OK, not sure if I'm in the right forum but here goes. My dh starts a new job next week that only pays once a month so we won't see a paycheck until the end of March :eek:

I have a ton of ground beef & split (bone-in) chicken breasts in the freezer. We're really sick of spaghetti and I'm not wild about this chicken anyway, it's such a hassle to feed it to the kids and well, blah, I hate chicken, LOL.

Do you have any ideas for cheap dinners? Some that don't take a ton of strange ingredients--I only have big-name chain grocery stores to choose from around here. We eat pretty "Southern" and have no allergies. Uhh, low/non fat doesn't fly, I'm looking for your grandma's fattening, greasy recipes :D

The kids and I love tacos but dh hates them. Lately I've made chili, plain baked chicken breasts, chicken & dumplings (a hamburger helper crockpot meal that was actually pretty good but at $4 for a box of preservatives and stuff...well, I'd rather make it from scratch).

Any ideas appreciated!!

it would use up some of your chicken. Boil a few chicken breasts until done and then chunk up the meat. Lay it in the bottom of a sprayed cake pan and then lay a bag of your favorite frozen veggie on top. Cover with a couple cans of cream of chicken soup and then prepare a box of stuffing and spread that on the top. Bake for 40 minutes and you have a very stick to your ribs hearty dinner.

For burger I usually make tacos, goulash, chili, beef stroganoff, and burgers with it. I sometimes make stroganoff with my left over taco meat and it is really good.

I would go to the Yummy food Forum and look under the thread "If you had to do a 21 day Rotating Menu. There is a link for a 6 week dinner meal menu plan by Stacy. That would have some Idea's. I tried the meatloaf muffins and thought they were very tasty.

Heather

Some things I make

* Hamburgers LOL add different stuff to make them different each time if you have to eat them close together .. cheese, bacon, pickles,bbq, toast the bread, put them in bbq or mushroom gravy to simmer, fried onions, fried onions and mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, ect

* Meatloaf - I use meat, an egg, bbq, ketchup, and rice..amounts that "look good" .... I've used sweet and sour sauce instead of ketchup before just for something different its good too.

* Beef and veggie soup - I put cans of different veggies in the pot, pepper,season salt, fried onion, and cooked hambuger

* chicken soup or chicken and dumplings

* chicken enchaldias

* breaded chicken pattys - pound out the chicken and bread with crackers

* chicken strips/ nuggets - cut in shape you want and bread with crackers

* hamburger or chicken on pizza

# 1 thing for chicken .. even if you have the same split brested chicken every night the same exact way ... using different BBQ sauces can make all the difference. Try like Treat ( mustard and vinegar based), Stub's ( its a Sweet sort of a ribs sauce but gooooood on chicken), Emeril Lagasi ( from Emeril Live ) has a good sauce out .. the Kicked up is Delicious!! , you might even try making your own sauce to spice things up. Maybe a pineapple and sweet BBQ type thing or another flavor your family really likes..

If you bake the chicken smother it with BBQ sauce put a touch of water in the bottom of the pan and then cover with foil or a lid... this keeps the chicken SUPER moist... Also Cook LOTS EXTRA .. then after its cooled some what ever yall dont eat pull it off the bone and then you can make pulled chicken sandwiches .. just add a little more BBQ sauce and you have BBQ chicken sandwiches.

Try making the chicken into small stripped peices and making it into taco meat same as you would hamburger.. its pretty good.

For something different you might get some butter milk or make some tea and put the chicken in it over night and then flour it the next day and make some fried chicken.

Make some strips and bread and fry then and then make a nice sweet and sour lemon sauce and you could have Lemon chicken.

Chicken Stir Fry over Rice ( really cheap even if you get the good jasmadi rice although veggies are rather high right now.. i usually make mine a little saucy by adding more juices so i can put more rice on my plate then pour a little sauce over the rice and then put my stir fry on top) you could to teriaki, simple soy sauce type, maybe an orange or lemon type by adding lemon or orange juice.

Shepards Pie is always a hit here .. what we do it take a large container ..put a can of regular corn and a can of creamed corn in the bottom and mix it .. then put browned hamburger meat on top of that then mached potatoes on top of that .. cook until hot then put some cheese on top and put it back in til the cheese gets bubbly and melty. I usually eat mine with a little bit of A1 just to give it an extra little kick of spice.

