7 Cheap Meals to Satisfy Your Wallet and Your Palate

I love to cook and eat good food.  I am poor.  These two statements can live within the same household.  Even if you're not a part of a poor, student household, everyone can use a budget friendly grocery week.  Here are 7 of our family favourite meals that are easy to make, won't break the bank and most importantly, DELICIOUS!

1. Easy, Cheap, Fake-Out Korean Beef
-most of these ingredients probably already live in your house, the rest are super cheap
-lovely, bold flavours with inexpensive ingredients
-the whole dish can be completed while the rice cooks

2. Spaghetti in a Garlic Gravy
-my daughter's favourite meal
-can be made cheaper/faster by making a few adjustments: omit the chicken and add in extra vegetables (like roasted broccoli, our favourite)- or if you want to keep the chicken but you don't want to spend the whole time marinating, don't! It still tastes good if the marinating time is cut down
-another meal made in under 30 minutes start to finish

3. Easy Garlic Chicken
-this is the meal I turn to when I'm defrosting chicken, have no time or desire to go to the store and have a pretty much empty pantry- I bet you, like me, have all the ingredients already on hand
-beware, though, if you won't want to smell like garlic- this dish will have your house, neighbourhood and self smelling like garlic (but hey, I don't think that's a bad thing!)

4. Baked Mustard Lime Chicken
-another easy, flavour forward dish when you've got chicken to use up
-lots of bold flavour with super cheap ingredients, most of which you probably already have at home
-my favourite herb to use in this recipe turns out to be flat leaf parsley
-also a great quick go to recipe if you have people coming over to dinner and don't have much time- it's very impressive while being dead simple

5. Salmon Cakes
-great for when canned salmon goes on sale
-one recipe gets you like 8 patties, great for a big family or a small family with a big appetite or a love of leftovers
-updated note to recipe: I've started crusting the patties in panko bread crumbs before cooking them in the pan so that they stay together better and create a nice crispy crust

6. Noodle Box Fakeout
-our favourite stirfry recipe (tastes just like the Spicy Thai Peanut sauce from the Noodle Box)
-great for someone how has these ingredients on hand on a regular basis (soy sauce, coconut milk, fish sauce, sriracha)
-great recipe to tailor for your family's tastes: I do this one vegetarian all the time but you can use any protein or combo of protein you have on hand (our favourites are shrimp and chicken)
-great over noodle or rice stirfry

7. Chicken Palava (African Peanut Stew)
-fun, different dish to do with your chicken (you can use any form of chicken you have on hand or is on sale at the market)
-easy to make, looks impressive
-remember to not over cook your vegetables- nobody likes limp peppers