If you're a busy parent with a family to feed, you've come to the right place. These quick and easy budget meals are simple to make with just a few basic ingredients. In a large pan or pot, cook and drain the pasta according the package directions. Place the drained pasta back into the pot and mix with the pasta sauce, pulled chicken, HALF of the shredded mozzarella, HALF of the grated parmesan, and tsp of Italian seasoning.

Allow the mixture to simmer for a few minutes over medium-low heat and then spread it evenly onto the bottom of your baking dish; sprinkle the remaining mozzarella and parmesan cheese over top.

In a small bowl, mix together the panko bread crumbs, melted butter and garlic powder; sprinkle it evenly over the top of the casserole. Bake uncovered on the center rack for about 15 minutes or until the panko crust turns golden brown.

Full Printable Recipe. In your crockpot, whisk together the water, cream of chicken soup, and both packets of chicken gravy mix. Add the seasoned chicken breasts and use a spoon to cover them well with the gravy mixture. Cover and cook on LOW for hours or until the chicken shreds easily.

Once cooked, use a couple of forks to shred the chicken into small pieces. Stir in the sour cream and allow it to warm for an additional 15 minutes. Serve over mashed potatoes, rice or pasta. Lazy Lasagna This is seriously the laziest meal you will ever make.

Arrange half of the frozen ravioli in a single layer over the sauce. Top with half of the remaining sauce and half of the mozzarella.

Finish by topping with the remaining sauce and mozzarella. Sprinkle the top with parmesan. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, and continue baking for an additional 15 minutes, or until the cheese starts to brown.

Loaded Chicken Baked Potatoes Potatoes are really cheap and very filling, making them one of the best budget meals. Microwave for about 5 minutes on a paper towel or bake in a degree oven for about 45 minutes or until soft. Smash the insides with a fork and mix in a few tablespoons of butter, salt, garlic powder, and black pepper to taste.

Crockpot Creamy Chicken Tacos How can you go wrong with cheesy shredded chicken? Place the chicken, salsa, cubed cream cheese, and tbsp of taco seasoning in and cook on HIGH for 3 hours or LOW for hours.

Shred with a fork and let the chicken absorb the salsa mixture for at least 15 more minutes. Serve in soft tortillas, taco shells, or over a bed of lettuce. In a large bowl, mix together the dry stuffing mix, ground beef, eggs, water and HALF of the ketchup.

Fill the prepared pan with your mixture and use your hands to evenly squish it down into the pan. Top it with the remaining ketchup and spread it evenly over the top. You can also use BBQ sauce, chili sauce, or a combination of sauces. Bake for minutes it takes about 50 minutes in my oven. Cheeseburger Pasta Casserole All the flavors of a cheeseburger but in the form of a pasta casserole!

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to degrees and grease and 9×13 baking dish. In a large skillet, brown and chop the ground beef with garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

Add the cooked pasta, tomato soup, a half cup of water and HALF of the cheese to your skillet with the browned beef; stir and cook for minutes over medium heat.

Pour the mixture into your greased dish and top with the remaining cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for an additional 10 minutes. Preheat your oven to degrees and butter the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish.

Cut the Hawaiian rolls horizontally in half without separating the rolls; place the bottoms into your prepared dish and bake for about 3 minutes. Place a chicken nugget onto each one of the bottom pieces and then top with the marinara followed by the mozzarella cheese and the top halves of the rolls.

Melt the butter in the microwave and mix with 1 tsp of garlic powder and 1 tsp of Italian seasoning; brush the mixture evenly over the top of the rolls.

Sprinkle the grated parmesan over top. Cover your dish with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Uncover, and bake for an additional minutes or until the buns turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool on the counter for about 5 minutes. In a large bowl, melt the butter and then mix with the box of dry stuffing mix; set aside HALF of the mixture for topping the casserole later.

This easy hash is full of punchy flavours, and makes a satisfying midweek family supper with streaky bacon, pineapple and spicy seasoned potatoes. Put in a little effort the night before and you can have a velvety soup ready as a starter for a special dinner with guests.

This recipe serves six generously. An affordable way to include oily fish in your diet. Canned sardines are a great source of omega 3 and add oomph to this simple, family pasta dish. Marinate chicken in yogurt, spices and lemon zest, then grill to make these flavourful chicken skewers.

