Savvy Dinner Plan: Budget meal recipes to try in 2024
Every recipe here is part of Taste.com.au’s Savvy Dinner Plan, which gives you four weeks of delicious ideas to help you enjoy the meals you love for less.
They’re still just as tasty as all those meals you love (think bolognese, curry, stir-fry and more), but easier on you and your wallet. All these recipes are featured in our Savvy Dinner Plan, 4 weeks of reimagined dinners featuring smart shortcuts and ingredient swaps.
Creamy tuna Florentine pasta bake
Easy? Check. Tasty? Check. Dollar-saving? Check. On the table in half an hour or less? Check.
A staple at Australian barbecues and a favourite, fuss-free weeknight dinner, rissoles are simple but mighty. Now, we’ve reimagined the classic with this chicken cacciatore rissoles recipe that’s friendly on the budget and full of flavour.
Quick French onion chicken pie
This is no humble pie. It really ticks all the boxes: it’s cost-effective, uncomplicated, quick to make, and is filled with wholesome fare. Plus, its picture-perfect pastry top makes it look too good to eat. (Almost).
Easy butter chicken rice pilaf
When it comes to chicken dinners, few recipes have more enduring popularity than butter chicken. In fact, butter chicken is now the #1 chicken dinner search on taste, and it’s still growing! We’ve been on a mission to make the classic butter chicken you love more affordable and given it a makeover we think you’ll love.
One-pan vegetarian lentil and pumpkin lasagne
Vegetarian lasagne is the most searched-for vegetarian dinner recipe on taste.com.au - so when I was asked to create a budget-friendly version for our Savvy Dinner Plan, I wanted it to really deliver on flavour and be hearty enough to feed a hungry family of four.I served it with some salad and it stretched to serve my family of five (including two teenagers and a preschooler).
Crumbed apricot chicken tray bake
It’s no secret that we love the retro-classic dinner staple that is apricot chicken (and so too do taste.com.au members!). So we’ve given this fruity dish a contemporary spin. Meet my crumbed apricot chicken tray bake. It has all the flavours of the original family favourite, with the satisfying texture of a golden, crunchy crumb and a crew of useful and affordable ingredients.
This version of fish tacos uses some clever shortcuts to lower the cost, reduce food waste, and have dinner on the table in 20 minutes!
With a few shortcuts and ingredient swaps, this version not only reduces the cost of the recipe, but it also slashes the cook time by more than half, so it’s ready in 25 minutes.
This recipe is a great way to zhoosh up sausages, and despite the ‘curried’ label, it’s mild enough for the kids to enjoy (but if you do like it on the spicier side, you can certainly dial up the curry powder to your taste).
Satay chicken is a go-to weeknight dish among the taste.com.au community – and I’ve used this classic combo to create my satay chicken rice tray bake to make midweek cooking even simpler. Rice is a fantastic pantry staple to make meals stretch that little bit further, and this tempting tray bake makes use of a bunch of clever, budget-friendly ingredients to ease the pinch. No wonder it’s part of our Savvy Dinner Plan.
Porcupine meatballs have long been a favourite recipe among those looking to feed their families on a budget – but we’ve taken the recipe one step further. The veggies not only bring extra flavour and nutritional value to your meal, but they also stretch the dish further while keeping costs low.
Garlic bread savoury mince recipe
Bringing together two well-loved, flavourful recipes in one budget-friendly bowl of comfort, I present to you my *drum roll please* garlic bread savoury mince recipe! As part of our Savvy Dinner Plan, I wanted to create something new using savoury mince. Garlic bread recipes are always popular on taste.com.au (who doesn’t love a buttery, garlicky toasted slice of bread?), and savoury mince is a comforting classic, so I’ve decided to marry the two in this satisfying recipe. And, let me tell you, it’s a perfect match.
This impressive yet simple one-panner boasts maximum flavour with minimal washing up – what’s not to love? And, perhaps best of all, you can make it ahead of time and freeze it. You’ll thank yourself later.
It’s not hard to see why chicken chow mein is a classic take-away favourite – with its delicious combo of saucy noodles, vegies and chicken. We’ve created this homemade bang bang chicken version of chow mein, using a clever short-cut ingredient.
