Recipes that Deliver Big Flavor on a Small Budget

Everyone knows that inflation hurts your wallet. If you visit a grocery store these days, you might cringe while looking at the items and their sky-high prices. Some food staples remain about the same price, but others require more money than ever, especially when you look at what things cost just a few years back.

You can enjoy New York City culinary tours if you’re traveling this year, but if you’re staying at home, you’re probably looking into easy recipes that deliver big flavors for a small budget. We’ll mention two favorites that you can try right now.

The Best Meat Marinade for the Budget-Minded

Maybe you like having a special family meal once per week. You might pick Friday night or some other evening when you have the whole family around.

If you like having a major meat dish occasionally, you might try marinating it. Then, you can cook it on the grill or pop it in the oven.

We have a meat marinade for you that works well with beef, pork, or chicken. You can use skinless, boneless chicken breasts. If you’re doing pork, center-cut boneless pork chops work best. If you’re going with beef, top or bottom-round steak doesn’t cost much, even in 2023.

Combine some fresh garlic cloves with three tablespoons of olive oil, four tablespoons of soy sauce, a little onion powder, three tablespoons of lemon juice, two of red wine vinegar, and a shake of oregano. Stir it up.

Now, pour the ingredients into a Ziploc bag and add the meat. Let it marinate for at least a few hours, then cook the meat in the marinade in the oven or remove the meat and cook it on the grill. This flavor combination doesn’t miss, and you won’t pay much for the ingredients.

Rice and Beans

Having some rice and beans as a side does well if you’re budget-conscious. For this recipe, you might use either white or brown rice. Brown rice works well because it provides fiber, which you don’t get with white rice.

Measure two cups of rice into an instant pot or pressure cooker. An instant pot works well, and if you don’t have one, it’s worth getting one for your birthday or some other festive occasion. You can definitely utilize it in many different ways.

Add two cans of either light red beans or darker kidney beans. Make sure to wash off the beans in a colander first. Then, add them to the pressure cooker or instant pot with the rice and cook for twenty minutes.

Turn off your instant pot and release the valve to let the steam out. Then, remove the pot holding the rice and beans and add about half a bottle of spray butter. Finish with a generous shake of garlic powder and some paprika, and mix it up thoroughly.

The rice and beans go very well with the meat marinated using the recipe we mentioned above.