No need for take-out! I know , I know. It can be really hard to find the time to get a budget friendly meal to the table each day. But, believe me when I tell you, it can be done! I’ve put together some super quick, super cheap meal ideas you can use on the busiest of days.
Make sure you always have the ingredients for your favorite quick meal to use on those nights when dinner becomes an “emergency”!
Super Quick, Super Cheap Meal Ideas
Rice bowls
Rice bowls are a weekly go-to at our house. Typically the bowls have either a Mexican or Asian theme, but they could be whatever you want. Plus they can be meatless, which makes them a great, budget friendly meal.
What’s really fantastic about these is everyone can make them exactly how they like them. I just put the rice, veggies, meat, beans, and/or cheese in bowls on the table and we each create our own meal. (I always prepare enough rice for dinner and lunches the next day.)
Mexican topping suggestions: seasoned meat (ground beef, shredded beef, chicken), pinto or black beans, refried beans, tomatoes, peppers, avocado, corn, guacamole, onions, shredded cheese, salsa, hot sauce, sour cream
Asian topping suggestions: seasoned meat (ground beef, shredded beef, chicken), onions, peppers, green beans, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, carrots, broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms, soy sauce, sesame oil, teriyaki
Pasta
Pasta is relatively cheap and can be used to create a super quick meal! Simply add steamed veggies, a little butter and some parmesan cheese for a simple, healthy meal. Or keep a jar of pasta sauce and/or pesto on hand to have dinner ready in 15 minutes or less. Mac and cheese is another quick, cheap pasta option, and is surprisingly easy to make from scratch.
Eggs
There are soooo many ways you can have eggs for dinner. Eggs are a cheap source of protein and are tasty to boot! Here are some dinner suggestions with eggs as the feature ingredient:
Frittata: All you need is an oven safe skillet, eggs, a few veggies and cheese for a frittata. A frittata is started on the stove top, finished under the broiler and literally takes less than 10 minutes to make. Here is a great recipe to get you started. Add whatever ingredients you like!
Scrambled eggs: Who doesn’t love piping hot, scrambled eggs? Add some sausage, cheese and/or salsa or throw them in a tortilla for a breakfast burrito.
Here’s another idea I’ve used for scrambled eggs: Take a loaf of french bread, cut out a “V” out of the top, down the middle and “stuff” the bread with scrambled eggs and sausage, top with cheese and put it under the broiler for a couple of minutes. Yum!
Egg sandwich or muffin: Fry up an egg or two, toast bread or an English muffin, add a slice of cheese and wah-lah…dinner. (Canadian bacon, bacon or sausage patties can be added too.)
Sandwiches
It’s okay to have sandwiches for dinner! Just add a veggie and/or fruit to boost the health factor!
We’re having grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for dinner tonight. It’s one of my self-proclaimed no-cooking nights (which I’ve had my fair share of lately!).
Grilled Cheese: Add some butter and grill these on the stove-top or just throw them in the toaster oven! Add ham or turkey and add a sliced tomato and onion after grilling if that’s your thing.
Baked Ham and Cheese Party Sandwiches: We tried these for the first time a few weeks ago and have made them three times since. The kids love them. Here is my recipe, adapted from this one. I’ve also used plain slider buns and different types of cheese and they were still really good (and quick and easy!)
Baked Ham and Cheese Sandwiches (serves 6)
12 Hawaiian Rolls (or other rolls, buns)
¼ cup melted butter
1 ½ teaspoons dijon mustard
½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Dash of garlic powder
½ pound deli ham
½ pound cheese
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine melted butter, mustard, Worcestershire, and garlic powder in small bowl.
- Place rolls in oven-safe baking dish.
- Remove tops of the rolls.
- Place ham on rolls and top with slices of cheese.
- Place tops of rolls back on.
- Pour butter/mustard mixture over rolls.
- Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until cheese melt and tops of rolls begin to brown.
Tuna melt: Make your favorite tuna salad recipe, place the mixture on hamburger buns, top with cheddar cheese and bake under broiler for 3-4 minutes. Here is a good recipe to try.
Baked potato bar
Did you know you can make “baked” potatoes in the slow cooker? Poke the potatoes a few times with a fork, wrap in foil and place in the slow cooker on low for 7-8 hours (on high for 4-5 hours). This works for busy days though, I admit, I’m a sucker for an oven baked potato.
Just like the rice bowls, everyone can add the toppings they like.
Toppings: bacon, sour cream, shredded cheese, cheese sauce, chili, olives, salt, pepper, butter, green onions, sausage, broccoli, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, tomatoes, black beans, corn, salsa, spaghetti sauce, pesto
Tortillas
Tortillas are perfect to have on hand for busy nights! Here are some suggestions for super quick meals:
Tortilla “pizza”: Just like regular pizza, only the tortilla serves as the crust. Add your favorite toppings, put them on a cookie sheet and bake at 425 degrees for 8-12 minutes (keep an eye on them, as it’s a very “thin” crust and can burn quickly!).
