Budget-Friendly Meal Ideas for 2 Adults & 1 Toddler: Quick, Easy Recipes with Leftovers

[lovelife]

Rice, lentils, quinoa as bases and then get meats that are on clearance. You will cook and freeze the meats so ur fine!

 

[fanofchristnr1]

Mushroom burgers. Ground beef fried up with a onion and then add can of cream of mushroom soup. Serve on hamburger buns

 

[superpeople]

Leftover recipes is what you really want to look for. A whole chicken dinner can become chicken sandwiches for lunch and chicken soup/ stew for the following dinner and lunch.
Sundays roast beef dinner can be treated the same way.

 

[dovetouch]

Soups! They may be expensive at first if you don’t have a lot of the ingredients but you can always freeze and save for later. Plus you’ll have those seasonings for something else.

 

[starwarsdude]

Frozen bag of tater tots, 1-2 polish sausage, bbq sauce, and shredded cheese.
Cook tater tots 10-15 minutes, I pre fry my sausage while the tots are cooking. Then top the tots with the sausage, bbq sauce, and cheese and bake for another 5-10 minutes. Where I live it costs about $5-$7 and feeds 2 adults, an 8 year old, and a 4 year old.

 

[eilene]

Get a rotisserie chicken from Costco or Sam’s for $5. Make tacos, burritos casseroles etc with it and then make chicken stock with the carcass and leftover veggie scraps

 

[truthfulsock]

Spaghetti
1 lb pack of noodles
1 jar pasta sauce
1/2 lb of ground beef.
Makes enough for 5 of us with leftovers for lunch the next day.

 

[sweetmeggie]

Anything with pasta or rice. Frozen chicken breasts always come in clutch with a crockpot or insta and any canned veg of choice with really whatever sauce you prefer. Be it tomato, Alfredo, cream of mushroom with some sour cream or just butter, olive oil and garlic. Also bacon if you can add it. Kids and husbands alike enjoy bacon.

 

[mononokehime]

Hamburger helper, tuna noodle casserole (2 boxes of Mac n cheese prepared by box add a can of cream of mushroom, 2 cans of tuna drained, and 1 can of peas and mix all together after the mac and cheese is made), chili dogs and tater tots or just the chili dogs, salads (we use the shredded lettuce for $1 something a bag), tater tot casserole, baked chicken (aldis has $.99 a lb chicken drum sticks. One thing that helps to is buy the family size meat and break it down into smaller ziploc portions. Meat is cheaper when you buy it in bulk.

 

[zykiel]

Spaghetti

 

[joejoejoe11]

Canned or frozen veggies help stretch your budget. Beans and cornbread are budget friendly.
If you have an Aldi’s you can save alot of money by shopping there.
Skinless chicken thighs have great flavor, are moist and cheaper than chicken breasts.
Leftover Spaghetti noodles can be frozen so can leftover spaghetti sauce.
Don’t let anything go to waste.

 

[crf]

@joejoejoe11 Aldi's has Great fruit - veg selection and discount items.

 

[harrisonford100]

@fratbrat

 

[bls]

Rotisserie chicken debone chicken pot pie, or and to noodles and broth, Sheppard pie. Breakfast for supper

 

[letsoara]

Lasagna and ziti

 

[dante116]

I usually prep chicken in the crockpot and add in a ranch seasoning packet and bottle of mild Buffalo sauce and make Buffalo chicken wraps / or quesadillas for lunches and it’s a big hit! Add whatever toppings
Chicken pasta salad is another good one too because you can make a ton of it for pretty cheap. (Cook pasta, add spinach, cooked chicken (I use crockpot chicken), and 3 Tbs of garlic parm dressing). Put in the fridge.

 

[promocodeshop]

Chicken in a croc pot with cream of chicken and cream of mushroom with a chicken bouillon cube and garlic. Chicken and gravy with mashed potatoes ans veg. Then left over you can shred chicken add a little milk add frozen mixed veggies and cook until hot you can have chicken gravy over biscuits. BBQ chicken you can do on stove top and with left overs you can shred add more bbq and make sandwiches. Hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes.

 

[samsonites]

I’ve found that costco is very help for buying bulk meats and I just buy frozen veggies cause they are cheaper and they last way longer, Uhm an easy meal that will leave left overs pasta with meat sauce, any kind of ground meat with diced carrots onion garlic sauté then throw in your meat add some canned peas and cook meat till done then add sauce good for leftovers and super easy and quick

 

[ubutyf]

Beans and weenies are usually a hit with kids. I put bacon on top of mine. Super cheap and good

 

[wmaphumulo]

This is super easy to make. Cooks all in one pot.