Meal for two for 50p. Suggestions?

edinburghlad

Is there an offer in the sun on 14th?

Geodark

I once made pasta with garlic and sage butter as a side to something else I was cooking, the kids loved it so much they often ask for it on its own! Not very nutritional, but tastes very nice - well, providing you like sage, garlic and pasta it is anyway

edinburghlad

Did someone start a new thread or have I missed it?

EasyAs123

I had a very nice meal today - carb heavy and thrown together, but very filling after my run.

29p - 500g everyday value pasta - 70g portion 4p
20p - curry sauce - 1/4 of a jar - 5p
25p - tomato soup - 1/2 tin - 12.5p (mix with curry sauce)
32p - garlic bread - 1/4 stick - 8p

£1.06 outlay - 29.5p per portion.

You could always just use half a jar of the sauce and not mix in the soup, but the soup makes it nicer.

Before anyone judges... This is a training day meal - I have fruit and veg for breakfast and dinner...

Youssii

This is a very cheap recipe I often use when I need to feel myself in a pinch!

I got my prices from Aldi.

Ingredients:

2 eggs @ 16p each = 32p (10p each if you're willing to skip on free range but I'm really not even when broke.)
2 servings of chilli egg noodles @ 12.5p = 25p
100g carrot (grated) = 3.9p
3tsp sweet chilli sauce = 3.9p
1tsp soy sauce = 2p
1tsp olive oil OR sesame oil = 2.5p


First, cook the noodles by pouring boiling water over them and simmering for however long the package says and then drain them.

Then, whisk together the eggs with a tea spoon of soy sauce, and scramble quickly in the hot oil in a frying pan.

When they are almost cooked, add the noodles and the grated carrot and cook for a further minute or so.

Then turn off the heat and stir in just enough sweet chilli sauce to lightly coat it - a couple of teaspoons will do as there is chilli in the noodles as well.

Total cooking time less than 5 minutes if you're speedy about it, can easily be doubled/halved and so long as everyone's okay with a little heat in their food, most people will find the taste pretty decent!


Totals about 69p (57p using barn eggs) for 2-3 people if you're doing it at Aldi and you count the cost of oil, soy sauce and sweet chilli which I generally have in the cupboard anyway - in fact, we usually have some slightly dusty noodles lying around, and since we keep our own hens and grow our own veg, we can do this meal without needing to think about its cost at all.

asdesigned

O.k here goes with some cheap eating tips!

I think the key to cheap cooking is rather than buying ingredients for 'tonight's meal' is to cook something in bulk that will be a base for many meals to come, for example supermarkets will often reduce their veg at the end of a day. The other day the co-op reduced a load of mixed bags of carrots, broccoli and cauliflower to 80p. I then added some stock cubes, a potato and a few herbs and it was a great soup. The next day I blended it with a few spices and it was a great curry base.

Always buy spices from an asian supermarket if you have one near you, or if not online, you will spend next to nothing for a ton of spices, even if you only buy one new spice every month. For example a bag of garam masala will set you back less than a pound for 100g, but if you can buy in larger quantities for even greater savings. It adds a lovely warming indian taste to soups, curries etc (A butternut squash roasted in the oven, then blended with corriander, stock and some garam masala is an amazing cheap soup). You can keep the spices in jars at the back of the cupboard and they will last for hundreds of meals. A staple thing I always buy is crushed red chillis, incredibly cheap (80p - £1 for 100g), they can be used for colour and flavour in soups, sprinkled over pastas before serving, curries, chillis etc As a treat I also bought some dried hickory smoke powder online for homemade burgers, chills, gumbos and the like. Other useful spices to buy in bulk are tumeric (great with cooked potatoes and frozen spinach for sag aloo, or in a kedegree), Cumin (again for soups and curries).

Another thing I recommend is to buy a large amount of mince from the market, oven cook slowly with some chopped tomatoes, if you can afford to a bottle of cheap red wine from Aldi or Lidl (I think they have bottles for a couple of quid, but think of it as bulking out multiple meals), add some garlic and herbs (oregano, thyme, rosemary etc). The longer the better in the oven or slow cooker. I often cook it for hours on a sunday for the week(s) ahead. This can then be used for spag bol, then lasagna (layer some between lasagne sheets and top with cheese), then chilli (just add kidney beans and some chilli flakes or powder), then wrapped in tortillas and topped with cheese for enchilladas etc etc. If you don't want the same base over a few nights then portion and freeze it and you have very cheap meals in the long run. It's just about economies of scale, adding a few extra ingredients to your base to make totally different meals. Obviously if you cooks loads then you will have to freeze it as it will only last a few days in the fridge, and do not keep reheating the whole amount every day, just portion out what you need for the next meal.

