In the interest of your wallet, it’s nice to have some meals that are on the less expensive side to prepare. Here’s a short collection to look through, from our archives:
Sausage and Sweet Potato Pie. Comfort food in a snap, thanks to the microwave cooking technique used to soften those sweet potatoes.
Arroz con Chorizo. Satisfying and colorful. You could use bacon or another fatty meat in place of the chorizo, if you’d rather. (We know how much red bell peppers cost at certain grocery stores; you could go to another store where it’s cheaper, or use a different crunchy vegetable instead — celery, carrots or even green bell peppers would do the trick.)
Dorie Greenspan’s Quick-Cook Honey-Mustard Pork. Once you’ve got the pound of pork, this is a matter of gathering pantry ingredients (feel free to adjust those spices as needed!) and mixing it all together to make a sweet and savory dish. Serve it with rice or another grain of your choice.
Asian Peanut Noodle Salad. We don’t know about you, but peanut noodles have saved many a weeknight when the budget was thin. You could go as basic as peanut butter, soy sauce, hot sauce and a little water, or, if your pantry provides, add some toasted sesame oil and plain rice vinegar for even more balance. It works with soba (buckwheat) noodles, yes, but those are often expensive and there’s nothing wrong with just pouring it over spaghetti. Fresh herbs, sliced cucumber and avocado make it lush, but this is perfectly fine without.
Spicy Black Bean Patties. When you’re eating on the cheap, beans are your friend. (They’re your friend when you’re not watching those pennies, too.) Here’s a simple way to mix them with sweet potato and bread crumbs to make tasty little fritters.
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