Dressing up your frugal meals

Whats the most frugal meal you serve??   Do you ever think its a bit boring and perhaps there are other ways to serve it a bit more dressed up? 

One of the most frugal meals I serve, is my version of American Chop suey, which is basically pasta with meat sauce.   I remember my mom making this a kid, and it was always my favorite.  To this day, its my 'go to' meal, its cheap, its easy, and everyone likes it.   So basically, I cook off a box of pasta and drain, (any kind), brown up some gound meat (ground beef, or turkey), drain it,  and add a jar of sauce to it.   Then I just serve the meat sauce over the pasta, viola!  A meal thats filling and cheap.  Add a side of veggies to stretch it out, and make it more filling, and healthy. 

Lately, I've been watching the sales at Shoprite on thier frozen Raviolis.  With coupons I can get them really cheap, or even free. 2 small bags  is plenty for my family.What a nice change from plain old pasta    I've also been watching the deals at Walmart, on thier reduced bakery rack.   I found an already made loaf of garlic bread for around a dollar, that I tossed in my freezer to use when I need to.   

SO My dressed up 'go to' meal for my family tonight was:
Mama Rosie's cheese raviolis (total cost $1 for 2 bags after coupons)
Meat sauce (3/4 browned ground turkey around $2, and a jar of sauce was .99)
Green Giant Frozen Broccoli (I got for FREE today after coupons)
1/4 of the Garlic Bread loaf, (about .30)
Total cost of my Italian dinner: about $4.30. 


So switch it up once and a while!  Dress up a meal when you can.  Just changing out ravioli for the plain pasta was a huge difference and still cost about the same as a box of pasta.