Welcome to Thailand 1 Dollar Meals.
My site has been online since October 2015 and there is now 3,127 recipes for you to browse and enjoy! Updated on 12 March 2024.
I pride myself on the fact that this site is for recipes, a lot of recipes in many categories for you to browse and enjoy. I welcome all comments and questions.
My name is Lee and I am an expat living in Thailand since 2005. I love Thai meals but being an American, I also love western dishes as well as that is what I grew up with, easy meals at minimum cost. For the name of the site, the goal is $1 per serving, many will be over this, but still a reasonable cost for a meal per person. Pricing is for those in Thailand and are only estimates, costs can vary from province to province, store to store, time of writing, etc. I figure the prices per serving based on the meat, fish, and cheese, NOT potatoes, carrots, celery, spices needed, etc. It is an estimate but close, as most people will have spices on hand as well as vegetables. I get a lot of root vegetables from a local open market as well as some meat, all of this has an impact on the price. What I am showing here, is that you can enjoy Western and International dishes, for little expense, but you have to do some time in the kitchen to prepare the dishes.
I am starting to add Equipment to recipes, such as oven, baking dish sizes, specific tools needed, etc. I am not listing stove (hob) or stop top pans.
Many things are available in Thailand to prepare low cost, delicious, and nutritious western meals. The only thing one has to do is think like a Thai, I know that sounds odd but Thais are looking for low cost ingredients for meals as well. Shop like a Thai + using some ingredient recipes to make some ingredients = nutritious and low cost meals.
Explore the site from the Categories menu on the top right, or from the Recent Posts menu below that. You can leave comments as well, I moderate those to eliminate spam.
Some categories are broken down by country as well as listed in the main ingredient category to make it easier for you to browse the recipes.
For Cost Categories, applies to Thailand only, I have broke the recipes down to 3 categories for cost; Best Value (dishes under $1 per serving), Fair Value (dishes from $1.01 to $1.50 per serving), and High Cost (dishes that are $1.51+ per serving), and are listed in the category column on the right. Do not get put back by Fair Value and High Cost dishes, some of these are great for visiting friends and family or as a once in a while meal at a holiday. Pricing is NOT based on making some of the ingredients, if you do make some of the ingredients, you can easily reduce the cost of Fair Value and High Cost dishes.
For the star ratings, this up to our viewers now, if you see a recipe that interests you or you have tried, feel free to rate it.
These recipes are a compilation from what I have found on the internet, from friends, family, or through my own experience. Credit will be given for recipe contributors, name, and country.
If you try a recipe, please write a comment!
In addition to many dishes being American, there is also Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Lebanese, Russian, even Macedonian, and many others for you to browse and try.
There is also the Wiki, which is a collection of various topics, such as cookbook reviews, beer reviews, tips, how to’s, and even my list of recipes that I have used government commodities in.
Feel free post questions, comments, or reviews on recipes, no login is needed.
The Ingredients.
The Ingredients category is one of the main features of this site, without them, many dishes would cost much more. Condensed soups are a main stay for casseroles, canned soup is also very processed and mainly water and oil, the shortcuts are easy and more healthy. Spice packets in a store are expensive, you can make many with spices you already have on hand.
Meet Buster.
When I was living in the US with my parents (Jun 2019-Oct 2021 ), this is their dog, Buster. Buster is part French Bulldog, and probably one of the coolest dogs I have known. Buster taste tests all dishes I prepare, sometimes by gobbling up some crumbs that might fall from the counter, or by sitting and waiting at the table at dinnertime.
When I am in the kitchen cooking, preparing to cook, looking in the fridge, looking in the pantry, opening a can, getting a cup of coffee or a glass of water, Buster is watching me. I took this photo when I was cooking dinner for my parents. Buster is always in the kitchen with me and never leaves me alone.
Now since Buster is a dog, he pretty much eats anything he finds, nothing unusual there, but when he tastes something especially good from the dinner table, he will make some sounds as he ‘politely’ begs for a bit to taste. Buster howls, growls, barks, and whines when something is really tasty and he wants more.
As I prepared dishes while I was there, Buster sampled them and let me know if they are Go-To good and I will mark those as Buster approved, and I even started a category, Buster Approved.
Our Social Network of choice is MeWe! I am also on Instagram.
Join our group on MeWe and keep up to date on recipes and photos I update on my site. Or post dishes you make and share recipes with others.
A recent feature added is a signup for email updates when the site is update, that is located in the right column near the bottom.
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