(Originally posted on Wednesday, April 7, 2010)
Question:
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!
- Off the cuff, some light and cheap dinners that come to mind are:
- Potato Bars (baked potatoes topped with canned 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 dressed up canned tomato soup (add Italian additions to the soup 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 quesadillas with cheese, or spruced up with shredded Mexican chicken, black or refired 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 also inexpensive and tasty in a quesadilla.
- 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, tortillini, etc.
- Marinated and baked chicken with a side salad and baked potato. You can find yummy and inexpensive marinades to mix up the flavors.
- 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!
- BLT's which we haven't had forever.
- Deli sandwiches with soup are nice.
- Add low fat sausage to your canned spaghetti sauce.
- Pancakes or even French toast are cheap.
Anyway, those are a few thoughts! I hope it helps!
