At the end of the day what works for us is sitting down to dinner together as a family. Yes it's loud and messy but we are together talking about the day, planning for the next, regrouping as a team.
There are easy and inexpensive, simple $5 dinner ideas that could feed a family of four.
http://www.5dollardinners.com/recipe-index
And my all time favorite crockpot cooking site makes family dinners relatively thoughtless but yummy!
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/
On our little farm we grow veggies, peaches, blueberries and apples. We freeze or can them which saves money. We grow poultry which turns into many yummy chicken dinners and fresh eggs. We share goat's milk and are learning to make goat cheeses. We raised organic pork and are still enjoying ham dinners and bacon. And we purchase portions of beef with a neighbor (so we can get better prices) which is raised by a farmer near by (it is so lean we need to spray a pan so it doesn't stick). We have sustainable farming practices and enjoy sitting down to a meal at the end of the day as a family. Sharing simple and nutritous foods. Catching up with one another. Family dinners work for us.
Grace Unhinged -- A mom's daily ramblings of raising a daughter and three sons. Young adults, twin boys, a farm with goats to chickens, gardening and quilting, work and my sweet husband especially. Taking a day at a time and by the grace of God, we make it thru.