As we build our menu each week, there are four basic factors we keep in mind: we want a mix of meals that are inexpensive, quick and simple to prepare, meatless, and that make leftovers. Of course, we also want meals that are healthy and delicious! Not every meal falls into every one of those categories, so we do our best to piece together a menu of seven dinners that feels balanced. I thought I’d do a mini series covering each of those four attributes, so you can pick and choose which ones matter most to you! Today, I’m starting with ten of our favorite cheap meals! From Cookie + Kate 1. Spaghetti and meatballs. Nothing fancy here, friends! Pasta from a box, frozen meatballs, sauce from a jar, and some sort of vegetable on the side. I LOVE this sauce which is super easy to make, but it does take a bit longer. 2. Taco soup. Mostly canned ingredients keep the cost low on this one. Adding a pan of cornbread doesn’t add much to the price but is delicious :) 3. Baked risotto with sausage and peas. If you think risotto is hard to make, you have to try this recipe! It’s one of our favorites from The Newlywed Cookbook. The roasted vegetables variation is yummy, but we more often make it with crumbled Italian sausage and frozen peas. 4. Chana masala. There is an upfront cost if you don’t already have the spices this recipe calls for, but once you’ve purchased them, you can make this delicious dish many times over! Chick peas as the protein keeps the cost low. I like to top mine with a little plain yogurt, and we do naan on the side. 5. Burrito bowls. Royal blend rice, black beans and pinto

Joanna Goddard is one of my favorite bloggers (…said every millenial tuned into the online world ever :)). Her posts regularly spark conversation between my friends and I (“Did you see what Jo said about cakes yesterday?”), and one of the highest blogging compliments I’ve ever been paid was a comparison between my Marvelous Mama series and Jo’s My Beauty Uniform. Anyway, I loved her post earlier this week on signature dishes (inspired by Jenny’s book, which I can’t wait to read!), and thought it would make for fun conversation here, too! Joanna asked, What meals do you remember from growing up? What recipes do you hope your own children remember? Everyday Occasions My Mom relied on a relatively small stable of tried and true meals throughout my childhood, and I loved most of them! My favorites included creamy chicken enchiladas (the smell of sauteing green peppers and onions = bliss), macaroni saute (I think a lot of people refer to this as American Chop Suey), and my grandma’s spaghetti sauce. The best of all, though, and my perennial birthday dinner choice, was beef nuggets: an inelegantly named dish from my paternal grandmother that John swears is as bland as a door nail but tastes exquisitely like love to me. There are meals that go with certain places and events, too. At the Island, we have Mrs. Beisiegel’s Casserole, Southern hash, and shepherd’s pie. At Christmas with my Mom’s side, we eat Aunt Barbara’s potatoes (which I only recently found out are red potatoes mixed with onion soup mix…). With my Dad’s, it’s chocolate cake with seven-minute frosting. It’s a little different now that I’m the grown-up. John and I cook new recipes all the time, rarely repeating meals more than once a month. There are 120+ pins on my