With grocery prices higher than ever, keeping the cost of the meals you’re making at home low is more of a priority than ever. Each of these recipes centers around affordable staples such as beans, eggs, tofu, frozen veggies, and hearty grains, something that everyone will have in their own pantry.
Using different toppings you may already have on hand in your fridge, or different cooking techniques, can take these simple everyday ingredients and upgrade them to genuinely nourishing meals.
1) Chickpea Spinach Curry
This is sauteed onions, garlic, and spinach with canned chickpeas, canned tomatoes, and coconut milk, as well as curry paste or garam masala, to make a spinach curry. For this dish I would cook the onions and garlic first and then add the spinach, making sure to cook all of the water out of it before adding the chickpeas.
I would also rinse the canned chickpeas in a strainer after removing them from the can. This helps to remove some of the shells on the outside of them, which tend to be difficult to eat for some people. This is a great low budget and healthy option, as you probably have all of these ingredients on hand already and it will feel like you’ve been cooking all day.
2) Egg Fried Rice
Easy at-home fried rice, heavy on the eggs, made with whatever frozen veggies you have laying around and a dash of soy sauce. As a rule of thumb, most people suggest using day old rice for fried rice, but in this instance it doesn’t really matter. You can use freshly made and slightly cooled rice.
For a dish like this, I like to whisk my eggs with sesame oil and a little bit of soy sauce and then fry them in a very hot pan, and once they’re cooked, set them aside. I like to add the rice and then about a cup of frozen mixed veggies straight out of the freezer. I like to let it sit for a while without stirring so the rice can get nice and crispy on the bottom of the pan to add some texture.
Add the eggs back in at the end with a couple dashes of soy sauce, or your favorite sweet chili sauce or other Asian condiments out of the fridge, and you can easily dress this one up with some chopped green onion or crushed peanuts.
3) Black Bean Tacos
These are cooked and seasoned black beans served inside of a soft flour tortilla shell with a simple cabbage slaw. Black beans are an affordable, easy source of protein, and they can really take on any flavor you throw at them.
I like to drain and rinse my black beans before I fry them up in a small saucepan with butter. Add your garlic, your spices, and some hot sauce, and then mash a few of them with the back of a wooden spoon and stir. If you’ve got an old pepper or an onion laying around, you could chop them up and saute them and serve them with this taco for a nice add-on.
Cabbage is a very versatile, low-cost ingredient, and if you simply shred some up, add a little salt, pepper, lime juice, and a big spoon of mayo and mix it up, you’ve got a great slaw for your tacos.
4) Sheet Pan Sausage
This is a low-cost, one-pan meal, sliced sausage, peppers, and onions baked on a sheet pan in the oven. Smoked sausage is an affordable protein option found in almost every grocery store.
When you slice the sausage, do your best to cut it evenly so the cook time can be consistent. When you cut your peppers and onions, you’re also looking for the same uniformity and size so they cook evenly. This dish is just begging to be served over rice, or over hot dog buns with a little bit of warmed-up jarred marinara.
5) Lentil Soup
This is a hearty soup consisting of onions, carrots, and garlic sauteed and then cooked with dried lentils, usually in water or stock. It doesn’t get much more affordable than lentils, and a lentil soup made well is something you’ll find yourself coming back for over and over again.
Make sure to rinse your lentils really well in a colander before throwing them in the pot, and make sure to search for small rocks that may have made their way through the screening process. Lots of lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a dash of cumin can give this dish a real authentic feel. I like to serve it with my favorite hot sauces and saltine crackers on the side.
6) Tuna Bean Salad
This is canned tuna mixed with canned beans, chopped onion, lemon, olive oil, and fresh herbs, and served with crackers. Canned tuna, as well as canned salmon, are both very affordable high-protein meal options. Make sure to stick to white beans for this dish as they have the best consistency to be eaten cold.
