Three Five Dollar Real Food Dinners

This Saturday is Slow Food USA’s Slow Food $5 Challenge.  What does that mean?

Slow Food USA encourages people to eat and prepare food that is good, clean, and fair. To skip the prepared meal in a box stuff and focus on cooking real vegetables and proteins. Slow Food is issuing a challenge to make a real food for $5.00 because so many people think it is easier and cheaper to eat off a fast food dollar menu than it is to make a dinner with whole food ingredients at home. 

That falls in line what I do here at Lazy Budget Chef.

I had many digestive issues and took a bunch of prescriptions to make sure everything did what it was supposed to do without giving me horrible and constant cases of heartburn.

In an attempt to reduce our budget to afford all of those medicines plus the expenses newlyweds tend to have when starting their careers, Husband and I experimented with cooking dried beans since they are a good source of protein. Moreover, did I mention, cheap?

Of course, a crock pot full of plain kidney beans can be bland. Husband and I found our mom and pop ethnic grocery stores to be a great resource for cheap spices. And ingredients to experiment with. And recipe ideas for mixing vegetables with bits of meat and serving it with a starch to make a tasty, quick, and cheap! Whole food meal.

We started reading and researching food ingredient labels. Some of the older members of our extended families were being diagnosed with various health issues. Husband and I looked at it as a crystal ball to what life might hold in store for us at that age. We decided to avoid high fat and sugar (mostly high fructose corn syrup) diet. We tried and sometimes failed at cooking from scratch more. We eat whole grains whenever possible.

Guess what? Our food bill when down and our health improved. I not long take any of the medications I used to for stomach and digestion woes.

Instead of sharing one $5 real food recipe with you, I’m going to share three. If you plan it right, you should have leftovers to feed your family on the other days of the week!

Three Quick Five Dollar Dinner Recipes

Crock Pot Pumpkin Curry 

Crock Pot Lasagna

Asparagus and Tomato Saute

Are you ready to take the Slow Food $5 Challenge?

Looking for more quick, healthy, and cheap recipe ideas? Check out the following - and more! – below!
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