dish leaving grated cheese to melt on top to the side (you mix it in the casserole as well) Cook til everythings heated and Its awesome with ham or roast beef. I've always figured it cant be too expensive to make because it was the dish mom used to always take to potluck dinners or send with us to 4-H meetings.

My advice would be pick up a bag of packaged stir fry from the store. You can make this your own by adding so many different things. You can use beef, chicken, whatever you feel like. You can also add stuff like more broccoli, little mini canned corn pieces (not the kernels but the little cone ones)water chestnuts are definitely a good addition to it, and there are many other things you could put in. Make it with a bit of basmati rice or white rice and it tastes extremely good. It is definitely very filling too. IF you get organic or fresh ingredients, it is pretty healthy too. You would probably all like it quite a bit. Anyways, I wish you luck in your meal-making and I hope you try my idea.