Wanna compile a list of CHEAP protein packed dinners?

I don't know about you guys, but with the state of the economy, we are being very cautious with our money these days...much more so than in the past.  We've cut wayyy back on the restaurant scene and we're trying to do a lot of cooking at home as one of our goals to saving money.  So, I thought it would be cool to start a thread where we share all of our best protein ideas that we make cheaply.  I'm feeding a family of five, so for us I feel it's cheap at $10 or less per meal.  Here are some of my favorites...I'm a crock-pot addict because I don't think there's a better way to make perfectly moist meat!!  If you have less than five in your family, these recipes will make great meals with plenty of left overs, or you can always cut the amounts in half. 

Chicken Thighs

(I have to give total credit for this one to Elizabeth N.  I've been making it since I read you talking about it on the Renegades board quite some time ago!)

Ingredients:

8 Chicken thighs
1/2 stick butter
1-2 onion
Lemon pepper seasoning (or favorite seasoning of your choice)

Directions:

I place the butter and chicken thighs in first, season with the lemon pepper, place one to two onions cut into slices on top, cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours. (I do not use water at all in my crock pot, the natural juices from the chicken are MUCH tastier)!  The longer it cooks the juicier it is.  It's ready at 6 hours, it's even better at 8.

Pot Roast

(I wait for my stores to put it on a super low price, like $5-$6 for a 3 pound roast and buy as many as my freezer can hold)

Ingredients:
Pot Roast, Rump roast, chuck roast (whatever is on sale.  You're going to cook it so long it will be tender no matter what!)
1-2 pounds baby carrots
5-6 potatoes, skinned and cut in half length-wise  (I only used potatoes now at goal, before I only cooked the meat and carrots to cut back on carbs...and would only eat one or two baby carrots usually).
1 can cream of mushroom soup

Place potroast in crockpot.  Cover roast with mushroom soup.  I then season mine with garlic and basil, this is totally your own preference.  I then cover the crock and cook on low for 4 hours.  After four hours I add in the baby carrots and potatoes and cover and cook for 5-6 more hours on low.  Moist, delicious, and AWESOME!!!

Pulled Pork

Ingredients:

Pork Picnic Roast
(These go on sale all of the time and I get them for $5-$7 for a huge hunk of meat)
1 can of coke
1-2 onions sliced
Bottle (or 2) of your favorite bbq sauce

Place pork roast in crockpot and cover with coke. I add pepper and garlic powder as well.  Cook on low for 8-12 hours.  The longer the better in my opinion.  Remove pork from crock and drain juices.  Use two forks to shred and pull the meat apart.  Onions remain in the mix and will pull and shred with your meat.  Add bbq sauce of choice and taste. You can always add garlic, pepper, salt or whatever you like to adjust the taste.  Cook for another 30 minutes on low and you'll have the perfect pulled pork. 

Variation:  If you'd rather do BBQ chicken, just use chicken instead.  You can cook it in the crock the same way I did in the chicken recipe above and then add BBQ sauce.

Country Style boneless ribs:

These are cooked almost identically to the way I cook the pork roast above for pulled pork.  Leslie and others have posted this as well.

Ingredients:

Country Style boneless ribs
can of coke
bbq sauce of choice
seasonings

Place bbq ribs in crock and cover with can of coke.  I also add garlic powder pepper and about 1/2 of a bottle of bbq sauce at this point.  Cook for 8-12 hours on low.  (Again, the longer the juicer in my opinion).  After they are cooked, drain and place meat in casserole dish or pan that can be placed in oven.  Add desired amount of bbq sauce on top of your ribs and cook under your broiler in your oven on low until the sauce gets all carmelized looking.  Usually just takes a few minutes so stay close by. 

Salmon Cakes

2 cans of alaskan salmon, boneless and skinned (Usually around $5-6 for both)
2 eggs
2 T Mayo
1 tsp mustard
seasoned salt
a dash of old bay seasoning
1/2 of an onion.  diced (very small)
8-10 Ritz crackers

Drain salmon and add to large bowl.  Add in egg, mayo, mustard, seasonings, and onion.  Stir well.  Add 8 Ritz crackers and stir again.  Add more Ritz crackers if the mixture seems too "wet" to hold together.  Use spoon to make golf ball sized "cakes" and then smash between your hand to flatten and place in hot oil in skillet.  Cook each side until it is golden brown and crispy.  I place my salmon cakes on paper towels to soak up the excess oil.  My family absolutely LOVES these!  

Ham, Potatoes, and Green beans

(I just had this tonight, YUM!)

Ingredients:

1 ham shank (or whatever cooked cheap ham you can find would work)
potatoes (new potatoes are great, but regular ones can be used)
frozen green beans
1 can cream of mushroom soup

I cut around the bone of the ham shank and also removed some of the thicker skin and placed large chunks (size of a baseball to size of a softball) of ham in the crockpot.  I then peeled 6 potatoes and poured the can of cream of mushroom over it all.  I cooked that for 3 hours before adding the green beans.  2 hours before we ate I added the green beans, probably could've cooked those much less...but the taste was amazing!  I stirred it all several time thru the day and also added pepper and a bit of salt as time went on. 

I kept it in the crockpot on warm because I wasn't able to eat much and I'm going to have some more later!  YUM!

