The $2 Meal That Changed My Budget | Cup of Jo (2024)

Absolutely!

This is so stinking smart I’ve got to try it. Thanks for the tip!

– Grace

This salad mix is my go-to for tacos! I brown hamburger or ground turkey with taco seasoning and add to the salad mix. I love the crunch it gives my tacos!

Now, this could be a cultural difference, but here (the Netherlands), we’ll just take a few sandwiches with us in a box.

A few slices of bread with soms cheese, peanutbutter or whatever with some tomato or cucumber with it.

Easy to make, easy to eat, filling, easy to buy and cheap…

Yes. It starts with a pricey investment but in the long run it has saved me thousands (a latte a day at $4-$6 incl. tip) over the years: a high quality milk frother. You can get cheap ones but the more expensive the milk frother, the higher quality your at-home latte, or cappucino or hot chocolate or dirty chai will be. I have a one by breville that cost about $100.

I have a cheap way of making what I think is a great home latte. I make the coffee in a stovetop espresso maker (mocha pot). It’s not as concentrated as true espresso but works well. I heat up milk in a mason jar in the microwave then, once it’s hot, whisk it. It produces good foam with no batteries to replace. I have yet to find a milk frother that lasts more than a year, and I hate using batteries.

Thank you so much for your kind comment, Holly! Means so much. Stella xoxoxo

I had the same problem – if there’s one near you, Harris Teeter has similar salads! I’ve been snagging a bunch every week to throw in my lunch or accompany dinner. Happy Dance!!!

Your comment made me laugh because we were in Scotland for two weeks this past summer and all I wanted was a salad after so many Scottish breakfasts and fish and chips…finally about 8 days in we went to dinner at the Loch Shiel Hotel in Acharacle and had the best salad of my life…and the first of the trip! I don’t even know what all the greens were that they put in it but it looked like they had just gone out into the garden and picked whatever they could find!

My easiest and almost tastiest dinner is this:
Half a jar of watered down tomatoey/garlicy pasta sauce.
A can of tuna.
Rice.

Cook the rice, heat the tuna in the pasta sauce, stir in a good sized dollop of pesto, and dump the lot over the rice. It turns into this soupy, almost-risotto-like concoction that literally takes 10 minutes. It’s one of my late-home-from-work dinner staples!

TJs soyrizo sautéed with a little olive oil, chopped onions (I freeze the chopped onions from the produce section), & a big handful of the frozen yellow/red/green peppers. Toss that on some brown rice and mashed sweet potato.

If you re-heat it with a wet paper towel over it, the rice tastes almost as yummy as it was fresh!

LOVE everything at Trader Joe’s .

Cruciferous Crunch salad with chicken, goat cheese, nuts and dried cranberries
Ricotta cheese with no additives that make the texture gummy. Most store bought ricotta is gross!
Riced Cauliflower and Broccoli (made into fried rice here http://www.irishboutique.com/blog/2017/6/7/cauliflower-fried-rice)
Sparkling Vino Verde

I could go on and on.

Bought this yesterday for the first time coincidentally. I had this for dinner and plan on consuming the other half for lunch. Chewing on something is so much more satisfying than drinking a smoothie or having soup, etc.
Happy crunching.

Taylor Farms makes great salad mixes as well.

I’ve been buying the Taylor Farm chopped salads too; so good, and now my hubby eats more salads too

We have a Whole Foods literally next to my office. The hot bar is like kryptonite for my wallet.

My office pals and I have started having an informal competition for budget-friendly lunches from WF. My coworker got a can of black beans ($1), a hard boiled egg and some grated cheese from the salad bar (about $0.75), and a splash of hot sauce (free from condiments section). It was very good when all heated in the office microwave. My current fave is ready-made egg salad (about $3.50), crackers ($2.50 for the pack), and an apple (about $1). The egg salad is enough for 2 lunches so I think my lunch costs under $4, since the crackers are such a big pack.

80s throwback? Try the 50s. My mom made a version of this when I was growing up and I’ve made it since at least the early 70s. I was just thinking that this summer’s inaugural batch will probably appear this weekend since we’re due to have highs in the 90s.

This was always a regular dish while I was growing up. When I moved out on my own and was broke, I’d buy a pound of macaroni, jar of miracle whip, some radishes, eggs, an onion
And 2 cans of tuna and some frozen peas. Throw it all together and my boyfriend and I could eat on it for a week. Back in 1980 this cost $10 for 2 people for an entire week

You are so right, Belle!! xx

I’m always bummed that Trader Joe’s doesn’t open earlier on mornings when I realize there’s nothing in the fridge for me… On weeks when I’m well prepared, I love making this salad and it holds for at least 4 days in the fridge. Great over quinoa or mixed greens too.

http://www.marthastewart.com/340683/greek-salad-with-chickpeas

I rediscovered tuna melts. During my 20s that’s what I lived on. While lamenting the weight I’ve put on since then, it dawned on me one day that I now consume a much bigger meal at dinner than a tuna melt. And one night, when my husband was at a loss as to what to cook (he does the cooking in our house), I said, “Tuna melts coming right up!” They were such a hit with him — you’d think I’d suddenly graduated from the Cordon Bleu! I use a good whole wheat bread, mix a dollup of mayo and good mustard, sprinkle dried basil with tuna (fresh dill if we have it), top with a tomato if in season, slap on a piece of cheese and stick it under the broiler ’til the cheese is bubbling. Delish!

