Any easy low cal recipes that won't break the bank?

Lately, I've been doing onions, garlic, peppers, tomato and celery with the meat of my choice.

Heat a skillet with some sort of oil (I've been using sunflower since it's what we have) and dice the onions and garlic and add them to the pan.

Dice the peppers and celery and add them a couple of minutes later.

Slice the meat as thin as you'd like (it cooks faster this way, and I can eat it without cutting it at work) and add it to the skillet.

Once the meat is almost cooked, add the tomatoes.

I do this same recipe with chicken, pork, beef tenderloin and ground beef. You can buy whatever is on sale.

I usually cook a whole skillet full. Then I take it to work for 2 days. Depending on how much meat and oil you use, this usually comes in between 200 and 400 calories. And it keeps me full until dinner time. You can add some rice on the side if you need more calories or carbs.

Keep them coming. lol, I think we could ALL use some of these in these days and times.

Soup (home made that is) is actually ridiculously low calorie, and quite filling. If you add something like chickpeas (for protein) then it'll keep you going even longer. Plus you can make a big batch and keep it in the freezer for when you're short on time or funds.

If you're new to cooking just look up a couple of recipes.

Pumpkin soup usually is something along the lines of:

half a pumpkin
an onion
chicken stock (fill the pot enough to cover the ingredients)
salt / pepper
boil for about 20 minutes, then stick in the food processor / blender / use stick mixer

if you hate cutting pumpkins - roast it for an hour first to make it nice and soft. if you don't have the time just buy a cut pumpkin already and stick it in the microwave on low.

even if you stir in 1 cup of lite cream at the end it is delish and still low calorie.

Leek and potato soup is one of my favourites.
Same again
but use a leek and some potato instead of the pumpkin.

With a couple of pieces of toast it is all super easy, low calorie and very cheap :-)

Cheap and easy.

forgot to mention to drain the black beans well first

bump

Peanut Butter Rice Pudding

0.5 serving long-grain brown rice
1 tbsp pb
splash milk of choice
Optional:
2 tsp honey
cinnamon, sugar, etc.

Put cooked (best way is using leftovers) rice and pb (and any other dry ingredient) in bowl and microwave until warm and gooey. Splash in milk. Stir up. Enjoy!

calories depend on your brand choices. VERY cheap.

You can make hummus yourself for very cheap (A can of chickpeas, some garlic, and olive oil) and can customize it all you want. Eat it with fresh veggies (carrots and celery are very cheap) or spread on a wrap or bread. Peanut butter lasts a long time and is inexpensive. Tofu isn't very expensive and has a lot of uses (I like to throw it in my protein shake in the morning with a banana, some milk, some cocoa, greek yogurt, and frozen fruit).

Edit: another way to eat on a budget is watch the grocery ads and buy more than one thing when it's on sale. When peanut butter is on special, i buy two. When canned beans go on sale for 4/$1 I get 8, etc.

I substitute spaghetti squash for spaghetti. It's pricier than pasta, but it's not too bad, and if you roast it with garlic in the oven it's amazing.

That was my supper tonight, "spaghetti" and homemade tomato sauce (store bought sauces usually have a lot of sugar). Low in calories, high in fibre and flavour!