Need a few simple, cheap, healthy dinner ideas? These ones will help you save money and eat healthy!
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Dinner is my least favorite meal of the day. It’s the end of the day, and we’re tired and hungry. Sometimes it’s a scramble trying to figure out what to make.
Dinner is a great place to start saving money and eating healthy.
The other meals are easy for me to put on auto-pilot. I feed everyone some oatmeal or set up a few simple budget-friendly options for breakfast. Lunch can be leftovers or snack plates, or perhaps school is providing those right now.
Dinner on the other hand de-rails some of our best intentions. At the end of the day, after work, school, after-school activities, and everything else, the drive-thru is an easy answer. Or grabbing something convenient or quick – which usually means more expensive and not super clean.
But if you’re trying to save money and eat healthy, dinner is a powerful money-saving opportunity. Here are 40 cheap, healthy dinner ideas to help you save money and eat healthy at the same time.
Find the Dinner Ideas You Need:
- Budget-Friendly Vegetarian Dinner Ideas
- Budget-Friendly Instant Pot Dinner Recipes
- Cheap, Healthy Chicken Dinner Ideas
- Cheap, Healthy Ground Beef Recipes
- Soup Recipes for Dinner
- More Cheap, Healthy Dinner Ideas
Budget-Friendly Dinner Ideas
You would think about after 15 years of adequate(ish) adulting, it would not shock me that the people I live with are hungry every single night. Without fail. And am I ready for them? Not as often as you would think.
This will probably happen until they are finally all launched out of the house, and then I guess I will spend the next decade accidentally making way too much food for me and Chris.
40 Cheap Healthy Dinner Ideas
Need some cheap and healthy meal ideas for dinner? Check out these 40+ ideas that help us save money and eat healthy every day.
A cheesy, tomato-y vegetarian main dish. Simple to make, extremely frugal (thank you, lentils), and completely delicious.
This easy frittata is gluten-free, dairy-free, and helps you use up all those veggies! No food waste!
This East African-inspired dinner is frugal, easy to prepare, and loaded with real food. It's also vegan, vegetarian, freezer-friendly, dairy-free, and gluten-free.
Breakfast for dinner is an easy, budget-friendly crowd-pleaser. Go here to get 40 cheap, healthy breakfast ideas you can serve for dinner (including our favorite baked oatmeal, egg and cheese muffins, pancakes, and some really creative unconventional ideas).
Simple, Versatile Greek Salad with Quinoa - with frugal tips! All ingredient measurements are to taste. Do what feels good.
Turmeric Lentil Soup is one of the most popular soups in our home. If it’s winter or rainy outside and I want a budget-friendly, real food dinner, this is it.
Creamy, Homemade Macaroni & Cheese only 25 cents a serving, made in 20 minutes, and full of ingredients you likely already have on hand. Works great with gluten-free pasta too!
Need a budget-friendly dinner idea that helps you use what you have and prevent food waste? This soup tastes like potato soup, but it’s made with scraps! Real food and delicious.
Nachos can be as simple and frugal as Chips + Salsa + Cheese. Perfect for a quick, easy meal, made with fairly clean ingredients, and naturally gluten-free.
Easy, delicious, garlicky pizza crust that you can make with white flour or whole grain. Add some quick cheaters' pizza sauce, and some cheese, you have a delicious, budget-friendly dinner.
From Amanda's post: "The Best Classic Chili - This traditional chili recipe is just like mom used to make with ground beef, beans, and a simple homemade blend of chili seasonings."
Need an easy, budget-friendly, real food dinner? Burrito bowls are an allergy-friendly, plant-based pantry meal that even helps you reduce food waste (who doesn’t love taco leftovers?!).
BONUS: Try the vegetarian, chicken, and beef versions of these.
This started as a way to use up leftover potatoes, but potato nachos quickly became one of my new favorite easy dinners. Enjoy!
BONUS: Try both versions of nachos for two completely different dinner ideas.
This fast, easy Cajun-inspired sausage, beans, and rice costs around $4 and feeds 4-6 people. It’s flavorful, filling, a little spicy, and you probably have most of the ingredients in your cupboards!
BONUS: Make the vegetarian version or try it with ground beef or chicken.
Need a hearty, flavorful, meatless dinner? Lentil Shepherds Pie is simple to make (one hour start to finish!), made with real food, and you can make it vegan or add some meat and use the lentils to stretch it!
BONUS: Try it with a little ground beef so it's "mostly" meatless.
Cheesy, inexpensive, delicious Nacho Dip made with real food and only 50 cents per serving.
BONUS: make the dairy-free, vegetarian, and vegan versions too!
Learn to cook dry beans with this simple recipe that is gluten-free and taught my family to love a bowl of beans. Cumin beans are to make on the stovetop, in the slow cooker, or with your Instant Pot, you can feed 6 people real food for around $3 and 5 minutes of work.
I love eating this with cornbread.
Frugal, Easy, Healthy Filling for Tacos, Nachos, Burritos, Taquitos & More - 5-minute crockpot or slow cooker recipe.
This quick, frugal dinner is loaded with the good stuff – vegetables, pasta, chicken (or steak!) – and you can use 1 chicken breast to feed up to 6 people!
BONUS: Make the vegetarian version too!
From Tiffany's post: Super easy Instant Pot vegetarian chili has sweet potatoes & is just a bit spicy. Slow cooker option included; serve over quinoa, potatoes, or cornbread!
Cowboy caviar, also called cowboy salad, is a hearty, zesty bean dip loaded with veggies and dressed in a vinaigrette. Here’s our favorite, easy, real food recipe.
