I need meal ideas for a family of 4 on a tight budget?

Question

There's me, my husband and 2, 22 month olds I'm cooking for. The boys like cheese,most meats, one likes vegies the other hates them, and we all like mexican and Italian foods.
I'm in a rut and I think if I serve the boys chicken nuggets one more time they'll kill me.
We only have about $70 a week for food so I need ideas that are easy to mix and match if you know what I'm saying.

Answer 1

Here are some of my meal ideas I use when I am short on $$$ for the week these are some quick meal ideas as welll since I am a working mom with husband and 3 children:

hamburger helper with corn and/or green beans
chorizo with potatos and eggs with beans. (make enough beans for the next day)
tostadas (with the beans from the day before)
Chicken tacos (cook chicken in crock pot enough for next day) with mexican rice
chiliquilis (sp?) with chicken (cooked from the day before)
spaghetti

Please note chicken parts are cheaper than thighs. ground beef is cheap.

Answer 2

Meat loaf and put the potatoes in the pan so they pick up the flavor.

Spaghetti and ground beef

chicken and dumplings

Chicken pot pie (make chicken soup, then bone and take skin off, tear apart and put half in a pan, add mixed veggies add rest of chicken. In a separate pan on the stove mix water, flour, salt, pepper, celery salt, until blended. Make a flour crust for the top. Bake at 350 for about 1 -1/2 to 2 hours). You still have the soup to add veggies and noodles to.

What about an omelet and toast for dinner.

Stuffed peppers

People forget about liver, but it is cheap.

Answer 3

what about hamburger helper or those types of meals. Also tacos with the leftover meat. Mix in the veggies into the meat mixture they will never know. I make spaghetti sauce all the time and mix the veggies in the meat or sauce after I puree them or mash them. Pasta is always a cheap but great meal idea. You can make with chicken, pork, hamburger. Also look for manager special meat deals, same quality lower prices!

Answer 4

Do not buy processed foods.
Make rice, pasta, vegetables and make your own bread.
It doesn't matter if your child doesn't like a certain food or not. You are NOT a restaurant. He either eats it or starves. After a while they get to eating them. The more you make meals from scratch and not from a box, the more money you will save. A bag of dried beans that will feed a family of 4 for a week is only $3.

Answer 5

1. Tater Tot Casserole- Ground meat, cooked; Cream of Mushroom Soup and tater tots. Cook the meat, add soup, put in baking dish and cover with tots. Bake at time/temp of tots. Good n cheap.

2. Goulash- Ground Beef, noodles, onion, bell pepper and stewed tomatoes. Cook meat w/onion and bell pepper, then add tomato. Cook noodles. Mix together. Cut veggies big so they can pick out what they don't want.

3. Chili Mac.....self explanatory....but here goes, take mac n cheese, cook it up....heat up chili and mis together.

4. Spaghetti, with or w/out meat.

5. Chicken and rice. Bake chicken in water w/cream of mushroom soup, after chicken cooked, add instant rice to the mix and wait 5 minutes.

6. Fiedo- take meat and slice really thin, cook it up. Take Fideo Noodles aka Vermicilli, and brown it in a bit of cooking oil, add tomato sauce and water (cover noodles well w/the water), bell pepper and onion, season to taste, add the meat; cover and cook on low for 20 minutes. Even a bit soupy, it's still really good.

7. Look for the 1/2 price meat and watch the expiration dates.

Answer 6

I buy a garlic parmasean bread loaf at the walmart bakery and get ragu pizza sauce and some cheese. Just cut the loaf of bread into slices and lay on a pan the put two spoonfulls of pizza sauce then spread on cheese and put it in the oven for about 15 minutes. It costs you about 3.50, but it will feed four people. Hope you get many more ideas.

Answer 7

i can relate to you I raise 3 kids on my own. here is one my kids loved. gound beef (lb or what ever you like)brown the grown beef seased how your family likes . While the ground beef is cooking cook a pot of macoronni. When the beef and the macoroni or finished drain them and stir then together adding one or two cans of mushroom soup stir this all to gether. (If you have a bit of cheese whiz or left over cheese add this to and stir until melted. My kids loved this still do and they are all grown and make this for their kids we call it goup. make enough for two meals will keep 4 or 5 days in the fridge. keep a bag in the freezer and when you have any bones from meat throw them in and soon you will have enough to boil to make a pot of soup with bones you would have thrown out. all the best

Answer 8

If you can afford it, I would invest in a crock pot. That thing has saved my life, I can make tons of stuff in it. Chicken, rice and a Lipton dry soup mix comes out pretty well..... You could try taco soup, taco mix, canned corn, diced tomatos and pinto beans with lots of cheese. (and maybe some cilantro)... just add water and meat.

Answer 9

Casseroles and stews are good, nutritious and inexpensive. Look up hundreds of recipes on the internet. I am making stew right now and I use pork, beef, potatoes, rutabagas, turnips, carrots, celery, onions, and for the broth I put both chicken and beef granules in the water. It's delicious.

Answer 10

Hamburger helper has a lot of different varieties. And for the one who hates veggies, put them in a food processor and add them to things, like spaghetti sauce or the hamburger helper..I do this for my nine year old that hates all veggies, that way i know she is getting them, and she doesn't know she is eating them. they also make chicken helper and tuna helper. and you can usually find them on sale on a regular basis. Things like spaghetti can be easily found on sale.