I heard from many Frugal Readers regarding fallback meals, so I thought I would list them all in a post. Yum. When’s dinner??
Julie says that her favorite fallback meal is Trader Joe's orange chicken. She also relies on Zatarain's, mac 'n cheese, spaghetti, frozen pizza, stir fry stuff, boxed Thai meals, frozen burritos and ravioli (from Costco—they have several tasty varieties), and Bear Creek Soup, which is a dehydrated soup mix found in most grocery stores. In most cases all you have to add is water. She has also recently discovered the yumminess of cooking meat in a cast iron frying pan. It only takes about 5-12 minutes, after the oven heats up to 500 degrees.
Aubrey’s main fallback meal is waffles and scrambled eggs. She admits it is definitely not nutritious, but it’s good on the budget and sure to please the kiddos. Another one on her fallback list is frozen meatballs (either Swedish or Italian) and sauce.
Soozcat admits that too often their fallback meal is pasta with a protein mixed in. “It's cheap and quick to make,” she says, “but unless I can get a decent salad on the table with it, it's probably not the wisest choice.” Still, it’s better than fast food (in more ways than one, I might add)!
Christina reports, “I do fried rice or kitchen-sink soup! Or else homemade pizza because I've always got dough ingredients, some form of cheese and tomato sauce and spices.” (I’m very impressed by anyone who can call homemade pizza a fallback meal!)