Burritos/Soft shelled tacos: This is another go-to quick meal at our house. Cook up some seasoned meat or leave the meat out and just use black or pinto beans and some cheese (I sometimes add corn too)! Don’t forget tomatoes, onions, sour cream and salsa for toppings!
Quesadilla: Again, you can use whatever ingredients you have on hand, including chicken, beef, onions, and or peppers, but cheese is a requirement. I like to put the ingredients on half of a tortilla, fold the tortilla in half and fry it in a skillet for a tasty “fried” treat.
Breakfast burrito: Put scrambled eggs, cheese, and salsa in the tortilla and wrap it up (sausage is good to add too). You can warm these in the microwave or oven if you’d like. Plus, these can be made ahead and frozen to warm up later!
Tortilla roll ups: Add a little seasoning to cream cheese (such as ranch dressing mix), spread over tortillas, add veggies and/or deli meat of choice and roll up. These can be made ahead and kept in the fridge all week for quick lunches or snack attacks!
Now I’m hungry. I might have to make some if those rice bowls 🙂
They’re on queue for our dinner tonight! 🙂
Eggs are my go to cheap, easy meal. They take basically no time to make, so it’s hard to make the excuse that I don’t have time to cook. Sometimes, I’ll cook up some rice and then throw a sunny side up egg on top. That’s the cheapest, decent meal you can make!
Great, cheap and healthy. Can’t beat that. Thanks for the great idea, FP!
Good thing I read this post RIGHT before lunch haha 🙂
Thanks for sharing all of your recipes!
I love cooking myself and trying new idea, but the best part is saving a ton of money from eating out.
Two meals I love to cook are curry and fried rice. With curry, I typically use chicken, potatoes, onions, garlic, and of course rice. If I have time I always try to make it from scratch; if not I’ll use curry paste or some prepackaged version.
With fried rice I love mixing it up a bit. Most of the time I use chicken as the protein, but will use pork occasionally. The good thing about fried rice is it’s relatively quick to cook after you cut everything up and you can pretty much put anything in it. The only suggestion I would say is to use day old rice so it absorbs all of the oil better.
Do you have a recipe for your chicken or pork fried rice? I love ordering fried rice out but I’m not sure how to cook it.
Try this recipe TJ. Simple but good. Plus you can add whatever veggies you want.
Sure thing TJ!
I cook my protein on the pan first. Meanwhile I’ll cut up my veggies. I usually like to put onions, corn, broccoli, garlic, and green onions in my fried rice.
After the chicken is cooked, I clean out the pan and cut the chicken into smaller pieces. Then I scramble an egg in the pan, put back in the cut up chicken and veggies. Finally, I put in the day old rice after that. I only season (with salt and pepper) after the rice and all of the ingredients are in.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for sharing, Andrew! Sounds delicious!
Thanks for sharing, Andrew! Rice is a staple at our house. I buy 20-25 lb bags at a time and we go through it relatively quickly. Great tip on using the day old rice for fried rice (I’ve only ever used fresh cooked and it gets sticky).
My wife loves to sautee veggies. They’re quick and easy to make for us and always delicious 🙂
Sauteed veggies go with anything too – rice, pasta or just as a side dish. Thank you!
Yes! We have been eating a lot of pimento cheese sandwiches, tortilla type dishes, and such these past few weeks. And now that it’s cooler, veggie soup is making it’s weekly rounds (all to my kid’s dismay, lol!)
Thanks for sharing, Latoya! Veggie soup is a great, quick recipe. Plus it’s easy to put in the slow cooker.
Eggs are definitely a quick and cheap breakfast meal. If my wife wasn’t allergic to them I’m sure we’d both be having them more often! I still try to have them about twice a week. Otherwise oatmeal is another good option.
Thanks, DC! We even eat eggs for dinner sometimes. Oatmeal is definitely a cheap, quick, healthy option.
My mom used to make potato omelettes on italian bread for dinner once in a while and I always loved it. It doesn’t go over well in my house for some reason. Id be interested to see your rice bowl recipes. The one kitchen appliance that I actually use is the rice cooker that my sister gave me as a gift. It makes the process so effortless, and the clean up. So any way I can figure out how to incorporate more rice into my meals would be a big dinnertime help. These are all great ideas. I need to hang this on my fridge!
Potato omelettes sound yummy to me, Linda! I have always wondered if the rice cooker is easier to clean up. I cook rice in a saucepan on the stove top, but it always makes a mess when it starts to boil and I don’t get to the lid in time. Honestly, I don’t really use many recipes for my rice bowls. The only actual recipe I use is this Korean Ground Beef recipe (my kids will always eat this). Otherwise, I just season some meat and/or beans, chop a few veggies (and sometimes saute them) and throw it all on the table with the rice and other add-ons.
