Healthy Dinners for 2 For the Week Under $35

You can eat healthy food on a budget! Here is a full week of dinners for 2 for the price of a meal out a restaurant (if even!). If you’d like to see healthy meals on an even smaller budget, let me know in the comments below!

Here is our grocery list: (for reference we shopped at Aldi and Harris Teeter in North Carolina in June 2020)

Chicken breast and veggie skewers

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1/3 onion
• 1 summer squash
• ½ pack Mushrooms 
• Head of broccoli 

Method

1. Chop veggies into large chunks.  Mix in a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil and seasoning (salt, pepper, old bay, etc.) Layer on skewer 
2. Chop broccoli  and steam over a double boiler or boil until tender.
3. Trim chicken of any tendons or fat.  Season with salt, pepper, [garlic powder, Italian herbs]
4. Cook chicken breast on grill (or in a pan on the stove) until an internal temp of 165F. If you don’t have a thermometer, cut chicken breast in half to ensure it is cooked through 
5. Add veggie skewers to grill or pan until cooked to desired char and tenderness 
6. Serve 

Taco Tuesday 

Ingredients 

• 1/3 of your onion
• ½ package of ground turkey 
• 1 bell pepper
• 1 Ear
• 1 can refried beans 
• Hard shell tacos
• 1 jar salsa

Method

1. Chop all veggies 
2. Put pan over a medium heat, spray with oil/ drizzle oil until the bottom of the pan is just covered.  
3. Preheat oven according to taco shell instructions 
4. In a separate pan, heat the beans over a low heat 
5. Add onions to oiled pan and cook until they begin to brown
6. Add ground turkey until browned
7. Add peppers and corn 
8. Heat the taco shells in the oven for about 6 mins until crispy 
9. Assemble tacos to your liking and serve with the salsa! We added lettuce from the yard to ours and some shredded cheese we already had in the house 

Chicken soup 

Ingredients

• 2 Chicken Breasts
• 1 Ear of Corn
• 4-5 Carrots
• ⅓ of an Onion
• 4-5 White Mushrooms
• 2-3 Potatoes
• About 2 cups of stock
• Water

Method

1. Dice veggies into small-medium sizes (cut corn off the cob)
2. Trim chicken of excess fat and tendons
3. Place veggies and chicken in crock pot.
4. Heavily season the contents with salt, pepper, garlic, parsley, oregano, etc.
5. Pour in stock and enough water to cover contents.
6. Place on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours.  Stir occasionally
7. Towards the end of the cook time, use forks to shred chicken.
8. Serve! We had ours with sourdough bread my husband had made

Turkey burgers

Ingredients

• Ground Turkey
• Egg
• 4-5 Carrots
• 3-4 Large Potatoes
• Roughly 4 large lettuce leaves

Instructions

1. Combine egg and turkey in a bowl with seasoning to taste.
2. Divide into roughly ⅓ Pounds and form into a round patty.  Place on sheet and store in freezer
3. Cut potatoes into wedges.  Place in bowl and season with olive oil and salt/pepper/garlic/etc.
4. Dice carrots into small pieces.  Steam in a double boiler or boil them in salted water
5. Cook potatoes on grill over medium/high heat or in oven at 400 degrees.  Flip when starting to brown and blister. (you could also cook these and the turkey patties inside in a cast iron pan.
6. Place turkey patties on grill or hot pan directly from freezer.  Cook until edges start to change color.  Internal temperature should reach 165 degrees
7. Place finished patties in lettuce to wrap and use in place of a bun

Fried rice

tastier than it looks! It;s hard to make fried rice photogenic!

Ingredients

• Rice
• 2-3 Carrots
• Yellow Squash
• Zucchini
• Broccoli
• 1 ear of corn
• 4-5 White mushrooms
• About ⅓ of a large onion
• 2 eggs

Instructions

1. Rinse rice through a strainer and let soak in water for 20 minutes
2. Cook rice as per directions
3. Dice all vegetables (remove corn from cob).  Squash and carrots can be cut into narrow strips
4. Add vegetables to a hot pan with oil.  Your goal is for all of them to finish cooking about the same time, so add carrots and broccoli first and let cook for a little bit before adding others.  Squash, mushrooms and corn cook very quickly
5. Season to taste while cooking with salt/pepper/paprika/garlic/ginger/etc.
6. After last veggies added, beat together both eggs in a bowl.
7. Add eggs to vegetables and stir constantly
8. Right before eggs are fully cooked, add rice
9. Stir to combine and remove from heat

We had enough leftovers from the tacos and rice to have 2 extra dinners, bring it to a total of 7 dinners for the week. If you don’t like to eat the same thing over again, you can re-purpose the taco ingredients into nachos made with the hard taco shells. The fried rice could also make a burrito!

I hope you guys enjoy these recipes, please let me know in the comments if you try them! If you need some healthy meals on a lower budget, let me know and I can make a post on ideas for a smaller budget!

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