I’ve been trying to eat healthier without blowing my budget, and I recently saw a thread on another subreddit about a recipe app called PerfectBody. Usually, I just Google recipes, but the idea of having everything in one app on my phone got me interested. After looking into it, I found a few options and now I’m wondering which one is actually worth it. Has anyone here used PerfectBody, Paprika, or another recipe app? Both PerfectBody and Paprika seem promising for finding cheap, healthy meal ideas, but I’d love to hear your experiences!

I’m curious what everyone here thinks – is it really worth trying out these apps, or should I just stick with Googling and bookmarking recipes like I’ve been doing for years?

Also, does anyone know if these apps let you adjust recipes for different serving sizes or suggest swaps for pricey ingredients? That would be a huge help since I’m always looking for ways to keep my grocery list budget-friendly but still have some variety. Grocery prices are no joke lately, so any tips on affordable meal ideas that actually taste decent would be awesome.

Honestly, cooking at home has been a lot more enjoyable lately. Instead of the same old meals, I’ve been trying new recipes each week and cutting back on takeout. If anyone’s interested, I’d be happy to share a few of my favorites I’ve tried so far!

Ultimately I need a nutritional meal that involves smoked haddock and something green for iron (broccoli and peas are my usual go to) but I can't find any recipes or meal ideas centered around haddock. I'm cooking on a very tight budget as I have a uni student balance for food so any tips on how to reduce the cost of foods would also be a hugeeeeeee help

Any help will be greatly appreciated!!!

Ingredients

1 lbs. ground beef

1 large onion, diced

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

2 carrots, peeled and diced

1-2 ribs of celery, diced

1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, not drained(Mild Rote for more spice)

1-2 cups green beans (I use frozen cut green beans)

2 large red potatoes (about 1½ lbs. total), diced into 1-inch cubes

1 cup of peas

1/2 cup of corn (OPTIONAL)

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 cups beef broth or beef stock

1 cups water

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon of savory(alt. 1/2 tsp rosemary and 1/2 teaspoon ground thyme)

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

Brown the beef, onion, and garlic in a large pot over medium-high heat. Drain, and return to pot.

Add carrots, celery, tomatoes, green beans, peas, potatoes, tomato paste, broth, water, bay leaf, oregano, thyme, 1 teaspoon of savory, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until potatoes are tender (approximately 15-20 minutes). Remove from heat; stir in parsley. Season with additional salt and pepper, if necessary. Remove bay leaf before serving.

NOTES: This can be left on stove on lowest heat for an hour or two potatoes may be more soft than usual but is good. I often use russet potatoes in place of reds but these take about 1/3-1/2 longer to cook to the proper tenderness.

This is a farmhouse type of recipe so keep in mind sometimes we had all the ingredients sometimes not everything and as we lived away from town no easy jaunt to the store. As long as you have some of the spices and at least potatoes carrots and beans and broth you can have a tasty soup.

I like lots of carrots and potatoes in my soup so tend to add between 1/3 and 1/2 as much more.

You can use either ground pork or chopped chicken or turkey in place of the beef or even do without meat.

Need to stretch it to feed more and another potatoes and some more carrots and beans and a bit more broth.

If you want to freeze this for later undercook the vegetables a bit as potatoes and carrots can get mushy when frozen. That does not bother me but it does some.

Looking for suggestions for making Costco canned chicken as a quick snack/meal. Anything simple to add to it would be good like draining the water then either throwing BBQ, or Hot sauce in it for a quick eat suggestions. What sauces and or powders do you recommend?

My working is having a gathering tomorrow and I need some recipe ideas to make tonight that will seem impressive to my peers

I live almost an hour from work, so it needs to be stable even when sitting for a while

I plan to make it tonight after work and bring it in in the morning

I need to be able to make a lot of it, or at least a good bit since obviously there will be other food there

It can’t be super expensive, but budget is certainly flexible

How can I stretch this for the rest of the month? (Currently in California)

I’ve been trying a few different brands of frozen fries and I recently tried Walmart’s store brand seasoned wedges. They were amazing!! I can’t believe I’ve been paying extra for name brand all this time. Anyone else?

Lost power due to Hurricane Milton, the entire contents of fridge are spoiled.

What are some recipes I can make to use up some of the most common dry & canned kitchen ingredients? Thank you!

When you’re looking to make a basic meal more satisfying, what do you add to it that’s easy on the wallet? Do you have any go-to sides or additions that make meals feel more complete?

My parents' families grew up food poor. Even when they were more financially stable later in life, they still ate budget food. It wasn't until my then boyfriend pointed It out that I noticed that we were, in his words "middle class who ate poor." Regardless, these budget food recipes still taste good.

Tinned Corned beef with cabbage and potatoes. One tin of 150g corned beef can feed four to five people if we mix in a big potato (cut into 1 cm cubes) and shredded cabbage (around 300g worth). Total weight uncooked is already half a kilo so that's a big thing. Of course, the dish becomes mainly cabbage with hints of corned beef. Lol. I use less cabbage now, but I still like it that way. My children used to sometimes Bring that for lunch and so did their classmates. My eldest was 8 yrs old when she found out the cabbage didn't come in the tin with the corned beef. 😅

Sardines in tomato sauce cooked with egg. Saute one onion. Dump the Sardines (for a fam of 5, we usually use two 35g tins). Add 1 to 2 eggs . Mush everything. Use as a spread for sandwiches. Or we ate it with rice.

Add spinach to everything. Some of these are weird and if u don't grow up with them, they're not okay. But it does stretch Tinned food -- spam (similar, but not spam brand in my country) is cut into cubes and stir fried w chopped spinach. Tinned corn with spinach. Tinned beans in tomato sauce plus spinach (i hated this the most. , but my brother loves it).

