Hellobee Boards

Some of our cheapest favorites:

Korean Chick Pea Tacos (or lettuce wraps)
Udon noodles (could use ramen) with scallions, egg, and tofu
Spaghetti Carbonara
Tuna melts and tomato soup
Breakfast for Dinner
Vegetarian Taco Pasta

If you have a stocked pantry and spice rack, your options are endless.

Dal is our cheapest meal. Normally all we have to buy is a tomato, and we have everything else in the pantry. (Lentils, rice, onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, etc)

@Crystal: http://fakeginger.com/taco-pasta/ - we adapt this recipe, and sub two different types of beans for the ground meat.

@Crystal: No problem. It's quite tasty, with or without meat. Enjoy!

Lentil soup. It's great for using up leftover vegetable odds and ends and if I have a little bit of leftover meat that can go in too.

Baked potatoes. Some nights we have just a baked potato with some cheese and bacon. Just a slice of bacon each is enough for some flavor. An egg on top for protein. Husband eats his with broccoli, I finish off whatever veggies are in the fridge. Usually carrot sticks.

Polenta with greens and a fried egg.

Home made falafel patties from chickpeas topped with diced tomato, garlic and plain yogurt. You could eat with rice or pita if you have it. I am not a big starch/bread eater so I just eat the falafel and yogurt.

Cottage cheese pancakes and fruit.

Nachos with beans

Pizza dough with leftovers as toppings. I make the pizza dough from my cuisinart instruction book at least once a week. It's easy, my toddler likes to help and it's versatile. Use it as pizza dough or as a flatbread base. My husband loves when I roll it out, brush it with olive oil and then sprinkle seasonings on it. From there you can add cheese or slice it into strips after cooking and dip it in sauce or stews. It's also good for turning leftovers Into empanadas or calzones.

A lot of times I type the name of whatever I have on hand into google and see what recipe pops up. I try to pick recipes where I can sub or leave out ingredients if they're not on hand instead of picking something up. That alone has made a big difference in our grocery budget.

Long term I've used the meal planning service the Fresh 20 in the past and it was awesome for helping us get our grocery budget under control and for simplifying our shopping/cooking/dinner process. They send you a list of 20 grocery items that are seasonal and healthy, recipes for five meals and instructions for what can be prepped ahead. One day a week you shop and chop, par boil and prep. The rest of the week the meals take 10-40 minutes to finish cooking and get on the table. The geoceries for dinner are supposed to average about $50 a week for 2 adults with enough leftover for lunch. I live in an area where food is expensive, and our dinners would work out to about $65 to $70 a week. They have an option for lunch menus, gluten free, vegetarian, etc so it's diet friendly.

The biggest benefit for us is it dramatically reduced our food waste. The next benefit was I didn't have to meal plan or figure out what went on the grocery list. The meals are healthy, but to be honest I added cheese, avocados or nuts to a lot of meals to increase the amount of fat and flavor. I can live without a lot of carbs but I need fat to feel satisfied.

Mark Bittmans cookbook How to Cook Everything also helped me learn to save money in the kitchen since he offers all kinds of variations on basic dishes. This helped me learn to use what was already on hand and how to substitute for flavors.