Dollar General easy meal recipes help stretch your grocery budget

I like easy, especially when it comes to cooking. But since saving money is high on everyone's list these days, being able to make meals that are both tasty and inexpensive can sometimes be a challenge.

Dollar General wants to help with that. It's teamed up with General Mills to bring you three budget-friendly recipes every month. This month, it's featuring two skillet dinners, Cheeseburger Mexicana and Beef and Salsa Skillet, that only take about 35 minutes each to prepare and feed five and six people respectively.

The Cheeseburger Mexicana starts with a box of Hamburger Helper cheeseburger macaroni, which you serve over tortilla chips and top with salsa, sour cream and sliced olives, if you wish. An alternative suggestion is to turn this into a taco salad by serving it on a bed of bite-sized pieces of lettuce and topping it with crushed tortilla chips. The beef and salsa skillet utilizes lean ground beef (or ground turkey), salsa, kidney beans, canned corn and Bisquick mix.

The third offering this month is a dessert called Chocolate Cherry Cola Cake that uses chopped cherry pieces and cherry cola in a devil's food cake mix. It looks heavenly.

I haven't tried any of these, but they sure look good. If you've got a family to feed, these recipes are at least worth a try. You can print out each one with or without the picture or email it to friends. Three new recipes will be added every month on the Dollar General website.