How about upside down Pizza, make like a manwich type stuff .. put cheese on top and then make popover mix and pour it right over top. Its pretty good. Or you could do biscuits over the top.

Swedish meat balls ... make little meat balls and then mix cocktail sauce and grape jelly together for the sauce.. i know it sounds gross but its SOOOO good !! Its not really a dinner item i guess though...

You mentioned Taco .. how about making Extra Tacos and then putting it into baggies in the freezer .. then a few nights later have taco salad... or have a side of this thing i like i have a lot of variations ... take a soft tortia ( i get them from the mexican food section .. if you live where there are many mexicans they will have a good selection of cheapsoft tortias) sprinkle it with cheese or refried beans and cheese or some refried beans, taco meat, and cheese, or taco meat and cheese, or salsa and cheese .. then put the next layer on .. you can do more then 1 layer or you can put each thing in a different layer wht ever you want to do .. then put it on a baking sheet and bake until the top is crispy the cheese is melty and the ingredients are nice and hot... then cut it up like pizza and serve with sour cream or salsa.

My mom showed me this one .. she is into the low carb fats are okay type diet .. when pan browning chicken put some real butter in there .. a table spoon or 2 .. Oh man .. it make it sooo goood .. you can use some Mrs. Dash, Lemon pepper, italian seasoning, season salt, raspberry vineagette, ranch season packets, Ole Bay.

Chicken and Broccili alfredo perhaps.. when i use alfredo i dont use much sauce so it goes a LONG LONG way .. i get it from the store canned because i can't seem to get a good reciepe for it .. last recipe i got was just to sharp for my tastes .. i guess it could ahve been the cheese i used. Pan brown or even grill the chicken .. ( grilled chicken in chicken alfredo is the best.. and left over grilled chicken is perfect too )

Chicken Primavera is good too .. take left over speggitti sauce and put it over the chicken and then a good sprinkle of cheese.

If you happen to have some ham around you could debone and butterfly the chicken and then put the ham in the middle with a peice of cheese and either bred or not the chicken and then bake it.

By changing the spices you can totally change the same old dish .. Got to love spices.. one time the girls and i had chicken for 2 weeks .. chikcen legs were on sale for 49 or 29cents a pound .. so i got like 5 or more i cant remember 5lb bags. Kevin was away and he HATES chicken so he would have complained BIG TIME.

The girls never complained, but when we had some red meat, i had gotten some cheap steaks that were on sale .. they were cheering *lol*

Ohh .. incidentally if you havent already try ranch dressing as a chicken dip its YUmmy Kevin's middle girl eats ranch on everything .. and i mean EVERYTHING even Pizza

Also For the hamburger try making what i call Italian Meatloaf. Kevin HATES meat loaf an he ate this. Use bread crumbs.. (or hard italian bread or what ever you got.)., an egg and then ad plently of italian Seasoning( you coudl even add a little parmagan or other cheese in there ). Top it with Speggitti Sauce and bake .. at teh end of the bake put some cheese on top and let it get nice and melty and then serve. It's almost like a giant meat ball.

maybe make a lot of speggitti sauce and then make things like Lasana, baked ziti, mini pizzas on bread ( makes a great snack).

Like someone said before Pizza is always a hit... if you eat hot dogs from time to time .. then try this variation also... make a pizza crust like you normally would do ... then put a little bit of pizza sauce on not as much as you normally would .. then spread over a can of semi drained baked beans. slice hot dogs over that and cover with chedder cheese. Yes i know it might soud so weird .. but its REALLY good !

I can really make bone-in split chicken breasts last a long time by making chicken soup with them!

Boil 2 split breasts in water with salt, pepper, thyme or poultry seasoning (very important) & a chopped yellow onion (celery too if you have it).

Once the meat starts falling off the bone, fish out the chicken to cool on a plate a bit before deboning it (DO NOT discard the stock!!!). De-bone it, add it back to the pot with a cheap 1 lb bag of frozen mixed veggies and a handful or so of whatever pasta or rice (I like using a wild blend, but white or brown is fine) you have on hand. And more thyme/poultry seasoning. Simmer until pasta is tender. Add salt & pepper to taste! Makes a 5-6 qt pot full of yummy soup!!! Lasts for many meals for us. I freeze whatever we don't eat within 24 hrs.

