Ok, not all the food I eat is cheap, but I have a baby an I am a stay at home mom, while we have one income from my husband. We have roughly $70 a week, sometimes less for food and essentials. I have an aldi's in town, and I do alot of shopping there. I occasionally spend decent cash on decent food.

I also realize that poverty is a huge issue in obesity, everything cheap and unhealthy comes in a box for $0.99

I guess I'm saying, I don't have alot of time or money, I cannot make meals that call for 23 ingredients, and no, I do not have orange peel or ginger root in my cupboard, and doubt I ever will.

I was wondering if anyone had cheap (like under $10-$15) meal ideas, that are decent so I can feed my husband too.

Not a million ingredients would be great!

I have a crockpot that I love, and healthy chili is definitely a staple in our house (p.s. anyone have any substitute ideas for the noodles???)

I'm just guessing, college people and young parents and singles, what do you do, without much time or money, to eat decent and satisfied?

I just had crock pot chicken. I threw some frozen chicken tits, 98% FF cream of mushroom Soup, some FF sour cream, a little Water in the crock pot before work this morning. I came home, voila! dinner, 2 lunches, and another dinner from 3 chicken boobs and some frozen broccoli I steamed. Of course, I'm single, so you probably can't stretch it that far... But crock pot chicken is easy and pretty cheap. I sometimes throw chicken tits and a can of enchilada sauce in there for mexican night! Couple that with a can of FF refried Beans... Muy bien!

Otherwise, I buy generic brand everything... I can't tell any difference. I also reuse the same water jug all day so there's no need for bottled water or any of that business...

Hope this helps a lil bit. I'm sure life is completely different with a husband and a baby... But I'm a cheapscake, so i threw in my 2 cents.

Vessa, I am in the same boat! I am also a SAHM with a 2 year old. My husbands income is all we have to live on, and sometimes it's a stretch. Unfortunately, I can't get my husband to any kind of healthy meal. He's very picky and very stubborn (but I love him anyway). So usually I end up cooking 2 meals. Usually I can cook large enough meals for me to freeze and I just heat them up for dinner. My son is not hard to please, so between both meals, he's pretty happy. My husband is perfectly happy with hamburger helper and Totino's frozen pizza (like $1.00 for a whole one). I am the one who spends most of the money for food. Unfortunately it does cost more to eat healthy, but fortunately I don't eat near as much as I used to. Try cooking Breakfast foods on some nights. eggs, grits, and a meat of your choice is pretty inexpensive, or even omelets. Here's some recipes I found that may help you. Not all of these meals are "band friendly" but there may be some good ones for your husband.

Beef Stroganof

• 1 pound ground beef
  
• 1 onion
  
• salt, pepper and garlic powder
  
• 1 can of cream of soup

Saute beef and onions, then drain off the grease. Add 1 can cream of mushroom soup. Add seasoning to taste. Cook 1 bag egg noodles or some whole wheat Pasta and add that. Mix together and enjoy

Cheap chicken and Tortillas

• 9x13 pan
  
• 1 package flour or whole wheat tortillias (10 count)
  
• 3 bone in chicken breasts
  
• 1 can 98% FF cream of chicken soup
  
• 2 cups Reduced Fat grated cheese (1 pkg)
  
• 3 tbs salsa or taco sauce

1. Boil chicken breasts & take off bone then shread
   
2. Put back in pot - stir in salsa or taco sauce - mix well so chicken is coated
   
3. Put 2 spoonful of chicken in tortilla and sprinkle with grated cheese then roll and put in pan.
   
4. Continue until all tortillas are filled.
   
5. In a bowl mix 1 can of cream of chicken soup and 1/2 can of Water together to make a "gravy"
   
6. Pour over the rolled chicken tortillas
   
7. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top.
   
8. Bake in 350 oven for about 30 minutes
   
9. Let set for 5 minutes

You could serve this with a lettuce salad, salsa and sour cream on the side. This also freezes well and for 2 people can be split and frozen for up to 2 weeks although the tortillas do have a tendency to get a little soggy. I am not a huge fan of canned chicken but if you like it, you could substitute it for the chicken breast and it's a lot cheaper.

Scrambled Egg Stir Fry

• 6 eggs scrambled and set aside
  
• 2 bags frozen vegetables of your choice

Cook the veggies in wok or large skillet till tender with a little bit of water to steam. Then add the eggs in and some garlic powder, onion powder, or however you want to season. You could also add a little cheese if you want and voila, your done! Delicious and healthy.

