Everyone likes to treat themselves to something fancier and more expensive for dinner every once in a while.
While this usually means paying more, it doesn’t have to be a budget buster. Let’s check out some exotic foods you can get without exotic price tags.
Fajitas
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When you see that sizzling-hot dish being served in a restaurant, you probably think it must be expensive. Actually, fajitas is a pretty reasonably priced dish, and you get a lot of food for the money. Better yet, the ingredients are cheap and it’s easy to make fajitas at home.
Hummus
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This Middle Eastern dip may look and sound fancy (and expensive), but it isn’t, and it’s also easy to make. The basic ingredients are mashed chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, and garlic.
Quinoa Salad
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Quinoa is a popular alternative to pasta, rice, and other grains. Although the name might sound expensive, it actually isn’t, and quinoa salad is a healthy food you can make without spending a lot of money.
Spaghetti Carbonara
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Here’s another one whose name might sound exotic and suggest big bucks. This dish isn’t expensive to make on your own since the ingredients are all pretty inexpensive.
Lasagna
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With its layers of meat sauce, noodles, and cheese, lasagna can give an impression of being complicated and expensive. Like most other pasta dishes, though, it isn’t. Lasagna can also feed you for several nights and freezes well.
Shrimp Scampi
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Shrimp tends to be among the more expensive things on menus and in stores, and many dishes with it are. However, shrimp scampi is basically shrimp, butter, garlic, and spaghetti. All of those except shrimp are cheap, and you can usually find shrimp on sale.
Crab and Lobster
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No one’s going to try to convince you these are cheap, especially when they’re on a restaurant menu. However, keep an eye out for sales at the grocery store. Also buy crab meat and make your own crab cakes for a lot less than a restaurant will charge you for them.
Filet Mignon
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This is often among the most expensive menu items if not the most expensive. While you may pay $50 or more for an 8-ounce filet at a high-end steakhouse, you can buy it for a fraction of the cost at a grocery store. It often goes on sale around holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day.
Surf and Turf
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The classic surf and turf is a filet mignon and lobster, and it will set you back some good money in a restaurant. You can make a more economical one at home with top sirloin and shrimp.
Okonomiyaki
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The name of this Japanese dish might bring visions of dollar signs to your head. However, it’s cheaper and less complicated to make than you might think. The basic ingredients are flour, cabbage, eggs, bacon, and some sauces.
Omelets
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Here’s another dish with eggs as an ingredient. Although egg prices have gone up in recent years, they’re still overall pretty inexpensive, and you can make a lot of “fancy” dishes with them. Omelets are fun because you can be creative, and the other ingredients, such as ham, sausage, vegetables, cheese, etc. are pretty cheap.
Ratatouille
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Fancy word alert! And because it’s French, it must be even more expensive than you already thought, right? Wrong! It’s cheap to make, and you can feed two people without spending more than $10 on ingredients.
10 Beers American Boomers Can’t Stop Guzzling
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Each generation has its favorites when it comes to everything from apps to restaurants. They have clear preferences for certain beers as well. Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millenials each have favorite beers that are their go-to beverage for a night out.
According to Visual Capitalist, these are the most popular beers for each of these generations.
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