Healthy $1 Dinner Recipes - Easy Budget Meals! - Mind Over Munch

Hey munchers welcome back and welcome if you're new I'm Alyssia. About a month ago I shared a video for a campaign to help the American Foundation for Children with AIDS where I was challenged to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner for under two dollars. You guys seem to love it and requested more budget meals so today I am sharing one dollar dinner recipes. And if you want this to become a mini series for breakfast, lunch, and more for a dollar or less let me know in the comments below and a thumbs up wouldn't hurt too. All of the meals that I'm sharing today are less than one dollar per serving. Now that doesn't mean that the ingredients cost one dollar. It means that through budget shopping and sales at affordable places like Aldi or the dollar store or in bulk places like Costco you can spend less than a dollar per serving on these meals. You may choose to buy certain items higher quality so if you want organic produce or meat or eggs of course those will be a bit more. The one dollar calculation that I'm sharing today was made using the most affordable ingredients available. The point isn't really that one dollar number but more so to show you that if you shop around you can really make some healthy meals for very little money which a lot of people are convinced cannot be done. First up is a completely vegan dish, my black bean burgers. For this recipe you will need black beans. Now it is cheaper if you want to buy dry beans and rehydrate them but I am frankly too lazy and canned beans can be pretty darn cheap too. You can get them for less than 60 cents a can if you shop around. Pumpkin, canned pumpkin is also affordable and a lot of people don't realize it's available year-round. Plus it's adding extra nutrition. You'll also need oats which budget tip are cheaper if you buy in the bulk bins as well as onion, garlic, olive oil, cumin, chili powder, paprika, and salt. Add all of your ingredients into your food processor and blend it on up. Another tip on spices, buying bulk spices will significantly lower the price per ounce and a little goes a long way. Transfer your mixture into a large mixing bowl and divide into fourths like so. This mixture will be a bit wet so transferring to the fridge for a few minutes before can help make it easier to work with. Spray down a large pan over medium heat and place on a quarter of your mixture shaping it into a nice patty. Cook for about five minutes before flipping and cooking up the other side. You could also bake these in the oven if preferred and I will include all of these recipes and cooking times in the recipe PDF in the description. Serve as you'd like. I chose my favorite toppings with a bun but you could of course do a lettuce wrap or bread or even tortilla if you prefer. The total cost for this meal only 61 cents per serving. That does not include the toppings but it does include the bun. Thumbs up for affordable weeknight meals. Next up are my Asian chicken kebabs or skewers. This dish is great because the protein and veggies are all in one place. You'll want to start by soaking your wooden skewers for one to two hours so they don't burn in the oven. I just add mine to a shallow dish or pan with some water and weigh them down to keep them submerged. For this recipe you will need chicken thighs. Budget tip, thighs will almost always be cheaper than breast. They aren't as lean but dark meat is still high in protein and it's actually higher in iron too. Plus a little bit of extra fat is going to add a lot of flavor and make it much more moist. You will also need bell pepper. I went with green because it is usually more affordable than other varieties. Onion, zucchini which are so cheap especially in season and that is another budget tip, shop seasonal. Soy sauce, olive oil, sesame oil, cilantro, fresh herbs are going to add so much flavor to our budget meals and salt and pep. Let's start by making our sauce. In a small mixing bowl add your soy sauce, olive oil, sesame oil, cilantro and salt and pep. Whisk to combine. Now let's load up our skewers. Place the skewers onto a large baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed and I like to use a baking rack so I don't have to flip them halfway through. Now it's time to brush on your sauce mixture. Once nice and coated bake in an oven preheated to 450 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 to 25 minutes until the chicken is completely cooked through. Remember you could always use tofu as a vegan protein option for this dish. I also served it with some rice on the side because for me a dinner just isn't complete without some carby goodness. Total cost per serving, 57 cents and yep that does include the rice. Rice is another super cheap ingredient especially if you're buying it in bulk and cooking it up yourself. Lastly we've got my new favorite thing ever, spaghetti pie. I don't even really like spaghetti but I do like it if it's pie. This dish is another option for the vegetarians or anyone looking for meat free options. Meatless Mondays say what! For this recipe you will need cooked spaghetti and I recommend cooking three to four minutes less than the package recommends for al dente because it will cook up a little bit more in the oven. Black beans or your favorite bean of choice or ground meat if you want the protein, onion, garlic, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, salt and pep, garlic powder, eggs, parmesan cheese, ricotta or cottage cheese which can often be cheaper but both will work, mozzarella cheese and when it comes to cheese it's always cheaper to buy the block and shred it yourself and fresh parsley. Spray down a pan over medium heat and add your chopped onions. Saute until translucent and then add your garlic, black beans and garlic powder. Sauteing the onions and garlic first is going to add so much flavor which again is so important in those budget meals. Affordable does not have to mean bland. In a large mixing bowl add your tomato sauce, cottage cheese, eggs, parmesan, parsley and salt and pep. Whisk to combine and then add your diced tomatoes and your onion bean mixture. Mix again and then fold in your cooked spaghetti gently. Grab a sprayed spring form pie pan and pour in your mixture and sprinkle on your shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 to 45 minutes. If the cheese starts to brown too much on top then about halfway through add a sheet of foil to cover. Allow to cool for about 20 minutes and then you can run an offset spatula around the outside, pop it open and cut into wedges. Now there's nothing left to do but enjoy. It really is so delicious and what a fun dish that can be healthy and affordable. I hope you guys like this episode. Thumbs up if you want a series of $1 meals and I will keep them coming. Also a quick announcement. Snapchat. I have one. I haven't really been using it but I'm going to and I'm challenging myself to 30 days of healthy snaps. So I'm gonna share tips, recipes, tutorials, meal preps and general motivation for 30 days in a row starting this coming Monday the 12th. And hopefully that will turn into a habit where I do it more too. So follow me on Snap, Alyssia Shae, and all my other social media is Mind Over Munch. So that's it for today. I hope you all have a wonderful week and remember it's all a matter of Mind Over Munch.