Budget Friendly Healthy Meals: What to Cook (Sept 19)
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Eating healthy on a budget doesn’t have to be difficult! This week we’re serving up dinners full of flavor with budget-friendly ingredients. Easy and perfect for fall!
Want to save this recipe?
Enter your email, and we’ll send it to your inbox. Plus, you’ll get delicious new recipes from us every Friday!
As we roll into a new season with busy schedules, dinner planning takes on new meaning. And with costs going up, we’re all taking a closer look at our budgets. And food budgets can quickly go up!
These weeknight dinners are filling, delicious… and budget friendly too.
Before we get into the menu ideas, let’s first take a look at what budget friendly healthy meals look like.
What are Budget Friendly Healthy Meals?
Here are a few great tips for planning budget friendly healthy dinners:
- Protein: Choose proteins that are affordable. This includes ground meats (like beef and turkey), canned tuna, and often whole chicken or even rotisserie chickens (like Costco). These choices can help stretch the food dollar.
- Vegetables: Healthy meals always include plenty of vegetables. The great news is that they’re also budget friendly. Frozen and canned vegetables are often less expensive than fresh.
- Grains/Carb: Carbs, grains, and starches can often fill out a meal. Think grains (rice is often the cheapest grain) but beans are decidedly healthy and inexpensive too. Potatoes are also a great choice!
Budget Friendly Healthy Fall Dinners: What’s on the Menu
This week’s healthy weeknight dinners are all about fall flavors and simple recipes that go easy on our wallets. But we aren’t sacrificing much because these dinners are perennial favorites and delicious!
Monday’s dinner is a vegetarian remake of a favorite takeout dinner. Beautiful flavors and fun to make.
And speaking of takeout favorites, we have another one lined up for Tuesday. If you’re a beef and broccoli fan, this is one of my favorites. Super easy to make in a pressure cooker and served over a budget-friendly grain. I like basmati rice, but choose your favorite.
I wait all year to make Wednesday’s soup in the fall. Loaded with vegetables, healthy beans, and Tuscan flavors. Serve with crusty bread, and of course, olive oil!
Thursday’s seafood dinner is a quick and healthy fish cake using budget-friendly canned tuna. Serve on lettuce wraps, over coleslaw, or on buns as my guys will be doing. Add greens and you’re good to go.
It’s our first fall Friday, and football is in full swing. October is nearing, and for me… that means chili. This healthy recipe is easy and quick — and a little perfect with Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread.
Have a wonderful week!
RELATED: More 31Daily Dinner Ideas >>
Deliver to Your Email!
Deliver these weekly dinner menus to your email inbox Sunday mornings. Tap the box below!
Budget Friendly Healthy Meals: What to Cook (Sept 19)
- Monday: Peanut Fettuccini with Roasted Cauliflower
- Tuesday: Instant Pot Ground Beef and Broccoli
- Wednesday: Tuscan Bean Soup
- Thursday: Tuna Cakes
- Friday: 30 Minute Turkey Chili
- Treat: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Budget Friendly Healthy Meals: What to Cook (Sept 19)
Eating healthy on a budget doesn't have to be difficult! This week we're serving up dinners full of flavor with budget-friendly ingredients. Easy and perfect for fall!
Monday: Peanut Fettuccine with Roasted Cauliflower
Sticking to healthy meals on a budget often means driving past your favorite eatery and straight home. But with nutritious restaurant remakes like this, you can don't have to miss out on take-out flavor... this less-than-$2 meal has only 270 calories per serving, leaving plenty of room for add-ins."
Tuesday: Instant Pot Ground Beef and Broccoli
Instant Pot Beef and Broccoli is my go-to dinner whenever I'm craving that favorite Chinese takeout classic. Made with ground beef, it's an incredibly easy and delicious adaptation of everyone's favorite Beef and Broccoli recipe, ready in under 20 minutes!
Wednesday: Tuscan Bean Soup
Tuscan Bean Soup, otherwise known as Ribollita, is a 15th-century traditional fall and winter soup, brimming with seasonal healthy superfoods like kale and squash. And incredibly soul-satisfying and delicious!
Thursday: Avocado Tuna Cakes
"This baked avocado tuna cakes recipe is quick, easy and healthy! High protein and budget-friendly too. Serve on buns or atop greens."
Friday: 30 Minute Hearty Turkey Chili
This Turkey Chili is an easy, delicious, perfect-for-fall-Friday chili that also happens to be budget-friendly. Add your favorite toppings and maybe a batch of Skillet Cornbread too!
Treat: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars are the ultimate blending of oatmeal cookies and chocolate chip cookies... made incredibly easy baked into bars. Oozing with melty chocolate, chewy and crisp with oats, and irresistible with a sprinkling of flaky sea salt.
More Weekly Dinner Plans
Check out all our weekly dinner meal plans here……