12 Easy Meals You’ll Want To Try!

Are you ooking for some new dinner ideas? I’m sharing some meal that are easy to make on a frugal budget. We spend just $135/person per month on groceries. These easy dinner recipes are perfect for weeknights, and I’ll be focusing on budget meals that the whole family will enjoy for dinner!

This is just one video in a series that I have done all year, so be sure to check out the other meal ideas in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy3KOqYZvaAOIMpPGyBkxhfHhe9k3n0D9

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📖 Zero Waste Produce Guide: https://thecrosslegacyshop.com/products/zero-waste-produce-guide
🛒 The Cross Legacy Grocery Guide and Meal Planner: https://thecrosslegacyshop.com/collections/the-cross-legacy-grocery-guide-and-meal-planner
Use code YOUTUBE15 for 15% off a Book + Planner Bundle on my website!

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💻 Easy Meals to Make with Leftover Chicken: https://thecrosslegacy.com/leftover-chicken/
💻 Christmas Lasagna: https://thecrosslegacy.com/lasagna/
💻 Zucchini Lasagna: https://thecrosslegacy.com/keto-lasagna/

🎥 October Costco Haul: https://youtu.be/zUZYflbDFSU
🎥 How to Make Chicken Stock: https://youtu.be/pBFkLJLie3g

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0:00 Meals 20
0:38 Introduction
1:30 Sweet Potatoes & Chicken
2:43 Chicken Stock
3:37 Chicken and Dumplings
4:01 Fall Festival
4:20 Steak and Potatoes
4:45 Roasted Butternut Squash Soup w/ Grilled Cheese
6:03 Magic Egg Enchiladas
7:47 Special Delivery
8:20 Dill Pickle Pizza
8:41 Eggplant Rollatini
10:19 Chicken and Squash
10:44 Homemade Meatballs
11:24 Meatball Subs
11:36 Hidden Veggies
12:20 Hamburger Pasta
13:20 Budget Meal Ideas
14:09 The Cross Legacy Shop

