“Frugal Eats” Pasta with a Homemade Tomato Sauce (Green Beans and Broccoli ) with Grilled Chicken Breast – and Homemade Garlic Bread

Sharing is caring!

This homemade Tomato Sauce and Garlic Bread is another installment of Frugal Eatshere at Budget Savvy Diva.

I wanted to show an example of a great meal for a family of four that costs well under $5.00 – actually only $4.28 to be exact. So follow along  – and I hope you will learn some tricks on how YOU can save some money in the kitchen  – remember, a savings here and there really adds up.

Pasta with a Homemade Tomato Sauce (Green Beans and Broccoli) with Grilled Chicken Breast – and Homemade Garlic Bread.

Here is me with the pasta – costing $1.50 for the pound. I love getting pasta with the ridges really helps soak up all the yummy sauce.  See my delicious Penne with Chicken and Tender Asparagus recipe here.

So, the rest is for the pasta sauce:

homemade tomato sauce

Secret’s in the Sauce

My secret to an inexpensive homemade tomato sauce is using inexpensive canned tomatoes – also there really is no difference between the store brand and a known brand such as Hunts – I use two cans, plus a clove of fresh garlic and (not in the picture) and one whole onion.  For the “Best Ever” Tomato Sauce recipe, go here.

Also another quick trick is to try and use some inexpensive veggies in your sauce – I found a bag 1/3 full of green beans and broccoli.

When I am making a homemade tomato sauce from scratch like this, I try and think what vitamins and protein do I want in it, then I look at my fridge or canned goods to fulfill the requirements that I want.

Using a bit of butter – no I did not use the whole box – I use only about a tablespoon, or two.  It really helps make the sauce yummy. Plus, it helps to add a little cheese as well.

I also got a deal on Tyson grilled chicken – $3.99 for the bag– s0, I ended up using half ! 🙂

Here is how the sauce looks cooked.

homemade tomato sauceFirst it is important to heat up about a tablespoon of Olive Oil, then add the cut up onion and garlic. I really brown them so it takes out the harsh taste – which my husband HATES.

Then I add the tomato, then the chicken – I wanted the chicken to heat up in the tomato sauce so it could soak up all the flavor – totally worked! Then, I add the veggies at the last 5 minutes. The worst thing is to have is mushy veggies – icky.

Garlic Bread

I decided to take some clearance bread we hand on hand and melted 3 tablespoon of butter.  Then, I added one clove of minced garlic with cheese, and drizzled it on three slices of bread. I then put it in the oven for 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Here is the outcome

I decided to cut the bread into three pieces for each slice of bread, so it would be bite-size —  perfect to soak up sauce.  For ideas on how to bake your own delicious bread go here.

After the pasta was cooked I rinsed the pasta added a little olive oil – so the pasta would not stick together then … I added the sauce and pasta together and added the bread on top  – here is the final product.

Pasta with a Homemade Tomato Sauce Not too shabby for a little over $1.00 per serving.

Here is a picture of my hubby enjoying dinner – he gave it a 8.5/10 🙂