Serve in flatbreads with salad and cucumber yogurt. A midweek budget supper of roast chicken wings with homemade chips and Cajun spices.

Everyone will love this creamy fish curry, cooled down with coconut and sweetcorn. It's budget-friendly too. A saucy, warming casserole with Cumberland sausages, chilli gravy and kidney beans.

It's budget-friendly and ready in less than 30 minutes too. A hearty budget meal of spiced red lentils with butternut and tomatoes. Add coriander, cumin, turmeric and a dollop of mango chutney.

Put mushroom soup to clever use in this Scandinavian-style beef meatball dish with dill sauce. Make crowd-pleasing fajitas the easy way with this one-tray recipe that's full of nutrients and low in fat and calories.

It makes a speedy midweek meal. Search, save and sort your favourite recipes and view them offline. Join the BBC Good Food Wine Club. Join our Subscriber Club Download our app Good Food Shows Wine Club Recipe boxes Videos. Recipes Back to Main menu Dinner ideas Back to Recipes Healthy dinners Dinner for two Low-carb dinners Gluten-free dinners.

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Get the Lo Mein recipe. Buy a store-bought rotisserie chicken at the supermarket and you'll be supplied with endless dinner ideas, like this hearty burrito filed with rice, beans, chicken, and cheese.

Get Ree's Ancho Chicken Burritos recipe. When you're in a pinch, you can't go wrong with that can of tuna that's hidden in the back of the pantry! Use it to make this fun pasta salad inspired by tuna noodle casserole. Get the Tuna Pasta Salad recipe. Ree says that you can call this a "clean out the fridge soup" because it's so versatile.

Swap out your choice of veggies depending on what you have on hand. Get Ree's Hamburger Soup recipe. SHOP STOCK POTS. Eating on a budget doesn't need to be boring and this casserole recipe proves it! The packet of ranch seasoning mix gives it a punch of flavor, plus you can't go wrong with anything topped with bacon!

Get the Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole recipe. Stew meat or even chuck roast is a great inexpensive option for making this hearty twist on chicken and noodles. It has that stick-to-your-ribs kind of goodness.

Get the Beef and Noodles recipe. If you've invested in an Instant Pot, then not only will this chili be budget-friendly, but it'll be easy to make, too! No more standing over a pot on the stove! Get the Instant Pot Chili recipe. Satisfy your pizza craving and your pasta craving at the same time.

You'll get a two-for-one deal with this fun Italian mash-up. Get the Pizza Casserole recipe. The humble potato is the star ingredient in this comforting soup recipe. You can dress it up with fun loaded potato toppings like cheddar cheese, chopped chives, sour cream, or bacon.

Get the Slow Cooker Potato Soup recipe. BBQ Meatball Subs Are the Ultimate Picnic Main. Chicken and Dressing Sheet Pan Supper. Homemade Pasta. How to Make Perfect Beef Wellington. Sour Cream and Onion Tuna Noodle Casserole.

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Use profiles to select personalised content. Measure advertising performance. Measure content performance. Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources. But that doesn't mean meals have to taste boring!

These tasty, cheap, budget-friendly recipes are short on ingredient costs, but long on flavor. They lean on low-cost ingredients, such as canned fish and ground beef , as well as pantry staples like flour, butter, and basic vegetables.

Add a few to your weeknight rotation. You'll be glad you did! It's hard to beat a Crock Pot for turning inexpensive ingredients into a heavenly meal.

Chicken thighs work best in this dish, dark meat especially, but nearly any chicken can work. Skip the wine if you need to replace it with stock , but don't use cooking wine, or anything you wouldn't drink.

Get the recipe for Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup. This simple vegetable soup is surprisingly sustaining. With beans and broccolini, tomato and quinoa, it'll make a belly-filling bowl that can power you through an afternoon, or quench a serious dinner hunger.

Get the recipe for Vegetable Soup. Nothing beats mac and cheese for filling bellies! What makes this extra easy is that the macaroni cooks right in the sauce. So you don't have to boil it ahead of time! Get the recipe for Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese. Puff pastry makes this extra-yummy pot pie both simple and delicious!

Get the recipe for Chicken Pot Pie. Serve this staple-filled soup with good, crusty bread for a simple, effective, and delicious meal.

Get the recipe for Slow Cooker Potato Soup. Perhaps the only thing more warming and delicious than chicken soup on a cold day is chicken and dumplings. Get the recipe for Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings. This fast stovetop recipe skips roasting, but is steeped in flavor.

