I call this my macaroni and cheese for grown-ups. It’s cheesy and goey and full of flavor, but the fresh vegetables and beans add some nutrition to the dish, and the roasted garlic broccoli pairs perfectly with it.

This meal is so cheap and easy! The best part, it makes enough to feed you for five lunches. If you’re craving some meat with your pasta I’ll also include directions for adding some cajun chicken.

Let’s start with the breakdown of ingredients and prices.

Pasta shells – $1.20

Can of navy beans – $.92

Sliced mushrooms – $1.78

Red bell pepper – $1.75

Broccoli crowns – $2.00

You will also need…

Shredded mozzarella cheese $2.20

1 cup milk

Butter

Garlic – $.50

Dried oregano

Dried basil

Salt and pepper

Oil

(Optional; Chicken breasts, paprika, chili powder)

This recipe is so cheap! The total is $10.35 if you don’t include the chicken. The navy beans are packed full of protein, and adding the chicken will add an additional $6-9. Without chicken this comes out to be $2.07 per meal.

So let’s get cooking!

First get the pasta boiling with a pinch of salt for about 9 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees for the roasted broccoli. Go ahead and cut the broccoli into small crowns. In a bowl, pour some oil over the broccoli and add two cloves of minced garlic, salt, and pepper. Arrange the broccoli on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

Chop the bell peppers, add some oil to a pan, and sauté them over medium heat for about four minutes. Add the mushrooms and a little more oil and cook for another five minutes, until the mushrooms look done.

Next, drain the can of beans and rinse them. Add four tablespoons of butter to the pan, and when it is melted, add the beans.

Add two teaspoons basil, one teaspoon oregano, and three minced garlic cloves. Also salt and pepper heavily and continue cooking about four minutes, until the beans are heated.

Drain the pasta, return to the pot it was cooking in, and add the beans and veggies.

(At this point if you are using chicken, add more oil to the skillet, season the chicken heavily with paprika, chili powder, salt and pepper. When the chicken is cooked thoroughly, slice it into chunks and add to the pasta.)

To the pasta, add one cup of mozzarella cheese and mix together.

In the same skillet you heated the veggies and chicken, add one cup of milk. Heat the milk over medium-low heat and stir constantly. The key here is to scrape up all the cooking reside from the bottom and sides of the skillet. This will add more flavor to your pasta. When the milk has thickened (three to four minutes) add to the pasta and stir it all together.

Add more salt and pepper to your pasta if it needs it, and that’s all there is to it! I like adding crushed red peppers to mine to add a spicy kick, but that is totally optional.

The broccoli should be done by now, and it needs nothing further, so you’re all done!