Fantastic Frugal Meals + Tips for Stretching the Budget 💸

but don't worry, they're yummy and healthy too!

Hello! Inflation is nuts and I can’t believe how much it costs to buy groceries (and eat out!) these days. I hope you’re doing okay, dear reader ❤️

This week I’m going to share several meal ideas that are budget-conscious and delicious. But first, a few notes about food and frugality.

Things to Remember with Food and Frugality

• Many recipes on lists of “frugal meals” look gross or involve foods that don’t do a lot for you nutritionally. Consuming good fuel is one of the best forms of preventive health care; if you skimp too much on your grocery budget and eat a ton of processed foods, you might spend those dollars on medical bills later!

• Food writer Robert Farrar Capon wrote about the difference between ferial (everyday) and festal cooking¹. If a more indulgent meal—like a big roast, a cake, a fancy drink—isn’t rare, it won’t be as much of a treat. Let special meals be special! Another one of his big tips is “If you can possibly do so, contrive to make even a part of anything come to the table twice.” Reduce waste by using creativity; can leftovers be the base of something new?² He also said, “It was the poor man who first invented sauces.” Interesting to think about!

• Most things you cook at home will be cheaper than eating out, especially if you have more mouths to feed. You can make an amazing dish (with leftovers) for under $15, but good luck feeding a family for that, even at a fast-food restaurant! Investing in appealing ingredients, decent knives, an Instant pot, etc. can save you money if they keep you from eating out as much. (That is…if you actually use them!)

• If you feel overwhelmed by meal planning, figure out six kick-butt meals you know how to make, and plan on some variation of those each week. “Leftover Buffet” or “Frozen Trader Joe’s Indian Food” can totally count as a kick-butt meal for your day of rest, by the way 😜 (We wrote more about Doable Meal Planning here.)

Proats

Oatmeal is one of the cheapest, most nutrient-dense meals you can make, so it’s worth learning how to get comfortable with it! To avoid washing a big sticky pot each day, I make our oatmeal in individual bowls in the microwave 😉 Rolled oats usually use an oats-to-water ratio of 1:2.

The fun thing about oatmeal is you can customize it! You can add protein powder to the mix before cooking (hence the name “proats” - protein + oats) or add toppings of your choice afterward.

In my daily oatmeal, I mix in salt, a sprinkling of spices, and some chia seeds before cooking, and—once my oatmeal has cooled a bit—dark chocolate chips. 😋 I’ve been doing this for months and months and still look forward to it every morning!

Below is a portion size of 1/2 c rolled oats + 1 c water, microwaved for 2 minutes, stirred, then put in for 1 more minute ⬇️

Too many chocolate chips? Possibly. But they’re dark chocolate, so…lots of nutritional benefits to justify it 😎

Ultimate Spaghetti

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Everyone knows pasta is an extremely economical meal. It’s got decent protein, too. But to give it more nutritional value, taste, and appeal, sauté some other goodies in a pan while your noodles are boiling. Brown broccoli and fresh garlic together in butter, then stir in the drained pasta and maybe sauté everything together. Top with some cheese and a little herb and it looks and tastes fancy and delicious.

Like oatmeal, you can customize pasta in so many ways. In the dish below, I cooked the noodles in cheap red wine I had to get rid of and added beans and some balsamic-marinated steak bites! You can also make Spicy Peanut Noodles with slivered peppers, garlic, peanut butter, and a kick of spice…or make a Creamy Salmon Pasta with lemons. I’d love to hear what creations you come up with; pasta makes an awesome base!

Pork Loin

If you want to serve up steak tenderloin but have absolutely no budget for it, pork loin is a fantastic alternative…and it’s even cheaper than ground beef. These loins cost about $3 each from Trader Joe’s!

• Preheat oven to 425 F

• Turn your pan heat to really high

• Pat your meat dry and rub in generous amounts of salt and pepper

• Oil your pan and fry the pork loin on all four sides for about 2 minutes each, flipping with tongs

• Cook in the oven for 12 minutes or so, until internal temp reads 145

• Remove from oven (the handle is going to be hot) and rest for 8-10 mins so it soaks up the juices 🤤

• Slice at an angle with a serrated knife and serve with tongs!

If you feel comfortable making pork loin, you can add vegetables to the pan after you’ve fried all sides of the meat and let them cook in all the juices for the rest of the process. (Make sure you season them, too. Sweet potatoes, garlic, and smoked paprika are great together.) While the pork loin is resting outside of the oven, you can toss the veggies in remaining juices and keep them roasting in the oven or sautéing on the stove.

This is a delicious meal that tastes a lot more expensive than it is.

Bean Stew

Cooking beans from scratch is easy, especially if you have an Instant Pot or crock pot. We did a whole post on beans for paid subscribers, but this video by Carla Lalli is very helpful. Biggest takeaway: for a good pot of beans, you need 1) fat, 2) salt, and 3) time. To make with a crock pot:

• Soak your beans overnight

• Put in a crock pot with broth, some fat (olive oil, rendered lard from another meal, etc.) and plenty of salt and other seasonings

• Cook low and slow until the beans are the texture you want

• Consider adding lemon juice and maybe some bread to accompany!

  

  fejoida is a delicious Brazilian bean stew! (you don’t have to use all the different cuts of meat for it to be delicious)

Change-Your-Life Chicken

This recipe is from The Lazy Genius and it’s brilliantly simple, using a cheap cut of chicken that is almost impossible to overcook:

• Preheat oven to 500 F.

• Prepare veggies for roasting and lightly drizzle with olive oil. Season.

• Put chicken thighs on top and let the fat cook and flavor the vegetables below.

• Bake for like 30-45 minutes. You’ll be able to tell when everything is nice and roasted.

Bonus: create a coating with flour, salt, pepper, and seasonings of your choice, and pat your thighs into the coating on both sides before cooking. Remember to flip the thighs halfway. They get so crunchy they almost taste fried. It’s amazing.

(Defrosted) Frozen Fruit

When I lived in Florida, I was spoiled by farmstand and u-pick options for a lot of fruits. Now that I live somewhere with seasons, buying fruit out of season is out of budget (and poor quality.) Enter: frozen fruit!

A bag of frozen strawberries is $1.99 at Trader Joe’s. Microwave for a minute or two, stir in some frozen blueberries, and you’ve got a great side dish. Add a sprinkling of powder sugar and dessert is done! 😉

Other good frozen fruits: cherries, pineapples, peaches, mangoes, etc. There isn’t really a change in nutritional value because these fruits were picked at peak ripeness before they were frozen!

I hope this was helpful. I would LOVE to hear some of your go-to meals and tips that don’t pillage the wallet but still come loaded with nutrition, taste, and beauty!

Warmly,

Hope

1. This topic is the subject of Chapter 3 of The Supper of the Lamb, which is part cookbook, part comedy, part theology…it’s an unusual book but he makes some great points about food.

2. His book begins with a recipe for “Lamb for Eight Persons Four Times,” making a total of 32 meals using one leg of lamb and four different dishes 😅