what are some inexpensive meal ideas?

In order of cheapness

1. Ramen noodles (throw in some frozen veggies for some nutritional value). Spaghetti is also super cheap.

2. Grilled cheese sandwich. or PB&J, or really any sandwich.

3. Mac and cheese.

4. Tuna fish (on salad, in sandwiches, mixed with Mac and Cheese for extra protein.)

5. Soup (all sorts)

6. La Choi. They make these big canned meals, 2 cans stuck together. One can is veggies, one is meat in sauce. Throw them in a pan and heat it up, and you've got serviceable stir fry.

Hope that helps as a start. Wow, reading that list was like reliving college. Add cheap beer and lots of breakfast cereal and I think that is the definition of college.

Good luck.

Oh, here is one "nice" recipe that is still pretty cheap.

Ingredients: Buy a bag of frozen salmon at the store, usually cheaper than the fresh stuff. You'll need one salmon filet for each adult.

Olive oil.

White flour.

1 can diced tomatoes.

1 can butter beans.

1 clove garlic

1 medium yellow onion sliced (optional).

sprinkle of taragon (optional, but worth it)

Ground black pepper.

Thaw the salmon (a lot of the frozen ones are individually wrapped, you can just throw them into a sink full of water for about 20 minutes.)

If you want to do the onions, put some olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Once the oil is good and hot, throw in the onion, and sprinkle with a little sugar (very little). Keep stirring or they will brown too fast, with a little practice you will get great caramelized onions. When sufficiently limp and sweet, (just taste!) set the onions aside.

Take the thawed salmon and roll it in flour until lightly coated. Add more oil to the pan, leave the heat on medium and add the salmon. Cook for about 3 minutes per side and remove, should be golden brown.

While salmon is cooking, open the cans of tomatoes and butter beans. Drain the beans, don't drain the tomatoes. Crush the garlic and put it into the can of beans. Sprinke some taragon into the can of tomatoes.

When you remove the salmon from the pan, pour the tomatoes and beans into the pan (this may splatter a bit so be careful.) If you did the onions, throw them in too.

Heat this until it is bubbling pretty good, stirring a little usually about 3 minutes. Sprinkle the salmon with black pepper while this is cooking. Add the salmon back into the pan, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 6 minutes.

Then just dish out the salmon and pour the bean/tomato mixture onto each salmon filet. Trust me, its good.

Rabbi's Cabbage (a Carpathian recipe given me by a precious friend who was an Auschwitz survivor). It's surprisingly good - first time I tried it I made it three nights running. You need tagliatelle and a fresh round cabbage - i.e. not one of those frilly jobs - and the goal is to finish with roughly equal quantities of both. Chop the cabbage into thin strips; cover with salt for at least an hour and then rinse the salt off. Then stir-fry the cabbage (the residual water is enough) and cook the tagliatelle - the cabbage should be cooked but still crisp. Mix the two together; add pepper and butter; nosh. (Goes great with bacon, although the rabbi didn't mention that, but really good on its own - trust me).

Or: 'Stretched sausages.' This serves four - about half a pound of sausage meat formed into patties, three large onions, three green-skinned apples. Cut the onions into thick wedges and fry in a very little butter and olive oil; then brown the sausage patties in the same pan; then add the quartered and peeled apples. When they look cooked, add about two tablespoons each brown sugar, wine vinegar, salt to taste, and about a quarter cup sweet Thai chili sauce (the only costly ingredient but you're not using much and how else will you feed four people with half a pound of sausage meat?). Keeps and re-heats well.

If you can get tamarillos (tree tomatoes) cheaply, make something along the same lines using the tamarillos instead of the apples; leave out the Thai chili sauce but add some tomato paste and a little Tabasco sauce.

Home-made soup always goes down well and is a good way of stretching a ham hock or an elderly chicken - one or two meals from the poached meat, then use the stock and all the meat scraps plus barley, lentils, or any pulses you like.

All the above are pretty healthy eating, difficult to go wrong with, quantities approximate, and taste delicious. Good luck and it's nice to know that you want to cook instead of going for junk food.

How inexpensive are you talking about. In my first apartment I would sometimes go on bread dipped in A1 sauce to full my stomach that I was eating steak.

Hamburger meat is great for beginners. Check out the price. and take a calculator or a cell phone with one in it. sometimes the hamburger meat is more expensive then a roast or large steak. Mind you I’m talking about per pound. so if you find this to be the case take the steak or roast and have the butcher ground it for you. With hamburger meat you can make allot of good food. If it is just you, buy the meat and some freezer bags. at home break it up into portions and freeze all of it except for a single portion. keep that in your fridge. If the meat turns brown throw it out. you left it in the fridge to long.

take a portion and add some onions, garlic or garlic powder, salt & pepper and maybe a jalapeno. Form it all into a patty and cook it in a pan, med / med-hi. and you have a spicy little hamburger steak. It is fast, tasty and you can add any sides you can afford. If you can try to grow some fresh herbs by a window. it will add to your home and food.

