My boyfriend and I have a fairly small food budget, I'm talking like $50 a week. It's easy to find a weeks worth of frozen dinners and snack foods, but not so much when fresh produce and meats aren't exactly affordable. We've substituted turkey for ground beef, since it's cheaper and leaner (tastes excellent when mixed with pork sausage), and try to incorporate more vegetables than starches and carbohydrates. What are some of your favorite healthy but fairly cheap recipes? Here's mine:

The Best Meatloaf:

1 Roll Pork Sausage 1/2 lb. Ground Turkey 1 Egg 1 Medium to Large Yellow Onion, chopped 1-2 Green Peppers, seeded and chopped Breadcrumbs Ketchup (or barbecue sauce) Worcestershire Seasonings (I usually use garlic and onion powder, some Italian seasoning, Old Bay, paprika, a splash or two of red wine if I have some on hand.)

I should note that I don't follow recipes so much as work off of experience and intuition. Anyways, mix all of the above ingredients together in a bowl, or in a baking dish. It's up to you. The mixture should be dry enough to hold together, but not so much that it falls apart or crumbles. If too wet, add more breadcrumbs; if too dry, add ketchup or other liquid ingredients. Season to taste. Or smell, because eating raw meat is a bad idea. I like to form 'personal size' loaves, but a single loaf works as well. Drizzle ketchup (or barbecue sauce) on top, optional of course. Bake at 400 for about a half hour or until cooked through.

I usually serve this with steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes =3

Honestly I love simple things like a cucumber sandwich. May sound gross but cucumbers are cheap and good for you and they taste so good between bread, lol. I like them plain but I imagine they would be good with any sort of dressing or added veggies! I have a texture issue with a lot of foods, especially meat, so it's hard for me to find things to eat. It's just the texture of some things is disgusting to me. Especially little spices like basil leaves, I cannot eat pizza because of spices lol. I'm extremely picky I guess

Sometimes (particularly during hectic days when I barely have any time at home) a sachet of Uncle Ben's rice is a good meal. They usually cost me about £1 - £1.50 and on their own they are pretty balanced! I like the spicy pilau and Mexican ones the most.

My aunt also taught me a Mediterranean vegetable dish many years ago, which I still enjoy today. It's basically a stir-fry type thing made of various vegetables (choose what you like - I usually have corgettes, sweet potatoes, peppers, and broccoli) and add herbs and cheese for extra flavour and crisp texture. You can make as much or as little as you want, depending on how many of you are going to be eating it. I've had it as both a side and as a complete meal. The good thing about this one is the creative freedom you have over it, so you can choose vegetables for their taste, for their health benefits, or for their availability. Anything goes, really!

Speaking of stir-fry, risotto can be pretty cheap and healthy too. Just choose a meat or meat replacement, some rice, and perhaps 2 or 3 types of vegetables (for this, I tend to go with sweetcorn, peas, and bits of mushroom) and prepare in a wok. Again, it gives you a bit of creative freedom to add what you personally like best.

I also love pasta with tomato and herb pasta bake, topped with cheese. Once you've bought a big bag of pasta, you're set for weeks, and the only other expenses are the pasta bake (the ones I buy last for 2 meals) and the cheese (which you can obviously use for a ton of other things). And to be honest, the cheese isn't really needed if you want to skip that part!

Other quick and moderately healthy meals I enjoy are: a bowl of soup (tomato being my favourite, with mushroom in close second), a jacket potato with any filling you like (I like it with cheese but that's not the healthiest option, in which case I'd recommend beans or coleslaw), and sometimes (if I'm eating with one other person) mashed potato with tomato soup! The reason I only have that when I'm not alone is because you only really want half a can of soup if you're also having it with mashed potato, or it's way too filling. Lovely for cold days though!

Well for lunch, i often eat salad + boiled eggs and ham! Then i put house Italian on it :)

These sound delicious so far guys ^ ^ Another favorite of mine is French Onion Soup (Simplified, for your wallet's sake). Basically you take 3 -5 large yellow onions (your preference, this can be made as a single serving or multiple), peel, then cut from root to tip and slice them into thin crescents. Sauté them with real butter (there is a huge flavor difference in my opinion but you can use olive or another oil) and garlic, then add a few cups of -chicken- broth. I know lots of recipes call for beef, but trust me, you want chicken. It's a much lighter flavor and brings out the onion rather than overpowering it. Spices as you like, and a couple splashes of red wine if you have some =3 Fabulous for cold weather.

Edit: I left out important information and just wouldn't feel right unless I corrected it. You want to caramelize the onions, not sauté them. Caramelization brings out delicious sugars in the onions that are important to the flavor of the soup. Once the onions have caramelized, deglaze the pan with wine if you're using it, otherwise the broth. Deglaze basically means use a liquid to cook and scrape those tasty browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. At that point, add the onions back, continue.

One of my favorite meals is to cut up chicken breasts, saute it in a little bit of olive oil and spices, and then put it in a salad.

