Cheap Thrills Recipe Edition

I was cooking myself up some chicken chili and it occurred to me that maybe I could come up with some recipes that are cheap and that are easy (I am NOT a cook by any stretch of the imagination)
So with that, here’s the first installation of Cheap Thrills Recipe Edition!

A few things of note: Most of the recipes serve 4-6 people and the prices that I am using are from my regular shopping at Fry’s or Safeway. You can get super cheap thrills by using coupons and shopping smart. Beth suggests couponmom.com. The site is super easy to use and she has had some great luck saving money using that site and the Sunday paper.

Without further ado….

Ever need to throw together a quick dish for a pot luck?  Or how about needing to toss something together because you have a few friends coming over? Well, this is my go-to quick and easy recipe. Just ask my dear husband. I am sure this is the recipe that stole his heart.

Baked Rigatoni
1 lb ground beef -$4.00
1 box rigatoni or penne pasta $1.00
1 can spaghetti sauce $1.00 (I know, I know you can get some pricier sauces but for my money I really like the Hunts Roasted Garlic Spaghetti sauce. It is basic and it has good flavor)
2 cups mozzarella cheese $4.00

Basically you can make this whole dish for about $10.00. If you want to add in a loaf of french bread for $1.00 and a bag of salad mix for $2.00 you can serve up a meal for 4-6 people on less than $15.00.

Here’s the super complicated recipe. Brace yourself.
Boil some salted water and add the pasta
While the pasta is boiling up,  brown the ground beef, add in some salt, pepper and garlic powder.
When the ground beef is done, drain off the fat and mix in the spaghetti sauce.
By now the pasta should be done so drain it and put it back in the pan, mix in the meat sauce and pour this whole thing in to a 13 x 9 pan. Sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese and pop in to a 400 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes until the cheese is all bubbly.
You can get fancy with this and add in some globs of ricotta cheese (say it all Giada style “reeecoata”) before sprinkling on the mozzarella. This gives it a creamier texture.














There you go! Our first cheap thrill recipe. Feel free to chime in with your own recipes! We would love to hear about them. E mail to cheapthrillsinaz@gmail.com