Yahoo Finance 8 Best Cheap Meals You Can Make With Ingredients from Dollar Tree
The cost of groceries and dining out continue to rise. And with so many people finding their wallets stretched thin at the end of each month, it’s more important than ever to find ways to save money on food costs.
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One way to do just that is to shop at Dollar Tree. You might not realize it, but you can make some filling meals using only the ingredients you find at this discount retailer. While you might need to get a little creative, these meals are much more affordable to what you’d get at other grocery stores or when dining out.
Not sure where to start? Here are some of the top cheap meals you can make using only Dollar Tree ingredients, according to popular TikToker Dollar Tree Dinners.
(Don’t want to cook? Try these five Dollar Tree meals that are better than takeout.)
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Appetizer Plate
When you’re not quite sure what to eat, it’s hard to go wrong with an appetizer plate. But don’t spend $12 to $18 on one at a restaurant. Instead, shave off some of that cost with Dollar Tree ingredients.
Make your own appetizer plates using frozen ingredients from Dollar Tree. This includes things like mozzarella sticks, loaded potato sticks, mac n’ cheese bites, and cream cheese pepper bites. Add a little ranch dressing on the side and you’ve got a complete meal — or appetizer for two.
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Crab Mac & Cheese
For this meal, you’ll need two packs of imitation crab, two boxes of mac and cheese, milk, seafood seasoning, panko bread crumbs, cheese, and margarine. Assuming you don’t already have some of these ingredients at home, expect to spend around $11 in total.
To make this, cook the macaroni and cheese with a teaspoon of seafood seasoning. In a separate bowl, combine the panko crumbs, seafood seasoning, melted margarine, and shredded crab. Add everything to the cooked pasta, put it in the oven, and bake it.
Surf N Turf
Inspired by the Surf N Turf food options at Red Lobster, Dollar Tree Dinners came up with an affordable alternative that costs $20. You’ll need cheddar cheese, milk, margarine, cheddar garlic biscuit mix, creamy garlic pasta shells, asparagus, garlic and herb seasoning, ice cream, and cookie mix. You’ll also need frozen salmon fillets ($5) and ribeye steak ($3).
Make the biscuits, vegetables, and pasta separately in the oven. Prepare and season the fish and meat as desired, then plate it up.
And for dessert, mix the cookie mix as per the instructions and bake it. Add ice cream to finish it off.
Soup and Rice
If you’re on a tight budget and want something quick and easy, you can make three meals for around $5 using Dollar Tree ingredients — this breaks down to $1.67 per meal.
You’ll need to buy soup and white rice. Dollar Tree Dinners went with ham and bean soup, but you can choose whichever option you prefer.
Microwave or heat up the soup on the stove. Then, use a rice cooker to prepare the rice. If you don’t have a rice cooker, consider getting microwavable rice packets instead.
Combine the rice and soup and you’ve got a warm, filling meal for cheap.
Pasta and Hashbrown Multi Meals
In Dollar Tree Dinner’s “$10 Easy Dollar Tree Meal Prep (12 Meals for $10 = 0.83 each!)” video, she described how to make several smaller meals at once. You’ll need penne pasta, pasta sauce, hashbrowns, pepper stir fry, chili, smoked sausage, Velveeta cheese sauce, and Italian meatballs.
Start by cooking the pasta until it’s nearly done. Then, add some oil to the pasta so that it doesn’t dry out or absorb the sauce when you add it later. Divide the pasta into separate containers as you see fit.
In the meantime, prepare the hashbrowns in a skillet. In a separate saucepan, add chopped up smoked sausage and frozen stir fry.
If you’re using meatballs, cut them into smaller pieces and fry them up with the pasta sauce. Take the remaining ingredients and combine everything together to make several portion-sized meals.
Sloppy Joe Dogs
You can also cook for the whole family on a small budget at Dollar Tree. One way to do this is to make sloppy joe dogs.
To do this, you’ll need hot dog buns, sloppy joe sauce, hot dogs, beef patties, and shredded cheddar cheese. Each of these ingredients costs $1.25 for a total cost of $6.25.
Start by cooking the hot dogs and beef patties in two separate skillets. Drain the beef patties when done and add half a can of the sloppy joe sauce to the pan. Finally, put the hot dogs in the buns, add the sloppy joe mixture to them, sprinkle with cheese, and enjoy!
Biscuit Burrito Bake
To make the biscuit burrito bake, you’ll need biscuit mix, refried beans, taco sauce, ground beef or beef patties, and shredded cheddar cheese. You can get most or all of these ingredients at Dollar Tree for $1.25 each. However, you might need to go to a place like Aldi or Walmart for the cheese.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees, cook the meat in a pan, and add a cup of taco sauce. In a separate bowl, combine the packet of biscuit mix, a can of refried beans, and half a cup of water. Layer this into a greased baking dish and add the meat on top and cheese. Cover it with aluminum foil and bake for around 25 to 30 minutes.
The total cost of this meal is under $9, but it serves four people, making the per-person price a little over $2.
Wendy’s Chili
If you love chili, you can make a Wendy’s chili knockoff with Dollar Tree ingredients. You’ll need two beef patties, a can of pinto beans, a can of kidney beans, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, seasoned vegetable blend, and chili seasoning mix.
Cook the patties on the stove, drain them, and mix in the veggies and seasoning. Then, add all of the canned goods — with or without draining them — to a pot. Add more water if it’s too thick and let it simmer for a couple of hours or until done.
This costs between $8 and $14, depending on what you’ve already got in your kitchen. It feeds up to six people.
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