#batchcooking #freezermeals #weeknightdinners #mealideas #recipes

Since the beginning of January 2025, we’ve put out these meals videos every two weeks. And this one is meals 20. These go through two weeks of our life, sharing some of the meals that we’re making and new inspirations. And it’s also giving you a sneak peek of the behind the scenes of our actual lives. So, this is kind of the only place that we kind of talk about other aspects of our lives are in these meals videos. So, make sure that you are checking them out to get more mill inspiration and also to learn a little bit more about us. If you’re just meeting me, my name is Amy Cross and this is the Cross Legacy where I teach you how to save money on groceries. I normally keep the same items in stock in our house and then have seasonal produce and I’m able to keep our grocery budget to $135 per person. So, since there’s just the two of us here at the house, our grocery budget is $270 per month. I take you through all of my different grocery shopping hauls so you can see the ingredients I’m bringing into my house. And this meal series is a way for me to show you some of the meals that I’m making for dinner mostly and batch cooking meals and how I’m making things a little bit easier for us. The weather is starting to change and I can start turning on the oven a little bit more. So, it is really nice to be able to make some of those warm cozy meals that you didn’t want to make during the summer time. We ended up having some sweet potatoes that I sliced and then put in a casserole dish into the oven and let those bake for a little bit with a little bit of warm butter on those and some brown sugar. This is how our grandma used to make sweet potatoes and is our favorite way. And it’s just a reminder that you don’t have to have that special holiday treat at the holidays. You can make a special dish whenever you’re missing somebody you love. We had been thinking a lot about grandma, so it was just a really sweet thing to have um to think about her. And then I had just cooked some chicken to have with us with a little bit of that brown butter, brown sugar sauce on top of it and it was delicious. I did end up making some extra chicken that I diced up and I put in a glass dish so I could put it into the freezer. I’m really trying hard to make sure that I’m making some more ingredients to get into the freezer that I can make easy meals because we had eaten up all of our freezer meals before we made the move and I’m trying to restock things now. We just made a blog post with some of my favorite recipes on using leftover chicken. So, we’ll make sure to link that in the description with this. Also, I made sure to make some chicken stock with what was left over with the chicken carcass. And then I added some celery, onions, and carrots to it and some water. And I let that cook for a couple hours in my Insta Pot. And then I drained that off and then ended up making a second batch. So the first batch was a half gallon that I ended up making and putting into the refrigerator that I plan on using in the next couple days. And then the second batch I was able to make a couple quarts. And then also I did some in super cubes that I’m going to put those in the freezer and can pull those out for the next couple months. So with just easily cooking a dinner that night, we had dinner for one night. We had the chicken that I put away in the freezer for another night and then a ton of chicken stock that I ended up making. And whenever I’m making chicken stock, it always makes me hungry for those warm and cozy kind of things. So I ended up on the next night, we had chicken and dumplings. And it was kind of funny cuz one of my kiddos got off work and called and asked what we were having for dinner and I said, “Come on over.” And I just added a little bit more stock to the pot. And then I made some more dumplings and we had enough for everybody. Mike and I snuck away for a fall festival at a farm. And I was able to score an entire wagon full of pumpkins for $20. Where we used to live, one of these pumpkins would have cost that much. It was fun to travel down new roads in the middle of nowhere and see the new sights. I’m starting to use some of that 50 lb bag of potatoes that I bought. I cut these up and left the skins on and let them soak in some cool water for some time to help pull some of the starches out. It seems to help my blood sugars when I do that. I put these in the oven to cook with some oil and some seasoning. And then I just had some flank steak that I actually had pulled out of the freezer to make fajitas, but I didn’t feel like it. So, I ended up making almost like steak bites and potatoes for dinner instead. And the next night, I ended up roasting some butternut squash. And I put some garlic in the oven, too, while it was roasting. And then on the stove top, I used some of those chopped carrots, onions, and celery that I had. And I cooked those down until they were tender in the pan. And then I added the butternut squash and the roasted garlic to it with a little bit of fresh sage and rosemary that I have planted outside in the garden. And then I added some chicken stock to this. And I also added some white beans. I can’t remember if they were white navy beans or great northern beans, but they were white beans that I put in the pot. And with my immersion blender, I blended it until it was smooth and added a little bit of cream on top. And we had a roasted butternut squash soup that was delicious for dinner. Mike did decide that he wanted some grilled cheese sandwiches and so I made him make those and we had grilled cheese sandwiches with it. For leftovers, I ended up putting it in wide-mouth pint jars and put that in the freezer and then it was really easy to pull it out to have for lunches. You hear me talk about this often. I am not really a morning person, but I still like to eat breakfast. Oftentimes I will batch cook breakfast items at dinnertime and then we can just reheat it later. And I had saw this new recipe from the Dashley’s. She had called it magic egg enchiladas and so I wanted to try that out and I used some peppers and onions and potatoes with some Italian sausage that I had cooked all down. And then I ended up rolling those up and putting them into tortillas into the casserole dish. And with that, the eggs go on top of the enchiladas when they are raw. So you put the eggs and some cottage cheese. I blended that up and then I poured it over the dish. And that’s what makes the magic is it like pours into the anchiladas and then it bakes that way. And this had some green anchilada sauce in it also and then topped with cheese. Now I will say I did make some extra of the ingredients and put that into the freezer so I can just pull it out another night. So, I have the cooked peppers and onions and potatoes that are all ready to go for another day. But if I was going to make this again, I would make it a little bit differently than the way that she did it. So, I would make it like I would normally make enchiladas with those ingredients and pour the sauce into it. I would cook the eggs before I wrap them into the burritos. And that way I could just wrap those and put some of them into the freezer so they’d be ready to go for later when I just want to warm them up instead of having the raw