~$5 Meal Ideas~

[havanadaydreamin]

I actually made this the other night and my picky 22 month old loved it!

I was so surprised that she ate a whole bowl of it since my DH kept on saying that she wouldn't like it.

Originally Posted by keegans_mommy My family LOVE this: Sausage and rice casserol 1 roll of sausage (cost anywhere between $1 and $3?) 2 cups dry rice (makes 4 cups cooked) 2 cans of cream of mush. soup salt, pepper and garlic to taste brown sausage while cooking the rice, in a big bowl mix the mush soup, salt, pepper and garlic add all the ingre. to that and put into a casserol dish. Bake at 400 deg. until hot all the way through. Super cheap!

[rowynne]

YUMMY!! So glad to see we have some new recipes to try. I am making the Peach Chicken right now (trying to do it in my crockpot for a change/ease).

Luckily chicken tenders & gr beef are both on sale this week for less than $2/lb! Its the ONLY time I buy it & I always buy 8-10lbs at a time.

[nextelgirl]

5 russet potatoes ($2?)
1 can of cut green beans ($.50)
4 cooked bacon strips ($.25?)
1/4 cup Olive oil(any oil will do)($.75?)
2 heaping TBSP Flour(pennies!)
Paprika spice
Salt
Pepper

Fry up some bacon strips in a pan. Set aside.
Peel and cut up potatoes. Boil till they are tender, but not to soft. Make sure there is plenty of water in with them after they are done boiling.
Add can of green beans
Add as much salt, pepper and paprika you like for taste.
In a separate skillet add enough oil to cover the bottom. Heat till it starts simmering. Slowly add 2 heaping tbsp of flour to that simmering oil and mix it well. You must be quick so it doesn't get clumpy. Turn off heat and dump that mixture into your potatoes. Turn it all on to a rolling boil and continue stirring. The flour/oil mix will thicken the meal. Tear up the bacon and add it.
It'll be one big pot of food. It's a Bosnian food dish and is served with fresh warm bread.

[bean3]

This sounds odd, but it is SOOO good!

Sloppy Joes:
Brown a pound of ground beef. Drain of excess fat. Add a can of Campbell's chicken gumbo sound (the entire can). Add ketchup (maybe half a regular sized bottle). Mustard to taste. Let it simmer to cook down and meld the flavors.

My family has been making this as long as I can remember; I don't even know what Manwich tastes like!

[kimsclothkids]

Yum Yum ! I am going to make the taco cups tonight!!
Ok, Here goes,
Cheese burger casserole:
Ingredients:
1 can cheap small biscuits
1 Cup Velveta cheese
1 Lb hamburger meat (or turkey ground)
1 Cup salsa

Place your biscuits in the bottom of a 9x9 square dish, press to make a "crust" Cook and drain your meat, stir in salsa, Layer on top of the uncooked biscuits, meat mixture, cubed cheese, meat mixture, cubed cheese. Cook like it tells you to on the biscuit can. YUMMY!!

How about "Breakfast for dinner"!
Ingredients:
Biscuits
Milk
Sausage
Flour
Salt and Pepper
Eggs

In a saucepan, cook your sausage, when sausage is cooked, sprinkle about 2 1/2 Tbls of flour over the sausage and drippings, stir until a paste is made. (Cook it about a minute for good taste) Add milk a little at a time, always stiring, When you have enough gravy to feed your family, and the gravy is thick enough, serve over biscuits. Make some eggs to go with it and there you have it!!
Oh yeah, when you start to add your milk, go ahead and cook your biscuits. They will be nice and hot when you add the gravy! YUM YUM!!

Last but not least,
Poe mans supper!
Ingredients:
Ground hamburger meat 1 lb
6 potatos
1 can diced tomatos
1 Large onion
corn
bread

All you do is get some foil, Make a hamburger patty, Cut potatos in "potato chips" thin slices, Cut onion into rings. Put your hamburger patty in foil first, then put your potatos in next, then the onions, and last your tomatos. This is a single serving thing. You make as much or as little as you want to. Fire up the grill and cook for about an hour or until the meat is cooked through. Bring it in, or better yet, have a meal outside. Give one "pouch" to everone in the family, open it up and enjoy what is inside. It is so good and such a fun way to eat! Make some corn to go with it and serve bread and butter!
Mmmmm...

I hope you like these, My 2 year old eats the heck out of all of these meals!