It’s making me hungry right now!

My dad says that he lived on tuna melts in med school, and now I am in med school….and living on tuna melts. :) > cue lion king circle of life music <

I sometimes add a crisp finely chopped apple into the mix- sounds weird, but it adds a delightful crunch and sweetness! I also live on Tuna Melts, if you’d have told me when I was a kid, I’d be like… hard pass.,

THANK YOU for this post! I’m always interested in trying new things from Trader Joe’s, so I just added this salad kit to my shopping list.

Recently, I made these Quinoa Stuffed Peppers (http://whatsgabycooking.com/quinoa-stuffed-peppers/), but added 1lb ground turkey, which doubled the recipe. I stuffed some of it into peppers and have been eating the rest of the filling plopped on top of mixed greens with a dash of hot sauce. I haven’t calculated the price per serving, but my bet is that it’s pretty cheap!

Trader Joe’s and Target… (RIP)

So true, I regularly lament the lack of TJs and Target! Costco has a salad mix that is almost the same as this. It’s so good!

Seriously, you are speaking my language with this post! My husband and I loved this salad mix, that we considered a blog called “Bagged Salad B**ches” to review different premade salad mixes.

As a vegetarian, I am ashamed that I didn’t think to add black beans. You just took this to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL!

xoxo

Oh my gosh, you need to start this blog! Or at least an Instagram account!

haha i would definitely read this too!

Please make this blog/instagram account a reality! fellow bag salad b**ch here!

Let me know when you start it up! Would love to read that daily!

Yum!!

What is in the rice??? I haven’t been to TJ’s in a while because life has been hectic, and it out of my usual path. I love their premade foods though!

A few favorites at TJs: the frozen garlic naan (I love making little naan pizzas with this!), the corn salsa, and the chocolate covered almonds with turbinado sugar (dangerously good)!

I’ve been making a much more concerted effort to bring my lunches in. This Monday I brought in a few everything bagels along with pickles, sliced cheddar, avocado, and mustard for bagel sandwiches throughout the week. Nice and filling to get me through the long day!

I’m all about eggs – fried, scrambled, hard/soft-boiled or omelette-style – with veggies and avocado…plus a bite or so of good, hard, preferably raw cheese.

I buy the best eggs available (pasture-raised, local), which run around $7-ish a carton in my world. May seem pricey for eggs, but quality makes all the difference…and given their protein and nutrient-density, it’s still a total deal. (Plus, I love the taste!)

These comments are all so great! I’m a high school teacher so I always bring my lunch (mediocre canteen food, ick) and I never have more than 20 minutes to scarf it down so pre-prepped or picnic-y lunches are a major win.

I swear by the app Wanderlist for all my listing needs, and I’ve got a folder of lists of ideas for each meal/snack. Then when I’m stuck for inspiration, I can just look at the list on my phone and I’m back to great lunches.

My lunch list just got much, much longer and more inspiring thanks to these comments. :)

wow, how cool! thanks, stephanie!

Yes!!! This salad is SO good! It’s incredible with carnitas. I make mine in the crockpot and eat it all week. This carnitas recipe is my go-to: http://pin.it/X_PDxiD

Now I know what I’m buying on my way home from work in the morning!

I love these salad packs! I usually dress up the broccoli kale mix with some quick chopped red onion and a portion of 15-minute lemon-dijon salmon – a total slam dunk for a first year teacher otherwise living mostly on Clif bars.

The only problem is that when I am at the market, I usually have to reach over the locally grown kale to grab this bag filled with vegetables from 1,000 miles away and like 4 separate plastic sachets of add ons. The sad price of convenience :(

Thanks for voicing this sentiment, Danielle! I often get caught up in the mind game of thinking I need to do things the *best* way, that often stresses me to the point of not doing it at all.

Danielle, you’ve hit the nail on the head. If buying a premixed bag of chopped salad gets me to have fresh veg at lunchtime, I’m going to do it.

Yes! On the whole I hate buying pre-packaged foods but to be honest, on a busy week, the pre-cut tray of vegetables or the bag of salad keeps me healthier than the take out I would end up buying otherwise. We can be too hard on ourselves sometimes.

YES sometimes the semi-convenient way to do something is much better than not doing it at all!!

