7 Cheap Easy Dinner Ideas To Make Tonight
Check out these inexpensive, easy, dinner ideas for feeding a family delicious meals on a budget.
With prices soaring at the grocery store, now is the perfect time to have budget family meals on hand for creating recipes that won't break the bank.
Your family will love these family meal ideas that are easy to make for creating delicious dinners on busy weeknights.
Budget Family Meals
Feeding a family does not have to be expensive.
You can create delicious family meals with simple staple ingredients on a budget.
These homecooked family dinner ideas are created to stretch your dollar without compromising on nutrition and taste.
Follow along to discover these quick family meals you need to know.
Quick Family Meals
Family meals are so important in creating life long memories your children will cherish.
They will one day remember the scents of their favorite dinner that brought them such comfort and joy growing up.
Unfortunately, many parents struggle with creating traditional family meals simply because of a lack of time and resources.
This list delicious family meals offers comforting recipe ideas that can be prepared quickly and inexpensively.
List of Cheap Easy Dinner Recipe Ideas
#1 Homemade Easy Chili Recipe
Chili has to be one of the easiest go to meals for creating dinners on a budget.
With a handful of staple ingredients you can create a hardy chili that is perfect for any day of the week.
Top each bowl with shredded cheese and pair with crackers for a simple weeknight dinner that is cheap to make.
The best part about chili is you can repurpose the leftovers for making awesome next day lunches.
Chili can be served the next day over baked potatoes, chili dogs, or even served up as gourmet nachos with a creamy homemade ranch sauce.
#2 Simple Sheet Pan Dinner Ideas
A sheet pan dinner is the optimal easy dinner recipe for feeding a family.
Sheet pan dinners can be prepared easily from vegetables and meats you already have on hand.
Just about any vegetable can be prepared on a sheet pan and roasted until desired softness is achieved and then paired nicely with meats like shrimp, chicken, salmon, or sausage.
One awesome sheet pan recipe that is a weeknight dinner go to simply combines potatoes and carrots tossed in olive oil and seasonings then covered with aluminum foil and cooked for 40 minutes at 375 degrees F.
On a separate sheet pan, Italian sausage covered with sliced onions cooks at the same time on the lower rack again covered with aluminum foil.
About 10-15 minutes out, you can add shrimp to your Italian sausage sheet pan and frozen corn on the cob to your potato pan then continue to cook until shrimp is pink in color and corn has softened.
This combination is absolutely delicious and very versatile.
Feel free to mix and match various vegetable and meat combinations to create simple quick meals for your family with little clean up and on the cheap.
Some more great sheet pan recipe pairings include:
Salmon + Asparagus + Roasted Red Potatoes
Roasted Chicken + Brussel Sprouts + Sweet Potatoes
Shrimp + Broccoli + Zucchini + Carrots
Chicken + Peppers + Onions + Mushrooms
#3 Cheap Pork Shoulder Recipe Ideas
Pork shoulder has to be on the list when you need cheap dinner ideas that stretch.
A simple cut of pork shoulder can give you an awesome ingredient to use in a variety of tasty meals all week long and the best part is it is super easy to make.
Pork shoulder is one of my favorite cuts of meat because it is so versatile and did I mention it is very inexpensive for feeding a family on a budget.
Cooking a pork shoulder slow and low in a Dutch oven will give you a succulent pork ingredient that can be served as carnitas, BBQ pork sandwiches, loaded nachos, or simply paired with rice and beans for an authentic Spanish meal idea.
Pork shoulder is so easy to make I literally season with salt, pepper, garlic, paprika, and cumin then place sliced onions over the top setting the shoulder in the Dutch oven fat side up.
Add enough water so that half of the pork shoulder is submerged then put the lid and cook slow and low at 350 degrees F for about 1.5-2 hours.
Boom dinner is done.
You can also serve this with potatoes and carrots for a classic American traditional family meal that goes perfectly with a serving of steamed rice.
To do this simply place cut potatoes and baby carrots into the Dutch oven and cook it all together slow and low at 350 degrees F for 1.5-2 hours or until pork has reached an internal temperature of 145 degrees F.
It doesn't get much easier than that and you will have plenty of leftovers.
#4 Homemade Comfort Soup
Soup is an easy dinner recipe idea that can be made cheap.
My favorite soup to make is chicken soup with potatoes, carrots, green onions, and fresh cilantro.
This recipe is great served with crackers, freshly baked bread, or a crisp salad.
#5 Easy Spaghetti With Meat Sauce
Nothing is easier than whipping up a big pot of spaghetti with meat sauce.
This is one of my favorite family dinner meals because it is easy to make, versatile, and inexpensive.
This easy dinner idea can be made quickly with plenty of leftovers that make for a great next day lunch idea.
With just four ingredients you can create a big pot of spaghetti to feed the whole family.
Spaghetti is simple just place pasta noodles in a pot of boiling water that has been salted and cook until softened then drain.
In a separate pan, sear ground beef until cooked then drain grease and add a jar of your favorite pasta sauce.
To add a hint of sweetness to your dish add 2-3 tablespoons of ketchup.
You can even stretch the sauce even more by adding a little water.
Pair it with a salad or toast and you have a delicious easy weeknight dinner the whole family will love.
For a next day meal, consider serving spaghetti with a fried egg and sliced avocado.
Yum!
#6 Easy Stir Fried Rice
Stir fried rice is another cheap budget friendly dinner idea that is simple to make.
The great thing about stir fried rice is it is the perfect opportunity to use any produce that is about to turn bad.
When cooking stir fried rice, I steam a pot of rice separately and then combine ingredients at the end.
Often I use ingredients like carrots, broccoli, zucchini, onions, corn, mushrooms, cabbage, or green peas in a stir fry.
Meats like shrimp, steak, and chicken work well in this recipe.
Just use what you have on hand for this easy weeknight dinner.
Cook the rice separately, then sauté your vegetables, cook your meats through, then combine all cooked ingredients and add soy sauce to taste.
This is a must have easy weeknight dinner idea that is budget friendly and typically yields plenty of leftovers.
#7 Easy To Make Chicken Salad With Rotisserie Chicken
Budget friendly recipes can be easily made with ingredients like a store bought rotisserie chicken.
Whenever I make chicken salad, I always start out with a premade rotisserie chicken that I shred by hand then simply add mayo, white onion, and seedless purple grapes.
With a little sprinkle of salt and pepper you are good to go.
This easy chicken salad recipe is great served on toast, on a croissant, or even on its own with some sweet potato fries and sliced avocado.
You can even make your chicken salad more gourmet by serving it with salad toppings like lettuce, tomato, and bacon because let's face it everything is better with bacon.
This inexpensive easy to make chicken salad recipe is cheap and so versatile making it a must have for family meals on a budget.
Family Meal Ideas On A Budget Are Easy To Make
It is great to know budget friendly meals that are easy to make when feeding a family with limited time and resources.
With these simple easy to make recipe ideas you can create delicious homecooked meals your family will enjoy that don't break the bank.
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