Simple, quick, cheap, and relatively healthy meal ideas?

W

Weioo

Veteran XV
I'm looking for ideas on quick and easy meals that aren't too unhealthy... mac n cheese, spaghetti, scrambled eggs w/toast, etc. I'm basically sick of the every-day "what do you wanna do for dinner?" question that never gets a response from the wife other than "I dont know!" I'm not the most open-minded person either so we might make something that's awesome, and I'll forget about the idea until 10 months later. This time, I plan to create a list/menu so I never forget again, Muahaha! Ok, so it's not so evil....

The wife and I are going to be very poor over the next 2 years as she works through the nursing program. I'll be making a lot of the meals since she's got class and studying like 8+ hours a day.

So what do you eat that's simple, cheap, quick, and relatively healthy? ^_^
 
There are 3 bulk items you'll have with most meals.
1. Rice (Yellow)
2. Spaghetti (Wheat) with Texas Toast
3. Potatoes (bag of red Russet)

Chicken goes with rice, ground meat with spaghetti, steak and potatoes. Now add a vegetable. Make enough so you have left overs. One of those meals will cover 2 days. And what's good is on the 2nd day, you're just reheating the food. Buy hot sauces and seasonings to spice it up, especially for the left overs.

Buy a salad bag, cruetons, tomato, salad dressing, and a can of soup. This is the lighter meal when you don't feel like making something with meat.
 
i not really a cooker type of person but lately ive been cooking lean turkey and peas and mixing them together with season salt

lol i know this is really basic but it beats eating a can of tuna or ordering out something unhealthy due to lack of planning

These are the best peas ever.EVER.
LSEarlyPeas.png


This turkey
189_medium.gif



it has been surprisingly really good each time given my cooking ability. you could add some rice or noodles too if you want some tasty carbs
 
Whoohoox8 said:
i not really a cooker type of person but lately ive been cooking lean turkey and peas and mixing them together with season salt

lol i know this is really basic but it beats eating a can of tuna or ordering out something unhealthy due to lack of planning

These are the best peas ever.EVER.
LSEarlyPeas.png


This turkey
189_medium.gif



it has been surprisingly really good each time given my cooking ability. you could add some rice or noodles too if you want some tasty carbs
Click to expand...

Another person mentioned this in my OP that was placed under general disc.... Does NOT sound good... What do you do, throw it in a bowl and eat turkey/peas with a bit of salt or something? The idea of simply cooking ground meat and just eating it with noodles or something else in it just doesn't sound appetizing to me at all.
 
Here's a Cheapie I like:

French Onion Rice

1 cup of white rice (not instant)
1 can Campbell's Beef Consomme Soup
1 can Campbell's French Onion Soup
Cold butter

Preheat oven to 350
In an oven safe dish dump in the rice with the consomme and onion soup (don't add water you want it in it's condensed form). I stir it just a tad and then take about 4 TBS of the butter, chop it up and top the rice mixture with it. Cover and bake about an hour.

Serves 2 (large portions) for about $2.50

I like to do this one in a rice cooker as well. No change in recipe other than in the oven the rice can get a little crispy on the sides of the pan and I like the crispyness. The rice cooker keeps the rice a more standard rice texture.
 
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Cheapie #2 with protein. Adapted from an old campfire recipe that I used to make with a 2 liter of Coke and a whole Chicken. This one is not so 1) redneckish 2) fatty

Coke Chicken

Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs: about 4 to 6 pieces.
(~about $1.29 a pound a Sam's club. They're cheaper than BS white meat breasts and tastier)
1 can of generic Diet Cola
1 cup ketchup
olive oil

I heat my pan to about med-hi with a little olive oil and just sear the thighs on either side. You don't have to do this if you're feeling lazy again it just puts a little bit of crispy bits on the meat and gives me a little time to mix the coke and ketchup in a bowl and whisk it until blended.

Add coke and ketchup to pan(pour over chicken) and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium, cover with lid and ignore for about 30-45 minutes. The mixture makes a sweet barbeque sauce which you can thicken as much as you like by uncovering the pan in the last five minutes of cooking and turning the heat up and boiling off the excess moisture.

Goes great with mashed tato'. If you drink regular coke you can use that too but using diet tastes just as good/less sugar. Caffeine free diet works as well.
 
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bowtie pasta with sausage tomato and cream.

buy sausage links and remove sausage from casings.
brown sausage in pan and break it up
add canned chopped tomato with the juice (meaning don't strain)
allow liquid to reduce a bit while scraping up brown bits from bottom of pan
add cream (for 2 people maybe 2 cups)
let all that mellow and cook together

add cooked bowtie pasta to sauce, mix, eat.
 
