This meal plan includes several breakfast and dinner recipes that the whole family will love! They’re easy, very inexpensive, and can easily be doubled if needed. I spent about $30 at Aldi and I always recommend looking for the least expensive store near you when you do your shopping. I hope you love the recipes!
Here’s a link to the meal planner I use to keep us on budget and to keep track of the meal plan every week: My Meal Planner on Amazon
For step-by-step instructions for these recipes, watch my video YouTube:
Grocery List
Recipes
Sausage Pancake Bites
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat oven to 350° and prepare a muffin tin.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix pancake mix and water until combined. Add cooked sausage and cheese and mix until just incorporated. Pour batter into muffin tin, about ¾ full.
- Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes or until cooked through and golden. Enjoy immediately or freeze for a quick breakfast later.
Banana Pancakes
Ingredients
Method
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the bananas and oil, mashing the bananas until smooth.
- Add pancake mix, water, cinnamon, and maple syrup and stir until just combined.
- Let the mix stand for 5 minutes.
- Heat a large nonstick skillet on medium. Pour batter, ¼ cup at a time, on to the heated skillet. Once the pancake edges are dry, flip and brown on the other side. Serve and enjoy!
Easy Drop Biscuits and Gravy
These biscuits are on the sweeter side since we’re using pancake mix, so to make these a bit more savory, you can add a bit of salt and some cheese to the mixture. I used some of these biscuits to make biscuits and gravy for breakfast one day. I used some of the pancake mix for the gravy but if you have flour on hand, that will work better and won’t add any extra sweetness to the already sweet biscuits.
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment for easy cleanup.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine pancake mix, water, salt, and pepper until completely combined.
- Drop the biscuits onto the baking sheet using a spoon. Top each biscuit with cheese, if desired. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until cooked through and golden brown.
- Serve and enjoy!
Sausage and Cheese Macaroni
Ingredients
Method
- In a large pan, cook sausage over medium heat until cooked through, breaking it up as it cooks. Drain fat, if desired.
- Add diced tomatoes and any optional seasonings to taste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook pasta as directed on the packaging, strain, and set aside. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water for the sauce.
- Turn off the heat and add pasta water and cheese, stirring until melted. Add cooked pasta and stir to coat. Serve and enjoy!
Sheet Pan Kielbasa with Rice
This is one of my all time favorite sheet pan meals. It’s easy, full of flavor, and the whole family loves it!
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat oven to 400° F and line a baking sheet with parchment or foil.
- Place bell peppers, onions, and any other veggies on the baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and season with salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika, to taste. Toss to coat and then bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove from oven, add Kielbasa, toss, and bake for 20 minutes more or until veggies are cooked through.
- Meanwhile, cook rice in a pot according to the packaging.
- Serve rice, Kielbasa, and veggies together and enjoy!
Easy Chili
Ingredients
Method
- In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add turkey and season with salt, pepper, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder. Cook, breaking the turkey apart as it cooks, until fully cooked through.
- Add onions and continue to saute until onions are soft and translucent, about 2-3 minutes more.
- Add bell pepper, chili beans, tomatoes, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, pepper, cumin, marjoram, and salt. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until chili reaches desired consistency.
- Meanwhile, cook rice in a separate pot as directed on the bag.
- Separate cooked rice equally into bowls and top with chili. Top with any optional toppings and enjoy!
Notes
One-Pot Bell Pepper Casserole
Ingredients
Method
- Heat a medium to large pot on medium-high heat and add ground beef (if using ground turkey, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in the pan first). Season with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder. Allow meat to brown, breaking up the meat as it cooks.
- Add onion and sauté until translucent. Add garlic and cook for an additional 30 seconds, then add spinach. Allow spinach to wilt and stir it in.
- Add bell pepper, tomatoes, water, Worcestershire, cumin, and stir, breaking up tomatoes if necessary.
- Add rice and stir. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer and cook 20 minutes. (If using brown rice, cook for 45-50 minutes, stirring after 20 minutes to avoid sticking)
- Turn off the heat, add shredded cheese on top, and cover for 1 minute to allow cheese to melt.
- Serve with fresh cilantro, parsley, or as is! Enjoy!
- Notes: You can use any tomatoes you have on hand, even the ones with green chilies.
One Pot Turkey and Rice Casserole
Ingredients
Method
- In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and sauté until soft, about 2 minutes. Add ground turkey, season with garlic powder and paprika. Continue cooking until heated through, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in rice and cook while stirring until toasted, about 3-4 minutes.
- Add mixed veggies and broth. Stir, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 18-20 minutes or until rice is tender and cooked through.
- Turn off the heat and let stand for 10 minutes. Fluff rice and serve!
Tamale Casserole
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 8×11 casserole dish.
- In a medium pan, brown ground turkey over medium heat. Season with about 1 tsp taco seasoning and break apart while cooking. Continue to cook until completely cooked through.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine cooked turkey, remaining taco Seasoning, cornbread mix, enchilada sauce, chili beans, and corn until completely combined.
- Pour into prepared casserole dish and bake for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through and golden.
- Serve with your favorite toppings and enjoy!
I hope you love the recipes! If you try anything, please be sure to let me know in the comments. Have a wonderful day and happy cooking y’all!
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I’m doing this exact meal plan this week and I wanted to say thank you for sharing this! Trying to reign in the grocery budget and this is helping me so much figuring out how to feed my family of five for less while still enjoying cooking them fun & healthy meals. Thank you!!♥
You’re welcome! I completely understand trying to bring the grocery bill down; I’ve really been focusing on that a lot lately. I’m so glad this plan is helpful for y’all and I hope you love the recipes! ☺️