Cheap healthy dinners that actually taste good can be tricky, but here are 3 recipes that are craveable and come in at around $3 per portion. You can get my favorite cookware from Made In today with a 10% off discount on your first order over $100 using my link https://madein.cc/0124-brian
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*Keema Curry Recipe*
Ingredients:
▪1 large white onion, diced (about 225)
▪1 medium-large russet potato, peeled and diced (about 150g)
▪5-6 cloves of garlic, pressed ( 20-25g)
▪Olive oil
▪1 pound 85/15 ground beef
▪Salt
▪5g (2t) curry powder
▪3g (1 1/4t) garam masala
▪5g (2t) cumin
▪25g (1 1/2T) tomato paste
▪1 can (400 ml) full-fat coconut milk
▪200g water (about half a can)
▪150g (1 heaping cup) frozen peas
▪150g (1 bag) baby spinach, chopped
▪Steamed white rice for serving
Instructions:
In a 12″ nonstick pan over medium-high heat, add olive oil, diced onions, diced potatoes, and a pinch of salt. Sauté for 3-4 minutes until the onions caramelize and potatoes start to become tender.
Add minced garlic, stir, and sauté for another 2 minutes.
Transfer veggies to a bowl and set aside.
Return pan to heat, add olive oil, beef, and a large pinch of salt. Brown the beef, breaking it down well as it cooks.
Add curry powder, garam masala, cumin, and tomato paste to the browned beef. Stir and fry the spices for 20-30 seconds.
Return the cooked potatoes & onions to the beef pan. Combine then add coconut milk and water. Bring to a simmer and cook until the sauce is reduced, and the potatoes are tender (about 10 minutes).
Season with salt, then add peas & spinach. Stir and cook until the spinach wilts (2-3 minutes).
Adjust consistency with additional stock or coconut milk if needed.
Serve over rice.
*Budget Pad Woon Sen Recipe*
Ingredients:
▪14oz box thin rice noodles
▪Neutral oil
▪4 large eggs
▪Stir fry sauce:
▪150g (2/3c) water
▪50g (3T) soy sauce
▪25g (4t) fish sauce
▪40g (3T) brown sugar
▪125g (1/3c) oyster sauce
▪150g white onion (1 medium), sliced
▪225g (1 3/4c) snow peas, sliced
▪225g (2 large) red bell pepper, julienned
▪20g (5-6 cloves) garlic, minced
▪Sriracha or lime for serving
Instructions:
Soak rice noodles in hot water for 15 minutes, then cut in half and drain.
In a 12″ nonstick pan over med-high , add oil, crack in eggs, add salt, and scramble. Transfer eggs to a bowl.
Return pan to heat. In 2 batches add oil, & snow peas, peppers, onions, and a pinch of salt. Cook until veggies are just tender then add to bowl with eggs. Add garlic when stir frying 2nd batch.
Wipe pan clean, return to heat, add stir-fry sauce, bring to a boil, then add soaked noodles. Submerge and cook for 30 seconds.
Add cooked vegetables & eggs back into pan. Toss until well combined.
Serve in bowls, optionally with sriracha and/ or lime.
*Italian Wedding & Minestrone Mashup Soup*
Ingredients:
▪250g white onion (1 large), small diced
▪250g carrots (4-5 medium) carrots, diced
▪75g kale (1 bunch) kale, stems removed, leaves sliced into 1” pieces
▪20g (5-6 cloves) garlic, pressed
▪2 links of hot Italian sausage, meat removed and rolled into small balls (25-30 balls)
▪Olive oil
▪75g (4T) better than bouillon chicken (or any chicken bouillon)
▪1400g/48oz box chicken stock
▪600g/20oz water
▪100g (3/4c) elbow macaroni
▪2 cans white beans, semi-drained
Salt
Pepper and grated Parmesan for serving
Instructions:
Heat a large stock pot over medium heat. Add olive oil, onions, carrots, garlic, and a pinch of salt and sweat until slightly softened, 5-6min.
Add chicken bouillon, chicken stock, and water. Bring to a simmer.
Stir in elbow macaroni, chopped kale and sausage meatballs and cook until pasta is tender.
Add semi-drained white beans. Taste and adjust for salt if needed.
