It’s always a good idea to have a repertoire of cheap and easy dinner ideas for when you’re on a budget. When you’re cooking up an inexpensive, family-friendly meal, pantry staples like canned beans, crushed tomatoes, boxed pasta and dried spices are your friends. They’re what allow you to make a meal that will satisfy the whole family without breaking the bank.
Some of these recipes find inspiration in the ready-made: relying on inexpensive, time-saving hacks like grocery store rotisserie chicken or a creative riff on Hamburger Helper. Others play around with classic comfort food dishes that have been around for years, like Italian pasta e fagioli and Indian rajma. When you want big flavor on a small budget, check out this collection of budget-friendly recipes. Bonus: most of them go from pantry to plate in under 30 minutes.
Pantry staples such as rice, canned black beans and canned tomatoes come together on the stove to make a hearty meal that is far more than the sum of its parts. Melty cheese and fresh cilantro are the finishing touches that make it extra delicious.
This pasta dish is the best way to dress up day-old bread or that container of bread crumbs languishing in your cupboard. A garlicky olive oil sauce and just-cooked pasta offset the delicious crunch of breadcrumbs in a dish that’s as good for rent week as it is for a dinner party.
This dish takes less than 30 minutes to prepare thanks to leftover rice and grocery store rotisserie chicken. Cheaper and healthier than takeout, it’s one the whole family will love.
Bright lemon and creamy white beans are what make this greens-packed soup satisfying and hearty. It gets plenty of heat from red pepper flakes, while the turkey adds heft, resulting in a dish that offers a one-way ticket to winter comfort food.
This sheet pan dinner idea is a healthy weeknight option. Cherry tomatoes and green beans are baked until they’re roasted and juicy, and then a lemony fish filet is added last and cooked until flaky. Topped with a lemon-dill dressing, it’s zingy and satisfying.
Low-carb quick and easy, this sheet-pan dinner is a whole meal in one pan. Simple chicken breasts pair nicely with roasted carrots and broccolini, but they’re not the only vegetables that work. Think of this recipe as a guide for using up any vegetables you have in the fridge.
Cacio e pepe — the classic dish that hails from Rome — is as delicious and comforting as it is easy to make. Salty pecorino Romano cheese and cracked black pepper are what make this dish so irresistible.
Black bean and sweet potato chili is a simple and filling dinner that vegetarians and meat eaters will both love. Easy to cook and even easier to clean up, this one-pot dish is spicy, creamy and healthy.
Soy sauce, garlic and ginger-inflected Korean BBQ sauce dresses up simple cauliflower, bok choy and mushrooms for a vegan sheet pan dinner. Cashews, which are roasted alongside the vegetables, add crunch in every bite.
An Italian classic, pasta fagioli is a time-tested combination of beans, pasta and tomatoes. These three pantry staples, along with a simple mirepoix and garlic, make a soup that’s a delicious budget meal any time of year.
Rotisserie chicken (easily found at grocery stores) is the savior of weeknight dinners. Here, the chicken is shredded and mixed with cheese, broccoli and Creole seasoning before being stuffed into large pasta shells and baked. The resulting dish is bubbly, warm and a little bit spicy.
Inspired by the flavors of Mexican cooking, this black bean and quinoa stew is a healthy vegan dinner. Packed with crushed tomatoes, bell pepper, cumin and coriander, it’s delicious served with warm corn tortillas. Not vegan? Sprinkle salty cotija cheese over the top!
Born out of an Italian mother’s desire to have a light pasta dish on her Thanksgiving menu, this pasta bake is delicious no matter the occasion. Healthier than some other casserole options, it incorporates a hefty amount of frozen spinach in one golden-brown bake.
Whether you’re used to having it delivered from your favorite restaurant or made on a wok in your kitchen, lo mein noodles are decidedly a comfort food. This one-pot vegetarian option is a delicious way to quickly pull together a dinner that features any in-season produce of your choosing.
What if you could cook a protein, starch and veg all in one pan? Sheet pan pesto chicken with broccoli rabe and baby potatoes is the answer. With only 10 minutes of work, you’ll have an impressive-looking dinner plate without all the fuss.