And with just a few ingredients mostly squash , it's easy on the wallet! You can skip the brandy and use a little more cider to save some cost.

Get the recipe for One-Pot Butternut Squash Soup. Some chicken cutlets and pantry staples — and plenty of Parmesan, of course — can quickly turn into this family favorite.

The tofu in this cheap recipe absorbs all of the flavors in the sauce—and there are a lot of them: shallots, ginger, garlic, cumin, red chile, turmeric, coconut cream , and peanut butter.

It all becomes a sauce you have to make and see to believe. Crunchy fried onions transform a simple cabbage salad into a sensorial delight: hot and cold, crisp and soft, sweet and spicy.

Make sure to assemble it just before eating in order to capture those different textures. When the coffers are dry and so is the bread on the counter, this is the one.

This cheap meal requires just a few other ingredients, most of which are already in your kitchen. A garlicky mixture of ginger, soy sauce, brown sugar, and maple syrup cooks down until almost sticky in this riff on a Chinese-American classic sesame chicken.

An untraditional but logical addition to the sauce: tahini. You might be surprised by just how flavorful a combination of chicken stock, celery, and chickpeas can be.

Garlic, red chiles, lemon, and fresh cilantro contribute to making it so—while still keeping it feeling clean.

If you can swing it, add a big pinch of asafetida for an extra savory note. Quick-cooking, budget-friendly, and pretty hard to screw up that dark meat is automatically juicier , chicken thighs are our default weeknight dinner—and this is our simplest way to prepare them. These battered, oven-baked florets come out crackly before getting bathed in a sticky-sweet gochujang glaze.

It means you have croutons. Ground turkey is a lean protein that, when simmered with white beans, seasonings, and chipotle chiles in adobo and topped with Greek yogurt, delivers major body and richness.

The key to stress-free stir-frying is in the prep work. Be sure to chop, slice, and grate everything before even thinking about turning on the stove. Once you do, it comes together in 15 minutes. A little bit of flour and butter, garlic, lemon juice, and capers , and you've got a super savory supper.

Say that three times fast. This cheap recipe leaves out the smoked pork or turkey, which is typical in the American South, and goes heavy on garlic for flavor. This all-star easy dinner recipe will work long after corn has gone out of season. In the winter, just sub in shaved cauliflower or torn kale.

This soup packs in all the ingredients that would make your doctor happy—lentils, sweet potatoes, leafy greens—but the fiery Thai green curry paste keeps things interesting. This Haitian meal consists of sos pwa nwa, black bean sauce enriched with coconut milk, served alongside mayi moulen, a creamy cornmeal porridge flavored with garlic and herbs.

Nothing is cozier. This family-friendly weeknight dinner takes a cue from Japanese grilled chicken meatballs called tsukune as well as the glossy, sweet-and-sour sauce that comes with them. A classic Italian pesto , this is not.

Spinach, cilantro, and miso come together for this uber-green sauce, which dresses, of course, springy ramen noodles. In this brothy beans recipe, caramelizing fennel, shallots, and lemon builds a base layer that is sweet, tangy, and bright.

Tinned sardines add protein and a briny flavor. A beloved Hong Kong dish with approximately one billion variations, this soup—which relies heavily on fridge and pantry staples—is meant to be a little sweet and a touch sharp.

Its silky texture comes from blended potatoes and broccoli stalks rather than heavy cream. Well, this is the salad version, with noodles in addition to pink radishes , orange carrots, purple cabbage, and green cucumbers. One head of cabbage goes a long way.

This recipe, where wedges are bathed in turmeric-accented coconut milk until meltingly tender and sweet, uses just half of one to feed four.

The soul of this recipe comes from the ginger and tamari marinade that gives crispy tofu a sweet and savory glaze. We like to turn leftover tofu into tacos, for some Japanese-Mexican fusion. Toss roasted sweet potato wedges in a sweet and nutty tahini dressing for this quick vegetarian weeknight dinner.

And no, it will not break the bank. This budget meal is about turning leftover side dishes into something totally new. Nearly any roasted vegetable or cooked grain could be worked into a frittata using this method. This looks like something that took hours in a crockpot to make, but in reality, the black-eyed peas soak up the flavors of an onion- and tomato-based gravy in under 30 minutes.

Tuna salad deserves to be considered a dinner dish, not just a sandwich filling.