$6 Instant Pot Casserole

$6 Instant Pot Casserole–an inexpensive and delicious meatball and rice casserole. A dump and go recipe!

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$6 Instant Pot Casserole

With food prices on the rise it’s nice to feed your family dinner for less than $10! This meatball and rice casserole can serve between 4-6 people and depending on where you shop you can get everything for around $6. I bought a bag of meatballs at Winco for $4 (I only used half the bag, so $2 worth of meatballs). I already had Better than Bouillon, garlic powder, rice and Italian seasoning in my pantry. The spaghetti sauce was on sale for around $2.00 and the cheese was around a dollar for the amount I used. Not bad!!

You might be wondering how meatballs and spaghetti sauce taste with rice instead of spaghetti. I’m a fan! I used to make rice and meatballs all the time when I was first married. It’s actually a fun change of pace. If you want you can make any type of rice you like. Just adjust the cooking time and the amount of broth.

Ingredients/Substitution Ideas

• Beef or chicken broth–or water and Better than Bouillon
• Frozen Italian-style meatballs–I bought these at Winco for $3.98. I only used half of the bag so around $2.00.
• Converted–or long grain rice. I like converted rice because it doesn’t get as sticky. I buy mine at Winco in the bulk section.
• Garlic powder
• Italian seasoning–or make your own
• Spaghetti sauce–I used a jar of Ragu
• Mozzarella cheese–I grated mine off the block for better meltability
• Parmesan cheese–I buy this is a big bag at Costco and freeze it

Steps

1. Dump in ingredients: Pour broth in bottom of Instant Pot. Add the meatballs into bottom of pot in an even layer. Sprinkle in the rice. Add in the garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Spoon half of the spaghetti sauce over the top, don’t stir. 
2. Pressure cook: Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 5 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 10 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid. 
3. Add in remaining sauce and cheese: Gently stir. Spoon the rest of the sauce over the top. Sprinkle the cheeses on top. Replace lid and let pot sit on warm for 5 minutes, until cheese melts (you can also use an air fryer lid for this part). 
4. Serve and enjoy!

Notes/Tips

• Serve with a side salad and some garlic bread.
• I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 3 or 8 quart pot.
• Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
• Other recipes you can make with frozen meatballs are Instant Pot Ziti And Meatballs and Instant Pot Dump And Go Meatball Lasagna.

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More Inexpensive Recipes…

• Inflation Navigation Casserole
• Instant Pot Preacher’s Casserole
• Instant Pot Poor Man’s Casserole
• Dave Ramsey Slow Cooker Beans And Rice Recipe

Did you know you can filter the recipes on my website to search by meat type, IP or Crockpot, low carb, gluten free, etc.? Use the filter to find exactly what you are looking for.

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*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.