3 Course Meal For 2 On A Strict Budget! Help?

lilmissking88

Hi All,

Hoping some of you could help with some ideas and inspiration...
As myself and OH are saving for the wedding at the moment, money is tight, and we have set each other a challenge - every Friday we take turns in cooking a 3 course meal for each other. The rules are that we can use basic store cupboard ingredients, but other than that we have a budget of 8 pounds to buy anything else!
Last week, he was first to cook, and came up trumps and managed to squeeze a bottle of wine into the budget as well as some nice food!
Its my turn tonight, and im lost. He is a fussy kinda eater, doesnt eat veg (aside from potatoes)...

Any ideas? I have until 6pm to go shopping and start cooking! :eek:

quintwins

£8 is loads of money for a nice meal, i'd make a nice soup for starters with hm bread rolls, followed by a stuffed chicken breast with baby new taties and any veg you like since he won't eat any, and for pudding a hm victoria sponge with custard? or if it's abit warmer there maybe some melon balls in ice cream

ubamother

marinated chicken thighs - oil, tomato puree, garlic, lemon, tarragon, chopped onion, salt, pepper. (Tarragon is fab in this, but any herbs would be good) Cook in marinade, which becomes a bit of a sauce. I serve with green tagliatelli and home-made tear and share bread (dead easy to make) or french bread. Morrisons do really good packs of FR chicken thighs and drumsticks for around £3.50 I think - and then you've got the drumsticks for soup, or another day.
I'm not a big dessert maker, but do a great simple pudding of fruit at the bottom (tinned, fresh, frozen) and a basic victoria sponge mix (not too sloppy) on the top and bake it (ground almonds are great in the mix if you have them). If I'm feeling all posh I'll sprinkle some demerara sugar on the top of the sponge before I bake to give it a bit of a crusty thing. An easy cold dessert is greek yoghurt, swirled with honey, and fresh fruit to dip in.

Mrs_Veg_Plot

I would do a soup to start then how about something traditional like toad in the hole or posher like pasta with sheese sauce and skoked salmon (you can get smoked salmon trimmings for less than a £ in some supermarkets) followed by icecream.

sausagesandwich19

£10 meal deal at m&s and you get a good bottle of wine included

lilmissking88

Thanks for all your suggestions guys!

Ended up going with the following:

Starter:
Chicken & Veg Soup
(Made from Chicken Drumstick (Shredded), Carrots, Onion, Potato & Swede with Chicken Stock)
To be served with Homemade Bread

Main Course:
Spicy Chicken Thigh
(2 x Thighs Marinaded in Cayenne Pepper, Tarragon, Olive Oil & Pepper)
To be served with Homemade Chunky Wedges & Side Salad for me.

Desert:
Homemade Sponge Cake, served with Ice Cream and topped with Homemade Meringue.

Drink:
Homemade Lemonade, 1 Bottle Of Wine, & Mixed Punch
(Punch made from Leftover Spirits, Lemon, Orange, & Mixer)

Total Cost: 6 Pounds!

sarahj1981

Wow well done, would have taken me a week to come up with that lol
I might suggest this idea to my hubby I would have to make sure a bottle of wine was included tho lol
Hope you enjoy ur evening
S

Penelope_Penguin

lilmissking88 wrote: »

money is tight, and we have set each other a challenge - every Friday we take turns in cooking a 3 course meal for each other. The rules are that we can use basic store cupboard ingredients, but other than that we have a budget of 8 pounds to buy anything else!

Trust me; that isn;t a tight budget fro Old Stylers There's a whole thread of 3 course meals here for a fiver, to serve 4 people. It started a while ago, so your £8 fro 2 of you should be loads :T