Looking To Reduce Your Grocery Bill? Add Pasta & Veggies To The Menu

Pairing pasta with produce can make every meal seem special. Colorful vegetables like broccoli, squash, and even onions and potatoes make perfect pasta partners. Add some nuts, cheese or low-fat protein like ground beef or canned chicken and you have an easy, delicious, filling and inexpensive mealtime staple, ideal for on-the-go families looking for a satisfying meal that tastes good and won’t break the bank..

How can pasta and veggies help you stretch your food dollar? Here are three budget-friendly ways pasta and veggies fits the bill:

1. Focus On The Veggies
   The best way to keep cost under control is to limit the number of ingredients and particularly pricy ingredients. Simply combine pasta with produce for an easy meal. Choose one or two seasonal vegetables like summer squash, fresh tomatoes or yellow and red peppers and inexpensive bold sauce ingredients like hot peppers, garlic or pungent ginger.
2. Choose Low-Cost Protein
   Pasta is the perfect way to elevate low-cost canned fish like tuna, salmon and sardines. In fact, sardine pasta is a traditional dish that has been a staple in Sicily for centuries. Sardine Pasta was also the inspiration for this recipe: Tomato, Fennel and Sardine Linguini. Canned beans are another easy, inexpensive pasta partner that can be combined in any number of ways from a one-pot pasta vegetarian chili to a quick pasta and chickpea
3. Make A Pasta Salad
   Not only are pasta salads an easy, cost-effective way to cook for a crowd or a large family gathering, they’re also a great way to use leftovers. Tossing left-over cooked meat, cheese or vegetables into your pasta saves time as well as money and is the perfect way to create a meal your family will love like this Mediterranean Tuna Salad. Simply mix cooked pasta with any type of vegetable, a drizzle of olive oil, a splash of lemon or vinegar, some fresh herbs and you’re done, a budget-friendly meal in a flash.

Eating on a budget is made easy with pasta and veggies. For more recipe ideas and creative ways to stretch your dollar check out Sharethepasta.org.