We do Shepherd's pie here too. I do it a little differently than qtkitty....after I brown the meat, I add some barbecue sauce to it. Then I heat up some frozen corn and frozen peas. (I'll use canned if I don't have any frozen or if I don't have as much time.) Layer taht with mashed potatoes (scratch is really better, but you could use instant if that 's what you have) on the bottom, then the veggies, then the meat, then more mashed potatoes. I usually don't add cheese, but I have. Yummmmm.....

You could make meatballs. The possibilities are endless...sweet and sour in the crockpot (use some grape jelly and barbecue sauce) with onions and pineapple over potatoes or noodles. Meatball grinders. Mix brown gravy and sour cream and do Swedish meatballs over egg noodles. Slice and put on homemade pizza.

Michelle

In soup you could also do left over veggies in your soup too .. thats how my grammie cleaned out the fridge every few days.

If you like Southern food and need to make your food last until March, definately fix fried cornbread with every meal to help fill you up.

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup self-rising flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon clarified butter, plus more as needed

In a large bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour and salt. Whisk in water to make a thin batter. Over medium heat, add clarified butter to a cast iron skillet. Use a small ladle to pour batter onto skillet. Pan should be hot enough to make batter sizzle. Cook until underside is browned, about 3 to 4 minutes, then flip and brown on the other side. Repeat with additional batter, adding more butter as necessary.

Originally posted by Sontanned
If you like Southern food and need to make your food last until March, definately fix fried cornbread with every meal to help fill you up.

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup self-rising flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon clarified butter, plus more as needed

In a large bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour and salt. Whisk in water to make a thin batter. Over medium heat, add clarified butter to a cast iron skillet. Use a small ladle to pour batter onto skillet. Pan should be hot enough to make batter sizzle. Cook until underside is browned, about 3 to 4 minutes, then flip and brown on the other side. Repeat with additional batter, adding more butter as necessary.

Do you think you could do this without a cast iron skillet? I don't have one. :(

You mentioned that you made chicken and dumplings from a boxed dinner. It is actually pretty simple to make.

Boil some bone in chicken with a bay leaf, salt carrots, onion and celery. When the chicken is done remove it from the broth. If you have bisquick you can make the dumpling recipe on the package. Cook for 10 minutes covered, 10 minues uncovered in the chicken broth.

If you don't have bisquick you can follow the recipe here

http://southernfood.about.com/od/chickendumpling/r/blbb702.htm

A similar dish to this is chicken paprika stew. You cook the chicken first and pull it off the bone. Also cook some cut up potatoes separately. Sautee an onion, and whatever veggies you would like to use up. Mushrooms, peppers, carrots and peas are all good. Add 6 cups chicken broth and some paprika to taste. Add potatoes. Make half a recipe of bisquick dumplings and cook until dumplings are finished.

A recipe of my grandma's that I always liked was baked chicken and rice. It is really easy and really cheap.

mix together 1 c white rice, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 can cream of chicken soup and 1 can water in a 9 x 13 pan. Place chicken pieces on top. Sprinkle with one package onion soup mix. Cover with foil and bake at 325 until rice and chicken are done.

Yes, you could use a nonstick skillet.

Yum! And so easy and cheap

Saute ground beef, drain fat, add onion and saute. Add a can of diced tomatoes (or some left over spagetti sauce or something tomatoe-y) and a bag of frozen mixed veggies. Add herbs you like and salt and pepper. Simmer untill nice and thick

Make mashed potatoes.

Spoon stew in oven proof dish and spoon potatoes on top, may sprinkle with cheese. bake untill hot and cheese is melted

Tanya

Use the beef to make chili. Bob's red meal has a great bean sup mix that has an easy recipe for chili on it. It's super cheap and makes three meals out of 1 lb of beef.

Chicken chimis- shredded chicken mixed with salso, re-friedbeans, cheese, and taco seasoning. Roll it up in tortillas. Wrap it in foil and it freezes really well. I thaw and either microwave or fry in a bit of oil to make it crsipy

Originally posted by RebeckaK

Chicken chimis- shredded chicken mixed with salso, re-friedbeans, cheese, and taco seasoning. Roll it up in tortillas. Wrap it in foil and it freezes really well. I thaw and either microwave or fry in a bit of oil to make it crsipy

That sounds YUMMY !!!