I might never make rice again if it broke. The cleanup is like night and day. You put the rice and water in, press a button, walk away and you’re done. It can stay in there for hours once it’s cooked. A simple nonstick bowl is all that needs to be cleaned. I can’t recommend it enough… Checking out your recipe – excited!
Thanks, Linda! It’s on my holiday wish list. If I can make it ahead and cleanup is a breeze, count me in.
We do lots of “breakfast for dinner”, eggs, cheese grits and fruit, or pancakes/french toast. We tend to have a lot of rice and beans and pasta too, as well as quesadillas and burritos. And, there’s usually some soup in the freezer we can defrost.
And anytime Little Bit won’t eat what we cook, she gets a spoon full of peanut butter and a serving of apple sauce.
Same here, Emily. We usually have breakfast for dinner once a week. My kids went through a stage (7-10) where they’d eat about anything I cooked. As teens, they seem to be more picky. If they don’t want what’s for dinner, they are responsible for preparing their own (typically a sandwich, ramen noodles, mac and cheese, or frozen burrito).
I love your “V’ idea for eggs! Now, if only I could get Mr. Groovy back to eating bread and potatoes. Even grilled cheese and French toast are off the menu. But he feels much better so I won’t complain. We eat scrambled eggs for dinner at least once a week. I mix in shredded spinach, a touch of cream, dill, basil and feta cheese. Another thing you might substitute for rice is couscous if your kids will eat it. It’s quick to prepare – 5 minutes of boiling in a covered pot, remove from heat, let stand covered for 5 minutes.
Thanks, Mrs. Groovy. Your eggs sound amazing – love the idea of putting the spinach and feta with them. I have tried couscous and the kids do eat it pretty well – I typically mix it with pesto. I understand Mr. Groovy’s thing with bread – I don’t eat it often either (because I feel better when I don’t), so my meals typically look a little different than the rest of the family’s.
Love these meal ideas. My wife is going back to work and with 2 little ones, we’re always on the look out for quick and cheap meals. Rice bowls and pasta are generally our go to for quick meals.
Thanks, Andrew! You will definitely need some quick meals with both of you working. You just can’t beat rice and pasta (I also like quinoa for a change of pace). The slow cooker is your friend too!
We just tried our slow cooker for the first time…it was okay. Would love to hear your quick and easy recipes for the slow cooker!
I’ll put that on my list of future posts! Thanks for the post suggestion, Andrew!
If my wife noticed me commenting on a blog post about cooking, there would be a major rolling of the eyes lol. I’m not a great cook, perhaps that’s why eggs are such a staple food. 🙂 As you mentioned, salsa and cheese is a great way to add flavor to scrambled eggs, I probably do that at least once/week.
Eggs = perfect, frugal meal! 🙂 Scrambled with salsa and cheese is the best.
Good thing I read this right after lunch! We always keep eggs and pasta on hand because of their flexibility. Eggs are the most flexible as you can have breakfast for any meal and you can cook them in so many different ways as you have mentioned.
When I was single, I always had tortillas in stock because of their limitless options as well. Quesadillas were my standby.
Quesadillas are a great fast food! The kids always eat them too. I tend to keep rice, pasta, cheese, tortillas, eggs and canned/frozen veggies. You can come up with so many meal possibilities with those ingredients.
Our quick meals are grilled cheese, soup, tuna sandwiches, spaghetti, fried rice and breakfast for supper. I don’t mind buying some convenience foods such as pre-made pizza crusts we can add our own toppings to. If I use a pre-made crust instead of making it myself, it is still cheaper than getting take-out pizza.
Thanks so much, Carrie! I love the idea of keeping the pizza crusts on hand…I mean, who doesn’t love pizza! And, you’re so right, it’s much cheaper than take-out (I know Aldi has pre-made crusts for less than $3). I pick up frozen pizzas when they’re really cheap to have in the freezer for backups too.
Our go to easy meal is chopped cabbage, a can of tomatoes w/wo chilies, chopped onion, and AmyLou’s chicken sausage (Costco) , although any sausages will work. Toss it all in a pot, add a about 1/4 cup of water, pinch of salt, put the lid on and let it cook down. Less than 10 minutes to prep and cooks stove top on moderate heat in 30-45 minutes. Easy, nutritious and relatively cheap, but most importantly just good food.
This sounds delicious (and healthy too), Alicia! Thanks so much for sharing! I love cabbage, so I’m putting it on my meal plan for next week. 10 minutes of prep is super fast, plus it’s cheap. Win-win!
I’m no cook, but I made a rice bowl this evening and I’m pretty pleased with the results. I even have leftovers for tomorrow. Thanks for sharing!
That’s great, Colleen! I’m glad you liked the rice bowl. I love them since they can be customized to individual tastes (great for picky eaters!). Plus, rice is pretty easy to cook and is perfect for leftovers.
This has quickly become my favorite blog! Great meal ideas!!! Thank you so much ❤️️