23 Incredibly Easy and Cheap Meals To Make For Lunch and Dinner
Want ideas on easy and cheap meals? With groceries being more and more expensive these days, choosing what meals to cook to save money is so difficult.
So in this post, I show you 23+ delicious cheap and easy meals to cook that only use a few simple ingredients. Some of these dishes are more nutritious than others but they’re all equally tasty.
Easy and Cheap Meals
1. Vegetable Stir-Fry
Stir fry dishes are some the easiest to make because you just throw all your vegetables into a pan, add some sauce and seasoning, and it’s ready to serve.
It’s relatively inexpensive because you can choose to add the cheapest vegetables you can find or whatever is on sale at your local grocery store.
Bean sprouts, zucchini, onions, cabbage, and carrots are some the most inexpensive ones to choose.
Recipe: Veggie Stir-Fry
2. Pasta with Marinara Sauce
On days when you’re craving a pasta dish, pasta with marinara sauce is such an easy one to make.
This recipe uses real canned tomatoes instead of already made marinara sauce so it’s extra homey. It’s ready to eat in less than 30 minutes so it’s a quick meal.
To add more nutrients to it, you can add some vegetables like zucchini, carrots, or spinach.
Recipe: Pasta Marinara
3. Egg Fried Rice
If you have leftover rice, it’s the perfect opportunity to make egg fried rice. It’s super easy to make too – you just need egg, rice, your choice of vegetables, and some seasoning.
If you want to add more protein, you can add some diced chicken inside.
Recipe: Egg Fried Rice
4. Baked Potatoes
If you’re not feeling too hungry, a small baked potato is the perfect food to eat. It’s a bit high in carbs, but it’s high in good nutrients.
It takes some time to bake but other than that, it’s super easy to make.
Recipe: Baked Potatoes
5. Omelette
Do you love breakfast for dinner? An omelette is a great quick meal to whip up. To make it more tasty, you can add some tomatoes, avocados, and cheese.
You can make this for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or midday snacks.
Recipe: Omelette
6. Tuna Salad Sandwich
Tuna salad sandwiches are the perfect easy lunch to pack for kids or yourself.
All you need are 8 ingredients to make the tuna salad portion of the sandwich. You can even more tuna mixture to add to your salads as another meal option.
Recipe: Tuna Salad Sandwich
7. Stuffed Bell Peppers
Like baked potatoes, stuffed bell peppers don’t take too much work to make them. You just need some ground beef, tomato sauce, and rice.
Make sure to bake the bell peppers first so it cooks evenly and thoroughly.
Recipe: Stuffed Peppers
8. Macaroni and Cheese
Baked mac n cheese is definitely one of the best comfort foods. It tastes especially indulgent when it’s baked with a thick layer of cheese on top of the mac n cheese.
It might feel like this dish takes a long time to prepare but it actually only takes 35 minutes and most of time is spent in the oven.
Recipe: Creamy Baked Mac and Cheese
9. Baked Chicken Drumsticks
If you want a protein-rich meal, chicken drumsticks are the perfect protein to cook without much effort.
All you need to do is season it well and bake it in the oven. You can serve it over rice or some pasta. For the seasoning, you can use lemon pepper, garlic herb, teriyaki, or other types of seasoning.
Recipe: Baked Chicken Drumsticks
10. Vegetable Curry
Vegetable curry is another one of those dishes that is super easy to make.
Everything goes into one pot or pan and then when all the vegetables are cooked through, you just add in your curry sauce and you’re done!
It’s a must to serve this over white or brown rice to really savor the flavor of the curry sauce.
Recipe: Vegetable Curry
12. Pasta Primavera
Pasta primavera is such an easy dish to make and a great alternative if you’re not feeling marinara sauce. The main difference is red pepper flakes, lemon juice, and a ton of vegetables.
It’s a really healthy dish too because it’s packed with veggies and has a very clean and refreshing flavor.
Recipe: Pasta Primavera
13. Taco Salad
Taco salads are one of my personal favorites. It incorporates a ton of healthy ingredients like black beans, chicken, tomatoes, lettuce, and a few more ingredients.
The flavor is jam-packed but also not too heavy.
Recipe: Taco Salad
14. Chicken Stir-Fry
Here’s another stir-fry dish for ya! This time, we’re making it a chicken stir-fry. For this dish, the recipe using carrots and bell peppers for the vegetables and chicken breast for the meat.
For the stir-fry sauce, the recipes uses Asian-inspired flavors like soy sauce and sesame oil. It’s super tasty served over rice.
Recipe: Chicken Stir-Fry
15. Caprese Pasta Salad
A Caprese salad feels more like an appetizer but it’s an amazing dish to eat on days you’re not feeling too hungry. You can also put it together in less than 5 minutes.
All you need are tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, basil, and balsamic vinegar. That’s it.
Recipe: Caprese Pasta Salad
16. Cauliflower Fried Rice
If you want to cut down on carbs, cauliflower rice is one of the best alternatives. This recipe teaches you how to cook cauliflower fried rice using Asian flavors.
It will leave you feeling full without the extra carbs of traditional fried rice made with white rice. You’re also able to make it very quickly – in under 20 minutes. Cauliflower is already relatively cheap so this makes for a budget-friendy meal.
Recipe: Cauliflower Fried Rice
17. Pesto Chicken Panini
Chicken pesto paninis are so tasty and such a comfort food. Once you have all the ingredients, it’s quite easy to assemble.
If you don’t have a panini press, don’t worry because you can sear it on the pan and it’ll have a similar flavor and texture.
Recipe: Chicken Pesto Panini
18. Lemon Herb Roasted Chicken Thighs
Here’s another easy and cheap recipe to follow. This recipe teaches you how to cook lemon herb roasted chicken thighs.
Roasting these chicken thighs allow the skin to be extra crispy which is so delicious. The extra lemon citrus flavor is a really nice touch too.
Recipe: Lemon Herb Roasted Chicken Thighs
19. Vegetable Lo Mein
Want to eat lots of vegetables but also want to add some carbs as well? Try this recipe where they teach you how to make vegetable lo mein.
They use Asian sauces to create the umami flavor.
Recipe: Vegetable Lo Mein
20. Pineapple Fried Rice
If egg fried rice is too plain for you, try pineapple fried rice. It might take a little bit longer the first time you make it but once you know what ingredients you need, making it again is easy peasy.
It’s jam-packed with yummy flavors and the ingredients are not too expensive too.
Recipe: Pineapple Fried Rice
21. Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas
Quesadillas are always super fun to eat. It’s savory, creamy, cheesy, and just overall delicious.
The good thing is the ingredients are quite cheap and it doesn’t take a long time to make it. The longest part of the cooking process is probably cooking the meat and waiting for the cheese to melt.
Recipe: Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas
22. Honey Sriracha Chicken Bowls
If you love a little bit of spiciness in your food, try this recipe. This is a honey sriracha chicken bowl that is a little bit sweet and a little bit spicy.
Serve with some rice too!
Recipe: Honey Sriracha Chicken Bowls
23. Southwest Quinoa Salad
Quinoa is one of the healthiest grains and not too expensive too. You can actually make this quinoa salad in bulk and save it for lunch or dinner the next day.
The best part is it’s packed with tons of vegetables and it’s overall a very healthy dish that’s easy to make.
Recipe: Southwest Quinoa Salad
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