Probably most frugal meal is lentil soup.

Frugal Healthy Simple: Moroccan Lentil Soup

Here are some of my bean and rice recipes:
Frugal Healthy Simple: Spanish-style fried rice

Frugal Healthy Simple: Asian Dinner for a friend

Frugal Healthy Simple: Fejoida (Brazilian black beans)

Frugal Healthy Simple: Best Hummus

Frugal Healthy Simple: Skillet Pasta

Frugal Healthy Simple: Mostly Middle Eastern Feast

Frugal Healthy Simple: Sunday Suppers

Frugal Healthy Simple: Bean and Spinach Patties

Frugal Healthy Simple: Red Kidney Bean Curry

Peppers and Eggs
elbow macaroni
fried peppers...those long green italian are great
mix the peppers into the elbows and crack in some eggs
heat till the eggs scramble and add pepper and salt.

I will freeze any leftover meat into strips for a quick stir fry. I will use frozen vegetables that I have either gotten free with coupons or ones from my garden, make a stir-fry sauce (cornstarch, water, corn syrup and soy sauce) and then throw over rice. This works well with chicken, beef or pork and it's quick.

I'm going with the pasta and meat sauce with garlic bread.

LOL I can always get the sauce with coupons, and I buy the great value pasta. The garlic bread, I buy discounted sub rolls, they are .75 for 6 and freeze them. I only take out what I need, 2 rolls will feed the family after I cut them into pieces.

Also Hot Dogs and Beans with Carrots on the side, we like this one.

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Meghan9.Samantha7,Cameron5

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We do the same thing with the ramen w/a lightly beaten egg and veggies.

Pasta with a can of any kind of chunky soup or creamy soup -- for those days when I am totally uninspired to cook anything. Super cheap and super fast!

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The cheapest meal at our house is really simple: it's an old version of hot dish on some level I guess...

noodles (macaroni or something like that)
tomato soup - 3 cans
1/2 pound of hamburger
& ketchup

mix together and it's a sure bet your little and bigger people will gobble it right up. Salt and peper to taste.

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COLOR="Green"]"It's never work, unless you'd rather be doing something else!"[/color][/size]

I save on meals by stretching each one with a starch like potatoes, pasta, or brown rice. I also make large amounts of food when i cook to save time, enjoying plenty of left overs. I usually cook in the crockpot as well... then it's all in there together, dose not burn while breastfeeding/cleaning/etc. and i have less dishes too. I just stockpile meat i buy on sale in the freezer, get whatever vegetables on sale and search for recipes online with the ingredients i do have and bookmark the ones that were the easiest/cheapest/favorites. I like to bake potatoes in the crockpot and have them ready for a snack or to add to a quick breakfast or have with left over chili and that. always use up leftover veggies and meat. I use up things a lot in the morning in or with eggs like left over taco meat or extra asparagus... yummy
Great, now i'm hungry

I keep a tupperware container in the freezer. At the end of meals, I add the left over meat (cut up), the veggies and the rice or noddles. When the container is full, I dump it into the crock pot and pour in a can of tomato juice to make soup. (Or I use a beef gravy mix mixed with water and a beef boullion cube if it is mostly a meat based container.) Add a potato or two and we have soup for supper

We do the soup thing a lot. I save the ham bone and scraps from the Christmas ham and use dried beans. All you have to do is add lots of onion, some shredded carrot, water to cover, salt and pepper, and a spoon or so of tomato paste. I also add liquid smoke to make mine taste like they were cooked on a fire.

Another soup I make is beef and barley. I freeze leftover shreds of pot roast and the juice for a few months and once I gather up enough it goes into a pot with lots of veggies and I add some V8 and maybe an additional can of beef broth, some bay leaves and italian seasoning, and of course barley.

For really super fast cheap soup I add leftover shredded chicken breast to Mrs. Grass or Lipton chicken noodle mix and throw in some frozen peas or mixed veggies. The kind with corn, peas, carrots, green beans. Even if you have no chicken, the peas add enough protien and fiber. We like this soup with peanut butter on toast.

And then one more soup I like to make is french onion. Carmelize two extra large sweet onions in butter and add beef broth and herbs and simmer for an hour or so. I add one can of beef consomme for richness and one of those boxes of beefstock. Then when its done we bake in big soup mugs topped with slices of swiss or mozzarella.

LOVE that soup idea (saving stuff in freezer). Much of the time I have a 2x rule - if it comes out of the fridge twice, the third time it goes to the chickens who turn it into eggs. So it's not exactly 'wasting' anything, but I think I will try the soup idea...

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Blessings,
Amethyst72


"...and by what we think, we create the world around us, daily new..." M. Zimmer Bradley