Living on a strict budget doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice quality or flavor in your meals. In fact, being frugal is about prioritizing your spending so that you can enjoy more of what you truly care about.
This principle can be seamlessly integrated into your daily lifestyle, including your diet and meals. Embracing a frugal approach doesn’t mean depriving yourself of delicious and nutritious foods.
With that in mind, here are 18 delicious and healthy cheap meal recipes that you’ll love!
18. Best Pork Loin Roast Frugal Recipe
This Pork Loin recipe is incredibly easy to prepare, resulting in a juicy, tender, and flavorful meal. It’s perfect for a weeknight dinner yet fancy enough for holiday dinner parties.
The fragrant aroma of rosemary, combined with balsamic onions and white wine, creates the perfect marinade.
Even better, this recipe is keto-friendly, making it ideal for those following a keto diet.
This straightforward recipe will show you how to cook a boneless pork loin roast. Whether you use a crock pot or your oven, this no-stress recipe will yield an incredible roast ready in no time.
Pork loin is a simple dish that requires only a few ingredients to create an incredibly tender and delicious meal.
Boneless pork loin (different from pork tenderloin) is budget friendly and, once roasted, has a crispy top and a juicy interior that’s irresistible. To achieve juicy, melt-in-your-mouth results, be sure not to overcook the meat. It’s that simple, yet crucial.
17. Keto & Easy Chicken Beast Roll Up with Cheese & Ham – Frugal Meal Idea
These chicken breasts stuffed with cheese and turkey ham are a low-carb, healthy recipe perfect for weeknight dinners or impressing guests. The best part? They’re quick and easy to make.
Chicken is incredibly versatile, and in my home, we eat it at least twice a week. There are countless ways to prepare chicken, but chicken stuffed with ham and melted cheese is truly special.
Today, I’m sharing a recipe for chicken roll-ups that is a family favorite. With only five ingredients, this dish is not only delicious but also budget-friendly.
This meal is perfect for busy nights: few ingredients, quick cook time, and it’s low carb. Plus, chicken roll-ups are fun to make, and if you have kids, they can join you in the kitchen.
I served these chicken roll-ups with sautéed veggies, but my children enjoyed them with pasta.
16. Best Keto & Low Carb Swedish Meatballs – Budget-friendly Family Meal
This is the best keto Swedish meatballs recipe. Perfect as an appetizer or main dish, they are flavorful and come with an amazing creamy gravy sauce.
Swedish meatballs epitomize comfort food. Whether served over spaghetti, mashed potatoes, zucchini noodles, or mashed cauliflower for those on a keto diet, they make a hearty and scrumptious dinner that everyone in the family will love.
From kitchen to table in an hour or less, these meatballs taste like you spent all day preparing them!
This Swedish meatball recipe is not only simple to make but also budget-friendly and perfect for meal prep. It yields roughly 40 meatballs, enough to feed a crowd or to freeze for future use.
These meatballs in gravy are delicious and ideal for easy weeknight meals. I always aim for recipes that can be cooked in around half an hour. That way, even if it takes a bit longer due to multitasking, I know I’ll be out of the kitchen quickly.
Swedish meatballs became famous through IKEA restaurants. They’re easy to make, essentially meatballs in a creamy sauce, and the best part is that these Swedish meatballs are completely keto-friendly.
15. The Best Energy Bars – Add to Your List of Frugal Meals to Make at Home
These homemade energy bars are perfect for everyone, even if you’ve never cooked before. They’re a fantastic way to kick-start your day, especially when paired with yogurt and fresh fruits like strawberries and bananas.
They also make a nutritious snack for tea breaks and are more budget-friendly than the healthy bars you find in supermarkets.
To start, preheat your oven to 325°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper and set it aside.
In a large bowl, combine almonds, pumpkin seeds, and white sesame seeds. Mix thoroughly until all the ingredients are evenly distributed. Drizzle honey over the mixture and gently fold until everything is well integrated.
Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish and use a rubber spatula to press and level it into a compact, even layer. Bake for 15-20 minutes, ensuring the bars are fully baked to maintain their cohesiveness when cooled.
After baking, let the bars cool for an hour or until completely cooled in the pan on a cooling rack. To remove the bars, lift them out by the ends of the parchment paper lining.
Carefully peel off the parchment paper from the bottom of the bars. Cut into 12 equal pieces and enjoy each one.
14. Soft, Spongy and Slightly Sweet Apricot and Ginger Sourdough Bread
Soft, spongy, and slightly sweet, this Apricot and Ginger Sourdough Bread is absolutely divine. By soaking the fruit the night before, the soaking water becomes infused with extra flavor and sweetness.
This recipe requires an active, bubbly sourdough starter and takes about three days to complete, from soaking the fruit overnight to mixing, stretching, and bulk fermenting the dough, followed by an overnight cold ferment, and finally baking.
It makes one large loaf or ten generous slices.
