What is your most frugal meal you serve? - Page 10

Every Saturday we have "freezer fiesta" or "fridge fiesta". Any leftovers from the week are put out on the table and it's a grab fest. If there isn't much left, I take from the freezer things that they isn't much left for another meal. Cleans my fridge/freezer and reduces waste. 

We also do pasta/butter, pasta sauce, baked potato bar, and breakfast for dinner.

me, i spend 5 bucks on a whole chicken at aldi"s, and out of that i get, bbq chicken breast with mash or stir fry w/rice, roast dark meat ( with roasted potatoes) and chicken and noodles or dumplings....i always have root veggies ( even beets....my bran flakes loving 3 and a half year old ALSO loves beets....and brussels sprouts....i love him!), froz vegg and noodles on hand( i just always have them, but i dont have a stock pile lol WISH i did) this is for 3 adults , a toddler and a crawler ( my in MIL and FIL live with us because they are sick now, my hubbs dosnt eat meat or poultry) he eats the sides i make, and some salmon, or shrimp, or beans ( salmon, 5 bucks a bag at walmart, 4 meals, shrimp, 5 bucks a bag aldi's, 3 meals for him) sooooo idk if it would qualify as a frugal meal, but 1 chicken can make 3 cheap meals if you already have the other stuff....or ANY stuff. lol. whole chickens ROCK :)
 

Bean burritos - just refried beans with a little cheddar and sour cream wrapped in a tortilla.

Potato soup - potatoes with onion, garlic salt and lotsa butter, some cheese and we love to add in broccoli.
 

we also do mini pizzas using flour tortillas, pizza sauce and whatever cheese we happen to have. the kids love this for lunch quite often.  if we have pepperoni or black olives or smthing we add that, but they love the cheese as much as anything!
 

It doesn't get much more frugal than a meal of eggs and potatoes.  Spanish Omelets (Tortilla Espanola) is flavorful, frugal, and really easy!

Breakfast for dinner is a big one in our house. Our favourite is egg sandwiches with hash browns. Just buttered toast with scrambled eggs and cheese (sliced or real). If we have any ham or bacon around I add that too.

A great tip to stretching eggs farther is to add milk. I always add 1/4 to 1/2 cup and you get twice the amount. (This is great because whenever I go to use eggs there are only ever 2 or 3 left!) 

Grilled cheese! Here is my grilled cheese list.
-Pesto grilled cheese. A jar of pesto is $3.00 and will last me over a month, add a little inside your grilled cheese for a new twist, great with some cream of tomato campbells soup. (Add some chicken and knock your socks off)

-Pizza grilled cheese, a little $0.67 can of pizza sauce, some basil and cheese add in your fav pizza meat or leave it out it's great either way.

-Mexican Grilled cheese. Left over taco meat, or just ground beef reheated with taco seasoning added. Super yummy.

-Chunky ham grilled cheese. I like to buy a small $5.00 ham and cut it into cubes which I then add to grilled cheese, soup, pasta bakes and lunch wraps.

Quesadillas throw in what ever cheese, peppers, onion and meat you have.

Coconut potato soup: Coconut milk (Canned or the tetra pack kind) potatos, can of corn, one whole onion, chicken bouillon, spices, water and cheese on top when served. I make this in the crock pot and we get 4 meals out of it.

Chicken cacciatore: Chicken thighs cooked in spaghetti sauce then thrown ontop of spaghetti noodles. Add cheese and salad or garlic bread.

Cheesy rice: 2 cups of rice cooked, butter, garlic powder, basil and grated cheese. Serve with some veggies or salad.

Hash brown casserole: One bag of hash browns cooked, stir in one can of cream of mushroom soup and grated cheese. Bake and serve with cornflakes or cheesy chips crumbled on top.
 

Cream of mushroom rice: Rice, can of cream of mushroom soup, spices and ground turkey, whole turkey, chicken, ground beef add what ever meat you like. Add an onion for more flavor, this is a big staple in our home.

Taco salad: Left over taco beef or chicken, ranch dressing, cheese, corn, green onion and crush up any left of taco shells or nacho chips or I will even throw a plain tortilla in the oven and once crip cut it up and add that.

Sweet ham and swiss slider rolls!  http://www.heatherlikesfood.com/sweet-ham-and-swiss-sliders/

 The sauce makes these amazing I am craving these right now!

White Castle sliders: Now these are yummy and great alternative to boring hamburgers.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slider-Style-Mini-Burgers/Detail.aspx?ms=1&prop25=81408607&prop26=DailyDish&prop27=2012-04-13&prop28=DailyRecipe&prop29=FullRecipeLink&me=1

One of my favorites is a cream of something soup.  We always have milk, four and butter on hand and I use whatever we have, celery, broccoli/cheddar, potato, mushroom or chicken (not all at once of course) and serve it with some home made garlic bread.  Tacos are a favorite in our house and can be pretty cheap, chicken tacos are a go to dinner if I don't know what to make.  If you load the taco with lettuce, tomato and some cheese, not very much meat is needed or missed, top with some salsa (which is always inexpensive to make) and you have a good meal on the cheap side.  Homemade Mexican Sopa is always asked for and on the lunch and sometimes dinner menu in our home, and you can feed a hungry man and a growing 7 year old at least 2 lunches on it, but for we usually dont have any leftovers if its serverd for dinner.  Sopa noodles are .33 cents a pack, tomato sauce and for the broth I usually have some frozen on hand, but if I don't I use chicken bullion and water, and about 1/4 of an onion.  We uaullly have some sort of meat at dinner and if I serve this for dinner I added some shredded chicken, chopped cilantro and a little cheese and its a VERY inexpensive meal (even less expensive for lunch without the shredded chicken), I serve it with hot tortillas on the side if I'm serving it for dinner.   

Making something from nothing, like I save bits of leftover vegetables in the freezer and when we want healthy vegetable rice (it isn't fried) I use all the odds and ends of veggies we didn't eat, whatever meat I have leftover from some meal during the week, rice and seasonings.  Not only frugal, it's actually Free since we already ate the intended veggies and meat for one meal already.

In those situations when I want a really frugal meal, I try not to use anything that hasn't been used already, except to fill in - for example I won't use fresh chicken breasts that could be used in a new meal.  I always try to use leftovers of something in it, at least for the main items.  Using a box of say macaroni and cheese while frugal isn't 'free' because I could use it for another whole meal.  Using something leftover is free because I already used the main items for an intended meal.

homemade lo mein. I make it with mi chay noodles but you can make it with any pasta or raman

I saute onion and garlic and any other veg I have on hand. can add finely chopped chicken or pork .If I have time marinate

in soy sauce hot sauce vinegar and little honey If not just add while cooking. add a little cornstarch and water to make 

sauce then toss with noodles.