cheap and basic dinners

want2bmortgage3

i really need to cut down on food costs so looking for basic recipes which dont take too long to cook and dont make a load of mess in the kitchen etc..... i eat fish but no meat.

i will start with - fish fingers, mashed potato and tinned spaghetti...

grill 4 fish fingers (15 mins turn half way)
boil 3/4 peeled and halved potatoes for 15 mins til soft, drain and mash (add butter if you like)
microwave 1/2 tin spaghetti
serve

to me thats tasty and basic. probably cost about £1. i guess its only 1 of the 5 a day fruit/veg (do potatoes count?) but other than that not too unhealthy.

anyone got any suggestions?

bluetimone97

No, potatoes don't count, sorry...

tanith

Pasta with Tomatoe sauce..

Wholewheat Pasta
Tin chopped Tomatoes
Tomatoe Puree
Chilli Spice
1/2 tin baked beans..

combine the tomatoes, puree and beans, add chilli spice to taste.. cook slowly stirring to a sauce,stir in the cooked pasta..serve with crusty rolls

chmmy

Substitute the tinned spaghetti for frozen peas/ green beans/ sweetcorn for a change (and similar cost)?
I didnt know potatoes didnt count towards 5 a day.

want2bmortgage3

quick question ive got frozen green beans but when ive looked for fresh ones there is everything but 'green beans', i've seen fine beans, dwarf beans etc and they all seem to be imported from far away..

Stephen_Leak

POACHED FISH

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

1 onion
250ml of milk
2 fillets of white fish*

METHOD

Remove any bones from the fish. Peel the onion and chop it into tiny pieces.

Put the milk, fish and onion into a frying pan on a medium heat. Cook for about 10 minutes until the fish is firm and opaque.

Remove the fish from the pan and serve.

ADDITIONS AND ALTERATIONS

Serve with mashed potato and (mushy) peas for a much healthier version of "fish & chips".
　
* Use cod, coley, haddock, hake, ling, plaice, pollack or whiting fillets. Use smoked and/or dyed fish, because smoked fish tastes nice and dyed fish looks pretty.

maman

want2bmortgage3 wrote: »

quick question ive got frozen green beans but when ive looked for fresh ones there is everything but 'green beans', i've seen fine beans, dwarf beans etc and they all seem to be imported from far away..

If your trying to save money I would stick with frozen green beans, cheaper, no preparation and no waste. My favourite way is to microwave them, drain then run under cold water (plumps them up), drain again then fry with a little butter, garlic and maybe a chopped mushroom if you have one. Also worth buying a bag of frozen broccoli.

You could add a tin of tuna to the pasta recipe for a change or make a basic fishcake recipe by stirring tuna into mash and perhaps some sweetcorn.

thriftlady_2

want2bmortgage3 wrote: »

quick question ive got frozen green beans but when ive looked for fresh ones there is everything but 'green beans', i've seen fine beans, dwarf beans etc and they all seem to be imported from far away..

That's because they don't grow in the UK until late summer. August/September is the time for home produced green beans. Frozen beans tend to be from closer to home-Belgium or France.

Check out your nearest farmshop for cheap, local and seasonal produce.

I would suggest that serving 2 kinds of carbohydrate (mash and spaghetti hoops) at the same meal is a nutritionally unbalanced. How about swapping the spagehtti for sweetcorn?

Janae

Baked beans count as one a day, half a tin is one portion and similar to spaghetti in cost

Penelope_Penguin

chmmy wrote: »

I didnt know potatoes didnt count towards 5 a day.

They don't

Following on from what thriftady said, purple sprouting broccoli is in my farm shop atm :j It's delicious but only has a short season, so grab it while you can :T

Penny. x

Olliebeak

Egg, chips and peas/baked beans :drool: - about as basic as it gets !