If you live in BJ’s country, they also have $4.97 rotisserie chickens that are three-pounders. Local supermarkets get $6-$7 for birds that are significantly smaller. Since it’s just the 2 of us now, we get at least 3 meals out of it. Leftover meat makes a HUGE pot of chicken soup with meat still left over.
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We love these with stir fry veggies!
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Pierogi or any other sort of dumplings are cheap to make (but time-consuming!). The dough: one egg, a cup of water, a dash of salt, a small splash of vegetable oil, and flour to the needed firmness to roll it out. Filling: mashed potatoes (can mix in mushrooms and/or onions). Or you can make them with cherries for a sweet meal.
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I love this recipe: Sheet-Pan Pierogies With Brussels Sprouts and Kimchi Recipe - NYT Cooking
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Jambalaya! Was this mentioned?
A pot of jambalaya goes a long way, good for leftovers too. There are lots of good recipes out there but I just get Zatarains (under $2 a box) and spruce it up. I toss in whatever veggies I have on hand, chicken, sausage and shrimp. Would be a lot less expensive if you skip the shrimp and still delicious. A crowd pleaser.
Here’s a homemade jambalaya recipe I haven’t tried — it received a stamp of approval from a website called “Cheap Bastid Cooks” 
http://www.cheap-bastid-cooks.com/jambalaya/
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Super cheap meal—costco rotisserie chicken. Use some in stir fry, use some in a green salad for several great meals.
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I do mostly cheap meals 
our go to’s are chicken corn soup (rotisserie chicken, low sodium chicken stock, frozen corn and seasonings). I get one meal plus several lunches or 2-3 meals out of one chicken. I also do chili, tomato sandwiches, grilled cheese and tomato soup, marinated chicken breast over a bed of greens or over quinoa. One large chicken breast is enough for 2 servings. I usually shop at aldi for basics; I always use ground turkey instead of beef because I like the texture better, the price is better, and it has less iron.
My hubby and D20 were soooo excited on Sunday evening because I made burgers with actual beef. It wasn’t a cheap meal because I stuffed the burgers with crab cakes. I mentioned it to D20 over text & she jumped in the car and drove over here; I now know how to lure her away from college/cheap meals. I offer her real meat no way she was getting the car for turkey burgers.
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We buy the $4.99 rotisserie chicken from Costco that creates 2-3 meals. ShawWife carves the whole chicken. That night, the two of us have sliced chicken with a salad and either rice or butternut squash. She puts the carcass in a pot and boils it to create soup (with carrots, celery, mushrooms, I think). Of course, as there are only two of us, there is chicken left over from the first night and we then make chicken tacos (corn tacos, cut up lettuce, tomatoes, Trader Joe’s Cowboy Caviar salsa) or some kind of stir fry with vegetables and chicken.
My favorite, also from Costco. Microwave one bag of Madras lentils from Costco. Cook two grass-fed all beef hot dogs (Teton Farms?) also from Costco. Slice the hot dogs into rings. Put them into the lentils. Serve. Total cost: Roughly $2 per person (A little less than $1 per person for the lentils and a little more than $1 per person for the hot dog).
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We like to get the Sam’s stuffed peppers. There are 6 in an aluminum pan for about $10. Hubby has 2 for dinner and I have 1 (plus salad or veggie)…. so lasts us 2 meals.
I have quite a stash of those aluminum pans from stuffed peppers and other Sam’s entrees (some which cost more). To be “green”, I use an old one flipped instead of tented aluminum foil for cooking the first 30 min.
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Our dogs like it when I get Costco chicken as I boil the carcass for them, with the wings, and they get ‘dog soup’ (rice, the chicken broth) on their dinners for a few nights.
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I like naan even more for a quick pizza.
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I try to eat a pretty healthy diet but admit I love Kraft Mac and Cheese.
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I make quick lentil chili in the Instantpot. Chop up whatever veggies need to be used up. I use lots of veggies. Approximately one onion, two peppers a couple of zucchini and maybe a carrot. Veggies aren’t cheap, but it’s better than throwing them in the trash. Add 2 cups of dried lentils, 2 cans of Rotel Tomatoes (I just use store brand, they are considerably cheaper), 2 cups of broth, cumin, garlic and chili powder. Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes and let release naturally. Sometimes I add ground turkey (I grind my own). I have a picky family and have to cook around food allergies, but for some reason, they will all eat this.
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We regularly do a traditional greek lentil soup but I am going to give your recipe a try!
This is great! So much better than wasting them. Chili sounds delicious, too.
We try not to throw away past-prime veggies. Wilted celery, shriveled cherry tomatoes etc get used various cooked dishes. In fact, that’s how I first started to sauté celery, along with onion, when prepping for a crockpot pot roast. Now it’s a regular thing.
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DD’17 and I like to open a can of baked beans or pork&beans and add as available- leftover hotdogs, a little bit of browned hamburger, bacon if possible, and leftover cooked diced potatoes. We call it “garbage”.
Number one standby the whole family likes is cooked pasta in tomato soup/ground beef/cheddar cheese mixture. We call it noodlesagna. Doesn’t have to have a lot of beef in it.
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I had to forward the cottage cheese & noodles to DD’19. She’s a picky eater and ever since she was tiny the ultimate foods for her were cottage cheese and buttered noodles. It’s become family lore by now. We’ll have to try this!
I have kept the ends/peels/scraps from veggies to make veggie broth in the crockpot. Just add water, salt, the veggies, a few herbs if you want.
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First time I see a recipe that calls for brown sugar in spaghetti sauce. I’ve always done that. My Italian-American DIL can’t believe I put sugar in most tomato based recipes, including salsa.
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