Easy skillet meals are a good deal

Are you a busy cook on a budget looking for dinner ideas that are low-cost, fast and easy? Skillet meals may be just what you’re looking for! These one-pan wonders are a busy cook’s best friend because they need just a few budget-friendly ingredients, require little preparation time, and are literally a “meal-in-one”. You won’t even need to worry about serving a side dish unless you want to add some fruit or a small salad. The best thing about skillet meals though, is that since your whole dinner cooks in just one pan, there’s only one pan to wash when dinner is done!


So, if you’re ready to try a time-saving skillet meal, these $2 Dinners recipes are a great place to start. Your family with love the south-of-the-border flavors in our Beefy Enchilada Skillet Dinner, and our Skillet Pasta and Meatballs is a real winner that goes from the stove to the table in under 30 minutes, and needs just five ingredients!

Click on the oranges boxes for printable versions of the recipes

Beefy Enchilada Skillet Dinner (serves 4 @ aboout $1.94 per serving)



Skillet Pasta and Meatballs (serves 4 @ about $1.75 per serving)

$2 Dinners Time Saving Tip

Time-Saver Tip of the Week:

Save yourself time in the kitchen by cooking several pounds of chicken at once and freezing it for later use. I often buy those 3lb. bags of boneless, skinless chicken breasts from the Superstore (priced at around $6.50) and cook the whole thing to use later. To cook chicken: Poach it- Place chicken in a large pot with enough chicken broth to cover. Bring broth to a boil and reduce heat to medium-low. Continue cooking for 6 minutes (freeze the stock and use for soup later). Or you can Bake it- Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet and place chicken on sheet. Drizzle with a little vegetable or olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until chicken is golden brown and juices run clear. Once your cooked chicken has cooled, just chop it into smaller pieces and freeze 1-2 cups per container. Use frozen cooked chicken within 6 months.

Make This Incredible Pulled Pork for Pennies

Here in the Tarheel State, there isn’t much of anything we like to eat better than pulled pork BBQ. In fact, we North Carolinians are so crazy about our barbeque, we’ve been known to engage in passionate and somewhat heated debates about sauce, preparation methods, and which restaurant has the best pulled pork. However, even when we don’t see eye-to-eye, something we can all agree on is that there’s nothing quite like a big ‘ole plate of pork BBQ!

So how do you satisfy your cravings for pulled pork at home without getting takeout? Make it in your slow cooker! This delicious and amazingly easy pulled pork recipe is the creation of my friend and co-worker Anita. She came up with this recipe a couple of months ago and brought it to work for some of us to try. I have to say it was love at first bite, and I knew she had a real winner. When I got the recipe from her, I realized that she had created a recipe that was not only delicious; it’s easy and economical too. The onion soup gives this pork a little something extra that takes the flavor over-the-top, so if you’re a pulled pork lover, you have got to try this, and don't forget the coleslaw (thanks Anita)!

Click on the orange boxes for a printable version of the recipes

Anita’s Incredible Slow Cooker Pulled Pork (makes 7-8 cups. Serves: 8 for BBQ plates @ about $1.00 per serving, or 12 for sandwiches @ about 90 cents per serving (includes bun)

Easy Coleslaw (serves 8 @ about 50 cents per serving)

Make an Easter feast for your family that costs less than $2 per person

On a tight budget and wondering how you can afford a big family meal this Easter? Relax! Even if your budget is tighter than ever, you can still prepare an incredible Easter feast for your family without sacrificing the flavors you love. The secret? A $2 Dinners menu that’s super-easy and chock-full of thrifty recipes for all your Easter favorites. In fact, this $2 Dinners menu is so budget-friendly, it will only cost you about $1.68 per person! With this great menu, you’ll have enough money left over to make a $2 Dinners Chocolate Mudpie Cake for dessert and still come in under $2 per person!

Click on the orange boxes for a printable version of the recipes

Ham with apples (serves 8 @ about $1.01 per serving)


Roasted Green Beans (serves 8 @ about 25 cents per serving)


Mashed Potatoes (serves 8 @ about 25 cents per serving)



Herb Bread (serves 16 @ about 17 cents per serving)

Takeout “fake-outs” are tasty and easy on your wallet

Don’t you just love Chinese takeout? Egg Rolls, Chicken Fried Rice, Won Ton Soup, Sesame Chicken…so many delicious choices! Calling the local Chinese place for takeout is always a treat worth looking forward to, but sometimes there may not be room in your budget when a craving comes over you. So what can you do when you’ve got takeout on your mind and it’s not in your budget? Try making your own!

Preparing your favorite Chinese takeout at home is not only fun and easy, it’s economical too. With our $2 Dinners version of some classic takeout favorites, you can feed your family for a fraction of what it costs to order from your local takeout place. These “takeout fake-outs” have the flavor your family loves from your favorite restaurant, at a price that’s easy on your wallet. Try these great recipes and have fun “faking out” your family with your own homemade takeout this weekend!

Click on the orange boxes for a printable version of the recipes

Easy Egg Rolls (makes 10 egg rolls @ about 90 cents each)


Chicken Fried Rice (serves 4 @ about $1.01 per serving)

These kid-pleasing meals won’t break the bank

If you have kids or grandkids, you know that their tastes in food are pretty predictable and not always budget-friendly. So-called “fast food” such as burgers, fries, pizza, tacos etc., is the order of the day for most kids, and that usually means a trip to the nearest drive-through where the costs can add up fast! Even if you purchase from the dollar-menu, a family of four will most likely spend a minimum of $12 for burgers, fries and drinks each time they visit the drive-through. While we all want to make our kids happy, for families on a budget trips to the drive-through can be too hard on the wallet to be an option.

So how can you satisfy your kids’ taste for fast-food without blowing your budget? Why not try some kid-pleasing, budget-friendly casseroles? These thrifty casseroles have all the flavors of some of your kids’ fast-food favorites without the drive-through price tag!

Click on the orange boxes for a printable version of the recipes

Cheeseburger-n-Tots Casserole (makes 12 servings @ about 90 cents per serving)



Chili Cheese “Corn Dog” Casserole (makes 6 servings @ about $1.27 per serving)

Feed your family twice with just one rotisserie chicken

A tender, juicy rotisserie chicken from the supermarket is one of my favorite $2 Dinners shortcuts, and I love to find new ways to use this economical and incredibly versatile deli treasure. While the “slice-and-serve” aspect is one of the nicest benefits of a rotisserie chicken, the real beauty of this deli convenience food is that it’s a quick and budget-friendly source for cooked chicken to use in recipes. It takes a few minutes to get all the meat off the bones, and yes, it’s kind of messy, but the results are worth it because you get an average of 2 ½ to 3 cups of meat when you’re done. While that might not sound like a big deal, here at $2 Dinners we know that 2 ½ to 3 cups of meat is enough for not one, but two dinners, and the best part is that you didn’t have to cook the chicken yourself! So what can you do with all that lovely chicken? The possibilities are endless, but the following quick and oh-so-easy recipes will get you started.

Click on the orange boxes for printable versions of the recipes

30-Minute Easy Chicken Pie (serves 4 @ about $1.08 per serving)



Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas (serves 6 @ about $1.42 per serving)