Creating budget friendly meals has become a part of everyday life in our household. Since becoming a one-income family, trying to stay within our family of four’s grocery budget has become my weekly challenge.
Eating healthy and saving money are top New Year’s goals for many people. I wanted to create a dinner meal that is budget friendly, tasty and easy to make. Nothing too fancy, difficult to prepare or time consuming. An easy weeknight dinner that feeds the family without breaking the bank.
My budget friendly meal:
The best part is this meal costs a total of $3.78 per serving! It’s also insanely simple to make, tasty, filling and makes great leftovers.
The price breaks down as follows:
3 Pork Chops = $6.99
1 lb bag Spinach = $1.99
3 Sweet Potatoes at $0.79 = $2.37
Total = $11.35 / 3 servings = $3.78 per serving
I purchased the above items at Trader Joe’s (I live in Northern California in case that makes a difference on price). I had olive oil, dried thyme, salt & pepper at home, so I didn’t include these staple items in my price. Technically I could have used this as 4 servings since I didn’t use the entire bag of spinach for 3 servings and my kids would have split a pork chop and sweet potato. However, since there were only 3 pork chops, I went with 3 servings.
With the exception of the sweet potato taking 1 hour to cook, this meal comes together really easily. It’s simple, filling and budget friendly!
Be sure to check out all my fellow Recipe Redux Budget Friendly Meal Ideas by clicking the link below…
Seared Pork Chops with Hasselback Sweet Potatoes and Steamed Spinach with Olive Oil
Ingredients
- 3 pork chops
- 3 sweet potatoes
- 1 lb spinach
- Olive Oil
- Dried or fresh is you have it Thyme
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions
- For the Hasselback Sweet Potatoes -
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
- Make a series of 1/8-inch slices along each sweet potato, slicing 2/3 of the way through
- Place sweet potatoes on foil lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and add thyme, salt and pepper
- Place in oven and cook for 45-60 minutes, until tender
- For the Pork Chops
- Season pork chops salt and pepper
- Place oil in skillet over medium heat on the stove
- Saute pork chops for ~4 minutes each side, until cooked through
- For the Steamed Spinach
- Place 3/4 lb of spinach leaves in microwave safe container. Add splash of water and drizzle of olive oil
- Cover and place in microwave for 2 minutes
Pin for later…
Oh I love chops with spinach! This recipe looks devine!
Thanks Autumn! I often forget about pork chops when making my meal plan for the week but the whole family loves them so I have to try and add them in more.
This tasted like much more than sub $4.
Thanks Dan