These quick Dollar Tree dinners will get a meal on your table for cheap, in under 20 minutes.
It’s 5:00 p.m. and you need to get dinner on the table before everyone starts turning on each other. It needs to be a quick, simple meal that has few ingredients (and is very satisfying).
That’s where these quick Dollar Tree meals for 3 come in.
They’re very yummy (one has actually made it to our Top 5 Meals list as a family), and cheap.
And you can make them in under 20 minutes.
What’s not to love?
Note on pricing: I’ve included the total cost for each recipe below the actual recipe. However, remember that you can use many of the ingredients for more than one recipe. That's why the total cost for the week is $42.50. For example, you only need to buy one pantry-stable milk, and you can use it in multiple recipes, bringing down the overall meal plan price.
Quick Dollar Tree Meals for a Week
Under 20 minutes. Most are under $7.50 each.
Let’s fill your pantry up with these quick Dollar Tree meal ingredients.
1. Cheese Ravioli with Garlic Bread
This dish is SO simple to put together, so cheap, and just delicious. What a nice comfort meal!
Ingredients:
- 1 can of pasta sauce
- 1 loaf of garlic bread
- 1 bag of cheese ravioli
Instructions:
- Cook the ravioli according to instructions.
- Drain, and add the pasta sauce.
- Cook the garlic bread according to instructions.
To take it up a notch? Go ahead and get a block of real cheese from the Dollar Tree, and make it cheesy garlic bread!
Serves: 3
Total Cost: $3.75
2. Chicken and Black Bean Taquitos with a Cheesy Tex-Mex Dip
Hands down, you’re looking at my favorite dish on this list.
My husband and I could not get enough of these – we had them for two dinners.
That homemade cheesy sauce. Mwah! It’s amazing.
Ingredients:
- 1-2 canned chicken
- 1 can of black beans
- 1 package of flour tortillas
- Vegetable oil
- 1 package of Hungry Jack Hashbrown Potatoes
- Garlic Powder
- ½ block of cheese (your choice)
- ½ cup Milk
- 1 tbsp. Flour
- ¼ cup Herdez Salsa Verde Mild
Instructions:
- Make sauce. Mix in ½ cup milk with 1 tbsp flour, and stir until it thickens. Add in ¼ cup Salsa Verde Mild sauce. Stir in ½ cup cheese until it’s an ooey, gooey delightful mess. Set aside.
- Make hashbrowns according to directions. Add in garlic powder to taste (we used ½ tbsp.).
- Open, drain, and rinse black beans. Open and drain the chicken.
- Cook the chicken and black beans together with the hashbrowns.
- Fill each tortilla taco with some of the mixture (not too much, like I did – you want to keep these skinny).
- Heat a pan to medium heat with vegetable oil in it. Fry the taquitos until crispy.
- Serve warm with warm Cheesy Tex-Mex Dip on the side.
Serves: 4-5
Total Cost: $12.50
3. Fish Taco Bowl with Sweet Chili Aioli
I’m kind of a fish taco girl.
And while you might think that sounds like a strange thing to say at the top of a Dollar Tree Meals post, you’d be wrong.
Just look at this awesome, and super yummy, bowl I created!
Here’s how to create your own delicious meal.
Ingredients:
- 1 package of Gorton’s Fish Sticks
- 1 Cilantro & Lime Rice Pouch
- 1 Canned/cupped corn
- Toppings (Crispy Onions, or Tortilla strips)
- ½ cup Mayonnaise
- ¼ cup Sweet Chili Sauce
Instructions:
- Cook the fish sticks according to instructions (5 sticks/person).
- Make the aioli sauce: mix ½ cup mayonnaise or with ¼ cup Sweet Chili sauce. Set aside (you can spoon it into a squeeze bottle for easier use).
- Cook the frozen veggies according to directions. Drain (if needed). I chopped up the broccoli and cauliflower and used that (saving the rest of the veggies for another dish this week).