When baking sourdough bread in a Dutch oven, I leave the lid on for the full 45 minutes of baking time. The sourdough rises significantly, and although it gets quite tall, it does end up slightly flat on top.
I do this to ensure the dough is thoroughly cooked. The bread still achieves a good color with the lid on the whole time.
If you prefer, you can remove the lid after 30 minutes and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes to give the bread a deeper color and a crisper crust. Do whatever suits you best!
When feeding your starter, it’s best to discard most of it. (Here’s a passionfruit cake recipe you could use the discard for, or try these pancakes, which are a favorite).
This is because sourdough thrives when fed generously, so the greater the ratio of food (flour and water) to sourdough starter, the more energetic it will become, resulting in better bread.
Soaking the fruit overnight allows the flavors of the apricot and ginger to release into the water, permeating more effectively throughout the dough. The result is a more flavorful and sweet bread!
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A super easy dump-and-bake meatless meal for the family! This Lemon Chickpea and Rice Casserole is healthy, hearty, vegan, gluten-free, and allergy-free. It’s dairy-free, creamy, and zesty, making it a delightful casserole recipe.
You can make it ahead of time, it’s freezer-friendly, and it’s a comforting weeknight easy meal everyone will love!
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The most delicious, moist, and easy slow cooker chicken yet! Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken requires just a few ingredients: your favorite salsa, some spices, and chicken! It’s the perfect healthy, gluten-free, paleo weeknight dinner to please everyone!
11. Tahini Pasta – Pure Comfort Food
This creamy vegan tahini pasta embodies comfort food at its finest. Rich and filling, it’s a breeze to whip up for a satisfying plant-based dinner or lunch. Enjoy it hot, cold, or at room temperature, making it a versatile option for school or work meals.
10. Instant Pot Chicken Congee (Rice Porridge) for Sick Day
Perfect for any time, especially during the cold winter months, sick days or when you’re feeling under the weather, this instant pot chicken congee is the ultimate comfort food easy recipe.
Gentle on the stomach and incredibly soothing, it’s a dish you’ll find yourself craving over and over.
9. Instant Pot Aloo Matar | Healthy Indian Potato and Peas Curry
Aloo matar, made in an instant pot, is a simple yet comforting dish featuring potatoes and green peas cooked in an onion and tomato masala.
This vegan and gluten-free recipe is both easy and quick to prepare, bringing a delicious home-style meal to your table in just 30 minutes.
Discover more Vegan Recipes For The Spring Season.
8. Dutch Oven Beef Stew | Healthy & Easy
This Dutch oven beef stew is a savory, easy, and gluten-free dish, all prepared in a single pot! Be sure to use a cast iron pot in the oven, and don’t forget to add the red wine for extra flavor!
7. Cajun Chicken Alfredo | Creamy & Spicy Pasta Dinner
From scratch, Cajun chicken alfredo is both creamy and spicy! Made with homemade Cajun seasoning and linguine noodles, it’s the perfect dish for a cozy dinner at home.
6. Poor Man’s Stew (Hamburger Stew) – Whole 30 and Paleo
Poor Man’s Stew is a budget-friendly meal made with ground beef, costing less than $2 per serving! It’s incredibly delicious and simple to make.
This recipe is compatible with Whole30 and Paleo diets, and can be prepared in a Slow Cooker, Instant Pot, or Dutch Oven!
5. Fasolada (Healthy & Homely Greek White Bean Soup)
Fasolada is the quintessential Greek comfort food, cherished across generations on cool winter nights.
This hearty, rustic, and healthy white bean soup is simmered with everyday aromatics like onions, garlic, tomatoes, and celery, making it the perfect winter warmer.
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Turkey tenderloin is a nutritious and delicious meal, easily seasoned with fresh herbs and ready to serve in under an hour. Best of all, this turkey dinner costs less than $10.00, leaving room for dessert!
3. Spring Vegetarian Pasta With Butter Sauce for Weeknight Dinner
This Spring vegetarian pasta dish, featuring peas and asparagus, is light, vibrant, and delicious. Ready in under 30 minutes, it’s an ideal quick weeknight meatless dinner and is also gluten free!
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Add a healthy twist to your meal with this tasty eggplant burger recipe recipe. Your family might not even notice the sneaky addition of vegetables!
18 Delicious and Healthy Frugal Meals
Enjoy 18 healthy frugal meal ideas with these delicious recipes, perfect for budget-friendly dinner.
Ingredients
- Lemon Chickpea and Rice Casserole
- Easy Cast Iron Whole Roasted Chicken
- Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken (Gluten-Free, Paleo)
- Tahini Pasta
Instructions
- Choose any Healthy Frugal Meals from the post that you like
- Click on the link below the photo to get the full recipes and instructions.
- Try the best Healthy Frugal Meals and share your photo under my pin on Pinterest!
I share healthy recipes, clean eating ideas, and meal plans for weight loss, as well as give you the best tips on wellness, pregnancy, and parenting advice.