Healthy meals on a budget for a family?

ASH2038602
ASH2038602 Posts: 215 Member
in Recipes
I feel like I am asking for the holy grail here. I am sick of making two different meals at night or just eating small portions of what I make for my son and boyfriend. Anyone have healthy budget friendly meal ideas for a family?

Replies

  • erobinson2014
    erobinson2014 Posts: 19 Member
    chicken stir fry is always a go to in my family.
  • Kari121869
    Kari121869 Posts: 180 Member
    have you checked out the recipe section of discussions on here? Do a search perhaps on types of things you like to eat.
  • mamaoftwins9197
    mamaoftwins9197 Posts: 142 Member
    What do you guys like to eat? So much easier to give you ideas based on that.
  • xo_jenny
    xo_jenny Posts: 15 Member
    I am in no way implying that you are on food stamps, but I recently stumbled upon this free e-cookbook that has not only lots of good and healthy recipes, but basic strategies for making your food dollar stretch further. I really enjoyed it!

    http://www.leannebrown.ca/good-and-cheap.pdf
  • Athijade
    Athijade Posts: 3,300 Member
    What do YOU consider healthy?

    What do you make your son and husband that is so difficult for you to eat?
  • JustAnotherGirlSuzanne
    JustAnotherGirlSuzanne Posts: 932 Member
    Think beans, rice, and frozen veggies. Quinoa is also inexpensive and really good for you.

    Chili and spaghetti are a favourite around here (and you can chuck in whatever veggies you want!) Pea soup is also a good one.
  • WJK3
    WJK3 Posts: 3 Member
    I usually just look for specials on meat or fish and try to combine that with one or two different veggie dishes. I can feed my family of four on about fifteen bucks (I live in Canada, where food is a little higher priced) but that's about as low as I can get it for a decent dinner. I still think that's cheaper than what you would pay at some fast food joint, and of course because it's so much healthier you are also making smart choices in other ways, too... I am glad you ask this question here. So much more intelligent and useful than those endlessly stupid "Would you sleep with the person above you?" threads... this place is worse than the YouTube comment section.
  • AlyssaJoJo
    AlyssaJoJo Posts: 449 Member
    www.budgetbytes.com is one of my favorite cheap recipes websites
  • fuhrmeister
    fuhrmeister Posts: 1,796 Member
    I agree with stir fry. I use the kinkoman packets form the "international" isle and follow the recipe.

    Taco salad, They can have shells if the want but make yours a salad

    Buffalo chicken salad - infact I'll make almost anything a salad

    I'll eat meat sauce over zuchinni insted of pasta. Again if they really want pasta they can have it.Use ground turkey to cut more calories.

    Hoisen pork chops - cover one sode of chop in hoisen sauce, broil for 8 min, flip and cover ohter side in sauce broil for another 8 min or until cooked through. I serve this with brocolli and roasted sweet potates

    roasted whole chicken with rosemary and lemon with veggie on the side. Add potatoes or rice if you have the cals.

    Good Luck
  • BringingSherriBack
    BringingSherriBack Posts: 607 Member
    I pretty much eat whatever I cook for everyone else in my family (myself, BF, my daughter and his son). I basically cook whatever we feel like. I cook tacos (usually eat mine as a taco salad to limit carbs and use less cheese to limit fat), fajita chicken with veggies and rice (I don't eat the rice and his son doesn't eat the veggies so I cook them separate from the chicken), grilled meat (chicken, pork chops, etc) with veggies and add a starch for everyone else, chili.

    Just pick things everyone will eat and then add extras from anyone not watching their diet (extra starches, dessert, etc) or for yourself (like a big salad to stretch your slice or two of pizza).
  • ASH2038602
    ASH2038602 Posts: 215 Member
    Thank you all so much! A lot of really good ideas and resources here, that I totally appreciate and will utilize! Sometimes I just get really overwhelmed thinking about what I should eat, and how I can get them eating a little healthier without them noticing lol

