Pantry Challenge: 4 Cheap and Healthy Meal Ideas

I have been doing a no-spend pantry challenge, making yummy dinners out of what I already had in the pantry without purchasing any extra ingredients.

I made four meals this week that I want to share with you. If you are interested in being frugal and saving money while feeding your family delicious meals, here are my pantry challenge recipes.

1. Homemade hamburger helper cheesy Italian shells

Brown a pound of ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat.

While the ground beef is cooking, add in minced onion and some seasoning: the recipe suggests Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.

Drain ground beef and return to the skillet. Over medium-high heat add a jar of water and a jar of tomato sauce.

Add in the shells and add some more seasonings, mixing everything together. Season with your heart.

Cook until those noodles are cooked through and it starts to thicken up. We did not have any cheese at home, but you could add some shredded cheese and let it melt.

Here is what it looked like when it was all done. Everybody loved it, and I will definitely remember this recipe for the future.

2. Barbecue chicken

I was given a pack of frozen chicken thighs, so once I thawed them out I had to use them within a couple of days. I ended up dividing it up into two separate meals: barbecue chicken and honey garlic chicken.

Take the chicken and add some W sauce and all-purpose barbecue seasoning. Marinate that chicken for about 30 minutes to an hour in the fridge to lock in that flavor.

Get the chicken going on the grill and cook it until it is cooked through. The internal temperature of cooked chicken is 165. Then brush on some barbecue sauce for about five or so minutes just so it gets cooked in.

I knew my husband was not going to eat the chicken thighs, and so I also grilled a pack of hot dogs that I had in my freezer.

With that, I made potato skins and canned corn. I made my first canned corn this year, and I liked it much better than freezing it.

To make the sauce, mix garlic, other seasonings, ketchup, soy sauce, honey and basil. Add the sauce on top of those chicken thighs and mix everything together, making sure they are well coated.

Put the lid on and let it cook for four to six hours. Chicken thighs get so tender and just fall right apart.

I served it all with sautéed zucchini, and it was a lovely dinner.

4. Mac and cheese burgers

Burgers are always a good go-to, but we did not have any cheese, so I fixed some mac and cheese to balance that out.

I also had a half a bag of green beans in the freezer that I needed to use up, so I steamed those in the microwave with some W sauce, minced onions, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper.

Then I thawed out about a pound of ground beef, which ended up making us three burgers, so it was perfect for the two of us.