• Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Start Here
  • Advertising & PR
  • Policies & Disclosures

Mainly Homemade

Providing simple & practical solutions to everyday problems

  • What’s New
  • Mixes & Seasonings
    • Dairy
    • Seasonings
  • Homemade Recipes
    • Main Course
    • 5 Dollar Meals
    • Soups
    • Sides
    • Breakfast
    • Desserts
    • Snacks
    • Drinks
    • Clean Eating
  • Easy Crafts
    • Gift Ideas
    • Holiday
    • Paper Crafts
    • Fashion
    • Recycled
    • Kids
    • Kitchen
  • Printables
  • Shop

Tips for Tuesday: Healthy Dinner Ideas

August 9, 2011 Amy Leave a Comment

I am reposting this article, since it was so popular a couple of months ago for healthy dinner ideas.

With many of us couponing or trying to save money we need to stretch those box meals a little further for a healthy dinner idea. For me a simple box meal just doesn’t feed all five of us.  I like to have leftovers for little face and me for lunch the next day. It is easier to decide what we will eat and I don’t have to make a big meal just for two people.

Healthy Dinner Ideas

I am here to help you with a few healthy dinner ideas I have for adding flavor to boxed meals without adding sodium. The sodium content of these is amazingly high. I try not to feed these to my family very often, but they are better than buying fast food for five of us. I will do it in a pinch.
Add onions to everything
The best thing to add to any meal is an onion. I can purchase these for $0.49 lbs. So I am only adding $0.49 extra cost to my meal. I usually use ½ or 1 onion chopped and sautéed . This adds not only lots of flavor but around a ½ to 1 pound of food to the meal. The kids don’t even know it is in there, since most boxed meals have onion powder. Adding onion ramps up the flavor and increases the vegetables for the meal.
healthy veggies
I also like to add carrots, especially to higher sodium meals. This will help decrease the salty taste in a meal. I will add around 1 or 2 peeled and either shredded, pureed or chopped finely. This is around ¼ cup to a ½ cup of carrots. What a sneaky way to enter extra veggies into the kids meals and they don’t even know. I like to add carrots to Sloppy Joes too. We just need a little more to make it stretch to feed all of us.
add veggies
Corn is the next best thing to add to a meal. I find it goes well especially with Mexican dishes. I try to buy frozen when I can. Otherwise just open a can and pour it in. I like the cream style corn with the Asian Rice a Roni. Use the water from the can for the water to add to the dish. This will add just a little more flavor than just regular water. I will also save the water from the corn and use this for soups later.
Healthy dinner ideas
Try adding peas to a meal. If you or your kids don’t like the taste of peas try pureeing them and add that to the meal. You won’t see them or taste them either. I like to add peas to fried rice and canned soups for additional healthy dinner ideas.
Beans can be added for extra protein to any dish. I like black beans for Mexican dishes. Sometimes I will add both corn and black beans to stretch a meal.
Try adding a little of two or three of the above mentioned vegetables for healthy dinner ideas. See what you can come up with and not change the taste too much for a great meal. This is a fun experiment to try with your family. Try other vegetables you like to see what other combinations you can come up with for additional healthy dinner ideas. Look at the box and see what dehydrated veggies are already in there and add the real thing. This is a great way to stretch a meal for just a few pennies per meal.
Do you normally add anything to a box meal? What are your favorite recipes to add veggies to? What Veggies do you add?

*Photos provided courtesy of Wikipedia

5 Dollar Meals

About Amy

Amy Greene has a passion for creating items from scratch. She created Mainly Homemade to inspire families to cook homemade meals and create homemade crafts to create lifelong family memories. Receive creative family memories in your inbox.

Let's Stay in Touch...
FACEBOOK | TWITTER | PINTEREST | INSTAGRAM

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
Visit Amy Greene from { MainlyHomemade }'s profile on Pinterest.

My Etsy Shop

Etsy Shop for Mainly Homemade

Shop with me

Amazon Shop for Mainly Homemade

Any content on this website is created for inspirational purposes only. You assume your own risk for using any methods, tools, or supplies suggested here. Follow proper guidelines for every tool or supply used and obtain professional guidance as needed.

© Copyright 2025 Mainly Homemade (Pounds4Pennies) · All Rights Reserved · Site Design: Pink Haired Pixels/Carol Jones Media