"Mexican" Soup & Stir Fry Veggies | Quick & Easy Dinner On A Budget

If there is one thing I'm good at, it's meal planning on a budget.

Another thing I'm good at: making food taste gooood.
(dude. I have 4 kids that I have to convince to eat it!)

Here is a quick and easy recipe that will feed a family of 4 for under $10!

..and even better if you happen to live near a Chinese take-out!

(seriously. but not for what you're thinking!)
(and I know that it's a weird concept..."Mexican" soup and stir fry? but it works!)

"Mexican" Soup

8 cups broth (vegetable, beef or chicken)

(it'll be WAY cheaper if you just use bouillon cubes...under $2)

1-2 packets (packets...there are a few packets inside each box) of Mexican red rice seasoning, to taste

(I buy mine in the Latino section of my grocery store..its in a green box...$1.50)

1 potato, chopped into small pieces

(cost? way under $1 per potato when bought in a 5 or 10 lb bag)

7.05 oz dried pasta

(I use either the tiny star pasta or mini alphabet pasta..they both come in 6 oz bags in the Latino section of the grocery and are just 50-cents a bag!) OR just toss in a bit of your favorite dried pasta!

Directions:

Mix the red rice seasoning into the broth, add chopped potatoes, and bring to a boil.

I boil for about 25 minutes, until potatoes are becoming tender.

Toss in your dry pasta and cook for another 8-10 minutes (or however long the packaging on your pasta says).

That's it for the soup!!

Total cost for the soup: Under $5! For the whole family! You can easily add more bouillon broth, an extra potato or two and another bag of pasta for probably less than $1 more!)

Now onto the Stir Fry Veggies...

Just make a bag of frozen stir fry veggies (or however many you normally make for dinner...we used about 3 bags for our family of 6...it was under $2/bag at Walmart). Just toss the frozen contents of your bag of stir fry veggies into your skillet and fry (I just sprayed my electric skillet with Pam) it while stirring pretty often (stir-fry...get it? haha) for 10 minutes or so.

Then, we found that our local Chinese take-out will sell us a small container (plenty for a family of 6) of brown sauce for just $1.

I pour the sauce over the stir fry and serve it alongside the soup.

My whole family loves the soup and everyone except my preschoolers loved the vegetables with sauce!!

Total cost for this meal (for the approx. measurements I gave): $8.00!!