Ten Easy, Customizable Budget Meals

Now-a-days it seems like everybody needs to be eating on a budget! I looked for a long time for some good recipes but none of them quite fit. They all required too many kitchen resources or ingredients that many of us on a budget just don't have. In my quest, I was able to track down (through delicious experimentation) some good, simple recipes. All of them use cheap, easy to obtain ingredients and are highly customizable to fit your own tastes! Let's get right to it, shall we?

Pork Pearl Balls
This is probably the most unusual on the list, but its certainly my favorite! Ground pork tends to run pretty cheap and I always get a good amount of meatballs out of 1 pound of meat. Start off by soaking some white rice in a water for six to eight hours (I usually just soak it before I leave for work and its ready to use by dinner time). When you're ready to make dinner, drain the water from the rice and lay it out to let it dry for a little while. Once its dried a bit make meatballs out of the ground pork. I usually add in some garlic and herb breadcrumbs or panko, onions, salt, pepper and bouillon. Peppers or any other vegetables that catch your eye would be good as well. Once you have those set, roll your meatballs around in the rice until its covered on all sides, then steam them for 20-30 minutes (could be longer depending on the size of your meatballs). If you have room, steam up some other vegetables as a side!

French Toast or Pancakes
Who says breakfast is for breakfast? A simple box of pancake batter can be pretty cheap and makes a lot of food! French Toast can be tossed together easily if you have bread, egg and milk. A bit of vanilla extract and cinnamon helps give it taste. Mix all the ingredients together, dip the bread in and fry it up! Have some fruit laying around that needs to get eaten? Soak it in some sugar for awhile and then pour it on top of your french toast or pancakes! I like to couple any breakfast with sausage links which tend to go for really cheap at the store - or bacon if you can catch it on sale! If you have potatoes, you can chop some up, add onions and spices and make home fries as well.

Potato Cheddar Soup
This is easiest to make in a crock pot, but it can be done on a stove as well. There are a lot of versions of Potato soup out there, so feel free to mix it up! The basics you'll need would be potatoes, milk, flour, cheese and butter. Mix together the butter, milk and cheese. Add flour to thicken it up until its at a consistency that you like. Add potatoes and cook! Sliced onion, ham or bacon and spices (salt, pepper, garlic, etc) always give it a bit more flavor. Want a quicker version? Grab some cream of potato soup, add cheese and potatoes and cook! The ingredients are cheap and you'll get quite a few meals out of it.

Spaghetti
Spaghetti is a classic and just had to be mentioned! Spaghetti noodles and sauce are both cheap. If your sauce is plain you can add random leftover meats, vegetables and spices that you have laying around to give it some flavor! Ground pork and beef are both on the cheap end and go well with spaghetti sauce, as does chunks of tomato, onions, fresh garlic, any type of cheese and oregano. If you don't have spaghetti noodles that just toss some sauce on any noodles you have laying around!

Tuna Noodle Casserole
Tuna Noodle casserole was my absolute favorite dish to make while growing up - and it's so easy to make! Cook up some noodles (any kind will do) and add one can of cream of mushroom soup. Add half a can of milk (or more, if you desire) and salt and pepper to taste! Lastly, throw in a can of tuna, heat it up for a minute or two on the stove and you're done! Don't like mushrooms? Try a different "cream of" soup instead! Of if you want more, add in some fresh chopped mushrooms to liven it up a bit. This is a great lunch or dinner and leftovers heat up well as long as you add a splash of milk before zapping it in the microwave.

Ham and Cheese Egg Bake
This is an absolute staple. Not only is it yummy, but incredibly flexible! The only thing you absolutely need is the egg and some milk (half&half or cream will work just as well). Crack some eggs, add a splash of milk and then pour it into a lightly greased baking dish. From here you can add whatever you desire! My favorite is adding cheese (one slice per egg that went in) and ham. For the ham, grab one of the small pre-cooked hams from the store if you can catch them on sale. They look small, but one or two slices off of it usually works for a whole egg bake. Slice off the meat and cut it into cubes then add it to the egg and cheese mixture. Bake in the oven until its browned on top and is cooked through the middle. It freezes well if you cut it into squares, as well! You can add virtually anything that you want. Add broccoli for a more "quiche" feel, or sausage and bacon for a three meat treat!

Homemade Stew
This is another one of those things that works best with a Crockpot. You'd be amazed at the cheap meals you can make with one of those things! The first thing you'll need is stew beef. You can actually find this for pretty cheap since its a tougher cut of meat, however if you're cooking it in a Crockpot all day long it will come out surprisingly tender! Cut the beef into bite size pieces and toss in some cubed potatoes, carrots, onions and any other good looking vegetables you have around. Add some beef broth and keep flour on hand if you want to thicken it up. Salt, pepper, garlic, bouillons or meat seasonings will help bring out the flavor. Start it cooking in the morning and you'll have delicious stew by dinner time!

Beef Stroganoff
With this recipe you can get a tougher cut of meat as well to save on cash, since it'll be either cooking in a crock pot or in a large pot on the stove for a lengthy amount of time. Put a couple cans (2 cans for 2 1/2 lbs of beef) of cream of mushroom soup in your pot, add water, some sliced vegetables if desired and a packet of dry onion soup mix. Cook it for 6 to 8 hours and then boil up some noodles before supper time. Pour your beef mixture over the noodles and voila! Try a different "cream of" soup if desired. The onion soup mix gives it a great flavor - keep this in mind! You can get a few packets of this mix for very cheap and its great for seasoning up nearly any dish.

Homemade meatballs
Meatballs can be used in so many things. Eat them on their own, put them on a bed or rice and with gravy, wrap them up in a roll with sauce and mozzarella for a delicious meatball sub..the possibilities are endless! They're easy to make, too, and much cheaper (and yummier) than buying premade frozen ones. Just like the pork meatballs for pork pearl balls, you can roll these up with anything your heart desires. In fact, putting some leftover ground pork in them would be delicious! Once again, herb and garlic bread crumbs are my favorite addition - you can get a cannister of them at the grocery store for under $1.50! It's the same things shake and bake, too but comes with more and costs half the price. If you want to make meatball subs out of them, grab hot dog rolls instead of expensive sub rolls to save some additional cash. Butter the inside of the rolls and sprinkle a bit of garlic powder on them and bake for a few minutes before adding the meatballs, sauce and cheese to give it a garlic bread flavor!

Stir Fry
This is where all of your leftovers come in handy. You can add as much meat and vegetables as you want - the more variety the better! Add some bouillon and other spices while cooking to give it a zing and serve over rice or noodles. Make a big batch so that none of your leftovers go bad! Most stir fries heat up pretty well the next day for a yummy lunch. Need a really cheap alternative? Grab a packet of ramen noodles, add meat and veggies and fry it up!

Eating on a budget can seem so impossible some times, but you'll see that the more you experiment the easier it gets! You just have to find the foods that fit you and your family. There's budget meals out there for all of us!