Danielle this is such a good comment I came back to read it again. lol

Thank you Danielle! I have discovered that if I buy all the ingredients for some complicated fancy lunch, there’s about a 50/50 chance I’ll actually take the time to put it together while I’m running out the door in the morning. On the other hand, if I have something quick and ready to go, I’ll always pack it in lieu of eating out. Convenience is huge.

For us, the other option is takeout or delivery. So basically we could have $8 worth of premade TJ’s stuff that we throw together at home in 10 minutes… or $35 worth of takeout or delivery. That’s a huge difference for our overall budget.

Actually, I’d love to see an article on what women here have on average in savings..

June2 – The attention you’re paying to your spending and the intention behind redirecting spending to savings makes my financial planner heart happy! I’m just as guilty of mindless spending, but also a firm believer that if you measure it you can manage it. It’s also worth saying that in all things (even financial things) there exists a balance. I recently began using a budgeting solution called You Need a Budget (aka YNAB). The idea behind it is that every dollar has a job and those jobs are assigned based on your goals and priorities. Ultimately, I think it’s an approach that has just enough flexibility to deal with life’s curveballs while maintaining the accountability needed to work toward goals. It’s not a silver bullet one-size-fits-all solution, but I think it could really help a lot of folks start moving in positive direction. I’d also love to see more conversations on CoJ about money – budgeting, saving for retirement, all of it.

Could you please share your trail mix and granola bars recipes?!

oh, haylie, sending you the biggest hug! hang in there. we’ve all been there. it must be so exhausting to have so much on your shoulders, but you’ll get through it, you’re doing a great job, and there are good times ahead. xoxoxoxo

sending you a big hug from Johannesburg today, Haylie. I have had those overwhelmed times too (matter of fact, it’s probably a week or two out for me – year-end coming up :))

Just got a $3 can of salmon to make salmon patties. This recipe makes 6-8 patties, so that will be 3 to 4 meals for my husband and me.

http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-salmon-patties-with-creamy-garlic-sauce-224093

wow that sounds so good!

This is awesome! Lunch is so challenging for me. I work from home and very often skip it all together! It feels like so much of my day is spent figuring out what to eat and actually eating, that it gets tiresome – especially around dinnertime. Having some go-to’s always helps, like yogurt and shakes, but I haven’t really found a go-to for lunch. I’m really interested in trying this! My energy has been so low lately and I have been skipping exercise, that I’ve decided to seek out some help from a nutritionist. I’m hoping she’ll get me back on track and give me some great, easy, ideas for breakfast, lunch and dinner – like this one. Anyone else out there feel similar about meal planning? I never ends! Haha.

http://www.shessobright.com

Meal planning can be hard, but I find that if I keep a couple of staples on hand I can keep from getting hangry. I love pre-washed spinach or salad kits. You can put spinach in anything: eggs, a sandwich, pasta, stir fry. I always keep lunch meat, cheese and tortillas in the fridge. It only takes five minutes to whip up a quesadilla. (Warm it up enough to melt the cheese in either the microwave or on the stove.) Big batch cooking also helps. On Sundays, I boil 4-5 eggs. They are easy, convenient snacks. Maybe I’ll make a big pot of soup to reheat by the bowl throughout the week. In summer, it’s I love to keep a big batch of egg salad or tuna salad in the fridge to eat on toast.

trader joe’s lazy meals are the best! i love getting new ideas. our favorites:

breakfast
-they sell a bag of peeled eggs. cut the egg in half & top with their whole grain Dijon mustard. quick protein fix without having to boil & peel eggs

lunch
-bowl of cottage cheese + can of chili (+ chicken sausages if we make at home)

dinner
-butternut squash ravioli w/ a bag of their frozen mushroom medley
or Japanese rice frozen bag (weirdly addictive)

dessert
-frozen mango mochi dessert (mango flavored ice cream wrapped in mango flavored mochi)

Just make regular pasta or soba with a drizzle of sesame oil and soy sauce! Same ginger and green onions and you are good to go!

I love Trader Joe’s and always appreciate these articles for the great TJ’s hacks – thanks fellow readers!

I always try to bring my lunch and usually will make a big batch of dressing for the week and bring in fresh ingredients to stow in my office fridge (a big bag of kale/arugula, nuts/chickpeas, another veg). Lately I’ve been really into a PB dressing (I use this with a bit more water: http://pinchofyum.com/detox-rainbow-roll-ups-peanut-sauce). A couple other favorites here (http://camillestyles.com/food-and-drink/from-camilles-kitchen/kale-persimmon-pomegranate-salad/?slide=1) and here (http://pinchofyum.com/green-goddess-detox-salad).

Thank you for sharing!

I’m an American living in montreal and it’s my #1 import wish!

No Trader Joe’s in Huntsville, AL? Great business opportunity for someone….