I make breakfast wraps with some frozen peppers/onion eggs and salsa, then wrap it up in a tortilla

Chicken tacos! Grill the chicken with your spices, yeah, and then instead of rubbish lettuce you mince up spinach because it stuffs so well that way and is bonkers good for you, then add your peppers & onions or whatever else veg you like, plus some cheese because I'm from the Midwest of the USA and we believe in dairy. The soft corn tortillas are the tastiest but like, whatever your healthy jam may be. My primary girlfriend likes to pile hers with fresh cilantro which is DISGUSTING because I have the dirty-soap gene for cilantro. Eeeeeeew.

throw together veggie stir fry. Usually a half cup of whatever veggies I have on hand, mostly carrots, bell pepper and onions on some rice and if I have some extra meat about I'll either cook it up and mix it in or if it's already cooked I'll chop it up. It's balanced, doesn't take me long and is cheap

Stir frys/omelettes/bulk portions of pasta and veg or spaghetti bolognese/chilli corn carne are my go-to meals! I love making soup with veggies too.

my work schedule makes it challenging to put together a quick, healthy meal sometimes. One of my go-tos for a hurried meal is a variation on fried rice but using things like riced cauliflower. a quick dash to the microwave to precook the minced up cauliflower, throw it into the skillet with a litle dash of olive oil to give it a bit of crisping up, throw in a stirred egg to scramble up with the pseudo-rice, a little splash of soysauce and a crack of white pepper and I'm good to go!

That sounds really tasty, though I'd make it with flout tortillas folded in half, rubbed with olive oil and cooked in a skillet. Crispy, cheesy tortillas, dipped in a mixture of half taco sauce half sour cream. Mmm-mm!

eggs are super cheap, so are dried beans. both are so versatile- scrambles with veggies, omelettes, souffles, hard boiled plain or in salads, beans are good for chilis, soups, stews, mashed for mexican food, or my standard- beans & rice.

you can also easily sub beans or mushrooms for at least half of the meat in a recipe without noticing, so they can be a great way to stretch a meal! stocking up on frozen veg while on sale is helpful. also, never buy pasta sauce- it's almost always cheaper to make a quick one yourself with canned tomatoes, garlic, and spices (and it's healthier too). my grocery store almost always has a b1g1 for canned tomatoes!

i also just work with what we have or what's on sale- so if we buy a bunch of corn tortillas (b1g1) i'll freeze one pack and use the other for tacos, quesadillas, and homemade baked chips. convenience foods like chips are super expensive vs making them yourself. potato chips are easy to bake off as well, and then you can season them however you like!

I'm a vegetarian and type one diabetic, I've had to recently change diet since I finally have an educator that talks to me like a person. And here's my tip: pad everything with frozen veggies. EVERYTHING. Go to Walmart. Buy their great value frozen veggies, corn, peas, carrots, spinach, green beans, whatever you like. Most are .77 (at least here). But do splurge on the high end broccoli. New World Farms brand broccoli. Trust me. It's like under $3 for the big bag. Do not cheap on broccoli. Also buy onions and canned tomatoes.

You can get Lipton's (Knorr, I guess now) sides for usually a $1 each. Make one of those and throw in a shit ton of veggies. Or make pasta and throw in a shit ton of veggies. Old rice? Soy sauce + veg = fried rice. Living off ramen? Throw in veggies.

Also, get yourself a Magic Bullet. It's going to run you around $30. I make a Country Crock container full of hummus for like $4. Store bought hummus that size would be $15-20. It's cheap. It's filling. It's full of fiber. I also make jalapeno cashew spread, but that runs closer to maybe $10-15 to make what would cost twice that in the store. I've had my MB for a month or so, and it's already paid for itself.

Rice and beans! Rice is cheap. Beans are cheap (dried beans moreso, but those require planning to soak and cook). Top with chopped tomatoes, onions, lettuce, salsa, cheese... whatever you want!

I am able to afford healthy choices since cooking for one can be easy. It helps that I raise chickens, so I have more eggs than I can eat. Um, but one thing is also I despise eating cooked vegetables. This arose from being force fed as a child, so all the recipes have been adapted to skip prolonged prep and I simply cook the meat and such separately. Not just to preserve texture and flavor, some foods lose nutrients cooked. In short my choices are kept few and less elaborate, but I can allow for some more costly options.

I don't know if this helps.

One of our favorite meals is spaghetti squash. It is a very healthy alternative to regular spaghetti and can be topped in many ways.

Any stirfry. A little protein goes a long way. Similarly, stir fried rice works much the same way and is equally awesome.

You may already be familiar since I see you used ground turkey in your meatloaf but that's my trick right there!! I switched out ground beef for ground turkey, and I also like to add lots of vegetables (even frozen mixed works) to add more nutrition and "bulk" up a recipe! Spaghetti (ground turkey, frozen veggies, any noodles and sauce) , shepherds pie, tacos, meatballs (when I have a little bit extra money I buy lots of ground turkey and make and freeze meatballs!) Also beef stew! You could do chicken too though I guess, but basically I just get stew beef which is fairly cheap, onions, potatoes and then can just put your fav veggies in (even frozen) use broth or just water with extra seasonings, put in crock pot and just wait!

Also I've started using a lot of lentils to replace ground turkey cause it can get expensive!

Can you share your recipe for the jalapeno cashew spread? It sounds so interesting!