Cheddar Cheese Chicken Casserole

I found a recipe similar to this one when I was in a "let's find out how many meals I can make with what's leftover in my pantry before going to the grocery store again" mood. I made the recipe work for what we had left and we LOVED it and it's now on our regular rotation.

(The pictures for this sweet number seemed to have disappeared from my computer but the recipe is just too good not to share, if I do recover the pictures, I'll post them ASAP)

Ingredients:

Cheddar Cheese Soup (1.19)

1 Cup Cheddar Cheese (.94)

2 Chicken Breasts (1.50)

1 Can of Green Beans (.57)

5 Slices of Turkey Bacon (.30)

Ritz Crackers or Bread Crumbs to top (.40)

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Step 1:

Fry your bacon to desired crispiness.

Step 2:

Take bacon out, let it cool. Drain your green beans and toss them into the same pan you fried the bacon in. Let the beans fry for a couple of minutes to soak in the bacon flavor. Crumble bacon when it has cooled.

Step 3:

In your cooking dish, spread the green beans on the bottom. Throw your bacon crumbles onto the beans.

Step 4:

Arrange your chicken on top of the beans, pour can of soup onto the chicken, cover that with your cheddar cheese and top it off with the ritz or the bread crumbs.

Step 5:

Stick it in the oven for an hour and then enjoy!

Total cost of meal: $4.90

Lasagna and salad

Here's a pretty simple recipe to make lasagna from scratch (minus the noodles--I use store bought).

1/2 pint of sour cream (.11)

8 lasagna noodles (1.25)

1 8oz can of tomato sauce (.69)

2 cups of Italian cheese (1.89)

9 grape tomatoes (.69)

1/4 cucumber (.15)

1/5 head of lettuce -- just a bit for each plate (.18)

**Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Step 1:

Cook lasagna as directed on package. Place a layer on the bottom of your cooking dish.

Step 2:

Spread a layer of sour cream over the noodles (the end taste of the lasagna will not reflect the sour cream taste for those that don't enjoy the taste of sour cream alone).
Step 3:

Spread a layer of tomato sauce over the sour cream.

Step 4:

Pour some cheese over the layer and then continue until you run out of noodles.
Step 5:

Stick it in the oven for about 15 minutes until cheese on top is bubbling.
Put together your salad and you're ready to go!

(I added some homemade bread leftover from a previous meal)

Total cost of meal: $4.96

Tacoroni and Cheese

A great new spin on an old classic!

Ingredients:

1 8oz box elbow noodles (.79)

1 15oz can of tomato sauce (.69)

1 15oz can of Rotel (1.34--next time I will use a coupon for sure)

1/2 lb of ground chuck (1.78)

1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (.12--found a GREAT sale!)

Step 1:

Cook noodles as instructed on package. Drain and set aside.

Step 2:

Brown beef and drain.
Step 3:

Put stovetop on medium heat. Add Rotel, tomato sauce and macaroni to the beef and mix.

Step 4:

Add cheese and mix.

Step 5:

Don't forget your side dish! Mine? A loaf of homemade bread (.25)

And we're ready to eat! This recipe actually makes enough for about 5 people. I put the leftovers in some tupperware and will be having it for lunch tomorrow!

Total cost of meal:

$4.97