How to Make Easy Dinners On A Budget Without Overwhelm
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It’s 4:00PM. The kids are fussing about being hungry as you’re trying to get dinner on the table in a timely manner. Thankfully, you already know what you’re having since you started meal planning — yet each meal seems to take forever to prepare. You wonder if you did something wrong. Are there easy dinners on a budget that are still wholesome, or will you just have to get used to being a slave to your kitchen all day? The answer is nuanced. As a homeschooling mom of 7 kids, here’s how I manage to get wholesome dinners on the table, in less time, while still working with a budget.
Easy dinners on a budget start with simple ingredients.
I don’t know about you, but whenever I’m trying to look up new recipes to try, I feel overwhelmed by all of the ingredients that are included that I wouldn’t normally use. It’s great to try new things, but all of those little extras sure do put a dent in the budget!
Maybe it’s old-school, but to simplify, I try to fall back on the concept of having a protein, a veggie, and a starch.
The protein and the veggie help to provide the majority of the nutrients, and the starch helps to stretch what you’ve got. Protein is great, and is probably what most of us look forward to, but don’t be afraid to reduce the amount of protein and use the starch and the vegetables to fill your family’s bellies. When it comes to choosing veggies — canned or frozen will be the most economical in most situations. However, there will still be meals where fresh will be the better option. Don’t be afraid to try out different variations of the same ingredients in recipes to discover what your family likes best.
Salt, pepper, herbs, and simple seasonings.
These four things can make all of the difference. If you’re cooking from scratch, don’t be afraid to go a little heavier on the salt — just taste as you go to make sure the amount is just right. You can use Himalayan salt to increase the amount of minerals in your food. Herbs add a depth of flavor that will help to make your dish more appealing. My go-to herb blend is Italian seasoning, plus a bit of garlic powder and onion powder. Some people can find herbs and spices intimidating. If that’s you, I encourage you to start with a few basics — basil, parsley, and oregano are great, then add as you go! A quick Google search can help you know what herbs go best with what types of dishes. Then just add a bit of fresh cracked pepper to finish it off.
Once upon a time I used bouillon cubes instead of broth.
They really help when the budget is really tight, but if you can, I encourage you to use the real thing. You will always find chicken and beef broth in my pantry or freezer. They help give flavor and nutrients to your meal — especially if you make them yourself. If you can’t make them, it’s okay. Store-bought broth will do just as well. A few other flavor enhancers that I love to use are Worcestershire sauce and/or balsamic vinegar for meals with beef, oyster sauce and soy sauce for when I’m making a stir-fry sauce, and lemon juice or white wine vinegar for some chicken dishes.
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Dinner strategies for when you’re bored with crockpot meals.
I get it. Crock-pot meals are easy, but honestly, they can get pretty boring real fast. While I’ll do some beef roasts or a slow-cooked soup while I’m away from home at times, most of the time my crockpot’s main job is to make my yogurt.
Quick(er) stove-top meals are a great way to create easy dinners on a budget.
Spaghetti with meat sauce is great, but we can do a little better here. A few of our favorites are red rice (unstuffed peppers), Mexican skillet and chili. We incorporate the simple ingredients that I listed above into these simple, easy recipes.
A Quick Guide to Unstuffed peppers:
- Throw some diced onions and diced bell peppers (about 1 bell pepper per person and the pre-cut frozen bell peppers are sometimes cheaper) into a pot with some ground beef and cook it until the meat is no longer pink and the veggies are tender.
- Then add in some rice, beef broth (about 2.5 cups/1 cup rice ratio), tomato sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, Italian herb blend, and a little salt.
- Stir it all together, bring to a boil, and then simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes (stirring occasionally so the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom) until the rice is cooked.
Mexican skillet is just as easy! While I don’t currently have our full recipes for these meals on the blog, a quick Google search will give you plenty of recipes. Don’t be afraid to add or remove ingredients as needed.
You can do something similar with oven meals.
Most of the time when I think of an oven meal I think of a casserole, but this can include a sheet pan meal too! One of our favorite casseroles is sausage and rice casserole. Most of the recipes online use packets of Lipton noodle soup for the seasoning, but we like to skip that and use chicken broth and season with salt, pepper, and herbs. I currently make this on the stove and finish in the oven, but will have to re-work it to have it all cooked in the oven and truly make it an oven meal. Again, a quick Google search for sausage and rice casserole will give you some great recipes to start with! …and they are fully cooked in the oven.
