The insanely cheap and delicious dinner that gets me by when times are tough – and it’s $2 for five serves

A mum has shared her simple and delicious recipe for when she needs to stretch her budget for a few extra days – and it gives you five days’ worth of food for $2.

Australian families have had to resort to creative ways to feed their families during the cost of living crisis.

The Queensland woman revealed her favorite meal in tough times is a packet of Woolworths brand penne pasta (90 cents) and two packets of chicken flavored noodle soup (55 cents each).

“My mom used to make this all the time when I was little,” she said on Facebook. ‘It wasn’t very nutritious, but she was a single mother with five children and it would fill our bellies. Sometimes that’s what matters.’

The ‘pasta soup’ can be taken one step further by adding frozen vegetables, eggs and cheese to the mix.

Many also shared their own low-budget staples.

“My mother used a package of pasta with twelve slices of cheese mixed in,” someone said. ‘We now add a jar of sturdy cheese spread with dried onion and herbs. If we can afford it, we cut a ham steak into cubes for extra flavor.’

‘I like to use a pack of mie goreng noodles, add a diced onion, grated carrot and 1/4 cup of peas. I finish it with a fried egg. A very tasty, cheap meal,” said another.

“My pre-payday meal is a baked potato with cheese and beans,” one woman wrote.

Others have also sworn by high-protein chicken and rice bowls for just $5 per serving.

One told how to make ‘surprise bread’.

“When I was a single mom, I made surprise bread for my kids,” said one mom.

‘Many places give out bread and vegetables, and I looked to see what I had in the fridge or cupboard. Usually it was butter, tomatoes, spinach and garlic – maybe some ham or cheese if I had it.

‘I called it ‘surprise bread’ because it would change depending on what I had. It was a corn on the cob bread, my kids loved it and it was filling.”

Her process involved hollowing out an unsliced ​​loaf, mixing the ingredients in a bowl, putting it back in and closing it with the top of the crust.

The mother then put it in the oven until it was sufficiently roasted.

‘To my surprise, it was my daughter’s favorite meal, which she told me when she was an adult. She had no idea it was made out of desperation.”