Serve the soup with a sprinkle of grated Parmesan, black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Intro & keema curry
4:40 Less fussy woon sen
6:39 12” nonstick saute pan (ad)
7:40 back to the woon sen
10:42 kale and white bean soup
#budgetmeals #weeknightdinners #recipes
Today I’m going to show you three meals that are easy cheap and healthy that’s like the trifecta of week night cooking basically my criteria for putting together these recipes was pretty strict so I want to lay it out up front number one not 100% carbs I need a mid to high
Level of protein in each one of these dishes number two veg heavy I need at least two types of vegetables and I need a lot of them number three each dish needs to be very cravable anybody can make chicken and broccoli relatively healthy and relatively cheaply but
Eating that way every single is boring and it’ll probably lead you to ordering takeout which isn’t cheap or healthy number four each dish needs to yield four portions number five each dish needs to cost less than $3 per portion and then number six each dish needs to
Be able to be made in less than 30 minutes yes this is a very very ambitious set of rules but it can definitely be done and today I’m going to show you how to do it the first dish is called Kema Curry and its flavors are super vibrant it’s pretty high protein
And it’s full of vegetables to make make it I’ll start by cutting up the veggies I’ll grab one large white onion and cut it into a smallish dice in total that’ll end up being about 225 g next I’ll grab one large rusted potato peel it and then cut it into planks from
There I’ll cut those planks into strips and then cut those down into a medium dice that’s about 150 g more or less behind the potatoes I’ll grab five to six cloves of garlic and just smash those through my garlic press about 20 to 25 G in total now to start cooking
This dish I’ll grab a 12-in non-stick pan and drop it on the stove over medium high heat first thing in is a long squiggle of olive oil then my onions the potato and a strong pinch of salt next I’ll just stir that to combine real quick and sauté these two things
Together for about 3 to 4 minutes I want to cook this until the onion is starting to caramelize around the edges and the potato has gotten a head start on tenderness once things are starting to look a little bit like breakfast hash I’ll add in my minced garlic and stir
That to combine and sauté for another 2 minutes or so I just want to round off the sharp edge of that raw garlic and once things are smelling garlicky I’ll move the sauteed veggies over to a bowl to hang out while I cook the next step the Pan’s back over medium high heat
Then I’ll drop in a squeezer of olive oil then one lound of ground beef and a strong pinch of salt by the way I’m using 8515 grass-fed ground beef from Aldi because it’s a very good deal but if you don’t want to eat red meat I get
It you could Sub in ground chicken thighs instead Now using my ground beef Masher I’m going to smoosh this meat very well as I brown it I’d say smoosh it more than think too because breaking down this beef eliminates any gristly chewi and it’ll give the beef more
Surface area to hold sauce later on and once this beef is well broken down and browned off I’ll add in 5 G of curry powder 3 G of gam Masala 5 G of ground cumin and then 25 G of tomato paste I’ll just stir that in real quick and then
Fry these spices for about 30 seconds to wake up their Aromas then in goes my cooked aromatics and potato I’ll give that a quick toss to combine then in goes one whole can of coconut milk this cocoa milk is full fat by the way that’s why it looks like that lastly I’ll add
In a/ can of water or about 200 g worth then bring the whole thing up to a simmer and cook this until the sauce is reduced and the potatoes are tender about 10 minutes or so while that cooks I’m going to grab 1 5 oz bag or about
150 g worth of baby spinach and then chop it down a little bit why well cooked whole leaves of spinach can be kind of slimy and chopping it helps integrate it into the beef back of the stove it’s been about 10 minutes now and my coconut sauce has reduced by half and
When I check the texture of my potatoes you can see they’re softened but not totally destroyed I want some nice potatoey texture when I bite into them from here I’ll add a strong pinch of salt to season the whole dish I’ll stir that in then in goes 150 g of frozen
Peas and then all of my chopped spinach now it’s just a matter of slowly stirring all that together to wilt it down and I’ll cook that spinach for about 2 to 3 minutes and there we go a saucy creamy dish full of bright green veggies by the way if your Kima isn’t
Particularly saucy feel free to add in a little bit more stock or coconut milk to loosen it back up finally to serve this dish I’ll throw it on top of some steamy white rice and that’s it Kima Curry or ground beef Curry is Hardy but not heavy
And full of warm aromatic spice I think of this dish as a mash up between shepherd’s pie and the Indian ELO GOI it’s creamy it’s Rich it’s cravable and best of all it only cost 1182 to make that’s a portion cost of only $2.95 here’s the grocery bill for your
Reference and and by the way I’m not including the cost of spices salt or olive oil but yeah this is a cheap dish that tastes super good and I really hope you try it up next is a more accessible and fresher take on the Thai noodle dish
Pad wound scent to make it I’ll grab a box of rice noodles specifically the thin ones that are available at pretty much all grocery stores Trad W sen would call for Bean Thread noodles that I’m pretty sure would require 99% of you guys to make a special trip to an