I would add a scoop of mayo or a scoop of Greek yogurt to this salad when mixing it to keep it from tasting too dry. Check in your fridge for an old jar of capers or maybe some pickles, and you can chop a little bit up and add them to this dish along with the brine to give you some excellent acidic flavor. You could serve this with leftover crackers, chip crumbs, or even just eat it with a fork or on a bed of arugula.
7) Eggs In Tomato Sauce
This is eggs poached in a sauce consisting of canned tomatoes, bell pepper, garlic, spices, and chili. If you have an onion laying around, it would be a great addition to this dish. Just sauté it in the beginning with the bell pepper before you add the tomatoes and the spices.
When adding spices to this dish, make sure to add some chili powder and some smoked paprika if you have it on hand. Chances are you’ve got a couple ends of bread loaves laying around in a bag somewhere, so go ahead and throw them in the toaster, they’re great served with this dish. A little bit of cheese added at the end is a great way to add some extra protein and flavor to this dish.
8) Tofu Stir Fry
This is cubed and pan fried tofu with ginger, soy sauce, and frozen broccoli, served with rice. Once the tofu is cubed, I like to rest it on some paper towels to try to draw some of the moisture out, because I find that it tends to get an easier brown color when it’s less wet.
Tofu gets a bad rap, but it’s really a versatile ingredient because not only is it affordable, but it can take on any flavor you throw at it. I like to add onions, peppers, shredded cabbage, and shredded carrots to this dish. Serve it over rice and don’t be shy with the soy sauce.
9) Sweet Potato Bowls
These are sweet potatoes that have been cubed, seasoned, and roasted, served on top of black beans and greens of your choosing with a simple yogurt lime sauce. Sweet potatoes will roast faster in the oven than regular potatoes and come out softer. Because of their high sugar content they tend to brown faster, but because of this they can stand up really well to aggressive seasoning.
I would personally swap out the black beans for rice or orzo or even quinoa in this dish. Cook it just like rice, and it’s very nutritious and affordable. For the greens, I would recommend arugula, because its spiciness stands up well to the sweet potatoes. You could also add cucumber for a nice fresh taste and crunch. For a simple dressing, combine Greek yogurt, lime juice, salt, and a little garlic powder.
10) Chicken Cabbage Skillet
This is shredded cabbage sauteed with garlic, with rotisserie chicken shredded up and added in. Cabbage is a really great low cost item because it lasts forever in the fridge.
I would leave the soy sauce or Asian ingredients out of this dish and instead add a can of diced fire roasted tomatoes and a splash of heavy cream. Add some shredded carrots for some crunch and color, and a little bit of dried parsley to really finish this dish off.
11) Sardine Pasta
This is olive oil, garlic, chili flakes, and sardines tossed with a pasta of your choice, topped with breadcrumbs and lemon. Canned fish, especially sardines, are an excellent source of high protein, low cost meals, and especially high in omega 3 fatty acids.
I would start this dish by warming the olive oil in a pan, then adding some finely minced onion, and then chopping the sardines and cooking them to warm them in the pan. Once you get a little bit of color on them, add the crushed red pepper and the garlic. I would personally opt for something like linguine or fettuccine with this dish, because you really want a nice long noodle to coat with the sauce.
Toasted breadcrumbs are a great way to finish this dish and add some texture, and if you have some leftover bacon you could chop it up really fine and sprinkle it on top, or even just go with bacon bits out of the pantry.
12) Veggie Quesadillas
This is seasoned beans, sauteed vegetables, and cheese in between two tortillas, pan fried until crispy. When I make this, I rinse and drain my canned beans, season them heavily, and then warm them up with a little butter before I mash them.
Saute peppers and onions, or even a frozen fajita vegetable mix, and sometimes I even like to throw in a can of corn. Spread the beans on a tortilla, add your veggies, top with cheese, and fry in a pan until the cheese melts and the tortillas become crispy. I serve this with salsa, hot sauce, and sour cream, and for a healthier option you could sub out Greek yogurt.
