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I have $138.78 in SNAP to last me until Jan. 5th. It seems like plenty, but when you factor in how much the boys eat and it's going to be five of us for two weeks ... well. I don't know.

Does anyone have some bright solutions? Healthy-ish kid-friendly CHEAP recipes? Because all I can think of is hamburger helper and mac & cheese with hotdogs. That's fine some of the time, but not for a solid two weeks. I have a recipe book with cheap recipes in it, but most of the stuff isn't all that cheap nor is it kid-friendly food.

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Tuna pasta salad. One can of tuna and about 1/4 cup of mayo can cover a pretty big bag of pasta. Season it up a little with your favorite seasonings and you've got a pretty good-sized meal.

If the kids will eat chili, that's another one that goes a long way. My personal quick-and-dirty recipe is: 1 lb ground beef, browned and drained; 2 cans diced tomatoes (including liquid), 1 can kidney beans & 1 can black beans (both drained and rinsed), 1 can chili beans (including liquid). Add some garlic (powdered, fresh, or pre-crushed and preserved in oil), maybe an onion, and a little chili powder, and let it simmer for a couple of hours. It's even cheaper if you use dried beans; just make sure they're thoroughly rehydrated and softened before you mix it together, because otherwise they'll toughen up. (I am absolute crap at dried beans, so I go with canned, even though it's more expensive.)

Split pea soup: I use a small pre-packaged ham steak diced into small chunks, water and chicken bouillon cubes, carrots and onions (and potatoes, if you want) to taste, and 2-3 bags of split peas. Simmer for a couple of hours. I use an immersion blender at this point, but you don't have to.

Faux goulash (aka what was in the cupboards): pasta, leftover spaghetti sauce, can of corn (drained), diced bell pepper and onion and mushrooms, leftover ground beef. Sprinkled with cheese.

Pseudo fried rice: a good way to use up leftover steamed rice. Just fry it in a pan with a little olive oil and (low sodium for me) soy sauce. You can toss in small amounts of leftover meats (rotochicken bits, like

cesperanza was talking about, for instance) or whatever else sounds good. I'm fond of onions and mushrooms, personally.

Speaking of rice, I've got a recipe around here for "breakfast rice" that's really tasty. I'll see if I can find it and post it later.

Thank you sooooooo much. This is very helpful. <3

I was going to suggest chilli, as well. And if the meat is expensive, we usually just have it with kidney beans and no meat. We use this recipe quite a lot, and also this one. This one also looks good. I find that the great thing about chili is that if you make a lot of it, you can keep the rest in the fridge/freezer and serve it up again a couple of days later.

I am also a big fan of CheapSoup (which is what we call it in our house), where you basically buy a load of the veg off the selected seconds/quick sale (I don't know what the US term is, but the bit in the supermarket produce section where they put all the stuff with bruises and sell at a markdown) and make soup out of it. I usually chop half an onion, fairly small, gently fry it off in a little bit of oil, add the veg (carrots, swede, turnip, parsnip, celery, potatoes) dry and let them fry off for a little bit, and then add some stock (by which I mean water and a stockcube) and let it all simmer until the veg is nice and soft. If I'm using other veg (there is always aubergine (umm, that's eggplant in the US, right?) and courgette (which is zucchini?) then I add those a bit later because otherwise they go a bit too mushy. Salt and pepper to taste, and any other herbs, and just keep it simmering until ready. You can also cook a half-cup of rice in it, which bulks it up and turns it into a hearty, warming meal.

I am also a big fan of pasta bakes with potato in, for extra filling and warmth. This recipe is a Nigella one, and thus full of expensive ingredients. Every time I make it, I use regular supermarket pasta (their own brand, but it also works with their value brand), and whatever cheese was on sale - it does help to have some of it be a softish one, but it's not actually compulsory, a clove of garlic (or the pre-pureed stuff if it's cheap enough) instead of the garlic oil, and dried herbs instead of the sage.
(Now I've made myself hungry!)

CheapSoup sounds delicious. :D Thank you so much for this.

CheapSoup is basically the best thing ever! And it's really adaptable to whatever veg is cheap, or whatever canned beans (or dried, if you have the patience for them) are on sale. It works well with the little pasta as well, because you can just cook the pasta in it as you warm it up.

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