Meal for two for 50p. Suggestions?

Sarahsaver

When I was on Income support we still used to have a proper sunday dinner - either RTC meat or a toad-in-the-hole made with economy sausages, gravy, potatoes and carrots.
Baked potatoes with anything has to come in at under 50p for two people as long as you buy potatoes in a sack (about £4 a sack)

tiff

Potatoes are £6.50 a sack in our farm shop :eek: I dont know of anywhere else nearby to get them from.

thriftlady_2

tiff wrote:

Potatoes are £6.50 a sack in our farm shop :eek: I dont know of anywhere else nearby to get them from.

They seem to have gone up this year. My farmshop sells a 20 kg sack of marfona for £5 and a 25kg sack of desiree for £7. It's still a bargain though, the marfona work out at 11p a lb

nicola1982_2

Stodgy Carrot and Orange Soup

Onion - fry off in sauce pan (using 50g of butter)
Add 2 chopped carrots and heat on low with lid on for five mins.
Add grated rind of one orange.
Cover with boiling water and stock cube and boil
Add handful of rice ir some pearl barley or both.
Cook for 15 mins
Add juice of orange and some coriander and season
Blend
Reheat and serve

katmad99

Hi, long time forum reader, first time poster. Got completely caught up in this thread and have been reading all night! Some great recipe ideas thanks.
Here are two of my faves:
(both make enough for 1-2 people)
1. Pea soup (i think i saw this on You Are What You Eat, but i cant remember the original recipe. This is how i do it, the lazy student method!)
Cup of frozen peas
water
small amount of chopped onion (about 1/4 of a small onion??)
Pepper to season

Put peas and onion in pan
add some boiling water from kettle (not v good at measurements sorry! i usually use enough to just cover the peas)
boil for about 5 mins
Liquidise in food blender
add pepper (little or a lot depending on your taste) to spice it up a bit

Easy Peasy, cheap and tasty!

2. Spinach and tomato in pitta (pretty much explains itsself!!)
handful fresh/frozen spinach (i use fresh, get a big bag from asda for about 88p, lasts ages)
1/4 red onion, chopped
about 6 cherry tomatoes or 2 normal sized tomatoes, diced
1 tsp olive oil
2 pitta breads, toasted and halved

heat oil in pan til warm
add onion for a minute or so
add spinach and tomato
mix until warm and soft
open up the halved pittas and spoon in the mixture
Lovely warm alternative to a sandwich!
(even lovelier with a bit of mozzarella in, but not quite so cost effective!!)

One last comment, to those who like to make chilli, i have recently become a big fan of vegetarian chilli and instead of buying a tin of kidney beans i buy 'mixed bean salad'. it is about 34p, and contains haricot, black eye, and kidney beans, as well as red pepper, sweetcorn and chopped green beans. Very yummy in some chilli sauce, even my meat loving boyfriend is a big fan of this as it really fills you up, but without any meat!

computerwoman

:xmastree:Hi everyone, just to say, all the ingredients I use are mostly fresh, (when buying from tesco.com are usually cheap) and I cook everything from scratch, even my cookie's and cake's, and bread, but my point is I spend £60.00 a fortnight, for two, at tesco.com no more no less, mainly because I can't afford to spend anymore than that, and because it's so cheap.
Merry Christmas everyone.

katmad99

oh i thought of something else: instead of buying olive/veg/sunflower oil for cooking all the time, i buy 1 cal spray oil. It's more expensive than a big load of vegetable oil probably, but it last ages!! i bought some in july 2005 and it's only just needed replacing! i use it all the time, but you only need a few squirts. It's just a thin layer of oil, so it stops your food being too oily, and it's better for you!

Bexstars

I used to buy the spray oil when I was doing the sliming world diet a couple of years back and your right it does last ages

esthomizzy

Here is mine (although I use mine in the loosest possible sense in that I got it off the internet) and we have Creature and Carina (original inventors) to thank for it so thanks both - should you ever be googling yourselves and find this post

I haven't done full costings and suspect it might come out at just over 50p pp but it's good for using up whatever veg you have in the fridge (these work well but are just a guide, use whatever you've got).

Creature & Carina's Colossal Co-operative Curry
• 2 medium-size potatoes
• 1 courgette
• 1 inch of ginger
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 onion
• 1 red bell pepper
• 5-8 mushrooms
• 1 can mixed pulses
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• ½ cup red lentils
• 2 generous tsp medium curry powder
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1 tsp powdered cumin
• 1 or 2 bay leaves
Put the lentils on to cook according to the instructions on the packet - they'll probably take at least half an hour. Use this time to wash and cube the potatoes, cut the courgette into circular slices then quarter each slice, and chop the pepper into small squares. Slice the mushrooms, then place all of these ingredients to one side.
Chop the onion, crush the garlic, and grate the ginger. Heat up some oil on a medium-high heat in a pan, then fry the onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes. Add the ginger and fry for about a minute longer. While doing this, drain and rinse the pulses, and open the tomatoes. Add the tomatoes, all the vegetables, the beans, and the lentils (they should be ready by now). Add the herbs and spices then stir them in. Simmer for 10-15 minutes - give it a taste around the 12-13 minute mark to check it's not too bland, adding more spices or black pepper to taste. Serve with boiled rice and if you like poppadoms. I usually use basmati and wild rice actually but that makes the whole dish much less cheap so stick to the cheap rice to stay as low budget as possible.

Happy Christmas everyone

Sarahsaver

TOmato and onion sandwiches are nice with a bit of freshly ground black pepper and seasalt. Best use tomatoes which have not been in the fridge so the flavour has a chance to come out. Serve cold in the summer and hot in the winter!