What to cook when there is no money? Top Best Budget Recipes

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Sometimes there are such situations that a holiday is on the nose, but there is no money in the house. What to do in this case? Naturally, you don’t want to cancel the celebration at all. Therefore, you have to get out within the framework of available finances. There are many delicious and interesting dishes that can be prepared without spending a family budget. What to cook when there is no money?

Pasta

Most often, people in this predicament turn their attention to simple foods like potatoes and pasta. The most familiar food for poor people is instant vermicelli. It is quite inexpensive and therefore accessible to almost everyone. However, such a dish gradually becomes boring, and there is a desire to diversify your menu.

You can buy inexpensive low-quality pasta in the store, boil it and serve it with some kind of sauce. Very often, ordinary ketchup or mayonnaise is used instead of sauce. Some thrifty people eat straight from the pan, thus saving on detergent.agent and hot water. They lay out the cooked pasta in a frying pan and warm it up slightly. Then they are abundantly watered with mayonnaise and ketchup. If the house has greens or any seasonings, then you should definitely sprinkle them on the finished dish. Thanks to spices, you can improve the taste of any, even the cheapest food of average quality.

Cabbage salads

What can you cook when there is no money? Owners of personal plots in this regard were more fortunate. They can safely switch to garden-grown vegetables. However, city dwellers will also be able to purchase slightly spoiled vegetables in the market and cook them. For example, cabbage is inexpensive, but it brings enormous benefits. White cabbage is washed, the upper leaves are cut off and the damaged areas are removed. Then it is chopped on a special grater or simply cut into thin slices with a knife. It is advisable to turn off carrots and green onions in the composition of the salad, which can be grown at home on the windowsill. If there is no green onion, then add the usual onion. It is also finely cut into narrow sticks. All ingredients are thoroughly mixed, sprinkled with s alt, sugar, vinegar and vegetable oil are added.

This dish is good to eat throughout the year. In addition, it perfectly solves the problem: what to cook without money? Cabbage contains unique elements that prevent the occurrence of stomach ulcers. In addition, it is a valuable source of vitamin C. It is practically the only vegetable that retains vitamin C until April.

Liver dishes

Chicken, beef or pork liver has always been cheaper than meat. At the same time, the benefits of the liver are much greater. It is an indispensable source of iron and vitamin A. Many doctors recommend eating liver for iron deficiency anemia and gastrointestinal diseases. It is quite easy to prepare. You will need vegetable oil, s alt, liver and a frying pan. Some people prefer to dip the product in flour before frying. However, as practice shows, it is not necessary to do so. The liver is perfectly fried without the addition of flour.

In addition, you can also include onion cut into rings in the composition of the dish. It is usually added at the very beginning of the cooking process. Sprinkled with allspice, the liver will acquire a pleasant aroma and spicy taste. It can be used as an independent dish, and together with any side dish. For example, boiled rice, corn porridge or potatoes go well with liver.

Economic cutlets

It turns out that in addition to bread, eggs, onions and other products can be added to ordinary meat cutlets made from minced meat. Most often, potatoes or carrots are used for this purpose. The fact that inside the cutlets there will be grated potatoes, the household will not immediately guess. So this vegetable is organically combined with meat and absolutely does not affect its taste. The main thing is not to overdo it with proportions and not to make potato cutlets. Such a dish will solve the question of what to cook for dinner if there is no money. If you add carrots to minced meat, it will be somewhat noticeable, so this dish is suitable only for loversfragrant orange vegetable.

Porridge with mushrooms

What to cook if there is no food and money? Residents of the suburbs perfectly solve the problems of saving the family budget with the help of mushrooms, which are harvested in the nearest forest plantations. Usually they prepare them in the autumn, and during the year they enjoy a tasty and he althy product. Mushrooms contain a lot of protein, vitamins and trace elements. This is quite a hearty, but difficult to digest dish. As a side dish, corn porridge is most often used. It is the cheapest type of cereal that can only be found in the store. Very often it is prepared by those people who do not know what to cook if there is nothing. Money and additional products for this food, as a rule, is spent little.

Porridge is very tender and soft. It is quite easy to prepare. The ratio of water and cereal is usually taken two to one. That is, two glasses of purified water will need a glass of cereal. Corn is poured into boiling water, mixed, s alted and covered with a lid. While the porridge is cooking, you can fry the mushrooms. The sorted and peeled mushrooms are cut and placed in a hot pan. You can find out about the degree of readiness by appearance. If you add two tablespoons of sour cream at the end of cooking, you will get an excellent fragrant sauce, which will undoubtedly add additional flavor to mushroom porridge.

Fish dishes

What to cook for dinner if there is no money? Thrifty people advise to buy small fish in the market or in the supermarket and fry them wellher, so as not to subsequently select the bones. For example, such an inexpensive product as crucian carp has a lot of small bones. Therefore, it is not recommended to buy large fish, which is also more expensive, but opt for a small product.