Riffing on the delight of a box of Hamburger Helper, cheeseburger-stuffed pasta shells take everything there is to love about the packaged dinner and make it homemade. Instead of being stacked and layered like in a burger, all of the usual condiments — relish, ketchup and mustard — get mixed together and stuffed into a cheesy pasta bake that’s an instant crowd-pleaser.
Padma Lakshmi’s take on ribollita is packed with greens, beans and vegetables — and it’s ready in less than 30 minutes. Make dinner planning even easier by prepping it days or even weeks in advance and freezing it until you’re ready to bake.
Warm, creamy and filling, this herby mushroom pot pie is the vegetarian answer to the chicken classic. Baked in an oven-safe or cast iron skillet, it makes for a beautiful (and simple!) edible centerpiece.
Great for a weekday meal prep, this refrigerated, packable salad from Gaby Dalkin is easy to pull together. She likes to use quinoa as her base grain, but farro, rice or bulgur all work here.
Instead of baking your lasagna in a casserole pan, try it in a large cast-iron skillet. With more potential for crispy edges, this is a complete meal that comes together in one pan. Using no-boil lasagna noodles and store-bought sauce means that this dish can come together in 30 minutes.
Frozen artichokes, roasted garlic and a cup of leftover prosecco are what flavor Giada’s creamy risotto. With some technique and a little bit of time, you can transform a bag of arborio rice and a few pantry staples into an extraordinary dinner.
Leftover rice, ground turkey and eggs make up the basis of a fried rice that’s luxurious, despite being easy and affordable.
Stovetop frying results in some of our favorite meals but it’s a pain to clean up. Instead, enjoy an easier chicken Parm with this baked version of the Italian classic. Broccoli and garlic bread get cooked right alongside the meat so when it’s time to eat, you’ve got a full meal ready.
Pulling inspiration from the midwestern staple and Mexican-inflected tacos, this baked dinner idea is spicy, zesty and filling. A slice of this casserole is sure to become a dinnertime favorite in no time.
Ancho chile powder and honey combine for a dinner that’s spicy and then sweet. Take advantage of all of the flavors of summer produce but any season’s produce could easily be swapped in for a recipe that works year-round.
Enchiladas that are layered instead of rolled are the secret behind one-skillet enchiladas. With fillings and tortillas stacked on top of one another, each slice of this budget-friendly single-pan meal is chock full of flavor.
Cooking gnocchi on a sheet pan makes the plump, potato pasta crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Combined with pesto and vegetables and cooked without a hint of boiling water, it’s pasta like you’ve never had it before.
Cooking rice with chicken thighs in the oven makes the grains extra creamy and full of rich, salty flavor. Using all parts of the lemon — zest, juice and slice — infuses everything with a notable citrus flavor.
Adapted from the Indian rajma, Padma Lakshmi’s take on the dish swaps white beans for kidney beans. Relying on cheap and easy pantry staples like canned beans and tomatoes, it’s the spices that make this dish full of flavor.
Creamy, comforting and hearty, homemade Hamburger Helper is just a little bit more time-consuming than the version that comes from a box — but it’s so worth it. Smoked paprika and dried oregano add depth to the meat, cheese and pasta mixture.
If you love takeout but are looking for a healthier option, look no further. Inexpensive but flavorful, flank steak is the star of this dish. Combined with broccoli, ginger and soy sauce, this steak dish tastes even better served over rice or lo mein noodles.
Wild rice adds texture and a nutty flavor to honey-mustard-slathered chicken. Cooked in a single pan, not only is this dinner delicious, it’s also a breeze to clean up.
Learn how to make weeknight fried rice and you’ll have a recipe that you can prepare time and time again with whatever frozen vegetables you’d like to use up. Topped with tofu or an egg for protein, it’s filling, riffable and yummy.
Buying whole butternut squash will always be cheaper than buying it prepared, but sometimes time is money! Store-bought cubed butternut squash is a cheap and easy base for a creamy, spicy chili that’s kicked up with cumin, smoked paprika and cinnamon.
The secret to this pesto pasta is Dijon mustard for a hit of acidity. It only takes a few minutes to make this blender sauce and only a few more to boil the pasta, which means dinner can be on the table in less than 30 minutes.