    To those that asked questions, we aren't really too picky on the types of food that we eat. Some of the things that are definitely out are Lima beans for me and for the boys, fish, mushrooms, tomato, raw bell pepper (boyfriend will eat it cooked, son wont,) sweet potatoes, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and I am sure there are more that I am forgetting. They can be incredibly difficult and frustrating sometimes, but I also recognize it as being my fault (particularly with my son) because I was the one feeding them processed crap for all of these years. What I mean by healthy foods is trying to transition off of some of the processed stuff. We eat a lot of crappy boxed/frozen stuff especially when money is tight. I don't mind still having some of those foods, but I would like to scale it back. I do have access to a wonderful farmers market nearby, so that really helps I just needed ideas on what I can make to get more veggies in.
  • babbyb1
    babbyb1 Posts: 66 Member
    I usually just look for specials on meat or fish and try to combine that with one or two different veggie dishes. I can feed my family of four on about fifteen bucks (I live in Canada, where food is a little higher priced) but that's about as low as I can get it for a decent dinner. I still think that's cheaper than what you would pay at some fast food joint, and of course because it's so much healthier you are also making smart choices in other ways, too... I am glad you ask this question here. So much more intelligent and useful than those endlessly stupid "Would you sleep with the person above you?" threads... this place is worse than the YouTube comment section.

    Boy, you are not kidding! I agree, use loss leaders to find the proteins on sale and plan your meals around that. Look for ways that you can take the same things they are eating and make them healthier. (Ex: baked instead of fried)
  • babbyb1
    babbyb1 Posts: 66 Member
    Thank you all so much! A lot of really good ideas and resources here, that I totally appreciate and will utilize! Sometimes I just get really overwhelmed thinking about what I should eat, and how I can get them eating a little healthier without them noticing lol

    To those that asked questions, we aren't really too picky on the types of food that we eat. Some of the things that are definitely out are Lima beans for me and for the boys, fish, mushrooms, tomato, raw bell pepper (boyfriend will eat it cooked, son wont,) sweet potatoes, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and I am sure there are more that I am forgetting. They can be incredibly difficult and frustrating sometimes, but I also recognize it as being my fault (particularly with my son) because I was the one feeding them processed crap for all of these years. What I mean by healthy foods is trying to transition off of some of the processed stuff. We eat a lot of crappy boxed/frozen stuff especially when money is tight. I don't mind still having some of those foods, but I would like to scale it back. I do have access to a wonderful farmers market nearby, so that really helps I just needed ideas on what I can make to get more veggies in.

    If you know that boyfriend will eat something the sons won't, how about using them for a topping that can be left off? (Raw bell pepper comes to mind.) I also find that there are things that I will eat in one form, but won't touch in another form. (Sweet potato chips, OK. Baked sweet potatoes. NOT.)
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    I'm not the best example of cooking meals that the whole family will eat, but we are working on it.

    Here are some sites with ideas:

    There is a show on Food Network called 10 Dollar Dinners:
    http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/ten-dollar-dinners-with-melissa-darabian.html

    And a site called Weelicious that has a section on one meal for the whole family:
    http://weelicious.com/family-meals/

    The meals that I make that the whole family does eat, may not fit your definition of "healthy" but recently I had success with

    Tacos
    Meatball Sandwiches (crockpot)
    Grilled Chicken over Lemon Basil Pasta (Pioneer Woman)
    Pesto Chicken with Primavera Orzo (this one is probably my biggest success as everyone ate it, and it had veggies they had previously proclaimed that they didn't like, and I was able to use herbs from my own garden!)

    http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/primavera-orzo-recipe.html
  • Kate7294
    Kate7294 Posts: 783 Member
    I recently started cooking up some boco veggie crumbles and mixing it with my servings of 80/20 hamburger. Not bad at all.
    I made tacos for everyone but mixing mine with the veggie crumbles really cut down on the calories.
    Another night I stuffed green peppers with the left over taco meat. **I mixed mine with Quinoa, part taco meat, part veggie crumbles, corn, salsa, and a little cheese.
    You can just heat there's in a pot and serve with chips for them. Taco meat, rice, salsa, and some drained corn.

    If you don't mind carbs I make pita pizzas. Whole wheat pita, tbsp. pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella ,pepperoni for them. I do a veggie for me.
  • ASH2038602
    ASH2038602 Posts: 215 Member
    Thank you guys so much! I really appreciate all of the help! I am really hoping to get these boys eating better, and hopefully without complaining (I know I ask for a lot lol.)

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