What we really love about this recipe is its versatility. Serve it with fluffy jasmine rice for a hearty meal, or go lighter with steamed broccoli or a crisp salad. It’s quick, affordable, and makes enough to have lunches sorted for days.
Simple Vegan Instant Pot Chili
Casseroles, soups, tacos, and pasta bakes are excellent cheap family meals. They’re easy to scale up, kid-friendly, and make great leftovers. Dishes like baked ziti, chili, and chicken stir-fry are all flavorful without requiring fancy or expensive ingredients. At the end of the day, cheap meals are all about making smart choices, NOT sacrificing flavor or nutrition.
Sheet Pan Roasted Cilantro Lime Chicken
For a quick pick-me-up, try my banana berry smoothie – perfect for post-workout or as a mid-day snack. The cheapest meals usually rely on pantry staples like rice, pasta, beans, and eggs. Think dishes like https://recipes.heart.org/en/ fried rice, spaghetti, lentil soup, or egg burritos. These meals are not only affordable, but also super customizable depending on what you already have on hand.
A couple of things to note about using these plans:
- Sharing a roundup of meal prep ideas you can make on the cheap.
- For snacks, sweet potatoes and pre-chopped fruits are great alternatives.
- Besides being tasty, this chickpea salad is pretty nutritious.
- Chicken breast is lean and packed with protein, while quinoa is one of the few plant-based sources of complete protein.
- Craft the perfect Italian pizza at home with this authentic homemade dough recipe.
- For those in specific areas, local meal delivery services can offer fresh and high-quality meals.
This power salad will keep you fueled for hours, thanks to 26 grams of protein and 9 g of fiber. Tossing the dressing and kale, and then letting it stand in the jar, softens it enough so you don’t need to massage or cook the green to make it tender. Make your own cup of instant soup at home with this vegetarian ramen recipe. Pack several jars at once to take to work for easy lunches throughout the week.
Baked Herb Chicken Breasts With Couscous Meal Prep
Plus, it’s versatile, you can serve it over rice, quinoa, or even on a bed of lettuce for a lighter option. That’s why I gathered this list of 20 easy and healthy meal prep recipes that are practical, affordable, and actually worth repeating. Many of these recipes are flexible, which is the secret sauce for sticking with meal prep. Sometimes you’ll get to the store and realize that certain items are more expensive, while others are on sale. So, this requires some quick thinking to shop within your budget—unless you want to spend hours in the grocery store agonizing over your meal planning changes. When in doubt, always be ready to make substitutions for, say, ground chicken for ground turkey or beef, or chickpeas for white beans (or vice versa).
Affordable Turkey Lasagna Meal Prep Recipe

Stuffed bell pepper recipe made with leftover meat. The good news is, meal prep doesn’t have to be costly. For those pressed for time, pre-packaged cauliflower rice offers a convenient solution, readily available at most grocery stores. Combine rolled oats, milk (dairy or not), a spoonful of peanut butter, and a drizzle of honey in jars.
Ultimate Egg Salad Recipe
You’ve got Mexican-seasoned shrimp combined with black beans. So, you have just enough shrimp to satisfy yourself – without breaking your budget. Besides being delicious, this salad is also good for you. It is packed reviews on unimeal with broccoli, peppers, onions, and spinach.
Depending on your weight loss goals, a healthy prepared meal delivery or meal kit service can help. Factor offers a generous amount of lean proteins available to choose from. With almost every service, the more meals or servings you order per delivery, the cheaper it becomes per meal. Ideally, you’ll want to determine precisely how much food makes sense for your household. If you can’t imagine yourself cooking more than twice per week, don’t order more than two meal kits because they typically won’t last more than a week in the fridge. The roasted sweet potatoes and corn add sweetness, perfectly balancing out the meal.
Lentil Curry & Rice (vegan)
This approach not only conserves resources but also diminishes the need for frequent purchases of fresh ingredients for every meal preparation. Creating three daily meals often requires significant time and financial investment. Yet, by planning and organizing your meals in advance, you can streamline the process and reduce expenses. Prep two different mains and two sides instead of one big batch. Keep sauces (salsa, yogurt-tahini, hot sauce) on the side to switch up flavors fast. Use lean chicken sausage, load up on peppers and onions, and roast with baby potatoes for a hearty, macro-friendly tray bake that stretches across several meals.
Chicken Fried Rice (omnivore, dairy-free)
Gobble is praised for its delicious and easy-to-prepare meals, often described as restaurant-quality. We cooked our way through dozens of meal kits from all of the most popular services. In addition to a nice selection of vegetarian meals, there are great vegan options, too. If you’re a busy vegetarian or vegan or want to incorporate more plant-based meats into your diet, this is a great meal delivery pick.
What is the cheapest meal delivery service?
WWL is an online meal plan subscription, food blog and cookbook dedicated to helping people all over the world make meal prep happen to get more out of life. Our food philosophy is aligned with Intuitive Eating and we’re here to help you develop a system around food that supports the lifestyle you want. This will help you better predict the prices of what you’ll need. Even though it’s never exact, it will give you a good idea of whether or not you’ll be over or under budget.
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