something cheap and good for a potluck? (money, sale, best)

[Huskyz]

Carrots in a dish called Copper Pennies. Here is one recipe. Try Googling and see some others. Copper Penny Recipe - Allrecipes.com

[Bayarea4]

This unusual macaroni and beef dish comes from an old cookbook. The tomato sauce is flavored with prunes, spices and red wine. It was a big hit at my book group, and I begged for the recipe.

MACARONI FROM CURZOLA

1 lb. boneless beef, cubed (you can substitute ground beef if you wish)
1/3 cup olive oil
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
2 small (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce
1/3 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 tsp. nutmeg
1/3 tsp. allspice
1/2 cup red wine
salt and pepper
18 dried pitted prunes
1/2 lb. macaroni
Grated Parmesan cheese

Brown meat in oil, then remove. Mince onion and garlic, cook in oil slowly for 10 minutes. Add tomato sauce, spices and wine and salt and pepper to taste. Return meat, stir well, and cook slowly for half an hour. Add prunes and cook for another half hour, stirring often to prevent sticking.

Cook 1/2 lb. macaroni, drain, and dress with the sauce and grated Parmesan cheese.

[Ol' Wanderer]

My wife's favorite dish:

Essential ingredients: Depends on the size of the crowd, you'll need one, two or three bags of Ramen noodles. One large onion.
Additional ingredients: all the leftovers in your refrigerator.

Cook ramen noodles, with or without spice packets (note: spice packets are heavy on sodium; some even have MSG. We never use them.) Drain; make sure noodles do not stick together.

Sauté onions (garlic optional), then add anything you can find in your refrigerator (celery, carrots, mushroom, broccoli, zucchini, peppers, legumes, tomatoes, ginger, greens, etc.) Cook until tender but still firm to bite. Add salt and pepper (soy sauce and sesame oil are optional).

Put noodles back into pan. Stir well.

Garnish with whatever you have on hand (onions, cilantro, parsley, thinly sliced carrots...)

Present the dish at the potluck as "Noodles à la (insert your name here)"

True cost: Noodles are $1.17 for a pack of six, often on sale for 99 cents, so your cost is $1 or less for noodles and onions, everything else is scraps, odds and ends.

[KittenSparkles]

thanks, folks! I have a huge sweet tooth so I am going to go with the dump cake, but its fun reading about these other suggestions. The macaroni from Curzola sounds interesting.

This thread is making me hungry!!!

[Alley01]

How about pulled pork in a crockpot? You can get the seasoning packets from McCormick, just add a few additional ingredients, some rolls or buns and not kill your grocery budget. Plus, it is perfect potluck food.

[PatRoy1]

Parker House rolls. They are always a hit.

My Grandmother's Parker House Rolls Recipe - Scratch Yeast Rolls Recipes - Dinner Rolls Recipes

is a good one but there are tons of recipes out there.

[Gandalara]

Get a bunch of cooked meatballs. Either your own or a bag of frozen ones. Pour them into your crock pot.

Take 1 (12 oz.) bottle chili sauce (like this kind) and 1 (16 oz.) jar grape jelly and heat them up in the microwave until the jelly is liquid. I've never tried the cranberry sauce version.

Pour over meatballs and turn the crock pot on low. When the meatballs are hot all the way through, they're ready to eat

Some people double the 'sauce' - depending on how many meatballs and the size of your crock pot.

[eofelis]

I usually bring salsa and tortillia chips to a pot luck.

I'm not much of a cook so I get whatever salsa in the jar is the best deal (usually store brand), a can of whole kernal corn, a can of black beans.

Rinse black beans, drain corn, add to salsa. Mix. Scoop with chips.

Everyone always likes it a lot and its great for last minute. You can even buy this stuff on the way and fix it up at your destination.

[maggiekate]

Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson

My favorite [cheap] potluck dish is one pound of ground beef, cooked. Mix with two cans of Campbells Vegetable Beef soup. Put it in a casserole dish and cover with cornbread batter. Cook in accordance with the recipe for the cornbread.

It is yummy, cheap and looks like you worked a lot harder than you did. LOL

20yrsinBranson

That sounds real good and I had been thinking
of meat loaf or hamburg crescent pie which has the crescent rolls
hamburg and either can string beans or corn. Then melted cheese over it.
Real easy and cheap to do. Just cook hamburg with salt pepper garlic salt mixed in. Crescent rolls line a pie plate with them add tomatoe sauce
and small can of string beans or corn to the hambug. Drain the fat out of the cooked hamburg b4 adding this stuff. Then put into the pie plate
and place in the oven for around 25 minutes. Add the baged cheese the last 5 minutes. I am doing this from memory but it was real good and easy

[maggiekate]

Originally Posted by E E

I am keeping my grocery budget on a tight leash these days. I have an upcoming potluck to attend and am trying to think of good yet inexpensive things I could bring to it.

I don't want to show up with a bag of chips.

any suggestions appreciated!

quiche either buy or make.
there was a dish with with angel pasta and ad the sausage. Or the dish
with sausage in you brown the sausage and do punch with a folk and
add some water to the fry pan. Hot is great then get a big bake dish
and cut baking potatoes and some carrotts and a sliced cut ionion and do
the salt pepper olive oil and your choice of cheese! It gets covered and
bakes til cooked around 60 minutes. Then uncover and cook 10 minutes.
that should not cost too much. It was real good and not costly to make.