Beans and potatoes are great too. Good side dish, slow cook a pot of beans with a tomatoes, garlic, ham or bacon. will keep for days in the fridge.

1 pint of heavy cream, you will only use half to 3/4th of it.

1 egg yolk 1 whole egg

1 lemon, juice and zest

salt and pepper

1 bag of pasta you choose, fettuccine is good

1/4 two 1/2 pound of chicken, breast are best but let your budget decide.

1. first place the chicken in a frying pan and half of the juice and some salt and pepper at med-hi.

2.Then start the pasta, per box directions.

3. beat the eggs salt and pepper, zest and heavy cream.

As the lemon juice evaporates it will caramelize on the chicken. just before the chicken is ready add the rest of the juice to de-glaze the pan.

When 1 and 2 are cooked add all three together and mix with a large spoon. The heat from the 1 and 2 will cook 3.

This is a great dish and will feed four easy for Under $10

Also, one green squash/zucchini, flash fried in a four second pour of olive oil with salt and pepper, then poured onto one box of prepared angel hair spaghetti is a $3 - $5 meal for four people too. You can even add a clove of garlic thinly diced just before you take the oil off the heat to pour onto the pasta.

Some inexpensive staples to buy would be pasta, rice, beans and potatoes. I am on a very tight budget as a single mom, so I always have those staples and some beef and chicken broth on hand. Then, I take the weekly ads from my local grocery store and use it to fill in with vegetables and meat that are on sale. From this basic stocked pantry you can make a number of things...soups, casseroles, etc. and keep from getting bored with the "same old thing". To make an easy soup, saute veggies and meat in a bit of olive oil, then add the meat broth and whatever seasonings you like. For some fantastic budget meals, go to allrecipes.com and go to their section of inexpensive meals.

French Pork Pies

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 pounds lean ground pork

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 large onion, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 bay leaf

3 cups water

4 baking potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 (15 ounce) packages refrigerated pie crusts

DIRECTIONS

In a large saucepan, mix together the ground pork, cloves, cinnamon, onion, salt, celery, bay leaf and water. The water will help break up the raw pork. Simmer over medium-low heat for about 3 hours, or until the water has evaporated. Remove from the heat and discard the bay leaf.

Towards the end of the pork cooking time, place the potatoes into a separate saucepan and fill with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and mash potatoes. When the pork is done, stir the mashed potatoes into that pan until evenly blended.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line two 9 inch pie plates with bottom crusts. Spoon equal amounts of the pork filling into each crust. Cover with top crusts and flute the edges to seal. I used prepared pie roll out crust in the dairy aisle.

Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until crust is golden brown.

Makes 2 pies!

You've gotten a lot of good answers. Most pasta and rice based dishes are very economical. Top Ramen is a meal that costs like 15 cents, including the water and energy used to heat it.

One of my favorites is just to look and buy some spaghetti that's on sale, and look for a jar of sauce on sale, then accompany that with a salad and maybe some garlic bread. Delicious and cheap!

As far as meats go, generally dark chicken meat like thighs, and lesser known cuts of steak, like the flatiron, are cheaper, but every bit as delicious as the more expensive and more common cuts of meat.

Pasta dishes are great. Buy any pasta, can of sauce and grab a bag of premade garlic bread and you're set. I add ground beef or grilled chicken to make it a little more hearty. Salad is great with this if you want to take the time.

Tacos, burrittos and fajitas are inexpensive as well and easy.

There should be bags of boneless, skinless chicken breast in your freezer aisle of your store. You can grill or cook them in a skillet with olive oil and garlic. You can also thaw and cut them into bite size pieces and put your favorite marinade or sauce (jarred from the store) and eat it over rice or pasta. You can make chicken fajitas. A bag of these can last one person a couple of weeks and many times the store runs them on sale.

The answer above is good with the Ramen noodles, which by the way you can put cooked chicken into!

Also for grilled cheese you can add ham from the deli counter and have grilled ham and cheese.

My fave cheap meal is a sandwhich and chips-where I live alltogether it's under $5.Usually canned food is at a max 85 cents,so get canned fruits or beefaroni or beans and weenies.Tv dinners are $3 or $4.You can always go to mcdonalds and get a burger and fries off of the dollar menu.Or you can always eat at your mom's house-i'm sure you're welcome there,or maybe a friend will invite you to dinner.Good luck!

Spaghetti is the cheapest, easiest, and most filling meal on a budget.

Also, try meatloaf, tuna casserole, and of course, Hamburger Helper.