23 Ground Beef Recipes with Potatoes or Pasta

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June 6 by Cassie 2 Comments

Ground beef is the classic “go-to” meal protein as it is easy, cheap and readily available. That’s why we are going to share 23 Ground Beef Recipes with Potatoes or Pasta for fast, frugal and quick dinner ideas.

If you have been looking for a good selection of ground beef, hamburger recipes in one spot, we have rounded up 23 that are also on the frugal list. They are not complicated, but rather use everyday, common ingredients to make throwing dinner together easy. and cheap.

Having a bunch of recipes that are frugal and quick will help you to get dinner on the table faster. One of the chief complaints to not getting dinner on the table. The complaint is that people “don’t know what to make!”

This list of recipes will help reduce this worry and roadblock!

Include these to make it fast, easy and cheap

You will find a lot of these ground beef recipes with potatoes or pasta are casseroles or cooked in crockpots and casserole dishes. This also makes for many one-dish dinners this way and is an even bigger step to ease! When you combine ground beef recipes with potatoes or pasta, you end up with a lot more food for less. Everyone knows that potatoes and pasta are a cheap fill-in. They can also be healthy if you pick the right pastas and potatoes.

Not every recipe below includes potatoes or pasta, but there are also some with breads – the same concept!

Another trick to making ground beef recipes cheap and a bit healthier is to only use 1 lb. of ground beef and “fill-in” with another protein like black beans, pinto beans or even rice! This “expands” the protein, plus makes it a bit healthier. In nearly all of these recipes, you can do this frugal trick to feed more people or to have left overs for a second meal that will cost much less than using more ground beef.

How To Buy Ground Beef Cheap

But there is more than one way to save on ground beef – and that is also where you buy your hamburger or rather, how you can get a good deal.

We have written a few articles on the topic, but here are some specific ones: How Our Family of 7 Spends $360 a Year on Meat and Learn These Insider Tricks to Save BIG Money on Meat.

In a nutshell, here are the highlighted top three tips:

When ground beef goes at a rock bottom price or the loss leader (the once in a while sale found on the front page of a store ad), stock up and buy enough to last 3-6 months before the next rock bottom ground beef sale.
Watch for markdown ground beef in the grocery store. The grocery stores get within a few days of sell by date and they will often mark it down by 50% or more. As long as you put it in your freezer immediately or use it that day, it’s a great way to save. I find organic ground beef frequently via this method – often times cheaper than conventional ground beef.
Buy in bulk from a local farmer or from something like a National Meat Co-Op.

Now that we have given you an overview on ground beef tips for saving money, we want to summarize those before diving into the 23 Ground Beef Recipes we have for you today.

Top Ground Beef Savings Tips

Make meals with pasta, rice or potatoes to help fill-in tummy space.
Combine your ground beef with beans or rice to double the amount, make it healthier and double the quantity on the cheap for nearly any recipe. I use beans for this purpose 99% of the time. Here’s a tip on having beans available for this purpose. Note that one can of beans is about a lb. worth of hamburger, so it will double the amount with 1 can.
Stock up on ground beef when it is the grocery store loss leader.
Watch for ground beef markdowns.
Buy in bulk from a local farmer or meat co-op

After that introduction, let’s get on with the delicious recipes!