When I was in college, I would have to sometimes get a little creative with my dinners. Being an overachiever, I was in class or extracurriculars from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.—so cooking dinner was far from my mind when I would come back home from school. I also worked a minimum wage job that didn’t really allow me the luxury of splurging on groceries. That’s where social media came in handy by giving me some low effort, cheap dinner ideas.
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My Go-To, Low Effort Weeknight Dinner
Earlier this year, when I was deep in the trenches of winter finals and staying on campus in an effort to finish my projects, I stumbled upon a TikTok account dedicated to cheap, low-effort dinner ideas. The account, called dollartreedinner, offers up some pretty tasty dinner ideas all within a $2 to $5 range. While some people may be hesitant to get their groceries from the Dollar Store, I think it’s a great place to get canned goods or other pantry items that might be more expensive at other stores. So when I saw this video, I knew I had to immediately run to grab these groceries.
While I’ve tried all of the dinner combos listed in the video, my favorite has to be the Knorr Chicken Rice with Swanson’s Chicken à la King.
As explained in the video, all you have to do is follow the directions on the packaging to boil the rice and add in the Chicken à la King. Especially during the colder months, it’s a great way to warm up after trekking out into the cold. While it would be a perfect side by itself, it also manages to be a great dinner when cooking for one. If I wanted to zhuzh it up a little, I would add some shredded chicken from Aldi or boil some broccoli to add a little more to the dish. If you’re looking for your next low-effort dinner idea, I can’t recommend this enough.
