8 Nights of Family Dinner Recipes for Under $100

For most families and households, food shopping is a significant part of their expenses. It is even said that Aussies typically spend $200 weekly on food groceries alone.

Here at the SDC, we’re all about saving money, that’s why we have previously shared various tips and tricks on how to alleviate your expenses with you guys.

And aside from those budget-saving hacks, we’re also all about kitchen recipes that are not only cheap but bring the most value for your money as well. Of course, they have to be delicious too!

That is why Jane de Graaff from Honey is here to share with us eight family dinner recipes she made with only a $100 shopping budget. That’s just over $12 per meal or $3 per serving. How good!

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$100 worth of groceries can go a long way. Credit: 9Honey.
Here is the list of her purchases, which total $98.75:
  • 1/2 pumpkin, fresh
  • mixed frozen veggies
  • peas, frozen
  • chicken thigh fillets - bulk pack
  • beef sausages - bulk pack
  • Pasta
  • Rice
  • grated cheese
  • tinned tomatoes
  • tinned black beans
  • tinned lentils
  • curry paste
  • Greek yoghurt
  • silverbeet/spinach, fresh
  • noodles
  • cucumber, fresh
  • Avocados
  • tinned chickpeas
  • tinned butter beans
  • carrots, fresh
  • limes
  • onions
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Credit: 9Honey.

The first dinner recipe Jane made is Bolognese with pasta. Looks yum!

“For this, I broke down some sausages to use as mince and bulked the dish out with lentils and veggies to make it go further,” said Jane.

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Credit: 9Honey.

Next is a chilli con carne recipe mixed with rice.

Jane made the meat base of this dish using some of the sausage mince left from the previous recipe, then bulked it out with beans and peas. To make that flavourful Mexican spice mix, she used spices that were already in her cupboard. Mix all of it with rice and you’re guaranteed a filling dinner!

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Credit: 9Honey.

This one’s a butter chicken recipe with added vegetables and rice.

Jane used some of the chicken she bought in bulk, along with a jar sauce. The veggies and rice were a welcome addition to make the dish go much further.

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Credit: 9Honey.

This one’s for our vegan members, it’s a chickpea soup with caramelised onions!

“The flavour comes from cooking down onions low and slow, and then adding a whole lot of beans and vegetables,” said Jane.

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Credit: 9Honey.

If you’re looking for something more savoury, this recipe is for you.

Jane’s honey soy chicken and noodles used a few of the chicken thighs she bought in bulk from the supermarket.

For the honey soy marinade, common pantry ingredients can be used (you can even substitute some of them with something similar!). Simply make a mix of soy sauce, honey, ginger and garlic with a little vegetable oil and chilli.

Then marinate the chicken for 20 minutes or more, and fry it on a hot pan. Once cooked, add in some pre-cooked noodles. The noodles bulk up the dish and will make you feel full for longer.

Toss the leftover marinade at the dish and top with some sliced onions.

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Credit: 9Honey.

This one’s another sausages-into-meatball recipe.

This meatball sausage soup uses leftover sausage mince from previous recipes. Add in a whole lot of veggies and some pantry stock, you’ll have a hearty soup for dinner in no time.

The remaining two recipes are made from leftover ingredients from the previous recipes.

To make chicken, pumpkin, and pea pasta, Jane roasted some of the pumpkins left from the curry recipe, and tossed them in a hot pan with some chicken thighs and peas. Then she added a knob of butter (or a splash of milk, if you prefer) for the pasta sauce.

And since Jane still had some leftover sausages from the bulk, she also made spiced sausages coupled with a black bean dip.

“Turns out that a bulk pack of sausages can go a very long way indeed,” said Jane.

She mixed the sausages with a combination of pantry spices and added some black beans into a spiced dip to match. She still had some carrots so she roasted them and added them to the dish.

Pretty amazing recipes, right?

Which of these dishes are you willing to try, or (more importantly) do you have any delicious budget recipes to share? Tell us in the comments below!
 
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I think the secret is buying in bulk and fresh veg, dried beans and the like.. .they're all cheaper that way... but for all that schools give our kids a "fancy modern education", they don't seem to do domestic science where you learn to cook healthy meals from scratch and how to make a shopping list and how to use left-overs to make another dish.. let alone that maths classes don't seem to teach how to make a budget, how to live within that budget, how to prioritise what accounts need to be paid first (or even how to negotiate payment plan if your bill is too high to pay.. like so many people's electricity bills).... for some kids, the only way they'll get these skills is if they bring them back to the classroom!!! 😥
 

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