# Good/cheap dinners with no pasta involved? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 26, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-cheap-dinners-with-no-pasta-involved/544640 "2010-06-26T23:44:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-cheap-dinners-with-no-pasta-involved/544640/41 "2010-06-28T19:28:27Z")
You can substitute cous-cous, rice, quinoa, potato, sweet potato, roast squash, lentils, ratatuoille, noodles, bulgur wheat, a leafy salad or barley for pasta. Simply cook the veggies and meat in whatever way you’d usually cook them, and serve with a different side. Fry onions and garlic, add meat (your choice) and your favourite veggies and simmer with a tin of tomatoes, some tomato puree (tomato paste), seasoning and herbs or spices of your choices. Serve with a side. Options: chilli con carne (minced beef, kidney beans, chilli and paprika) spag bol (minced beef, red peppers, bay leaves) curry (chicken, curry powder) chicken or pork work well with rosemary pork and sage chicken and thyme chicken and basil All very good. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-cheap-dinners-with-no-pasta-involved/544640/42 "2010-06-28T19:31:24Z")
I’m hungry. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-cheap-dinners-with-no-pasta-involved/544640/43 "2010-06-28T19:31:40Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Get a can of bush’s baked beans and a few cans of other beans. I usually get a can of kidney, a can of pinto and a can of chili but get whatever you like. Brown some ground beef and fry some cheap bacon. Dump the beans, beef and bacon in a casserole dish, mix in some brown sugar, molasses and vinegar. Bake for an hour somewhere around 350F. Maybe make some biscuits to go with. It’s like 4 or 5 bucks and feeds you for days. I swear to god, if it’s only you, you’ll swear it’s procreating in the fridge. If you make a bitchton of rice it lasts twice as long. Oh maybe get some cheese to put on top. This is pretty much what I came to post. You can start with dried beans if you’re enthusiastic and broke. But canned beans cook so much faster. You can also do this on the stove-top; just brown the beef first, drain it, add the canned (or pre-cooked dried) beans and other crap (some Worcestershire sauce works well, too; and you can sub bottled BBQ sauce for the vinegar and molasses), and simmer for at least 30 minutes, but up to 2 hours doesn’t hurt. This is _really_ high in protein and dietary fiber! Corn bread goes really well with this, too. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-cheap-dinners-with-no-pasta-involved/544640/44 "2010-06-28T19:44:02Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > You can substitute cous-cous, rice, quinoa, potato, sweet potato, roast squash, lentils, ratatuoille, noodles, bulgur wheat, a leafy salad or barley for pasta. Well, not noodles. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-cheap-dinners-with-no-pasta-involved/544640/45 "2010-06-28T19:52:42Z")
I wouldn’t call, say, soba “pasta”, I’d call it noodles. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-cheap-dinners-with-no-pasta-involved/544640/46 "2010-06-28T20:20:00Z")
Soba noodles are pasta. Any noodle made from wheat or buckwheat is pasta. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-cheap-dinners-with-no-pasta-involved/544640/47 "2010-06-28T20:28:31Z")
Well, I don’t suggest you serve them to my dad and tell him it’s pasta. ETA - and if you want to argue the point, substitute rice noodles. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-cheap-dinners-with-no-pasta-involved/544640/48 "2010-06-29T13:58:56Z")
I’d also like to offer up [orzo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orzo_%28pasta%29) as a pasta that isn’t really a classic “noodle pasta”. Sometimes when you think you are all pasta’d out, orzo can make a great change. It is a great “salad” pasta and the [Greek Manestra](http://www.google.com/search?q=manestra&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a) is really unreasonably good. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-cheap-dinners-with-no-pasta-involved/544640.md?page=2)