What are your favourite luxury meals - which are budget friendly!

ohara09

Hi,

This is my first post in OS but I've been a lurker for a while! I'm quite new to living on a budget, as I'm in the middle of buying my first flat! Which is very exciting, but obviously I'm going to watching the pennies from now on. However, I'm determined to make my budget stretch well by doing as much as I can old style!

I'm quite a competent cook, and have been getting lots of inspiration from here for budget friendly meals. However, what I'm struggling to find is recipes for 'luxury meals' which don't cost the earth too much! I want to plan and budget so that one night a week I can treat myself and my boyfriend to a delicious meal which doesn't cost the earth. So what I was wondering - is what your favourite luxury meal?

Mine so far are:
- any dish wish salmon
- steak and baked potato (I buy it from the butcher, but still it's a bit too expensive really!!)
- Fish pie

As you can see, it's a bit limited!! How do you treat yourselves?

ohara xx

ohara09

Oh, and thought I should add - my budget for the luxury meal is £10 to include a bottle of wine! So realistically should be £5-6 for food

xx

CCP

My luxury's anything involving chicken - I will only buy free-range chicken, so it's a bit of a rare treat! I think I'd probably go for a whole roast chicken, with home-grown leaves and HM potato salad at this time of year: it probably works out rather more than your stated budget, but the leftovers provide meals for a couple of days at least (more for me as I'm on my own).

I don't know if that's any help to you, though!

ohara09

yep definitly helps - it doesn't contain lentils for a start which I do love as a bulker, but it's so nice not to have them all the time !

freyasmum

Is there anything you don't like?

The chefs on economy gastronomy made navarin of lamb last week which comes in at £2.76 a portion and looked delicious :drool:

attentionseeker1

That's a nice idea ohara09 to do for your boyfriend.

-Steak is one of our favourites too- with b!arnaise or peppercorn sauce.

-King prawn and crab linguine- buy frozen king prawns (£2.50ish normally finest or ttd on offer) and tin of white crab meat (£1.80 I think). Pasta is basically onion, red chilli, tomato, parsley, lemon juice and fish sauteed together and tossed through pasta

- Rick Stein has a nice recipe for Malaysian crispy white fish - basically fish in a light, slightly spiced batter with a salsa on the side

-Lamb steaks (£3-4)with rosemary and garlic

-Pot roasted pheasant/poussin (£5) with mash

- a big HM curry feast with side dishes, poppadoms etc

One way to make the budget for this stretch a bit would be to buy a slightly larger pack of say steak but then use the remaining steak to make a more bulked out meal later in the week e.g. a beef stirfry with lots of veggies- prices are normally cheaper if you buy in bulk...

Xaviera

It's Fillet Steak and fat chips here, best 15 quid spent!

What about some ribs?

ohara09

attentionseeker1 wrote: »

That's a nice idea ohara09 to do for your boyfriend.
.

Thanks - he's not complained once since I put a ban on us eating out, despite it being a regular habit before, but we are both real foodies so I think by treating ourselves to a really special HM meal once a week with a bottle of wine, it will stop us both following off the wagon and hitting the restaurants!

Some fab ideas! I've just caught up with Economy Gastronomy, and they've recommended beef skirt as an alternative to rump steak? So could be a great alternative. Has anyone hear tried it? I also loved their advice about mussels not being nearly as expensive as you'd think! The naverine of lamb looks absolutly gorgeous.

I love the sound of the prawn and crab linguini - my mouth is watering at all these ideas actually! The only thing I'd be worried about is curries - I've cooked thai green curry, but I'm not confident with others just due to the amount of spices and the balance of flavours thats required.

Oh, and there is nothing neither of us don't like - except perhaps semolina :eek:

I'm definitly happy to spend a bit more as well providing I can eek out the main ingrediants for another meal. My overall food budget is planned at £80 a month which I think is pretty healthy in the scheme of things but obviously I don't want to go overboard with spending on the luxury meals and then having to really really budget the rest of the time

I forgot one of my other favs though - roasted pork belly with mash and veg! So cheap and the crackling is beautiful!

xx

flea72

we quite often buy the M&S meal deal for our nights in

£10 for a 2 course meal, including wine

by selecting the most versatile items, you can usually get it to last for two meals or more (obviously not the wine, that has to be drunk all in one sitting)

Flea

clutterydrawer

ohara09 wrote: »

Oh, and thought I should add - my budget for the luxury meal is £10 to include a bottle of wine! So realistically should be £5-6 for food

xx

to serve how many though?

I think my luxury meal would be anything with cheese in as I can't normally afford it....quite fond of a veggie moussaka but given that it needs cheese, eggs, yogurt, aubergine and Quorn mince, i don't do it too often!

frivolous_fay

Lasagne

Pack of mince
Onion, garlic, herbs etc
Packet of lasagne
HM white sauce
Cheese