Sheet pan meals also make great oven meals!
Tips for an easy sheet pan meal:
- Choose a protein — chicken breast strips and sausage work really well here.
- Choose some veggies that roast well — bell peppers, broccoli, parsnips, mushrooms, asparagus, onions.
- Choose a starch — potatoes work great for this although I think the parsnips above also count as a starch.
- You can season each category in separate bowls or plastic bags with olive oil, herbs, spices, salt and pepper prior to cooking.
- Cook the potatoes at 425°F for about 20 minutes.
- Add the chicken to the potatoes and cook for about 15–20 minutes.
- Finally add the veggies and cook for an additional 10–20 minutes. You want the potatoes to be soft, the veggies to be tender, and the chicken to internally reach 160°F.
On really full or even lazy days, I love serving snacks for dinner.
Think charcuterie board, but not as fancy. We literally just cut up some cheese and raw veggies, open up some olives, pop some popcorn, and serve with saltine crackers. Some nights we splurge and get some salami or summer sausage to go with it. If you like to bake, you could even do fresh bread with a spreadable cheese — more fondue style. Again, it doesn’t have to be fancy and it’s surprising how fast this style meal can fill you up.
If you’re looking for a way to simplify your routine so dinner doesn’t take over your day, check out The Intentional Day Blueprint.
Sometimes we have to change how we define easy dinners on a budget.
More specifically, we need to define what “easy” looks like for us. It’s okay and normal for food to take time to make. Realistically, even the easy meals take longer with the more children you have because there will be more food to prepare and cook. The key here is to first understand that it’s okay for cooking dinner to take time, and then to allow the time needed to make dinner in your schedule/daily rhythm.
Making dinner isn’t pulling you away from your vocation as a mom.
It’s a part of your vocation that can be seen as an act of love for your family. If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by how much time dinner is taking, try finding ways to include your children. Pull the baby up close to the counter in the highchair and let him play with some blocks or pretend food. For the toddlers or younger ones, Lisa, from Farmhouse on Boone, says that she likes to give them butter knives and let them hack away at some of the veggies. I loved that idea and recently did it with my 2 year old. Is it perfect, no. But it keeps them entertained and helps them feel included.
As the kids get older, they can help with more and more of the process. Measuring out rice into a bowl, stirring the pot, peeling vegetables, and even cutting them as they fine tune their knife skills are all ways that I have included the kids in the kitchen. Easy can mean easy to include the children.
Making dinner, even easy dinners on a budget, is an opportunity for gratitude.
On a budget can bring with it some mixed feelings. For many, a budget can feel negative — like there is a lack. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Whether it’s a lot or a little time, you have still been given that time to put food on the table for your family. You had the resources to provide the food that you’re cooking for your family. Even if you needed help from others to provide the food, that help was available to you. In each instance, there is an opportunity for gratitude. And the best part? Your kids get to witness your gratitude and learn from it themselves. So, in reality, you can see providing easy dinners on a budget as an opportunity for a wealth of gratitude.
When dad can’t join you for dinner.
Even the easiest dinner doesn’t feel worth it when your husband isn’t able to be there to enjoy it with you — especially with younger kids. At least with him you know that there will be some level of appreciation for the food that you worked so hard to prepare. While there is a place for PB&J or Goldfish and Cheese Sticks some of the time, it’s helpful to prepare our minds and our hearts for the rest of the time. What are some ways you can make those dinners feel special even without your husband there? Half of the battle is choosing joy instead of sadness, gratitude instead of complaints, and gentle instead of bitter. It’s a posture of the heart that can only be possible with God’s grace.
Discover how to make more time for God so that you can ask for His grace by checking out the sample schedule in my free guide: A Mom’s Guide to a More Organized Day.
Getting easy dinners on a budget on the table in a timely fashion isn’t impossible, but it does take some careful considerations.
Go for less when looking at your ingredient list — do you really need that one ingredient that you’ll never use again? Choose meals that don’t require you to spend all your time hovering over the stove. Putting everything together, turning it on, and checking it every so often allows you to do other things in the in-between moments. Finally, check to see if your expectations for meal prep are realistic for a growing family. Even if it takes a little longer than you’d like, this can provide an opportunity for connection and gratitude.
For a deeper dive into having an intentional day filled with purpose and peace, check out The Intentional Day Blueprint.
If you’re not quite ready to do a deep dive, check out the example stay at home mom schedule in my free guide: A Mom’s Guide to a More Organized Day.