one of the most important things you can do if you're trying to save money and eat healthier is to just pay attention to the produce section of your local supermarket's weekly sales paper. if you have farmer's markets or anything nearby, they can probably be nice places to start also

you could do things like some pan seared or grilled chicken breast/pork chop and do steamed/sauteed vegetables. you could use bbq sauce or something to flavor the chicken more

beans and rice is always a good combination

salads w/ simple dressing. oil + red wine vinegar, some lemon juice, salt/pepper, other random shit. can toss in all sorts of shit like chopped peppers, carrots, tomatoes, nuts, cheese, blah blah. could add fish or chicken to salads

grilled/pan seared fish w/ some kind of vegetables

could always make chicken or fish tacos, maybe fajitas. just don't soak everything in grease/oil while you're cooking it

soups are pretty easy if you combine shit you like w/ some stock and blend it all up. would probably taste better than what you get in a can, better for you too, most likely

if you want mac and cheese, make a roux (equal parts fat [oil/butter/etc] and flour) and cook it a for a couple minutes. then add warm milk or cream and cook another couple minutes till it thickens. off of heat, add cheese and let it get all melty/gooey (cheddar, gruyere, fontina, mont jack, etc). add pasta. you can bake it if you want w/ breadcrumbs/more cheese/whatever. add bacon if you want, who cares. do all sorts of shit
 
Weioo said:
Another person mentioned this in my OP that was placed under general disc.... Does NOT sound good... What do you do, throw it in a bowl and eat turkey/peas with a bit of salt or something? The idea of simply cooking ground meat and just eating it with noodles or something else in it just doesn't sound appetizing to me at all.
Click to expand...

haha I thought these were just simple,quick,cheap and healthy-
no one said they had to taste good lol

I like it though

Yeah i throw it all in a big bowl and eat it with a big spoon
bout to make it now
 
also go to bj's if you have a membership and buy large cuts of meat, break them down into meal sized portions and freeze.
 
pork roast with fried apples

step 1: season pork roast, add new potatoes and baby carrots to roaster pan. throw in some water. cook for 25 minutes.
step 2: toss apple slices with some white & some brown sugar. cook with 2 tbsp butter

wicked easy, done in 45 minutes including prep time, and is all around wonderful
maybe not so healthy, but better than chef boyardee or kraft mac and cheese
 
I have several, because I'm dirt poor. Buying meat with the bone-in seems to have helped keep my costs down (i.e. bone-in chicken halves), as well as paying attention to the produce sales. Here's a couple recipes that I like, and the only special kitchen things I have is a cast-iron skillet and a crock pot.

Pork roast + sauerkrat + crockpot + 8hrs = TASTY (if you like german food)

Chicken Halves (i.e drumstick + thigh), whatever seasoning you like, and oil. Heat a pan up medium high heat. WHile the pan heats up, put some oil onto the chicken and dust it with the seasoning on both sides. Use tongs to put the chicken into the hot pan; and sear both sides. Then throw them into an oven preheated to 375 for 45 min, bam delicious chicken is done. This technique of searing to brown the outside of the meat before roasting works for any chicken (i think it really improves bone-in meat a lot), beef, pork whatever.

Get lean ground meat in a huge package, take whatever leftover bread you got (stale or not) and soak it in milk (long enough to absorb the milk, but not long enough for the bread to start breaking down). Pull out the soaked bread and mix it with the meat and a pack of Lipton Onion soup (The Dry kind, I believe they come in a box that has 3 packs). Put into a pan and bake @ 375-400. You just made meatloaf. I do this a lot and usually throw in leftover vegetables chopped/diced up pretty small and it works well. Especially if you have shallots/onions/garlic to throw in too.

Mix parboiled macaroni (parboiled = partially boiled, cooked almost all the way) with browned ground meat with a can of tomato sauce or can tomato chunks in tomato sauce. Bake for awhile (350? for 30 minutes-ish), done delicious meal. My parents call it Johnny Marzetti for an unknown reason. IF you wanna get fancy melt cheese on the top in the last 5 min of baking. This is also good if you switch out the tomato and ground meat for canned tuna, and peas. Pasta is cheap as fuck, just dont go crazy with spaghetti or you'll have a hard time fitting through doors like DrJonez

Should I keep going?
 
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why does quick, simple and cheap have to mean prepackaged?

how about you go buy some fresh halibut, dust it in flour, cook it in some olive oil and serve it with a tossed salad?

a squeeze of lemon when the fish is done is all you need.
 
If you're having money troubles, don't have the time to prep for meals, or just fail at cooking... or all of the above... pick yourself up a crock pot. Can't go wrong with it... pick up bulk produce n meat for yourself for the week. Let that bitch slow cook a roast, chops, chili, stew, soups, whatever you like. Staying away from pre-packaged and freezer foods saves a fuck ton of money.

Do a google search for crock pot recipes, or go take out a book. There's all kinds of easy, healthy shit you can make with it, and all while you're at work/class/etc Plus you can make quarts upon quarts of it, throw it in some gladware containers and pop it in the freezer.

Hell i've even made ribs in the fucker. Pays for itself.
 
BadMoFo said:
why does quick, simple and cheap have to mean prepackaged?

how about you go buy some fresh halibut, dust it in flour, cook it in some olive oil and serve it with a tossed salad?

a squeeze of lemon when the fish is done is all you need.
Click to expand...

halibut ain't cheap.
 
use pollock instead

and if you can't cook the recipes i post, you shouldn't be allowed to eat. it doesn't need to be in "mastering the art" to be good
 
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