cheap low calorie meals?

Lentils - the poverty meal of choice for just about everyone.

Do you like beans and lentils? If so, you can make a pot of pinto or black beans, and can refry them if you want. They make great tacos and burrittoes. How about chili? I use onions, canned beans (kidney, pinto, black even garbanzo), canned stewed chopped tomatoes, canned fire roasted peppers, Campbells tomato soup, and taco seasoning. I will also add frozen corn, diced carrots, whatever! You can add ground beef or not. Great by itself, with rice, on a baked potato. Garnish with shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream and tortilla chips.

Eggs- Scrambled, made into omelettes, or put onto open-faced sandwiches.
Brown rice or whole grain pasta with ground turkey or beef and pasta sauce.
Chicken fried rice with a bag of frozen veggies, chicken, and brown rice.
Chili (ground beef, seasonings, beans, etc.)
Whole wheat chicken quesadillas or corn tacos with with meat, cheese and vegetables.

I completely understand where you're coming from. When I was in high school, money was so tight and it got to the point that our house was foreclosed and I was living with my mom and cat in her car for a while.

Let me share a few tips I've gathered over the years. Feel free to message me or add me as well. I'll always be happy to help.

1. Coupons! This last shopping trip, I saved over $40 with just digital coupons and paper coupons alone. If you have a favorite grocery store, get their shoppers card and ask to get signed up for paper coupons. Try and either get a neighbor's Sunday paper or find enough change to get your own - there's lots of coupons in there.

2. Watch the weekly circular at the grocery store. Stock up on what you can when it's on sale (for example, my local Kroger has $1 box of pasta this week, so I purchased 5). This also ties into the above - coupons *can* be used with sale items. I remember finding my favorite sour cream on sale one week from $2.99 to $1.99, and I had a coupon for $.75 off. I felt like a kid at Christmas!

3. Speaking of grocery store - don't be afraid of Manager's Special/Quick Reduce items. A lot of times these items are near expiration date, but, for example, items like meat, you could store in your freezer and they won't go bad. I've saved a lot of $$ by just looking for the Manager's Special items.

4. Is there a Farmer's Market in your area? The produce there is a lot cheaper than the store (because you're eliminating the middle man of the grocery store) and 70% of the time, the farmers will haggle the price.

5. Beans are fairly cheap and fill you up. Shred chicken and have it with beans and a little bit of tomato sauce. Potatoes are also usually cheap and they can be made so many different ways that you won't get bored. Today I cut a potato a few times almost to the bottom, and I added salt, pepper, olive oil, and some butter and put it in the oven for 40 minutes. It was better than any french fry I've ever had.

6. EGGS! Cheap as heck and they're SO SO filling!

Hope this helps!

Lentils are dried beans in the legumes family. They are high protein and fiber. Makes great soup....

We eat lots of beans, eggs, and dairy which are cheap protein. Try bulking some of your pasta dishes with more veggies. I kept adding more and more veggies until my meals were 50-60% veggies, and more protein than carbs. A bag of frozen veggies is cheap, and can bulk up your hamburger helper easily, for not many calories.

You can also switch out some of your pasta dishes for potato (skin on for the fiber) and/or brown rice, which will give you more fiber, but cheaper than ww pasta. Just make small changes to prevent a revolt by your family!

I eat soooo many eggs! Frittata in my house is just leftover odds and ends a potato and eggs. Also make black beans in the slow cooker, which works out to about 25 cents a serving when prepared from dry.

If there are leftover beans I make black bean burgers with them.

Also fried rice. Which is leftover brown rice an egg or 2 some veggies and sometimes some meat.

Chicken or veg or chickpea curries - feel exotic and are tasty and cheap - lentils can be served as dahl, good side dish. If making veggie curry it adds an extra bit of protein. Google shall be your friend for recipes.

I can vouch for lentils. So much you can do with them! I substitute them for mince sometimes and make cottage/shepards pies, bolognese, lasagne, put them in soups or curries. Quite a lot you can do A cheesy lentil loaf is a cheap substitute for meat loaf.