Dinner Party on a Budget

Fruball

Mini mushroom risottos to start with - just rice, couple of mushrooms, stock, bit of onion and some cheese stirred thru at the end OR
Mini kedgeree - tiny amount of smoked fish, rice and a finely chopped boiled egg (serve both in ramekin dishes)

Puff pastry always makes things look good and bigger than they are... Make a white sauce and mix with cooked chicken (i'd roast a bird so you can get more meals from it ) and a small amount of ham if you have it. Use ready rolled pastry, make up squares, fill and crimp the edges with a fork, serve with brocolli (any green veg) and roasties/saute potatoes.

Steamed syrup sponge... basic victoria sponge recipe... put some syrup in the bottom of a bowl, top with sponge mixture and microwave for around 5 mins or til cooked. Serve with icecream or custard.

Can I come please?

jackieglasgow

What about a lasagne, and salad, and bread - nice and filling and hot and hearty in this weather, you could make it tomorrow and cook it through on Saturday night? and make something special for dessert, like a fruite salad with a grilled sabayon on top, which is easy to do but looks like lots of effort?

iris

Do you have a slow cooker and like leeks?

Thinly slice large potato(es) into base of slow cooker.
Slice 4 large leeks into rounds (on special offer at Tesco) and put on top of potato
Slice large red pepper into largish pieces and tuck into leeks
Sprinkle with mixed herbs, stock cube and salt and pepper
Mix cup of white wine and water and pour over
Place chicken thighs (with skin - but trimmed) on top
(8 chicken thighs for £1.64 at Lidls)
Put slow cooker on medium for approximately 6 hours, or adjust to suit your day.

When friends arrive take top off slow cooker and baste chicken with juices and pop in hot oven for 30 - 40 minutes to crisp chicken.

Cost should be less than £1 per head.

Penelope_Penguin

hanb wrote: »

I'm going to be out all day on Saturday with only an hour or so when I get back before our friends come. There will be four of us and OH hates casserole so that's out! Our friends eat out quite a lot so I want to make sure they enjoy it and preferably without them realising it's cheap.

There's a great thread here on 3 course dinner party ideas on a budget :T

BB1984

I second the lasagne idea - that's what I usually do when we have friends round! Everyone likes it, it's perfect for a chilly November night, and great with some HM garlic bread and a bottle of red. As said above, make it the day before and just bung in the oven on the night.

I often make a roasted vegetable lasagne - just chop up a load of random vegetables, (red onion, aubergine, courgettes and spinach are nice but anything will do!) and roast in the oven with a glug of olive oil and a good splash of balsamic vinegar. Then make up the lasagne as normal. Lush - even if you're not veggie! Or I have done the above, but added a small amount of beef mince to make it meaty. Mmmmmmmmm.

Starters - HM bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dip always goes down well.

Pudding - Fruit crumble is cheap and everyone loves it, plus it can go in the oven with the lasagne.

BB

elf06

A nice but slightly filling starter is beef tom and mozz tartlets. Get some puff pastry and score round the side (I usually do a square so score square about and inch inside the original shape) then layer red onion, slice of beef tomato and top with mozz (I buy the bag of value grated cheese and use that instead) then chuck in the oven until done. shouldnt cost much and can be served with a little salad or (my fave) some tomato salsa.

bigsmoke

another variation on the puff pastry tart theme - tomato and goat's cheese

roll the pastry out to cover a baking sheet and score an inch inside the edge all the way round.
mash a couple of minced cloves of garlic and a couple of teaspoons of thyme into soft cheese (the recipe says goats cheese and i've always used that, but i imagine you could use philly or something instead?).
spread the mix thinly over the pastry, staying within the scoreline.
slice tomatoes thinly, layer them over the top of the cheese spread.
sprinkle the top with olive oil, salt and pepper and more thyme and bake for 35-45 mins at 180

i often do this for a main course with new potatoes and salad - quite light but really tasty. if you do a soup with some HM bread or something quite filling like that for starter you won't need anything more. and it looks really beautiful!

bigsmoke

ooh, another thought for a really quick and posh-seeming/super tasty one, but not sure what you mean by cheap, this one is a bit more pricey. or what your local shops are like - crab and chilli linguine. the recipe says 2 pots of crab meat for 4 people but i reckon you could make 1 stretch by making less pasta and serving it with a garlic baguette or some nice bread with butter/olive oil to keep people full?

Linguine for 4 people

Mix the following together:
2 x red chillis
2 x garlic cloves
Zest of a lemon
Juice of a lemon (or more)
Some olive oil (100ml?)
2 x pots of white crab meat
Flat parsley

Toss the linguine in it

Then toss in some watercress (chopped, or the baby stuff – strip the leaves, put in whole, chop the stalks up like chives)

yum, but understand this might be slightly out of price range - i think the crab is usually about £5. a lot cheaper than 4 steaks though!

mummygems

How about nachos with salsa and cheese for starters, chilli con carne for main (you can make this the day before or pop in slow cooker) and something like an eton mess for pudding.

Some other ideas (we like simple things so might not be something you like):-

Honey glazed pork chops/pork medallion (from Lidl) with cabbage and spring onion mash
Spaghetti Bolognaise with garlic bread and salad
Tacos or Fajitas (not that cheap) with a big salad, coleslaw etc
Meatballs (with chilli) and spaghetti or meatballs with pasta shapes cooked in a basic chilli and tomatoe sauce in the oven
Chicken Curry (sainsburys Curry Sauce is 9p a jar and we think its the best one around).

hanb

Oo thanks!! There's some great ideas here - I shall send the link over to OH and see what he fancies and whether our guests will be fussy!

I'm going to have to go and make lunch now i'm starving!