13) Greek Chickpea Pitas
This is chickpeas seasoned with lemon, olive oil, garlic, and oregano, served in a pita or tortilla. Chickpeas have little to no flavor, so it’s hard to overdo it with the seasoning, so go heavy on the lemon, olive oil, garlic, and oregano.
I would fry the chickpeas in a large saute pan with a little bit of olive oil on medium high to help with their flavor and texture. Chopped cucumber, chopped tomato, or sliced black olives are a great addition to this dish. I would serve this dish with either a mint or cucumber yogurt sauce and crumbled feta or cotija cheese on top.
14) Red Beans And Rice
This is an affordable weeknight version of red beans and rice, with canned beans, sauteed onions and garlic, and if it’s in your budget, some smoked sausage. I would cook my onions and garlic in butter first, and a bell pepper if you have it, and then add your drained, rinsed, canned beans, heating them up and then mashing a few of them for great consistency.
If smoked sausage is in your budget, then slice it thin and pan fry it and serve it on top. When making the rice for this dish, it’s easy to sub in chicken stock to add a little bit of extra flavor, and serve with hot sauce.
15) Loaded Baked Potatoes
This is boiled potatoes topped with steamed broccoli and cheese. On this dish, I would bake the potatoes as opposed to boiling them. Rub them with oil, salt, and pepper, poke them all over with a fork, and bake them at 375 for 45 minutes to an hour until fork tender in the middle.
While your oven is already turned on, you can roast your frozen broccoli instead of steaming it to get some more depth of flavor. Top these with whatever leftover shredded cheese you have laying around, or sour cream, or plain yogurt as a substitute for sour cream, and be sure to add lots of butter.
16) Turkey Chili
This is chili made with ground turkey or ground chicken as opposed to ground beef, with onions, beans, tomatoes, and chili powder. Chili like this is a great way to stretch a little bit of protein into enough to feed the entire family.
I like to cook and brown all of the meat first and then remove it, set it aside, and then cook the vegetables in the fat left in the pan. Almost any kind of canned bean or canned tomato can be a great addition to this dish, and if I were to make it, I would put the frozen corn in while I was reducing the liquid, as opposed to right into the bowl at the end.
I like to serve this dish with sour cream, tortilla chips on the side, and a variety of hot sauces and shredded cheese if you have it.
17) Peanut Noodles
This is noodles served in an Asian peanut sauce made from peanut butter, soy sauce, and vinegar or lime juice. Make sure to use creamy peanut butter, not chunky peanut butter, for this dish.
Mix the peanut butter with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, lime juice, rice wine vinegar, really any tangy Asian condiment that you have in the fridge, and a little bit of hot water. You can add fresh veggies to this dish as well, shredded carrots, cucumbers, or some of that versatile cabbage you have laying around in the fridge.
Sprinkle some crushed peanuts on top and serve with a lime wedge to really dress this dish up and make you feel fancy.
18) Savory Oatmeal Bowl
This is a savory oatmeal preparation cooked with salt instead of sugar and served with sautéed vegetables and a fried egg on top, as well as Asian condiments. This is a great low-cost option that will stick to your ribs and make you feel full all day.
Swap out the water for cooking your oats with some chicken stock for a real punch of flavor. Sautéed onions, carrots, and bell peppers are great, or even just a scoop of frozen vegetable mix right out of the freezer. You can add some extras on top of this dish to really set it off, chopped green onion, chili crunch, sriracha sauce, chili oil, you name it.
19) Beans On Toast
This is canned white beans seasoned and heated up with tomatoes, onions, and garlic, served on top of toast, with the option to add cheese if you have it. Make sure to drain and rinse your canned beans before seasoning and cooking them.
Cook whatever hard vegetables you have first, like onion and garlic, and then add the beans, the tomatoes, and the seasoning. I like to get a good hard toast on the bread so that it holds up to the soggy beans. If you have a shaker full of parmesan cheese laying around, you could use some of that as an affordable topping for this dish.
