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January 7, 2013 Food

The Top 5 Healthy Meals on a Budget from Pinterest

Check out these Healthy Meals on a Budget

New Year”s Resolutions to eat better, or spend Less Money?  Well, here”s the deal.  We have Christmas dinner at our house, and it is one of those times when I do it up, BIG.  Use those recipes with nine ingredients- to make green beans.  Pull ALL the food out of the pantry to try to make an unique appetizer tray- which really just ends up being a Shrimp Ring, with random pretzels, and pistachios.

Yeah, I don”t know how people put that all together and eat it, either, but it keeps them out of my kitchen while I’m cooking, and they have to figure out if they should wrap the shrimp around the pretzel, or eat the good stuff until it”s gone, and then move down the line.

The point is, by the time this week’s grocery visit came up, my cabinets were bare.  So I’m starting like you, and need a week”s worth of healthy, cheap meals.

Let’s make 2013 one of sharing.

No doubt I will share my secret tips with you as well.

Top 5 Healthy Meals on a Budget from Pinterest:

1. Chicken Taco Chili–  This was one was so easy, the recipe was posted as a comment.  (With my Edits) 1 can black beans, 1 can kidney beans, , 16 oz tomato sauce, 28 oz diced tomatoes, packet taco seasoning, 1 tbsp chili powder, 3 boneless chicken breasts (See Note *). 6 hours high or 10 hours low in the crock pot. I tried this with frozen tomatoes and this sort of pureee I had made from my summer garden tomatoes. It was kindof stringy; Still working on that.  But the good news about canned tomatoes is you can always find them at theREALLY cheap grocery stores.  Stock up next time you visit.  See that corn in the picture? “We” can”t eat corn.  Strike that one of the list, $$s going down.

*Note on Chicken?  I buy a big pack, about 6-8 boneless skinless breasts.  I HATE chicken. The raw part, and the cooking it part.  But some dishes just need chicken, for a good base. . So I buy the one pack, dump it all in the CrockPot one day, season, cook, and shred. You”ll find after shredding, you can make about 3 meals with this amount of chicken. Separate and package, freeze extras.  And you never have to touch the yucky gross chickies.

Spinach & Potato Hash2.  Spinach Potato Hash.  The original recipe, here.  Lots of fancy instructions, I basically roast my potatoes, cook the sausage and throw in the spinach at the end to wilt, and add a few eggs on top. Potatoes? Always have a few spare ones lying about, right? Spinach?  Notice how I always throw that in? Eggs? Cheep. (See what I did there?)  Your “bank breaker” is your sausage.  But even the all natural turkey kind is much less than a pound of ground beef. As if we”d be eating that. ;o)

Italian Cream Cheese Chicken, www.MomFavorites.com3.  CrockPot Italian Chicken.    4 chicken breasts, One Serving of Shredded Chicken  1 packet Zesty Italian dressing seasoning  (Or your own preference of spices including garlic, thyme, parsley, onion, Italian seasoning,, 1 8 oz. cream cheese (softened),  2 cans cream of chicken soup Sub 8 oz. Greek Yogurt; Cook on low for 4 hours. If sauce is too thick, add a little milk. Serve over pasta.  If you need a “recipe,” here ya go: http://jamiecooksitup.net/2012/05/italian-cream-cheese-chicken-crock-pot/

 

Roasted Cauliflower and Aged White Cheddar Soup 500 68274.  Roasted Cauliflower and Aged White Cheddar Soup.  Don’t Judge. It’s  the New Year, ‘member?  This is goooood. Bonus points on healthy and cheap for being meat free- and sometimes you can slip that in on the kids without them knowing it”s missing. Oh yeah, kids love soup.

Creamy Slow Cooker Tortellini Soup, www.MomFavorites.com5. Creamy Slow Cooker Tortellini Soup.  Then I got around to making this soup. We don”t do mushrooms.  We obviously use 1 cup of greek yogurt, and 1/4 cup fresh grated parm instead of the  white sauce mix.  I added some of that shredded chicken from above (see, told you it makes three meals?), and for spices, I just used whatever came close I could find in my pantry.  Mmmmmm. Yummy. I even ate the leftovers.

Now that I”ve saved you a bundle of time and money, feel free to invite  me over for dinner.  I won”t even bring my kids. This time.

Stay Thrifty, my friends!

 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. YUMMommy says

    January 10, 2013 at 10:41 pm

    Can’t wait to try these out, especially the Chicken Taco Chili.

    Reply
    • denised says

      January 11, 2013 at 2:40 am

      We had that last week and my husband said it was the best Chili he ever had!! Don’t forget to use your Greek Yogurt as sour-cream topping!

      Reply
  2. Becky says

    May 8, 2013 at 12:45 am

    With the tortellini soup can i skip the evaporated milk or is that necessary?

    Reply
    • Katie says

      June 24, 2015 at 9:18 am

      Feel free to substitute another dairy or non-dairy milk product!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Healthy Meals Pinterest « Recipes for Health says:
    September 10, 2014 at 1:38 am

    […] The Top 5 Healthy Meals on a Budget from Pinterest – Mom … – The Top 5 Cheap and Healthy Meals on a Budget from Pinterest. From guest blogger Denise Davis. […]

    Reply
  2. January 2015 MomFavorites.com Monthly Menu says:
    January 1, 2015 at 9:03 am

    […] January 19th: Chicken Taco Chili, […]

    Reply
  3. Bonus Healthy Meals On A Budget Pinterest | Weight loss says:
    June 26, 2015 at 5:11 am

    […] The Top 5 Healthy Meals on a Budget … – Check out these Healthy Meals on a Budget from guest blogger Denise Davis: New Year”s Resolutions to eat better, or spend Less Money? Well, here”s the deal. […]

    Reply

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Welcome to Forks and Folly! It's time to have some fun in the kitchen. Forks and Folly is about enjoying the process of cooking and entertaining. No complicated recipes. No stress. It's back to basics with easy, make ahead food, and fabulous hosting tips.

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