Great money saving meal recipes that also taste good?

Smithsonian

I wasnt really sure where to put this, but do you guys have some favorite, good meal recipes that can really save some money?

Nile

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quintwins

all my meals taste good thank you very much

i think a good mix of herbs and spices help to make your food taste nice


homemade pasta sauce is lovely and very cheap, all you need is a tin of tomatoes an onion and garlic, and some herbs (i use chives, parsly and paprika in mine) and some pasta, can feed my whole family for about 50p

Smithsonian

quintwins wrote: »

all my meals taste good thank you very much

i think a good mix of herbs and spices help to make your food taste nice


homemade pasta sauce is lovely and very cheap, all you need is a tin of tomatoes an onion and garlic, and some herbs (i use chives, parsly and paprika in mine) and some pasta, can feed my whole family for about 50p

Thats very nice and interesting! I thought about the herbs and spices, that is really the key I think, agree with that! Do you manage to grow the herbs so they last for many months?

I'll try to make your pasta sauce quintwins!

quintwins

no i just buy them, i'm not very green fingered i can remeber to water them in the summer when it's warm but i always forget in colder months

it's very easy to make just fry onions and garlic, then throw in tomatoes and whatever else you have, i also put a spoonful of honey in it because tinned tomatoes can be better, simmer it for 30mins, and blitz it with my stick blender cause the kids don't like lumps, i make huge batches of it, and use it for chilli/spag bol and pasta bake

rachbc

yep - all my food is tasty and money saving - tongiht we had wild salmon, brocolli and new potato tray bake with rosemary and anchovy sauce - eveyone inc little miss 4 had seconds.

Salmon was £2.50, new pots 39p and used half a bag, broc 39p, a little evo, rosemary from the garden and anchovies 2 from a jar that I have had for ages....tbh the salmon takes it over what most meals cost us but whats life without few luxuries!

Pud will be cadburys mini eggs (39p per 100g bag in HB - a third of the price in the supermarkets)

Stephen_Leak

Try this. Serve with just pasta, or meatballs & spaghetti, or sausages & mashed potato.

ITALIAN TOMATO SAUCE

Enough for pasta for 2

INGREDIENTS

2 cloves of garlic
2 onions
1 tablespoon of olive oil
400g tin of plum tomatoes
140g tin of tomato puree
2 teaspoons of mixed herbs
Ground pepper to taste

METHOD

Peel the garlic and chop it into tiny pieces. Peel the onions and chop them into tiny pieces.

Put the oil into a frying pan on a medium heat. Add the garlic and onion. Fry the garlic and onion for about 4 to 5 minutes until the onion is soft. Stir frequently to stop it sticking.

Open the tin of tomatoes. Put the juice into the pan. Chop the tomatoes while they are still in the can (it’s easier than chasing them around the pan). Put the chopped tomatoes into the pan.

Add the tomato puree and herbs. Stir thoroughly.

Continue to cook, stirring as the mixture boils, until the sauce has reduced.

Season with the pepper.

ADDITIONS & ALTERNATIVES

Use basil instead of the mixed herbs.

Add a glass of wine and cook for a bit longer. Or drink the glass of wine and cook for the same time.

Add ¼ of a teaspoon of chilli powder to make it into an Arrabbiata sauce.

Plain pasta, such as spaghetti, is usually served with a oil-based sauces.

Cheese, such as Parmesan, the mellower Gorgonzola or the sharper Pecorino Romano, is not a compulsory addition to every pasta dish.

This sauce can also be blended and used as a pizza topping.

TIPS

Always “take the pasta to the sauce”. Put the cooked pasta in the pan with the sauce and stir together until thoroughly coated.

Plum tomatoes can be used either whole or chopped. It is difficult to stick chopped tomatoes back together again if you need to use them whole.

Butterfly_Brain

Try these sites

http://thirty-quid.blogspot.com/

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/money

Plus look in the indexed threads for lots of cheap and tasty meals

noviceatsaving

Have you ever tried using a slow cooker? I find this to be the best way to save money while making lots of food for many people. I made chili that fed the two of us for three days straight.

The best part about it is you can use cheaper beef and it still comes out very tender, so it's really nice for stews, which you can just make with a load of cheap root veg and tinned tomatoes.

Sadly I can't link to any of the sites I use, but you can get one for about £30, leave the food all day, and have lovely dinner for several nights of the week!

rosie383

Or you can get a slow cooker at most car boots sales for a couple of pounds.

MrsWoolfe

Hello!

I tend to just adapt my recipes, bulking out meals with cheaper ingredients- frozen veg can be much cheaper than fresh and still v good for you. Pulses - chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans etc great for bulking dishes out.

Using herbs and spices really does make a huge difference to how nice the meals are - if you are not used to cooking with them I'd try and start by looking up the recipes for dishes that you enjoy and see what herbs/spices are used. Try it out and then have a think about what you could perhaps add to it to make it go a bit further- give me a shout if you want some suggestions- but I'm sure the others on this board will have lots of ideas for you.

There are quite a lot of threads on here for inspiration on cheaper meals- and I'm firmly of the opinion that cheap does not mean tasteless or bad nutrition, but then I grew up eating lots of yummy homecooked food ( I never actually tasted a ready meal until I was at uni) and although I was never aware of it at the time, my folks were on a pretty tight budget at times, a lot of the meals that remind me of home and give me that warm fuzzy thing are actually pretty cheap...a good example is my comfort food if I'm feeling ill/down/missing my late Dad is basmati rice, brown lentil bouillon ( a Mauritian classic) and mango pickle- sometimes I will add a little sauteed chicken/fish/some spiced potato but it's the lentils and rice that do the trick:D

HTH

MrsWoolfe