International grocery store and I’m trying to keep this easy so we’re going with the rag rice noodles now to prep these I’ll throw them into a bowl and then cover them with hot water from the tap the package would tell you to boil these noodles and in my experience that
Doesn’t work at all the noodles get super sticky and mushy and it’s a total mess now once these are submerged I’ll set them aside to soak for 15 minutes while I finish up my prep first up is the sweet and salty Thai stirfry sauce to make it I’ll combine 150 g of water
50 g of soy sauce 25 gam of fish sauce 40 gram of brown sugar and 125 gam of oyster sauce to finish that I’ll just stir it to combine that’s an easy one next I’ll take one medium white onion and slice it from pole to pole pretty
Thinly I’m looking for about 150 g next I’ll take a half pound or about 225 g of snow peas and slice those thin as well thinner veggies here work better because they incorporate much easier with the long skinny noodles the next veg is going to be red bell pepper I’ve got two
Large ones here and I’m just going to cut those down into thin strips that are slightly wider than a Julien in total we’ll need 225 g lastly I’ll smash 20 more G of garlic through my garlic press and then it’s time to check back on the
Noodles as you can see after 15 minutes of soaking these are a lot more malleable and hydrated to make them easier to fit into my 12-in sauté pan I’m going to cut these noodles in half by snipping them at the top where they loop with scissors then I’ll drain off
The liquid and now we’ve got a noodle that’s going to be much more manageable super long noodles tend to get tangled up pretty easily making it super hard to fold everything together in the final dish next I’ll grab my 12-in nonstick pan one more time drop it on the stove
Over medium high heat and then thank Maiden for sponsoring this video and making a really dope sauté pan made and mix kitchen wear that is designed for the home cook but is good enough to be used in multiple three Mel and starred restaurants so you know it’s
Professional quality I use some kind of made in non-stick pan pretty much every single day in my home kitchen and today is no exception the pan that I’ve been using in this video is the 12-in non-stick fry pan Which is my absolute favorite for making multi- portion meals
Not only can you cook a lot of food quickly in this pan but you can also cook it evenly that’s thanks to Maiden using the same composition of their five ply stainless steel line underneath that non-stick coating by the way I’ve been beating up this pan all day today and
All I’ve needed to do to clean it is to give it a quick soapy rinse under some hot water plus if you need to you can throw this thing into a 500f oven and it’ll stand up to the heat if you want to have a look at the entire nonstick
Collection or check out any of maiden’s other cookware use my link in the description below to save some money on your next order you guys I genuinely love using maen products and I recommend them to any homecook shopping for Quality cookware again you can save on
Your next order by using the link in my description now once this pan is nice and hot I’ll add in a long squiggle of high smoke point neutral oil then I’ll give it a little swirl to lube up the pan then I’ll crack in four large eggs
From there I’ll add a strong pinch of salt on top of the eggs then I’ll come back with a little spatula and break the yolks to scramble the whole thing up I like scrambling the yolks and the whites together while cooking them because the result is a lot more Dynamic than if you
Pre-s scrambled some bites are white heavy or some are all yolk and it’s great and once the eggs are cooked through like this I’ll move them over to a bowl to hang out while I cook the veggies the pans back on heat another long squiggle of oil goes in then I’ll
Add in my snow peas the peppers the onions and then a strong grip of salt ooh right away though when I jump in and stir this I’m realizing that this is too much food to cook properly at once and a lot of you guys watching this are
Operating in a 10in environment not a 12 so I think it’s better to slide half these veggies onto a plate off to the side and then put the other half back in the pan and stir fry in two batches this way the Pan’s going to stay much hotter
And the veggies are going to stir fry a lot closer to the way they would in a walk and once the snap peas and peppers are kissed with some color and the onions have softened I’ll scoot the veggies into my Egg Bowl then drop the pan back over medium high heat and goes
The other half of my veggies but this time I’m also going to add in 20 G of minced garlic from here I’ll stir fry this over medium high for another 90 seconds and once I’ve got some Snappy but softened veggies and some good smelling garlic I’ll throw this pan over
Into the bowl and then drop the pan on the stove one last time now before I cook anything else I’m going to give this pan a quick wipe out to remove any burnt onion bits then in goes all of my stir fry sauce and I’ll bring that up to
A ripping boil when that’s simmering I’ll add in all of my soaked noodles and then carefully stir those into the sauce to get them fully submerged now this part goes really quick I want to cook these noodles for only 30 seconds in the sauce no more because they’ll start to
Clump and that’ll make getting the veggies mixed in almost impossible and after 30 seconds the noodles are pliable and the sauce is about halfway absorbed so I’m going to add everything that we’ve cooked so far back in and then carefully toss to get everything to combine I’ll start doing that with tongs