If you’re a frugal cook, you need a Hamburger Vegetable Soup recipe. Easy to adapt to any eating-style: vegetarian, paleo, Whole30, gluten-free, dairy-free. And it’s loaded with inexpensive but flavorful ingredients. Instant Pot, Slow Cooker, Stovetop, and Freezer instructions included!
Learn to cook dry beans! White Bean Chili is comforting, inexpensive, simple, and full of real food. Instructions for Instant Pot, Slow Cooker, and Stovetop included.
BONUS: Add chicken to make white chicken chili, and the recipe includes gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, and freezer storing tips!
An easy, one-pot Instant Pot chicken burrito bowl recipe. Gluten-free with dairy-free options.
Our go-to salad is a combination of the vegetables we love best and the ones that cost the least amount of money. Get our budget-friendly salad formula here.
To make it a meal, just add some protein (chicken, steak, hard-boiled eggs) maybe some shredded cheese or avocado, and a side of rice or potatoes! Feel free to use any other veggies you love too.
An authentic, frugal, hearty, ground beef staple that uses a few ingredients and costs pennies per serving. Picadillo is also gluten-free, dairy-free and Whole30 approved!
Budget-Friendly Vegetarian Dinner Ideas
- Veggie Frittata
- Githeri
- Breakfast for Dinner – 20 Cheap & Healthy Breakfast ideas
- Mediterranean Quinoa Salad
- White Bean Chili
- Lentil Turmeric Soup
- Cowboy Caviar
- Cumin Beans & Cornbread
- Cheesy Lentil Pie
- Potato Peel Soup
- Macaroni & Cheese
- Simple Frugal Nachos
- Vegetarian Chili
- Vegetarian Tostadas
- Taco Dip
- Homemade Cheese Pizza
- Vegetarian Burrito Bowls
- Turmeric Lentil Soup
- Potato Nachos
- Cajun Beans & Rice
- Lentil Shepherd’s Pie
- Lentils & Rice Taco Filling (for tacos, taquitos, burritos, burrito bowls, etc.)
- Broccoli Parmesan Pasta
- Vegetarian Meal Salad (with hardboiled eggs, chickpeas, cheese, avocado)
- Cheesy Stuffed Tomatoes – this was one of our favorite meatless dinners when we were first married!
- 10-minute Homemade Tomato Soup – (also one of my favorites!) with grilled cheese sandwiches
- 10-minute Homemade Tomato Soup – with tuna sandwiches or crackers
- Mediterranean platter – so easy to keep it vegetarian
Budget-Friendly Instant Pot Dinner Recipes
- Githeri
- Hamburger Soup
- Lentil & Rice Taco Filling
- White Bean Chili
- Lentil Turmeric Soup
- Vegetarian Chili
- Turmeric Chicken and Rice
- Instant Pot Chicken Burrito Bowls
Cheap, Healthy Chicken Dinner Ideas
A lot of these recipes use my favorite make-ahead chicken (cook in the oven, slow cooker, instant pot, or on the grill). I just make a couple of pounds ahead of time and add it to the meals as needed.
- Mediterranean Quinoa Salad – with chicken
- Instant Pot Chicken Burrito Bowls
- Simple Frugal Nachos – with chicken
- Homemade Cheese Pizza – with chicken (try also adding bacon)
- Cowboy Caviar – with shredded or grilled chicken
- Chicken Burrito Bowls
- Turmeric Chicken and Rice
- Chicken Broccoli Parmesan Pasta
- Meal Salad – with chicken (more options: more veggies, hardboiled eggs, chickpeas, cheese, avocado)
- Tostadas – with chicken
- Spatchcock Chicken, Spring Mix Salad, Deeply-Flavorful Sweet Potatoes
- Spatchcock Chicken with Yellow Rice and Salad
- Chinese Chicken and Veggies
- 10-minute Homemade Tomato Soup – with chicken salad sandwiches or with crackers
- Mediterranean platter – with shredded or grilled chicken
Cheap, Healthy Ground Beef Recipes
A lot of these recipes use my favorite make-ahead seasoned ground beef. I just cook a couple of pounds ahead of time and add it to the meals as needed.
If you’re really trying to stretch the ground beef, stir in equal amounts of cooked seasoned lentils and use it wherever loose ground beef is called for.
- Picadillo
- Hamburger Soup
- Simple Frugal Nachos – with ground beef
- Homemade Cheese Pizza – with ground beef
- Classic Chili
- Tostadas – with ground beef
- Potato Nachos – with ground beef
- Lentils & Rice Taco Filling – with some beef stirred in with the lentils.
- Cheeseburger Salad (don’t knock it till you try it) – lettuce, tomato, ground beef, shredded cheese, chopped dill pickle, with a drizzle of ketchup, mustard, and a dollop of mayo.
- Beef Burrito Bowls
- Lentil Shepherd’s Pie – with some beef stirred in with the lentils.
Soup Recipes for Dinner
Most of these are easy to make in the instant pot or slow cooker too!
- Githeri
- White Bean Chili
- Lentil Turmeric Soup
- Hamburger Soup
- Potato Peel Soup
- Turmeric Lentil Soup
- Vegetarian Chili
- Vegetable Soup
More Cheap, Healthy Dinner Ideas
- Breakfast for Dinner – 20 Cheap & Healthy Breakfast ideas
- Potato Nachos – with bacon
- Cajun Sausage, Beans & Rice
- Greek Beef Roast, Yellow Rice, and Salad (we go light on the meat and heavy on the plants here)
- Greek Beef Roast, Crispy Roasted Potatoes, and Salad (same)
Whether you’re on a super tight budget or you’re just trying to avoid the drive-thru, these dinners will help you save money and eat healthy every night.