Oven Roasted Tomatoes

This is a good inexpensive side dish!

6 or 7 Roma tomatoes

Italian dressing

Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Slice the tomatoes about 1/4 inch thick and line on cookie sheet in a single layer. Baste each tomato generously with the dressing and sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese on each one. Bake for about 15 minutes.

If you love tomatoes, you will love this recipe!!!

5 Can Mexican Soup

1 (14.5 oz) can Mexican Tomatoes

1 (8 oz.) can Mexican-style corn

1 (18.5 oz.) can Fat-Free Vegetable Soup (ready to serve)

1 (4 oz.) can chopped green chiles

1 (14.5 oz.) can black Beans, drained and rinsed

Mix all the ingredients together in a pot and heat on med-high until hot. Serve alone or with tortilla chips and FF sour cream.

Taco Salad

I don't really have measurements for this one I just eyeball it.

Lettuce

lean ground beef or turkey

Taco sauce

Shredded cheese (regular or reduced-fat)

sour cream (regular or fat-free)

FF refried beans

Cook meat and drain. Add taco sauce to your taste. Mix all the ingredients together and enjoy.

Crockpot Chicken

Boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 can 98% FF cream of mushroom soup

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

Mix mushroom soup and onion soup mix and 2 tbsp of water together. Place chicken in crockpot and pour soup mixture over it. Cook on low all day and enjoy.

These recipes are by no means gourmet, but they taste good and they're pretty cheap. I hope this helps.

Parmasean chicken

4 bonless skinless chicken breasts

1/2-3/4 cup parmasean cheese

1 packet of dry italian dressing mix

Mix parm cheese and DRY mix. Wet chicken breasts and coat in mixture, bake @ 350 until done (30ish minutes) when they are just about done if you can put them under the broiler they get all crunchy and delish.

My Mom used to make a ton of easy crock pot meals. Throw in some chicken or a roast, potatoes, carrots, onions, a little bit of Water and a can of condensed cream of whatever you like soup. Everytime she made this no matter what she used it was delicious.

I have found the absolute cheapest way for me to buy food is to make a list of all the dinners I plan to have for the next two weeks. I write out all the ingredients and stick to my list. For the kids I buy the knock off oreos because I hate them and they love them. I also buy a ton of fruit. However I only buy what is on sale that week. I always try to get fresh but canned is good if that's all you can get and generally the stores run really good sales on them. Canned or frozen veggies also help to make a a meal bigger but keeping costs low. Buy big bags of rice and potatoes and make them with every meal. Cheap and easy. Your biggest expense obviously would be the meat for your meals. Try to buy in bulk when it is on sale if you have enough freezer space to store it. When boneless skinless chicken goes on sale for $1.99/lb I try to buy 10 packages if I can. I know they money is tight but them you just deduct that from the next weeks bill.

How about a turkey meatloaf? Ground meat is generally inexpensive and the ground turkey is healthier than ground beef.

Easy to reheat leftovers and makes a nice sandwich for the kids or hubby's lunch.

These are some great ideas. I am a stay at home mom as well, and we have 5 kids. I love crock pot ideas. My family will pretty much eat whatever I cook. I hate to say it, but they get lots of hamburger helper. It's cheap, and we deer hunt. We process almost all of our meat into ground venison. It has much less fat than beef and we process our own, so always having meat is a huge savings. I also fix breakfast for supper often. My family likes that a lot. I also buy in bulk at Sam's, usually once a month. It costs more at the time, but lastsw so much longer. Canned fruit on sale is a great idea. my kiddos love fruit.

The biggest nutritional problem with the processed foods like hamburger helper and the dry soup or dressing mixes is the sodium. The salt content is very high and it would be better, even for kids, to not learn to love the flavor of salt so much.

Looking for low salt alternatives would be healthier for the entire family.

It can take some time for the family to adjust, but we have. Now if I eat a bowl of soup at a restaurant or diner, all I taste is the salt. the salt seems to mask the real flavor of the food.