But those can only take you so far because they start to shred up the noodles eventually I’ll switch over to a toss toss maneuver because ultimately I think that’s the best way to combine everything and when this is is done the noodles should be softened but still
Have a touch of spring when you chew them and the veggies should be all Saucy and Tangled Up In Those noodles now to Plate this I’ll snuggle up three to four Tong fulls into a low Bowl then serve with a little hot sauce Sriracha or maybe a squeeze of lime juice you guys
This dish is salty sweet full of fresh vegetable Crunch and has perfectly cooked noodles that’s actually pretty hard to do with these thin rice noodles they get mushy fast now the final cost for this dish is just $12.1 that’s $303 proportion just like for the first dish I didn’t include any
Pantry items in the final cost here but if you really wanted to get super detailed I’d say the Asian Pantry stuff would cost another 50 to 75 cents in total okay the last dish is a mashup of the Italian wedding and ministr soups it’s Hardy full of fun textures and
Answers the question soup for dinner with an authoritative we Chef to get started I’ll grab one large white onion and small dice in total that’ll be about 250 g and and once I’ve got that cut up I’ll grab four to five medium carrots peel them and then cut them into a
Medium dice these should be at least twice the size of the onions and in total I need 250 g next I’ll grab one bunch of lado kale and rip off the Woody stems then grab the leaves cut into long strips and then cut those down into
Squares that are about 1 in wide most home Cooks put gigantic pieces of leafy greens in soup that don’t fit on spoons and it’s not pleasant te in my opinion so we want ours to be 1 in or smaller but the camera I’ll grab 20 more gam of
Garlic or about 5 to six cloves and smash those through the Press after the veg prep I’m going to grab two links of hot italian sausage from the fridge by the way this is pork sausage but if you know pork then chicken sausage would also work now I’m just going to zip open
The casing and remove the sausage meat from both of these things instead of going through the trouble of making from scratch meatballs for this hearty Italian soup I decided to just ball up sausage instead much faster and much easier now each one of these balls
Should be about the size of of a marble or maybe 10 G each and I’ll just roll it in the palm of my hand until the meat is sticky and I’ve got them nicely rounded off in total two sausages should give you 25 to 30 balls depending on how big
You make them now to cook this soup I’ll grab a large stock pot and drop it over medium heat once that’s hot in goes a very generous squiggle of olive oil then my onions the carrots the garlic and then a strong pinch of salt to help draw
Out the moisture from here I’m just going to stir and gently sweat these veggies for about 5 to 6 minutes or until they’re slightly softened and have lost a little bit of their water next in goes 75 G of better than buan chicken base or any buan that you have on hand
Would work just use your best judgment to make sure that this thing’s not getting too salty next I’ll add in 2,00 to 2200 G of store-bought chicken stock or water would actually work the stock isn’t that flavorful then I’ll bring this whole pot up to a simmer and add in
100 G of elbow macaroni I’ll stir that in and scrape the bottom to make sure it doesn’t get stuck then in goes all of my chopped kale I’ll stir that that in and then finally I’ll add in all of my baled up Italian sausage instead of just
Scraping the whole plate in I want to carefully add in a couple at a time to spread them over the whole surface area of the soup so that they don’t Clump and get smooshed together from here I’ll carefully stir things to combine and cook the kale and meatballs for the same
Amount of time it takes for the pasta to get tender which is about 5 to 6 minutes 5 to 6 minutes later I’ll come back and check the pasta to see if it’s cooked through and to see if the carrots and kale are softened texturally everything
Is tender but not mushy which is what I’m looking for so now it’s time to finish this soup with two cans of white beans both of which are semi- drained whatever liquid was sitting on top I got rid of but the rest of the bean liquid
Sitting with the beans is in there now the last step here is to taste for seasoning now the buan was pretty salty but I still think this needs just a touch more salt to reach its ultimate potential to serve I’ll drop three to four large ladles worth into a big old
Soup bowl then I’ll top with some grated Parmesan cheese some cracked black black pepper and some bright fresh tasting olive oil the total cost for this soup $11.75 putting us at 293 per portion here’s the grocery list for your reference and yeah that’s a cheap delicious rustic soup with little
Sausage meatballs in it what else could you want for dinner on a week night this soup’s got a ton of different bites to keep you interested you’ve got squishy sausage bites you’ve got chickeny broth to sip on and you’ve got springy pasta oh yeah and there’s beans in there too
So that’s just three easy cheap and healthy meals that you can easily whip up in less than 30 minutes please let me know in the comments if you found this video useful and if so I’ll try to make more like it in the future if you guys want another video right now showcasing
How to eat well on a budget then please check out this video for 20 healthy meals for 30 us bucks I’ll see you there
41 Comments
Just cooked keema curry and it's godlike ❤
Those are some super delicious looking dishes! Definitely gonna try the soup!