From very small fish (tulka or sprat) you can cook cutlets. However, it should be borne in mind that not everyone will like such food, since they will have to cook along with their heads, tails and ridge. Those users who often eat tulka fish cakes say that they do not feel any solid particles while eating. To make minced meat as comfortable as possible for subsequent cooking, the fish is twisted at least two times. The cutlets also include onions, bread, eggs, s alt and pepper.

What to cook for the holiday?

For the holidays, you will have to strain your imagination, as the usual dishes of vermicelli and potatoes are indispensable here. What to cook if there is no money? Recipes for festive economical dishes can also be very diverse. Users on the Internet are advised to cook the following dishes: a salad of canned fish and processed cheese, as well as the famous herring under a fur coat, which is quite inexpensive. It includes mayonnaise, fish and vegetables. Instead of herring, you can take sprat or any other inexpensive s alted fish. The main thing is that it be wet s alted, without drying.

Processed cheese or saury

What to cook for Christmas if there is no money? Salads from canned fish are prepared quite simply. not badan option would be inexpensive saury. It is laid out on a plate and kneaded with a fork, after which a small amount of mayonnaise and finely chopped onions are added. All ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Salad can be decorated with parsley leaves.

From two processed cheeses and four boiled eggs you can also make a festive salad. To do this, cheese curds are rubbed on a coarse grater, and eggs are cut into small squares. If the curds are very soft, then you can simply mash them with a fork along with the eggs. This dish also includes crushed garlic and mayonnaise. It is not worth adding s alt to the salad, as cheese curds already contain enough s alt.

Meat and potatoes

What to cook when there is no money, but you want meat? As for meat dishes, which are indispensable on the festive table, most often economical or poor people use any parts of the chicken or liver. Popular chicken legs are considered an excellent option. They can be baked in the oven along with potatoes and served on a beautiful large dish. Together with potatoes, slices of bell pepper, onion, zucchini and so on are also baked.

And also potatoes can be cooked separately. For example, on forums on the Internet you can find the following interesting budget-holiday dish. According to people who have already cooked it, it turns out quite tasty. Raw potatoes are peeled and rubbed on a coarse grater. After that, it is poured into a colander and dipped in boiling water. After two minutes, the potatoes are poured onto a pre-prepared plate and poured with sauce, whichmade from soy sauce, any vegetable oil and crushed garlic. The dish is decorated with greenery on top.

Holiday sandwiches

What to cook for the holiday if there is no money? Some people do a great job of tackling the budget holiday table challenge with sandwiches. For this purpose, hot sandwiches are completely unsuitable, which cool down quickly enough and already have a not so attractive appearance. Budget holiday sandwiches are usually made with salads. For example, salads made from processed cheese with eggs or from canned fish can be spread on top of bread.

Sprats for the holiday

In addition, excellent sandwiches are obtained from sprats with the addition of fresh cucumbers. In summer, the dish is the most budgetary. Even if you don’t have your own dacha, you can buy vegetables at a reasonable price in the market or in the supermarket. Thus, on sandwiches there are not only cucumbers, but also tomatoes with bell peppers. This dish is a great way out for those who do not know what to cook when there is no money. Instead of whole sprats, you can use sprat pate. Moreover, sandwiches with pate will come out much cheaper than with fish, since it can be spread with a thin layer, which cannot be said about pieces of fish.

Pumpkin Dishes

This vegetable is highly recommended not only by doctors, but also by nutritionists. It contains a lot of useful substances, and one can talk endlessly about its medicinal properties. Pumpkin is an invaluable source of vitamins A and E, extremelynecessary for any person who wants to improve their he alth. Pumpkin can be baked in the oven with raisins, sugar and cinnamon. The result is a great natural dessert that will surely appeal to young children. In addition, he will solve the problem of what to cook delicious when there is no money for sweets.

Pumpkin is usually used to make porridge with the addition of some small grains. Most often they take barley, millet, semolina or corn. Prepare it as follows. First, peel and cut the pumpkin into pieces. The vegetable is boiled in a small amount of water until tender. Separately, porridge from cereals is cooked in a saucepan. The water in the pumpkin is drained, and the vegetable is kneaded with a fork. Then it is transferred to a saucepan with ready-made porridge and vigorously mixed. The dish is s alted and sugar is added. Vanillin or cinnamon can also be added if desired.

Pumpkin can also be made into pancakes. The vegetable is rubbed on a coarse or fine grater, two or three eggs are added (depending on the amount of pumpkin), two tablespoons of flour, s alt, ground allspice and crushed garlic. Pour a little vegetable oil into a thick frying pan and spread portions of pumpkin mince with a spoon. They are fried quickly enough and perfectly solve the question: what to cook when there is no money? It should be borne in mind that if you rub the pumpkin on a fine grater, then the resulting pancakes will look much neater. In addition, you can use a blender instead of a grater, and then the minced meat will turn out even more magnificent and soft.

The resulting dish can be served with sour cream or some other sauce. For example, if inIf you have mushrooms fried in sour cream at home, then pumpkin fritters will perfectly complement them.