Bored on food budget - any suggestions

crocodileteeth

What about eggs?
When i'm cutting down i like boiled eggs & toast. Beans on toast. Pasta, various sauces. Jacket pots (cook in microwave and finish in oven for 10 minutes)

Nigella_2

Probably got lazy shopping / cooking. Not creative cooking wise.
Buying a trolley full of tinned fish prob too easy and boring!!

Have made a Spanish Omlette so far!!

Spanish Omlette / Pizza / Lasagne / Cottage Pie /Quiche / Jacket Potato / Mash with veg / meatballs / Risotto a start.

Not writing a book.

Slow cooker maybe a thought

MummyMoo

I've tried for years to find good budget-cookbooks but never have...... until I bought (wait for iiiiittt, wait for it..... *breath in*........)

"How to feed your whole family a healthy balance diet with very little money... and hardly any time, even if you have a tiny kitchen, only three saucepans (one with an ill-fitting lid) and no fancy gadgets - unless you count the garlic crusher" by Gill Holcombe.

I crap you not! its really called that, see- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Family-Healthy-Balanced-Kitchen-Saucepans/dp/1905862156

Its not just a recipe book, its full of really useful tips, and has four weeks planned meals set out and priced up (with £25 as average spend!). Its fantastic. I did it and really broadened the family diet. Yes the first time around for buying certain stuff such as herbs makes it a little more expensive, but by the time you get them into your regular diet it works out as less than pence for each meal, so it really doesnt matter.

BUY THE BOOK!!!!!!!
For example, here's a recipe:

"PACIFIC PIE

Everyone seems to have their own version of Pacific Pie, so feel free to adapt the basic recipe - a couple of tins of tuna, some kind of sauce and plenty of crisps - to suit yourself. However you make it, it shouldnt take more than five minutes at a snails pace.

Serves approx. 4
2 Large tins of tuna
1 small tin of sweetcorn
1 standard tin of chopped tomatoes
Broccoli
Natural yogurt
Lemon juice
Grated cheese (red leicester is perfect, but chedder or mozzarella will do)
Ready salted crisps (2 bags)
Black or white pepper

Method
1. Wash and break up the broccoli or spinach into small peices and put in a covered dish in the microwave with a drop of water. If you havent got a microwave, put the broccoli in a small saucepan with enough water to cover it and simmer for a couple of minutes.
2. Drain the tins of tuna and sweetcorn and put then in an ovenproof dish.
3. Add broccola or spinach, a handful of grated cheese and chopped tomatoes and a couple of spoonfuls of yougurt, plus whatever seasoning you want to use and mix it all up.
4. Crush the packets of crisp and sprinkle on the top of the pie with more grated cheese and nakc in a hot oven for 10-15 minutes.

Also try..
1. Instead of tinned tomatoes and yoghurt, use any, or a combination of any of the following to make tha sauce: a tin of condensed soup, creme fraiche, mayo, tomatoe puree.
2. Include tinned broad beans and peas, or frozen mixed vegetables and peppers.
3. Instead of using tuna, use a tin of salmon, or one tin of each."

MummyMoo

Surely there should be a sticky for this type of thing? it seems so obvious that budget meals get repetative and boring.

I've found that Richmond thick frozen sausages are the best value/low fat content btw.

We do a sausage and bean casserole thats really tasty one pot meal: cooked sausages (chopped up) tinned tomatoes, tin of mixed beans, tin of normal bean, two veggie oxo cubes. Whak it on in the same big !!! pan and cook. Serve with bread to be even more filling. Its sooooooo nice! plus it freezes so can last for ages.
ps, it tastes even nicer if you leave it to stew overnight before eating or bagging up