The Cheap 3-Ingredient Potato Meal That Even The Pickiest Eaters Will Love

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If you combine the right ingredients and cooking techniques, some of the cheapest, easiest meals to prepare become some of the tastiest — especially when you focus on universally beloved components, such as sausage, potatoes, and Italian seasoning packets. Sausage and potatoes are a beautifully hearty pairing that becomes even more craveable when you douse them in a packet of classic Italian seasoning mix, which often includes staple herbs such as dried oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, and the occasional sprinkle of fennel seeds.

Italian seasoning is already well-known as the perfect seasoning to dress up plain, bland pork chops, making it the perfect coating for other pork-based proteins, including sausage. Since Italian sausage is often already infused with earthy sage and floral fennel, Italian seasoning enhances it as a pleasantly astringent contrast to the meat's richness. That same astringence is perfect for perking up potatoes, which become gorgeously crisp in a light coating of olive oil that also lightly rehydrates the herbs, pulling the flavor out of them and into the starchy cubed tubers.

In terms of cooking technique, you can either pan-roast everything on the stovetop, or make things even simpler by scattering the seasoned, sliced coins of sausage and cubed potatoes over a sheet pan and oven-roasting them to crisp perfection without any need to babysit them. About 30 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit should be plenty to roast everything to the right texture and fully infuse the sausage and potatoes with delicious Italian flavor.

Though individual Italian seasoning packets are often about $1, they're much less expensive than brand-name Italian seasoning blends, such as McCormick Perfect Pinch Italian Seasoning or Simply Organic Italian Seasoning, which average about $5 per bottle. This lets you purchase higher-quality seasoning blends while staying within budget, especially if you're trying to stretch your money to make dinner on the fly.

There are also some tasty and inexpensive ways to upgrade this hearty sausage-forward sheet pan dinner, such as sprinkling on some sliced onions and peppers, or nestling broccoli or cauliflower florets onto the sheet pan. Keep things inexpensive by opting for frozen versions, or pick up whole crowns of each veggie and chop them up yourself (prechopped stuff is always more expensive). If you opt for more delicate veg, such as bell peppers and onions, use fresh versions; frozen ones can somewhat dissolve as they roast.

This is also a great meal for emptying those last bits of certain ingredients from your fridge. Those last few tablespoons of shredded parmesan create a gorgeous crust on this meal as it cooks, while that tablespoon of balsamic vinaigrette is perfect for whisking with your olive oil to add a dash of tangy goodness. Chop together those last slices of pepperoni with a tablespoon of olives and that quarter of red onion to stir through your meal for an extra pop of Italian flavor.