We’ve seen searches for ramen recipes explode on taste.com.au over the past year - so to keep up with this high demand I wanted to develop a brand new, budget-friendly twist on weeknight ramen for our Savvy Dinner Plan. My new version uses a few flavour-bomb shortcuts to create a beautiful broth, plus crispy, caramelised pork mince that cooks quickly enough for the whole dish to be ready in just 20 minutes.
Easy beef stroganoff pasta bake
We challenged ourselves to come up with a budget-friendly version of the classic Russian dish. The result? A quick and easy mid-week meal that will feed a hungry family – and that’s cheaper than the original recipe – without losing any of that delicious richness stroganoff is known for. The result is a saucy pasta bake that can be on the table in just 25 minutes
Easy vegetarian dahl dinner bowls
There’s no greater easy-to-make, vegetarian budget-friendly dinner than these easy vegetarian dahl dinner bowls. Topping the dahl with a plentiful helping of seasonal roasted vegetables helps to keep the cost down while bulking up the meal.
We’ve added some extra short cuts to have this meatloaf on the table faster (like using a food processor to chop your veggies and combine the mince mixture). We’ve also ensured it’s full of flavour but more pocket-pleasing, by bulking it out with baked beans.
Sticky sweet and sour pork (complete with juicy pineapple) is a firm favourite Chinese take-away order, so we’ve given it a budget-stretching makeover! Say hello to sweet and sour pork… sausages.
There are few dinners more soothing than a bowl of curry, and a gently spiced chicken curry is a favourite dinner of taste.com.au cooks. So, I’ve given the classic homemade curry recipe a hearty, meal-stretching spin – earning it a place on our Savvy Dinner Plan. To create a richer depth of flavour, I’ve used tomato paste alongside a cast of pantry staples and budget-friendly fresh and frozen ingredients that carry this curry further.
As far as fuss-free family friendly dinners go, rissoles are a top-tier contender for Australia’s favourite all-rounder meal. This rollicking good rissole recipe features an unexpected twist – a two-in-one ingredient that adds flavour and stretches your beef mince rissole mixture that little bit further.
You need not hop on a plane bound for Barcelona to savour the deliciousness of a large dish of paella, because this flavourful rice-based dish is surprisingly easy to make at home. This one is a one-pan, vegetarian, budget-friendly paella that’s kind on you and your wallet.
Dump-and-bake creamy chicken pasta
Pasta bakes are an especially popular recipe for those who don’t have the luxury of time to spend in the kitchen during the week. This set-and-forget, dump-and-bake creamy chicken pasta is the perfect antidote to a hurried day.
Creamy French chicken tray bake
This recipe transforms chicken and potatoes with a simple, rich and creamy sauce that celebrates retro classic flavours. Plus, by browning chicken with a little butter and oil, you can add a richness and extra depth of flavour to your chicken.
While a simple, homemade stir-fry is an easy dinner that many time-poor cooks will have in their repertoire, we’ve come up with a way to make this go-to dinner even more cost-effective and (dare we say?) even more delicious.
Combining two best-ever speedy and delicious dinners – Cand the humble yet hearty pasta bake – our easy spaghetti bolognese bake is the budget-friendly, kid-friendly, Italian-inspired midweek meal you didn’t know you were missing out on.
Jumbo chilli con carne burritos
Planning a menu with a budget in mind needn’t mean compromising on big, bold flavours – and this jumbo chilli con carne burritos recipe brings flavour to the fore! Chilli con carne is a delicious wallet-friendly meal, and this is one you can have on the table in half an hour.
Small swaps can go a long way to getting the cost of your grocery shop lower – so to create this easy and budget-friendly recipe for our Savvy Dinner Plan I’ve taken inspiration from our most popular fish cakes recipe and reworked the ingredients list to make it shorter. I present to you my easy tuna and rice patties, which have already become a regular addition to my dinner recipe repertoire.
For more recipe ideas, go to taste.com.au or check out the Taste Test Kitchen now.
Originally published as Savvy Dinner Plan: Budget meal recipes to try in 2024
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