I never buy value meats as I think it's a bit of a false economy, chicken is so pumped with water that you have to look at the size halved at best, it doesn't work out as cheaply once half the size has run out of it!

Also one great tip is to make sure you have some fresh herbs growing, a visit to a local garden center and you can get some hardy herbs for the garden / windowsill or a pack of seeds are so cheap (the supermarket plants just die in my opinion), Even just one herb plant or packet of seeds bought per month can quickly get you a great herb garden. Herbs add so much to food such as insanely cheap pasta dishes. Mint for example spreads like wildfire and fresh with some crushed peas in a pasta with olive oil is so good.

Herbs that have been dried can also be used to flavour oils which add a real luxury taste to pastas and sprinkled over homemade pizzas. Rosemary or Thyme are excellent, or dried chillis for homemade chilli oil.

My staple for a cheap but very tasty meal is a more traditional take on spaghetti carbonara (without cream) from an Italian friend. Basically cook spaghetti and then in another pan, lightly fry chopped bacon in olive oil (Aldi does a pack of lardons for 89p), then add some garlic for another minute or 2, add the cooked spaghetti, some salt, course ground pepper and a beaten egg. Stire for a couple of minutes so the egg cooks a little and it is delicious and doesn't feel 'budget'. If you have some parsley then this can be chopped over it with some more black pepper and a sprinkle of olive oil, or a homemade flavoured oil .

I guess that is my ethos, cooking on a budget but with the appearance and taste of dishes that feel like you have spent so much more

Oh and i'm a single guy so I often cook for 2+ and then that's my lunch sorted for the next day, or a couple of dinners

owenjm09

Many of previous posts mention bacon.
This is not cheap, but if you cast your eyes down when standing at the bacon display, you will often find "cooking bacon" about £1.20 a pack.
You can sometimes find a large bacon chop in the pack. Best value can be to put the pack of bits in a processor and add bread crumbs and egg mix well then made into burgher (not too thick).

batse

Hard boiled eggs are great curried. Use same recipe but instead of chicken use hard boiled eggs

MandM90

Smoky Black Bean One Pot Chilli

1 onion 7p
2 garlic cloves 6p
2 heaped tsp sweet smoked paprika 5p
2 level tsps hot chilli powder 5p
1 tsp oregano 5p (or fresh - free - herbs from the garden)
1 tin plum tomatoes 25p (KTC tins regularly on 4 for £1
250g Black turtle beans, soaked overnight 90p and cooked
1/2 cup (60g) brown rice - 7p
1 chicken stock cube (or leftover chicken bones!) 2p
1 carrot - 7p
1 celery stalk - 10p

Serves four £1.69/42p each (very very generous portions...with bread will feed six)

Finely dice onion, carrot, celery, garlic and spices. Fry them all either in butter or oil or, as I do, using splashes of hot water instead.

Add all other ingredients. Cook on high for 2/3 hours. Season to taste - I add a dash of mushroom ketchup!

Leave lid on for a hearty soup and dunk in crusty (yellow stickered, of course ) bread.

Take lid off for a thick chilli. Serve as is or in a tortilla wrap with salad, roasted veg, or whatever you please!

You can substitute for other types or beans or lentils. I often base meals around beans and grains using this rough recipe.

Other beans, such as black eyed beans, are even cheaper in the World Foods aisle (but turtle beans are a favourite here) and you can often get spices cheaper there if you buy bigger bags and decant into jars. For optimum freshness, freeze the rest until you can use it, or split with a friend.

Delish!

asdesigned

owenjm09 wrote: »

Many of previous posts mention bacon.
This is not cheap, but if you cast your eyes down when standing at the bacon display, you will often find "cooking bacon" about £1.20 a pack.
You can sometimes find a large bacon chop in the pack. Best value can be to put the pack of bits in a processor and add bread crumbs and egg mix well then made into burgher (not too thick).

As I said Aldi's do bacon lardons for 89p which are great in pasta dishes