[Sage Bebe]

I am going to try breakfast for dinner tonight. Brilliant why didn't I think of that.

[bellbanzhof]

CRAB ALFREDO

1 can of crabmeat ($1.50 at Big Lots)
1 pkg. any pasta $1
1 can / jar of alfredo sauce $2.50 or less

[Sage Bebe]

Originally Posted by marvelous Great thread. Dinner tomorrow is coming off of this thread. I got this off of the Kraft website, but it has become one of our "regulars". Speedy Egg Bake 6 eggs ($0.50) 6 flour tortillas ($1) 2 tomatoes, sliced ($1) 1 cup of yellow cheese (cheddar, mexican blend, colby, whatever you have) ($1) Scramble eggs and season to taste. Put two of the tortillas in the bottom of a pie plate. Layer with half of the eggs, 1/3 of tomatoes, and 1/3 of the cheese. Repeat: 2 tortillas, eggs, tomatoes. The last layer should be two tortillas, tomatoes and cheese. Bake in 375 oven about 5-10 minutes. We usually just let the cheese melt. Yummy! Even my 15-month old loves it!

We tried this last night. I only had 3 eggs so I half it and it turned out great. There are only 2 adults and one 2 year old eating in my house the baby is not old enought. It was enough but my husband wanted seconds and we didn't have much left. So next time I will do the whole amount, and have left overs I am sure for breakfast. thanks for sharing

[kimsclothkids]

We also love BBQ cups:
3/4# hamburger ($1.25)
1/2 jar BBQ sauce (or 1/2 can sloppy Joe sauce) ($1)
1 can of biscuts ($1)
1/2 chunck shredded cheese ($1)
1 can corn ($.50)

Yum Yum! That stuff was great! I just made it for lunch and it was yummy! Thanks for the recipe!

[basylica]

Chicken soup:
canned chicken from sams/costco (I think it's 12oz? just shy of 1lb) (6/$10 = 1.67)
added to a wyler's soup mix in my crockpot for 4hrs. (3 dollars I believe?)
Homemade yeast rolls from a pillsbury mix, super quick and easy (I think a dollar, dollar fifty)

This makes enough food for 5-6 people IMHO, or if you have a 300lbs DH, 4 meals

Cheeseburger rice with bacon :
1lb of ground beef
1-2 cans of tomato "sauce" (the thin puree, I would use 2 6oz cans or 1 10oz)
1 package of onion soup mix
4-6c rice
6+ strips of bacon
cheese (I think the original recipe calls for like 6-8oz, but I use about half of a BIG block. I like cheese!)

Brown beef, season with onion soup mix and any additional seasonings (I like to splash in balsamic or wost, etc) and tomato. Original recipe called for tomato soup mix, but I really think this manner is better. you could easily add stewed tomatoes or diced and break them up a bit if you like tomato chunks!
add rice and cheese and stir until combined, then crumble in bacon you've precooked.
I like adding it to each plate, otherwise the bacon gets soggy.

Seriously, 4 HUNGRY adults ate about 2-3 helpings worth and there was still about half this left. I'm the eldest of 6 kids/8 adults who could polish off 3 packages of hamburger helper, rolls, and veg and still be hungry, and this would definately filled everyone up and possibly still have leftovers.
Freezes and reheats ok, but you loose the creamy/gooey cheesey thing (and bacon added will be soft not crispy...I like it crunchy!) but tastes pretty darn good. DH and my sis managed to polish the leftovers off pretty easy.

It's supposed to be a mock cheeseburger flavor, so you could do a salad with it, or add in veggies....
I actually half this recipe and still have leftovers usually!! (2 hungry adults and 1 toddler who eats more than I do!)

Cresent roll egg bake thingy:
(basically a quiche)

1 pkg of cresent rolls, layed down in a 9*13 pan
eggs (5 or so)
mixed with some milk (3/4c I believe)
salt/pepper/oregano
cheese (any, I use colby jack for nearly everything so I have it onhand) approx 1-1.5c shredded

Sprinkle cheese over rolls layed flat in bottom of pad, add additional toppings and then pour egg mixture over.

Bake at 375 for 20 min.

Swiss and ham cubes is a good mixture
chedder and broccoli
plain cheese
black olives and bacon
sausage crumbles
hamburger
baby spinich leaves

Etc etc. good for leftovers