Pizza Biscuits (For those at goal or who can afford the carbs for the day)

1 roll of Pillbury Grands ( I like the butter tastin' ones)
1-1.5 pounds ground beef
1/2 onion
1 jar favorite spaghetti sauce OR 1 can tomato sauce and italian seasonings (cheaper!)
shredded mozzarella

Brown ground beef and onion until cooked through.  While that's cooking, open the biscuits and separate each biscuit into two in the middle of all of the flakey layers.  (A roll of 8 biscuits will turn into 16 after you've separated them).  Flatten and spread dough and form into a muffin tin leaving plenty of room for the insides.  Place a small amount of mozz cheese into each biscuit.  Once meat and onion is done, drain and return to pan.  Pour in just enough spaghetti or tomato sauce to cover the meat, you don't want too much.  Now spoon the meat sauce evenly into each biscuit and top with more mozzarella.  Cook at 350 degrees for 12-17 minutes.  I like to cook mine a little longer because when they are crunchier they hold their form better!  Here's a picture of how they turn out!

 

Lo-Carb Layered Egg Casserole

I have changed this thing a thousand times to get the perfect flavor and I think I have it now!  This makes 12 servings and is a really easy way to get a protein packed breakfast every morning!

Ingredients:

2 8oz pkgs of Philly cream cheese
1 roll of ground sausage (I like Bob Evan's Sage flavored sausage, but any will do)
Onions
Mushrooms
1 can Rotel tomatoes with chili's, drained
Mexican blend shredded cheese
12 eggs
Heavy whipping cream

Here's how I make it:

Soften cream cheese and spread evenly as the crust of your casserole in the bottom of a greased 9X12 pan. 

After browning ground sausage, spread this as the next layer in your casserole. 

While my sausage is cooking, I have a separate pan sauteeing my onions and mushrooms in butter.  Once that is cooked, place the onion and mushroom as the next layer in your casserole. 

Drain the juice from the Rotel tomatoes and spread evenly as the next layer.  (I spoon mine on to get it even). 

The next layer is a BUNCH of Mexican blend shredded cheese.  I don't measure this, I just put about a 1/2 inch thick of the shredded cheese all over the top of the casserole

In separate bowl, mix 12 eggs, about 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, a dash of garlic powder and salt and pepper to desired amount.  Whisk that until smooth and then pour on top of your casserole. 

Bake this at 375 degrees for about an hour.  The middle will not be runny when you slice a knife through it like you're cutting it.  I cut this into 12 servings and I haven't done a nutrition breakdown on it.  But I will claim that it's the perfect DSer food and it reheats wonderfully! 



I know I'll think of more and I'll add them as I do!!

So, tell me some of your favorite cheap protein dishes and I'll cut and copy the ideas on my profile so we can refer back to it when we need it!  I'd love to try some other cheap dinners that are still healthy and protein packed for my family!

Lori

Mine is more of a lunch/snack:

Seafood Salad

Fake crab meat, about 1/2 lb.

2 hard boiled eggs

Chopped celery and anything else you like in it

Mix with Mayo,  Miracle Whip and or Ranch Dressing

It's great by itself or over fresh tomato wedges.

I think I have to make this sometime this week!  My kids probably wouldn't eat it...they have texture issues, but I'm all for it!

I LOVE this idea and I'll see what I can find in my stash to share and I' bookmarking this thread!

Thanks Lori!

Back to add one of my favorite low-carb breading recipes to add to a high-protein fish (or chicken)

Breaded fish

1 cup parmesan cheese
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp paprika

Scramble an egg and dip fish in the egg and then in the dry mixture. Cook in oil or butter in a pan on stove top until done. Carbs are nearly negligible. This also works great with chicken!!

I'm thinking you could prolly bread fish/chicken and plop in the crockpot too....mmm...may hafta try that one!

I am bookmarking this... keep em coming.

We're big into broiling steaks right now. Both sides covered in butter, olive oil, then Season All one one side and Adobo on the other. And steak fries in the FryDaddy. :)

My favourite is quiche, super cheap and filling

I have a huge pie plate which i make this in but most people would want to use 2 pie plates

8 eggs
1 cup of cream (or 1/3 milk and 2/3 cup of beaten cottage cheese)
8 oz of cheeese (medium is best)
4 oz of sandwich ham
1/2 package of frozen spinach (thawed and well drained)

grease pie plates
sprinkle bottom with ham then spinach and then cheese.
grate pepper over cheese if desired
beat eggs together in a bowl and add milk product to them. mix well.
Pour eggs into pie plates trying to cover all the ham and cheese mixture.

Bake at 350 for about 30 mins or until top of quiche is brown and firm when touched.
Serve with toast, and salad or fruit.

You can subsitute sauteed mushrooms for the spinach if your not a spinanch fan or some chopped tomatos works as well.

catnip

If your looking for cheap protien I can not stress learning about TVP (textured vegetable protien) enough

TVP is made using soya flour and is flavourless as well as being cheap and easy to use. It is high in protien and low in fat.

My favourite way to use it is in chilli and spagehtti sauce.

Use half the meat that your favourite recipe calls for . Measure out about the same amount of TVP as you are using in meat by volume. (i.e you are using about 1.5 cups of meat then measure out 1.5 cups of tvp)
Add water or broth to TVP till almost covered and let it sit for 10 mins. After you have cooked your meat for chili or spaghetti sauce then add the TVP in and let it cook for a min or two in the same pan with the meat. Use meat mixture as you normally would.  TVP is very plain so you might have to add more spices into your recipe.

You can also add tvp to meat loaf to carry it along.

use your favourite meatloaf recipe but use 1/3 less meat and add 1/3 of TVP to mixture by volume. Hyrate the TVP before you add it to your meat making sure you don't get it too wet. Add  an extra egg to make it stick together. You might want to add some extra spices to the mix as TVP is plain.

catnip

Love cooking with TVP...just wanted to add that it's available at whole food grocery stores (Sun Harvest,Apple Valley, Whole Foods etc).

Just adding my vote for TVP.  I found it at my mainstream grocery stores (Marsh, Krogers) in the bulk food aisle.  It is so light weight that a cup costs around $.35!