eggs. So by pre-making the things and then rolling them into the burritos, it would have made it a lot easier to save for leftovers. It was the first time I’ve ever cooked anything with green enchilada sauce, though, so it was nice to try out somebody else’s recipe and get a new inspiration. And I think I will make these again, just doing it a little bit different. And this picture we’re putting up mostly for the memories for me so I can always remember. But it has been three weeks since we’ve moved into our house. And I got a surprise at the door with a box of freshlymade cookies from Ryan. He was like my dad that lived across the street for 20 years. And this is the longest that I’ve ever went without seeing him. We’ve been talking every day and texting each other, but a surprise box of cookies just melted my heart. I did put most of these in the freezer so we can pull out a couple at a time and we weren’t too tempted with a whole box of cookies in the house. We went to an event with one of our kiddos and then we ended up taking them out for dinner. So, they wanted to try a dill pickle pizza and we thought it was kind of a fun thing to try. So, we will show you that picture. I wanted to use some eggplant and I was looking for some different ideas on how to use it. So I ended up making an eggplant rolatoni and with that I didn’t have ricotta cheese so I used the cottage cheese that I had here at the house and then I added some basil that I had put in the freezer earlier this summer. So I was able to make the cheese mixture with that. And then with the eggplant I slice this really thinly. With the eggplant, you want to put a little bit of salt on it and let it sit for a little while. And that gets the bitter waters out of the eggplant. And then I just tapped that dry before I went through the process of coating it to cook it in the pan. After it was cooked, I let it cool down for just a couple minutes and then I put the cream mixture on it and I rolled that up. And then I was able to put the last of the marinara sauce that I had made for my garden tomatoes at our old house on this. And then I also added some cheese and baked it for a little while. And we had it with Italian sausage. So it was a completely different meal. Now Mike doesn’t really love eggplants and I can get him to eat zucchini all of the time. This isn’t a dish that would freeze really well, but we do have three other different types of like lasagna kind of recipes that are a little bit more healthy and you can also freeze them. We will link those in the description. We also send out new recipes all of the time in our newsletter. So, make sure that you’re signed up for the newsletter. That is the first place we put new recipes. On this night, I just made some chicken breast. I seared these in a pan and then I made a lemon sauce with some spinach. And then I put the chicken back into the sauce to let it soak up all that goodness. And with that, we had some delicana squash that I just seasoned and put some parmesan on it. I just love how the seasons change and our meals change by the different produce items that are in the house. On this day after church, one of my kiddos came over and brought their own ingredients over and I had my ingredients. And we ended up making eight lbs of meatballs. And I kind of bribed them that if they would make them here and help me form all of mine cuz I really don’t love forming the meatballs. But I would spend the afternoon making sure that they were all baked and then cooled. And then my freezer had enough room to put them in the freezer to flash freeze. And after they were frozen, then I divided them into bags. I normally do about a quart-siz bag of meatballs. That seems to be about a perfect amount of meatballs for us for dinner. And that kind of works for their family, too. And with making the meatballs, I had one large Hogy sub left in the freezer. I had pulled that out and we had meatball sub sandwiches for dinner. Whenever I’m cutting up onions and I’m adding it to ground beef, I’m also trying to add some veggies in there also just to kind of spread out the meat portion a little bit and to get a little bit more veggies in for our family. So lately I’ve been adding like a whole zucchini every time I’m doing an onion, but most of the time throughout the rest of the year I’m adding cauliflower rice in there also. So, anything that I can do when I’m adding it that my family doesn’t really know that I’m adding the extra veggies is a win for me. So, I ended up cooking the onions and zucchini and ground beef and then dividing it in half. So, I had the cooked meat to put in a glass dish and I put that in the freezer that I’ll pull out for another night. And then the cooked meat that I had that I was just cooking. Then I ended up making a hamburger helper kind of healthier recipe for us. With this, I just took that ground beef. I added some chicken stock to the pot and then I put the noodles in and I let it cook for about 10 minutes. And then I added a little bit of marinara sauce. And I blended that with some cottage cheese just again to boost up the nutrients in that and give a little bit more protein. And I topped that with some cheese. And we’re Gen X. Like, we grew up on having Hamburger Helper all the time. I love that I can make a healthier homemade version of it. And it makes Mike super happy. And he was able to have this for a couple days for lunches. And I’m actually going to stop this video right here on October 13th because the next day is when somebody special comes to visit and I want their whole visit on one video. So, we’re going to cut this off one day early, but I hope it brings you lots of inspiration to be able to cook some homemade meals for your family. And all these meals were made from the 2 to 4 week mark since I went to the grocery store. So, you can see that I still have fresh produce that I’m using and incorporating into our meals. And I’m able to get some of these things batch cooked. So, I am filling up my freezer that we can use throughout the winter. I make sure that I spend time every single day, first thing in the morning and then again at night trying to answer all of your questions and comments that come through. So, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask them and I am happy to answer them. And it really does help our channel when you’re engaging in the videos and asking questions in the comments. So, it helps us reach more families and just do more of what we love. and our shop is fully back open. So, we have the zerowaste produce guide in stock and there is also a new ebook edition to that. And then we have our planners which are meal and grocery planners. There’s five different covers for our grocery planners. Those are all available in our shop, the cross legacyshop.com. There is a link for that in the description and also a discount code. But all of our bags are also back in stock now. So, make sure that you’re checking out our shop, which helps support our channel and it means that we can put more videos out. In 2025, we have been putting out three videos every single week. And I plan on keeping to that schedule. You can see meals that we’re making, things that I’m buying at the grocery store, peaks inside of my freezer, and all of the tips to help save money on groceries here on the Cross Legacy.