I’ve been eyeing Caraway cookware, but I’m wondering if it lives up to the buzz. The non-toxic and non-stick claims sound great, but does anyone have firsthand experience? How does it hold up in day-to-day use? Worth the investment, or just another overpriced kitchen trend?

https://preview.redd.it/tmux3qjxe2td1.jpg?width=512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=95559bd36a63069b63f0a212e1dda8f60c344690

I’m taking the fire academy and I’ve only got 16 days left and I just ate the last of the food I brought with me. I’ve been eating a little more than I thought I would due to the physical aspect of it all. What are some good and cheap nutritional things I can buy? I’m definitely getting beans and rice which should cost me about $20 so I got $20 to get the rest of my nutrition for 16 days. Someone help!

I’m think rice beans and onions, oats for breakfast, and I already have emergen-c’s so I’ll drink one of those every morning with breakfast and that should be enough to get me by right ? I think that covers all essential nutrients vitamins all all that

Hi everyone! My husband and I have just moved and so are doing everything we can to save a bit of money whilst we get settled into our new home. Please can you share some of your favourite and best budget recipes? No dietary requirements or picky eaters here so open to anything.

Thanks in advance 😊

1st question: How do I get homemade yogurt to come out super thick without needing to strain it? Is it possible? I heat up the milk to 200 and let it cool down to 110 and then add yogurt. Is that it? Did i miss anything? My yogurt always comes out a bit runny.

2nd question: For making cheese, I once didn't even use vinegar and the milk still separated so what is the point of rennet, vinegar, lemon? If by not adding anything at all, the milk separates by itself anyways?

Also, when I pulled out the yogurt this morning, I noticed cheese had formed instead of yogurt. What happend?

Recipe:

1 can Goya black beans (plain)

1 green onion

Around 1-2 tsp mined garlic

Taco seasoning (to taste)

1-2 heaping spoonfuls of fresh garden salsa (I like Jack’s salsa. Make sure it’s not sweet or tastes like mangos)

About half a can of water (using the empty Goya can)

Boil in a saucepan until beans are ready

It should be like a slightly thick soup

———

For the quesadillas, just do flour tortillas with Mexican style blend cheese, Colby jack, or any cheese that isn’t American, cheddar, or Swiss.

Cook it on a pan

——

Once it’s ready, just eat the bean soup and quesadillas. I like dipping my quesadilla in the soup.

I used to eat this all the time when I was in high school. Beans are cheap, and having a container of taco seasoning lasts a long time.

In my opinion, it’s hearty and leaves me feeling satisfied.

As I'm lazy and I'm on a budget, I often buy cheap, random vegetables (sometimes with the Too Good To Go app), throw them all in a large pot, add some broth, herbs and spices and let it boil for a while. Blend with an immersion blender and I'm good to go for a few days.

Sometimes this thick soup only contains broccoli (+thyme), sometimes broccoli, carrots, tomato, and various others (+ italian herbs and spices mix). I tend to evade spinach, endive, kale etc. to prevent a bitter flavor.

Recently, I started adding a bit of vinegar to give the soup a bit of a tang, but I was wondering what other tips you have to add a pleasant and well-rounded flavor to this soup (if you can even call it soup).

Hi, I'm 20 and I'm still living at home in the UK. I'm planning on moving out next year hopefully, either when I go to University, or for an apprenticeship. I'm currently on a journey of teaching myself life skills because my parents never taught me, so I'm effectively unprepared for the real world. Because I'm still at home I don't need to by my groceries just yet, but I'd really like to start planning a food budget for when I do move out. How could I begin to do this? I'm thinking of just walking around supermarkets and comparing prices etc, but I don't know if there'd be a more time efficient way of planning this out? Specifically for cooking, are there some stapes recipes I should know of to begin to include in my budget? I'm vegetarian, so at least this would cut out the cost of meat as I know it's expensive

My friend is getting surgery soon and I promised them I would cook them a nice meal after the procedure. They can’t have any of the above listed things. When I say meat, I mean all meat (though fish is different, but I myself don’t enjoy fish). What would you recommend? I would like to do something special for them.

I have $55 for 7 dinners for 3 adults. We don't have room in the budget for lactaid; I can cook cheap, and I can cook dairy-free, but I'm not great at planning both simultaneously. Let's say we're going for filling/hearty over delicious - these boys are goats. Help?

I have a $200 budget for the month for me and 2 kids. Can anyone give some ideas. Please no negative comments. I'm already struggling..

So I'm used to cooking for myself, that was easy and even at it's most expensive wasn't an issue. But now I have a partner and we have a kid and oh boy lol.

I tried looking up sites for low cost/budget recipes for families but I mean to be honest and quite frank, a lot of the recipes have been really boring, bland, and well essentially Midwest casseroles lol. I mean that's fine but I'm looking for more diversity and spice ya know?

Point being, does anyone know of any good recipe sites/books/anything that has low budget recipes that are a bit more diverse?

I have no money, but I had a bunch of leftover cans of totally not expired vegetables and so I've been belting out childhood struggle meals with leftover stuff my mom had and didn't want (mainly frozen beef and chicken) so I've been meal-prepping a lot of chicken pot pie, tuna casserole, and SOS. Now I want something sweet and I found a can of totally fresh fruit cocktail and I was wondering if there are any struggle meals recipes I can make with it? I don't have gelatin, which was the first thing I thought of. I have all the basics like flour, eggs, sugar, and milk, and some nuts and stuff. Any ideas.