These Delicious One-Dollar Meals Can Feed My Family of Five

Groceries

• Refried black beans, $1.18
• Roll of pork sausage, Aldi $1.99
• Onion, .20 cents
• Artichoke hearts in a jar, $1.77
• Cream of mushroom soup, 2 cans total $1.16
• Head of lettuce, $1.85
• Corn tortillas, $1.95
• Roma tomatoes, 2 total .75 cents
• Red potatoes, package $3.29
• Lime, .44 cents
• Shredded cheddar cheese, Aldi package $3.69
• Angel hair pasta, Walmart box .92 cents
• Sun-dried tomatoes, Walmart bag $2.52 (but I already had them in my pantry so I did not have to buy them)

Total haul: $21.71

Black bean tostadas

Ingredients:

• Corn tortillas
• Oil for frying tortillas
• Refried black beans
• Cumin
• Garlic
• ¼ cup water

Toppings:

• Cheese
• Lettuce
• Tomatoes 
• Salsa 

1. Fry the tortillas

Heat up an oiled frying pan. Add more oil to the pan so you can fry the tortillas. When the oil is hot enough, put one tortilla in at a time to fry. Flip them over a few times for even frying. I fried all the tortillas but used four for this meal.

2. Heat up beans

Put the package of refried black beans into a small pot on the stovetop. They are thick so I added a small amount of water. I also added some garlic powder and ground cumin. Stir until the consistency is a little liquidy.

3. Prep tortillas

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Put the fried tortillas on a shallow baking pan. Add a layer of refried beans on top of each tortilla. Add another layer of shredded cheese on top of each tortilla. Put the baking pan in the oven and bake until the cheese has melted.

4. Prep toppings

Chop the tomatoes and shred the lettuce.

Top the tostadas with the vegetables and salsa and that’s one meal!

Olive oil pasta

Ingredients: 

• Olive oil
• Red pepper flakes (optional)
• Artichoke hearts
• 2 tablespoons of sun-dried tomatoes 
• Minced garlic
• Pasta 
• Pasta water

1. Boil pasta

Prepare the pasta per the directions.

2. Oil the pan

Eyeball the amount of oil you put in a large skillet. Add a couple of tablespoons of minced garlic and red pepper flakes per your liking (but you don’t need red pepper flakes). 

3. Add sun-dried tomatoes and artichokes

Put your sun-dried tomatoes into the skillet. Mix and saute ingredients for about 5 minutes, then toss in the jar of artichoke hearts. You can break up the artichoke hearts as you saute them.

4. Add pasta

When the pasta is done, unload it from the pot and put it directly into the skillet with the oil mixture. Do not discard the pasta water yet. It is needed to make the sauce. Mix pasta in the oil. Add more seasoning to taste. Add pasta water until it’s the consistency you like.

One big heaping plate of delicious, simple, and super tasty pasta. Add parmesan cheese if you’d like.

Pork sausage and potato bake

Ingredients:

• 2.5 lbs potatoes diced
• 2 cans cream of mushroom
• 2 cans milk
• Breakfast sausage
• Salt n pepper
• 1½ cups cheese

1. Prep the sausage

Cook up all of the breakfast sausages in a pot. When it’s cooked, drain it. Then add in the cans of mushroom soup, milk, and shredded cheese. Mix it all up and season it to taste.

2. Dice potatoes

Dice up your potatoes. I use this handy dicer to do a quick job. Put the potatoes into a baking dish.

3. Pour sausage into a baking dish

Pour the pan of soupy sausage into the baking pan over the potatoes. Mix it all up as much as you can. Bake in the oven for one hour at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Here’s the delicious, hearty, and bubbling result. 

Potato tacos

Ingredients:

• Potatoes boiled in their skin
• Cumin
• Garlic
• Salt
• Corn tortillas 
• Oil for frying 
• Cheese
• Tomato
• Onion
• Lime

1. Prep the potatoes

Keep the skin on your potatoes. Wash them well. Boil them in a big pot of water with the skin on. 

2. Make pico de gallo 

I made a homemade pico de gallo (minus cilantro just because I don’t like it). I just mixed chopped onion, tomatoes, and lime.

3. Mash the potatoes

I peeled off the skin from the potatoes and mashed them. But I threw the potato skins into the bowl as I was mashing them. Season to taste with garlic powder and cumin.

4. Fry the tortillas

Oil up a frying pan. Put in a tortilla and cover it in cheese. Then add a big scoop of those potatoes on top of the tortilla. Fold over the tortilla and cook as a quesadilla. Fry each tortilla until crispy. Continue the same with the remaining tortillas.

Here are toasty potato tacos topped with homemade pico de gallo.

One-dollar meals

These are my delicious cheap meals for a $20 dollar budget. Personally, my favorite cheap meal was the tostadas with refried black beans. I love refried black beans! Let me know in the comments how you incorporate refried black beans into your budget meals.