These are so great! Love you videos!!
at least on the west coast you can get vermicelli/mung bean noodles at most grocery stores. theyre usually more expensive and worse than the options at asian stores but they're perfectly edible
Brian. I just made a big ol soup following your 3rd recipe.
It's delicious and very easy.
Perfect for the winter wonderland that this area was just transformed into.
Thanks a lot.
Please include more dishes like this. I appreciate you.
I like these simple and cheap recipes. Makes me want to try them
Yes! Fast & healthy. I already add the items on my grocery list. Will make them this week. Thank you.
Making that stir fry noodle dish with my daughter next week! 😋
More of this please 😀
Brilliant! Question: why not brown the meatballs? Timesaver? (sorry if it's been asked before!)
Awesome all the same
Thanks Brian, I'm trying the Keema tonight!
Also I made a twist on your soup last night, i used italian chicken sausages (we can't seem to get your italian pork sausage here) and used snapped up spagetti to make a kind of chicken noodle meatball soup. The whole pot was demolished by the family, so thanks for that inspiration!
Didn't make it past the first recipe. It includes peas and white rice. Both high glycemic carbs with little nutrition. Scanned the other recipes and I wouldn't call this healthy cooking. Most include to many high glycemic carbs.
The way you entered the ingredients and directions made it very easy for me to transfer to my PTE app and as a result I actually made the recipe. Delicious
I would love to see low carb, no sugar recipes, with protein and veggies 🎉
Would love to see some budget vegan meal and snack suggestions. Thanks for considering!
I totally disagree with you that take out is unhealthy. It depends on where take out is from. I've gotten take out from Indian food and it's quite healthy and very good. As well as a lot of restaurants that have take out nowadays. Just because it's takeout doesn't mean it's crap. And frankly, quinoa is boring. Very very boring
Ooh…those look delish!
THANK YOU! Finally a man that makes his scrambled eggs correctly (if a bit dry)
This is exactly what is perfect for the "rest" of us. We can all do this. Thank you!
Made the Keema curry it's a hit Bri! An easy winter recipe
Brian you are absolutely killing it with your content recently. Even if you drop a video for a recipe I’m not interested in making I’ll still watch it because it’ll be more entertaining than most videos on my feed. Seriously, you got to be the best channel doing this. Awesome videos man.
Hey bri why do you use your garlic press as opposed to your microplane? Different result? Or less abrasive per application?
Can I just thank you for great content?
I don’t know wtf has happened to Josh Weismanns channel but I really appreciate you not being like that. Been here since like 20k subs too. Keep it real
Hell yeah my man. Of course we love insane culinary artistry, but three bucks a portion for something that's amazing? Sign me up
I dont get coconut cream that thick, whats going on here.
This is amazing! Thank you!!
Great recipes! Each one looks delicious and I plan on making them myself. I love that you provide the weight for each ingredient, especially the veggies!
I'm always devestated with your recipes that sound so good but include coconut milk. Don't like coconut dishes. Any suggestions for subsitituting the coconut milk?
Love a hearty, easy to throw together meal. Thanks Bri!
This was great; I made some swaps based on what I had to make the Kheema (ground chicken, broccoli, frozen corn) but it still turned out fantastic! Next time I'll probably add more curry powder and garam masala, but this is being definitely added to monthly "kind of lazy but want something good" cooking repertoire.
I just made the keema curry last night, substituted the frozen peas for frozen okra and it was incredible! I cut up the medium russet potato as instructed, but it was closer to 300g than 150g, I wonder why such a large variance?
I made the first recipe last night, and it was extremely good. Highly recommended.
Fantastic content. All of these meals look great, especially interested in trying the keema curry!
Looking forward to a cookbook! Please.
I made the soup and the curry this week. Both are going into “the rotation.” Our official rotation that we keep in the Notes app is the holy grail of recipes in this household so that’s a high honor.
Totally Relevant
All of this looks DELICIOUS. And thanks for making it cheap!!
Should start the first recipe saying you should start rice
Use a wok for stir fry…it makes a HUGE difference. Toss toss in shallow pan is not everyone's skillset….
Hey Brian, love all the videos lately, and I can't wait to try them all! I was wondering if you might consider making a video on parbaking? I find with prices lately, it seems cheaper for me to make bread, and I feel like understanding how to parbake some of your recipes would be amazing so I can freeze them, but then finish them later and have them still taste fresh!