So this Sunday I am having some friends over for some vegetarian sushi-yum! This means I need to plan a weeks worth of cheaper dinners to offset the cost. Any ideas for some tried and true tasty money savers? I have my ideas, but would like to hear yours too!
I was actually thinking about doing a blog for this topic entitled "Dinners Without a Recipe." I'm making a list for it and I plan to post it soon.
ReplyDeleteBut off the cuff, some light and cheap dinners that come to mind are:
Potato Bars (baked potatoes topped with chili, broccoli and cheddar, or your favorite toppings)
Tomato sandwiches (they have to be garden tomatoes on toasted and buttered whole wheat bread--salt and pepper the tomatoes)
Grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup (with all of your lovely Italian additions such as Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, etc.)
Ramen Noodles--fancied up, of course (I like to add soy sauce or teriyaki sauce, red pepper flakes, ginger powder to taste, sesame oil, etc.) Those additions really make otherwise boring Ramen noodles super tasty!
Quesadillas (basic such as cheese, or spruced up with shredded Mexican chicken, black or refried beans and sometimes even Mexican or Spanish rice). The Mexican chicken is easily accomplished by cooking chicken in a slow cooker with a packet of taco seasoning. Rice-a-Roni Mexican or Spanish rice is inexpensive and tasty.
Pasta with canned sauce (I prefer Barilla pasta and sauce). Try different pastas (rather than just doing spaghetti all the time--though I LOVE spaghetti)--fettucine, linguine, rigatoni, penne, ravioli, tortellini, etc.
Marinated and baked chicken with a side salad and baked potato. You can find yummy and inexpensive marinades to mix it up.
Chicken Caesar Salad Pitas. Poach and slice some chicken breasts. Buy and prepare a Caesar Salad kit. Mix the chicken into the salad. Put the chicken Caesar salad into halved pitas.
Omelettes. We had these just a couple of weeks ago. They really hit the spot. We had some Cheddar cheese, Canadian bacon slices, sliced mushrooms, and sliced red, yellow, and green peppers. These were all things that were already in the fridge that needed to be used up, but it was delicious!
Anyway, those are a few thoughts! I hope it helps!
BLT's which we haven't had forever. Deli soup & sandwiches are nice. I like to add low fat sausage to my spaghetti sauce. Pancakes or even french toast are cheap.
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