Shortgal, I agree with you and I do try to watch my sodium, but my husband.......NO WAY. Believe me I have tried. He salts everything before he even tastes it. After he graduated from high school, he moved out of his parents house for about 3 years prior to us getting married. He lived on frozen pizza and hamburger helper and "boxed foods" for 3 years and I'm still trying to undo that damage. It has gotten a lot better since we first got married, but it's still pretty bad. I am trying my hardest to not let my son develop those eating habbits.

i have read once that if you have a meatless meal one night a week it saves a lot of money. we do that. we will have frozen veggies, some Beans, and some potatoes.

i don't know "how" cheap this is..but i think it is pretty cheap and it is super easy and fast.

chicken Dumplings-Arkansas Prices (we pay taxes on our food)

Rotiserrie Chicken (cooled) $3

1 can Cream of Chicken $1

1 Can Cream of Mushroom $1

2 Can's Biscuits 9 ($2.50)

3 cans Chicken broth $4.00

Tear the chicken in to small pieces and add the cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, and chicken broth in a LARGE pan. bring to a boil (add Water until desired consistency), tear biscuits into little balls and drop in one by one (they will stay at the top) stir to get done...some people use tortilla's instead of biscuits..but i love doughy balls. (i have not eaten this since i have been banded..i would probably choose tortilla's now.

oh..yeah..you can use all reduced sodium ingrediants, with a nominal difference in the price (except the chicken).

That is true about hmaburger helper and sodium. We had stopped using hamburger helper at all, but since we have increased from 1 to 5 kids in less than a year I am having to, at times, do what is easiest. This may not be the best thing, but I always keep hamburger helper handy so that if we are in a hurry or if it is close to payday and I am short on cash, i always have something to cook for the kiddos. I always fix green bean and fruit with the hamburger helper. At least that makes me feel like it is a healthier meal. I love to cook from scratch, but lately I have a hard time finding the time.

do they not make reduced sodium versions? (i haven't looked in a while).

I never used hamburger helper, but don't you add it to ground beef?

I used to make what we called "American Chop Suey" and basically I browned ground beef with a few spices, added some premade Spaghetti sauce and then added pre-cooked elbow macaroni.

Isn;t that what hamburger helper is? so does it really save time, to use the box? I cooked the macaroni while the beef was cooking, so it only took about 15 to twenty mins for the whole thing anyway.

If you have a food processor, homemade pizza is easy and way cheaper than from a pizza place.

I didn't know much about sodium in food when my kids were little, but once my husband got high blood pressure, we started buying anything that said low sodium and we never leave the salt shaker on the table.

A trick for people that will salt their food before tasting, is to just not add any salt when cooking, b/c you know they'll add it and use unsalted butter if using it in meals. Besides, things like cheeses that we add to a receipe already have salt in them. Even canned veggies can have added salt in them, so we look for the "no salt added" ones.

A gradual reduction and the family might not even notice. Tricky moms!

How about maqking bean soup. It's very easy, full of protien and cheap. Just buy dry beans and follow the bag directions.

I used to feed my family a lot of french toast. use cheap bread. You can use sugar free syrup for yourself.

Beef stew is easy to make, esp in a crock pot. Stew meat is fairly cheap and you can add lots of veggies and some ff soup.

I never used hamburger helper, but don't you add it to ground beef?

I used to make what we called "American Chop Suey" and basically I browned ground beef with a few spices, added some premade Spaghetti sauce and then added pre-cooked elbow macaroni.

Isn;t that what hamburger helper is? so does it really save time, to use the box?

I buy the Family Sized package in the frozen section that has the beef already in it, so yes, it does save time for me. I don't know that it saves money, though. I also know that hamburger helper isn't that good for you, but it's great for the fam when we need to eat in a hurry.

I make meatloaf and everyone loves it, even my father who hates turkey (says its nasty)

1 lb-1 1/2 lb lean ground turkey

1-3 eggs depending on preference

1 pkg Knorr vegtable soup mix

ketchup..which gets spread on top of the formed loaf to form a nice crust

I also love the refried ban soup recipe I got from someone- fat free refried Beans and like 8 oz V8 hot and spicy, mix and heat

Also I mix a couple servings of cooked Pasta, canned tuna (in enough amount to noodles so that its a tuna casserole not a noodle casserole w tuna) and cream of mushroom soup

turkey burgers are great

O I will also take a pita, split it in half and stuff it with cooked chicken breast, mozerella cheese and bbq sauce, this is really good and extra pitas last forever in the freezer