Quick, Affordable Meal: Alfredo Mason Jar (Meatless)

As many of you know, I’m always looking for quick and affordable meals that will work well with my diet as well as my busy schedule. I usually try to stay away from pasta, but I wanted to cook something out of the norm this weekend.

How did it cost?

This meal only costed around $5 to make!

Broccoli – 1lb for $1.99

Bowtie Noodles – 1 box for $1.28

Alfredo Sauce – $1.50

(If you want some meat but want to keep it affordable, maybe try a some canned chicken)

How many servings did it make?

I had one serving for dinner and was able to store 3 additional servings in my mason jars. (I tend to eat lighter lunch & dinner portions, so your ideal meal size may differ from mine.)

How did you cook it?

The meal itself is pretty simple. Choose your favorite type of noodle, boil water, then add your noodles and boil them until they become tender. (I left mine a tiny bit more firm than usual since I will be reheating the noodles later this week.)

You can make your own Alfredo sauce using a simple recipe online, or buy a jar at your local grocery store. To keep this quick and simple, I bought a jar of sauce and seasoned it with pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and a dash of paprika. It turned out great!

After allowing the sauce to heat and settle, I steamed a large bowl of broccoli and added it gradually to the sauce. (I LOVE green veggies, so I added tons!)

I saved the rest of the broccoli to serve as a side for my meal.

By the time I was done with my sauce, the noodles were ready to be drained.

How did you make the jars?

I knew the sauce would get a little messy, so I decided to put it as a base in my Alfredo jars. Using a spoon that was slightly smaller than the opening of the jar, I carefully spooned in a few scoops of my sauce. Next, I added a layer of noodles. (Make sure you have a good balance between your sauce and your noodles. The noodles will be dry when reheating if there’s not enough sauce.) Finally, I used the remaining space to add as much broccoli as possible.

I left the lids off to make sure everything had a chance to cool, then sealed the jars and added them to my fridge. That’s it!

I ended up having some noodles left, so next time I think I’ll only cook half a box.

It may sound like a lot, but this was seriously a super easy and quick meal to make. My the meal was tasty and the jars are the perfect serving size for my lunches/dinners throughout the week!

I hope you all enjoyed this post! Let me know if you’d like me to share more affordable and/or healthy meals!