Healthy Budget Dinner Recipes

It's easy to purchase baked beans in a can, but making your own in the slow cooker results in a rich and deliciously flavored side dish that you'll feel better about serving to guests.

This 15-minute spinach side dish is quick, simple, and oh-so delicious. Fresh spinach is wilted in batches with lemon peel, garlic, and chicken broth. Serve this to a vegan crowd by using vegetable broth.

Take canned tuna to new heights by adding cannellini beans, red onion and dill, tossing it in a lemon-pepper-Dijon dressing and serving it over a spinach salad with canned beets.

Don't tell your kids, but we snuck a whole head of cauliflower into these garlic mashed potatoes. The cauliflower, garlic and potatoes are all cooked at the same time and mashed with butter and cream cheese. Your kids will love this side dish and the best part is you won't have to remind them to eat their vegetables!

This incredibly simple and quick recipe for roasted sweet potatoes relies on the most basic of seasonings--olive oil, salt and pepper. Ready in just 30 minutes, it's a great side dish for a family dinner on a busy weeknight but because it's so easy and delicious, it can also be doubled or tripled and served at larger gatherings.

When corn stands are full of fresh, tasty corn in late summer, grab a few extra ears for this 35-minute corn cake recipe. Loaded with fresh corn, carrot and green pepper, each patty is cooked until crispy and golden-brown and served with a cilantro-lime yogurt dip.

In a departure from typical Southern-style all-day stewed greens, these collards are sautéed first with a small amount of fat and then steamed, meaning tender-crisp healthy greens on the table in under a half hour.

Russets are our potato of choice for this garlicky mashed potato recipe because they cook up super-fluffy.

High in nutrients and fiber but low in calories, collard greens take a lead role in this easy grain side dish. Mixed with semi-pearled farro or quick-cooking barley, flavored with olive oil and topped with citrus strips, this side dish can easily be served with any meat or fish.

Classic cornbread can easily be made vegan with delicious results by replacing the egg and dairy milk with flaxseed meal and soymilk! Serve this easy recipe as a side with vegan chili or turn it into vegan cornbread stuffing.

Skip the roasting in this butternut squash soup recipe and let your slow cooker do the work instead. Just load up all the ingredients into the crock pot, set it and forget it for an easy, healthy dinner or packable lunches.

White beans are full of fiber and protein, both of which help slow digestion and curb blood sugar spikes. Canned beans are both easy to use and inexpensive--a win-win!

Chunks of sweet potato and sweet red pepper simmer with pork and Asian seasonings for a tasty, budget-friendly meal that's perfect for weeknights.

This classic vegetarian salad is loaded with vegetables, bulgur and chickpeas. Our suggested serving size is 1 1/2 cups, but feel free to cut that in half to serve more people or to make the dish last longer.

Each serving of this meatless sweet potato is packed with flavor, fiber and protein, and has just 216 calories.

Simmer eggs in a rich tomatoey cream sauce studded with chickpeas and silky spinach for a super-fast vegetarian dinner. Serve with a piece of crusty bread to soak up the sauce. Be sure to use heavy cream; a lower-fat option might curdle when mixed with acidic tomatoes.

Save time and maximize your efforts by mixing up two separate chicken marinades and cooking multiple recipes at once. This simple but flavorful meal-prep chicken dinner idea lets you cook ahead and not be bored with your choices by mid-week. Both recipes are roasted together on a baking sheet; a foil barrier keeps them separate. Make this base chicken recipe and use it to create the Meal-Prep Chili-Lime Chicken Bowls & Meal-Prep Curried Chicken Bowls (see associated recipes) for lunch or dinner this week.

These flavorful baked beans are the perfect addition to any barbecue meal.

Beans and bulgur wheat are flavored with prepared pesto sauce and vegetables, then rolled into a tortilla or served over greens for a hearty, healthy lunch or light supper.

Satisfy your craving for cheesy, indulgent lasagna with this noodle-less version. Roasted eggplant slices stand in for noodles in this low-carb, gluten-free lasagna.