20) Veggie Omelet
This is sautéed vegetables folded into a cheese omelette. When I make an omelette at home, I like to crack the eggs into a bowl and then add a pinch of salt, whisking to combine, and then let it sit for 5 minutes. This will give you really fluffy eggs.
Onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, and spinach are great choices for the vegetables in this dish. I like to cook them first and then set them aside, and then cook the omelette in the pan. Once you flip the omelette, sprinkle with cheese, add your vegetables right on top, and then fold your omelette over.
Sometimes when feeding my family, I will just make one giant omelette and then cut it up into smaller pieces for serving once I’m done.
21) Upgraded Ramen
This is instant ramen noodles, omitting some of the spice pouch and adding frozen mixed vegetables and egg, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Instead of poached eggs for this dish, I would use soft boiled eggs.
Cook your frozen veggies and any leftover shredded chicken you have laying around, and then add half of the seasoning packet, soy sauce, and sesame oil before adding in your cooked noodles and stirring. I like to peel the soft boiled eggs and serve them directly on top, whole. Shredded cabbage or green onion are great affordable options to garnish this dish with and take it to the next level.
22) Cabbage And Noodles
This is sauteed onions and cabbage, tossed with pasta. In addition to the onions, I would add a ton of garlic to this dish to saute in the pan.
Instead of vinegar in this dish, I would add lemon juice at the end, it gives you the same acidity and is more cohesive with the ingredients. This dish is great because you can use whatever leftover partial boxes of pasta you have laying around.
23) Burrito Bowls
This is a build your own burrito bowl bar, with bowls of rice and all the fixings of a burrito served on the side to help yourself, beans, corn, salsa, shredded lettuce, and cheese. If it’s in the budget, some ground turkey or ground chicken seasoned with taco seasoning and pan fried is a great addition.
When we make a taco bar at my house, we like to leave out as many options for people as possible, five or six different types of hot sauce, sour cream, shredded cheese, lettuce, veggies, you name it.
When I make rice for this kind of dish, I use chicken stock, and when the rice is done, fluff it with a fork and then add a couple big spoonfuls of salsa. This is a great low budget family option because the leftovers can be turned into lunch the next day.
24) Salmon Patties
This is canned salmon mixed with breadcrumbs and egg, shaped into patties and pan fried until golden brown. Crushed up saltine crackers can be a great substitute for the breadcrumbs in this dish.
I would avoid adding any chopped onion or chopped pepper and instead substitute dry seasoning to keep your salmon patties from breaking apart when cooking. I like to mix a little bit of mayo, mustard, and dill together to make a great easy sauce for these. Make sure to add salt, pepper, lots of lemon juice, and old bay seasoning if you have it laying around.
25) Minestrone Soup
This is a quick and easy version of minestrone soup with onion, garlic, canned tomato, beans, broth, and frozen vegetables. Whenever I make a soup that has pasta in it, I like to cook the pasta and leave it on the side so that I can add it in per bowl, as opposed to leaving it in the soup, because it soaks up all the liquid and the consistency isn’t great.
This is a great easy affordable option because I think you can really add whatever vegetables you have laying around, and as long as you season it right, you’ll come off with a win. Try to use vegetable or chicken stock with this dish as opposed to water for a better flavor. I like to garnish each bowl with the cooked pasta and a nice grate of parmesan cheese.
26) Veggie Hummus Wraps
This is oven roasted vegetables served on top of a tortilla with hummus. If you have it, pita bread is a better option than tortillas for this dish because tortillas tend to break.
When I roast veggies in the oven, I like to toss them in oil, salt, pepper, and chopped garlic before I roast them. Warm your pita bread up for a few seconds in the microwave ahead of time and it’ll save you from a dry crumbly texture. Feta cheese, sliced pickles, or hot sauce are a great topping for this dish.
