Cheapest Meals Ever

marrbett

apple_mint wrote- Jan 2006!)

Cheese and Leek pasta. Cook pasta, whilst cooking - in a separate pan cook a sliced leak and a few chopped mushrooms in about 1/2 inch of stock and some dried herbs. Add a tub of supermarket own brand soft cheese (philly type ) about 45p. This turns the leek / mushroom mix into a cheese sauce. Drain pasta and stir in cheese sauce mix. This is a real favorate in our house, especially with vegetarian daughter and is very filling. Adapt portion sizes for more and add some chopped ham for those meat eaters who want a little more.


Just wanted to say thankyou for this,tried a variation of this yesterday and it went down a storm.
I'd like to pass on a tip ,which you may all know about anyway!
For those who are not so keen on sprouts, try shredding them and stir-frying them with a little onion /garlic/chopped bacon.You may need a little liquid too.
Much lovelier and the children eat them too!
Hope this helps someone, first time on 'old-style'.

Little_Miss_Naughty

In last months good food magazine there was an article about planning ahead for Christmas.

In this article it talked about roast potatoes where you start by part cooking potatoes (boiling them) draining them, rolling in flour and placing on a baking sheet in the freezer - when frozen remove from the baking sheet in store in bags in the freezer for upto two months.

When you want to use them just put them in a dish of hot oil and roast in the oven for 30 minutes.

I thought this was a good way of storing them if you are not going to use them instead of letting them go off.

JoJoB

I am deffo going to try the cheesy leek mushroom pasta, and a few others. Shopping list at the ready!

I posted the following recipe in another thread but thought it would fit in quite well here, what with xmas leftover cookery coming up:

From my meat-eating past...

This is a lush dish that uses store cupboard ingredients and left-over xmas or sunday dinner.

Pick the meat from the chicken or turkey carcass and place in the base of baking dish (as for shepherds pie). It is even better if you mince it in the food processor, but not necessary.

Any left over veg eg carrots, peas can go on top of the meat.

Add any left over gravy, or make up half a cupful and add this.

Add one tub of single or double cream and stir into the meat/veg/gravy mixture. Season with salt and pepper.

Top with boiled potatoes. Don't mash them as in shepherds pie, but take a fork and spear each potato and twist a bit, so it just roughs the potato up but doesn't totally mash it. Don't be precious, they can be totally mangled.

Get a few nobs of butter and dot liberally over top of the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper and bake for 30 minutes until the potatoes go all lovely and golden brown and the sauce starts bubbling up around the sides.

I love this dish so much I intend to try it this year with the left-overs from my veggie roast!

JoJoB

Just tried the cheese/mushroom/leek sauce pasta and it was gorgeous - and dead easy to make. Got my veg from the market today and 50p "philly" cheese from aldi so thought I'd give it a whirl.

Big thumbs up from me and and the Mr.

Bogof_Babe

Just had this as a sort of cheapo mock Christmas dinner. It is vegetarian and cost about £1.60 total for two of us...

Half a 150g pack Sosmix (not sure of price, say 50p)
Half a small pack Sainsburys Basics sage & onion stuffing mix 6p
Mashed spuds 50p including dash of milk & butter
carrot 8p
sprouts 20p
broccoli 20p (enough of each veg for 2 servings, so not whole packs)
gravy (from granules) 5p

I made up the Sosmix into a flat patty and cooked it in the oven in a pyrex bowl, likewise the stuffing.

It was a really nice, very filling meal, and we both agreed we would be quite satisfied with that for Christmas dinner, probably with the addition of a few roast spuds to take cost up to £2 total. I've got some cashew roast mix for this year, and Linda McC sausages, but I now see I could have done it much cheaper.

I read a thread on here about Sosmix and some people thought it was horrible, but I really enjoyed it.

CompBunny

Sorry to raise a zombie thread but thought I'd add a meal I used to make for my Grandfather - perfect for fussy palates and SUPER cheap to make! Money wasn't an issue for him, but he loves simple flavours and textures. Really easy dish and suprisingly tasty. I came up with it one day when he had little food in the house and didn't have much of an appetite:

- Boil some potatoes and mash to a creamy consistency 40p
- Mix in some boiled veg - carrots, peas, brussel sprouts and onion were favourites 30p
- Add some heated baked beans 30p
- The important bit...make sure its all mixed in together!
- Serve with cheese grated on top - I used to improvise with those "plastic" cheese slices shredded up - 20p?
Makes 3 portions, but easy to bulk out further

Total: approx £1.20

Simple, healthy-ish (minus the plastic cheese!) and cheap! And suprisingly tasty..

COOLTRIKERCHICK

i had a nice cheap meal today....

left over veg from chicken dinner made last night

mash potatoes, carrots, mashed parsnips, peas and left over stuffing, pinged in the microwave, then i made some parsley sauce from a packet ( was in the approved foods lucky dip box from yonks ago)

was delish....yumyumyum....

Flibsey

if you have a yogurt maker, then tandoori chicken is very cheap if you use thighs.