- Put a serving of brown rice into each bowl. Add ½ of the salmon from the salmon pouch. Add the fruit. Add the veggies. Add the toppings (Crispy Onions and Sunflower Kernels). Then drizzle teriyaki sauce, and then drizzle Sweet Chili Sauce Aioli (as much as you’d like).
Serves: 3
Total Cost: $7.50
4. Chicken Pasta Salad with Red Pepper Tomato Soup
I remember this Suddenly Salad coming out when I was a tween. Which is so funny, because when I got pregnant with my little guy? I started to crave it.
Even though I hadn’t eaten it in decades!
That’s the inspiration behind this dish.
Ingredients:
- 1 box Suddenly Salad Pasta Ranch & Bacon
- 1/3 cup Mayonnaise
- 1 can of chicken
- 1 box of Pacific Organic Red Pepper and Tomato Soup
Instructions:
- Cook the pasta according to instructions. Add in the mayonnaise when it cools down.
- Add in 1 can of drained chicken.
- Warm up the soup, enough for each person to get 1 cup.
Serves: 3
Total Cost: $5.00
5. Hungry Jack Bowl
You know those KFC food bowls that are just filled to the brim with comfort stuff?
That’s what I was thinking with this one.
Ingredients:
- 1 Canned or cupped corn
- ½ cup milk
- 1/3 cup shredded cheese
- 1 package of Hungry Jack Hashbrown Potatoes
- 1 package of Pillsbury Cheddar Biscuits
- 1 package of Jimmy Dean Original Sausage Links
Instructions:
- Prepare and bake biscuits according to directions.
- Make hashbrowns according to directions.
- Cook the canned/cupped corn (add in some salt and pepper).
- Cook the Jimmy Dean Sausage links.
- Assemble your bowls: hashbrown potatoes, then corn, then sausage links, then a biscuit.
Serves: 3
Total Cost: $7.50
6. Chicken and Hashbrown Enchiladas
These are delicious. That is all.
Ingredients:
- 1 package of Hungry Jack Hashbrown Potatoes
- 1-2 canned chicken
- 1 package of flour tortillas
- 1 can of Herdez Salsa Verde Mild
- 1 block of cheese (your choice)
- Garlic Powder (optional)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Make hashbrowns according to directions.
- Open and drain the chicken. Stir into the cooked hashbrowns to make a mixture.
- Open and drain the black beans. Add to the hashbrown mixture, and cook through.
- Season with garlic powder (optional).
- Shred the cheese.
- Fill each tortilla with part of the mixture, then fold up.
- Bathe the enchiladas in the Salsa Verde Mild sauce, then add shredded cheese on top.
- Cook in the oven until brown.
Serves: 3
Total Cost: $7.50
7. Corn Bread Chili with Red Pepper & Tomato Soup
Okay…this is the only meal that takes one other ingredient generally not found at Dollar Trees (will you forgive me?).
Hint: you can actually substitute the eggs for unsweetened applesauce, which you can find at Dollar Tree…but that’s up to you.
Ingredients:
- 1 package of Texas Style Honey Sweet Cornbread Mix
- 1 box of Pacific Foods Red Pepper & Tomato Soup
- 1 can of chili with beans
- 3 eggs (not available at most Dollar Trees…you could substitute with unsweetened applesauce if you need to)
- 1 ¾ cup milk
Instructions:
- Make the cornbread according to the instructions, in an 8 X 8 pan.
- Heat up the chili.
- Heat up the soup (1 cup per person).
- Cut out a hunk of cornbread, and slice it in half crosswise. Top with big spoonfuls of chili. Serve the soup on the side.
Serves: 3
Total Cost: $6.25
Need budget meals…without them tasting like budget meals? I hope I gave you some great ideas or inspiration to put together your own.
As for me, I’ll be keeping several of these quick Dollar Tree dinners in our meal rotation over the coming weeks to keep our grocery bill from rivaling the mortgage.
Amanda L Grossman
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