Good Meals on a Budget — Your Guide to Cheap, Healthy Dinner Ideas

Cheap and Healthy Dinner Ideas for Family

Everyone needs a few recipes that can be cooked for a group that makes everyone happy. These recipes are cheap and healthy and appeal to even the pickiest eaters.

Breaded Chicken Strips with Potatoes and Veggies

Chicken is one of the most affordable meats on the market. You can get cheap cuts from a grocery butcher and buy chicken breasts in large quantities at a bulk discount. Then, slice the chicken into strips for a tasty and cheap chicken strips dinner.

• Chicken cut into strips
• Flour
• Italian breadcrumbs or Panko
• Potatoes or Potato Flakes
• Seasonal Vegetables
• Cooking Oil
• Milk and Butter
• Salt and Pepper

Make a paste with flour, salt, and pepper. This is a great substitute for eggs as a binder. Roll the chicken in bread crumbs and pan-fry it. Pair with mashed potatoes made from baked potatoes or flakes, and stir-fry some veggies in your family's favorite seasoning. This simple meal is a tasty go-to, especially for picky eaters or unknown guests.

Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry

A simple stir-fry is a great way to turn simple chicken and broccoli into a flavorful meal. Most people enjoy a good stir-fry, and you can personalize the flavor profile based on your preferences, your family's, and/or your guests' preferences. Depending on the event, you can make a big pan or use small pans for personal stir-fry flavorings and vegetable choices.

• Chicken, chopped to bite-size
• Broccoli spears
• Optional vegetables like carrots, celery, bok choy, baby corn, and whatever's on sale
• White rice
• Soy sauce
• Sesame Oil
• Seasoning to taste

Start the rice first. Then pan-fry chicken, broccoli, and seasonal vegetables of your choice in a large skillet. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, and your favorite stir-fry seasoning (like ginger, garlic, or chili paste) to spice it up.

For each serving, fill half a large bowl with white rice and fill the other half with stir-fry. It's a one-bowl meal that most people will love.

Chicken and Bean Tacos

Tacos are a great third flavor profile for cheap and healthy chicken meals. Combine black beans and chicken for amazing chicken tacos for the whole family. Dry black beans are also one of the cheapest foods you can buy in bulk at the grocery store.

• Chicken - diced
• Black beans
• Taco seasoning
• Lettuce - shredded
• Tomatoes - diced
• Taco Shells
• Tortillas
• Shredded cheese
• Optional taco toppings (sour cream, guac, etc)

Boil dry black beans ahead of time (or use canned). Fry up the chicken with taco seasoning. In a separate pan, mash and re-fry black beans with taco seasoning for your bean topping. Chop up the veggies and pre-bake the taco shells and tortillas with cheese. Then, just lay out your taco bar and let everyone build their own tacos.

Cheap and Healthy Vegetarian Dinner Ideas

Of course, it's also useful to have a few awesome vegetarian recipes that you can make on a budget. Whether you are vegetarian or expect a guest who doesn't eat meat, a cheap and healthy vegetarian dinner idea can allow you to throw together low-cost and tasty meals at any time.

Black Bean Burgers

Black bean burgers are a great meal option. They are perfect for shared barbecues but are equally delicious any night of the week. You can make a firm and tasty vegetarian burger patty primarily with black beans, rolled oats, and avocado plus flavor ingredients of your choosing.

• Canned or boiled black beans
• Rolled oats
• Avocado
• Adobo seasoning and sauce
• Salt and pepper
• Herbs to taste
• Hamburger bun
• Lettuce, tomatoes, and fixin's to taste

Spread the beans onto a pan and bake until they are dry and cracked. Then, use a food processor to blend the beans, adobo sauce, and oats until they start to bind. Fold with a fork into 1/2 an avocado mashed. Then mold into patties and pan-fry with oil. Dress the cooked patties with buns, lettuce, tomatoes, slices of avocado, and whatever else tastes good to you. 

You can make black bean burgers for everyone at your table or make them on-spec any time you need to feed a vegetarian with a delicious and low-cost meal.

Chickpea Curry

Curry is one of the single best ways to make a flavorful vegetarian meal with a combination of beans and vegetables that all inherit the wonderful flavor and texture of a good curry. Chickpea curry is protein-rich and adaptable to taste.

• Can of chickpeas
• Onions, garlic, curry powder, red pepper flakes, cumin
• Curry powder
• Can of crushed tomatoes
• Can of coconut milk
• Seasonal Vegetables
• Rice or Lentils
• Naan

Start the rice or lentils. Sautee the onions, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Add the curry powder and cumin until toasted. Then mix in the crushed tomatoes and fold in the coconut milk and chickpeas. Then season with salt and pepper and simmer until it reaches your ideal consistency. If you aren't comfortable DIY-ing the curry sauce, you can buy your favorite curry flavors in jars, add to chickpeas, and simmer. You can also add seasonal vegetables for a delicious vegetable chickpea curry.

Serve next to rice or lentils with a side of Naan.

Saving Money in Your Apartment Kitchen

When you know how to cook and have a full kitchen, you can save thousands every year by making cheap and healthy dinners. Whether you're cooking for yourself or a group, the first step is to find an apartment with a kitchen capable of handling your cooking routine. You can find beautifully appointed kitchens at the Southwoods Apartments in Sappington, MO. Our kitchens not only have a good range but also make your cleanup easier with a dishwasher and garbage disposal.

Contact us to check out the kitchens and start imagining all the delicious, low-cost meal plans you can create in our apartments.