Meal for two for 50p. Suggestions?

Soworried

Home bargains currently has a Dolmio meal for two in for 39p. It is spaghetti with chicken and mushroom sauce.
I bought one to try, going to add some cooking bacon to it that needs used up as well which would be 20p worth as it is a third of the tesco 60p packet.
Less than 30p for a meal

Islandmaid

Mine is a very simple pasta dish too.

2 cloves of garlic and some stale bread whizzed or chopped up together to make breadcrumbs, lightly fried in oil and mixed in with cooked basics spaghetti, sounds not so good, but the crunch of the breadcrumbs with the garlic oil is lush X

teessiderang

Hi Folks
What about Pasta Pomadoro (Tomato Sauce)? for those that don't like Chilli
I can feed 4 people with 5 cheap ingredients

Takes 10 minutes to boil the water and 8 to 9 minutes to cook!

1 Tin of chopped tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic (or more if you really like it garlicky)
4 Tbls cheaper olive oil (Not Extra Virgin as it is expensive and degrades when cooked)
300g of pasta for 4 people (you can buy huge bags of pasta & make loads of meals)
8 Basil leaves torn (you can grow Basil on a sunny windowsill all year)

1. Use a large saucepan to cook your pasta takes about 10 minutes to come to the boil
(add a large pinch salt to the water)
2. Use a large frying pan or saute pan even a Wok to make the sauce
3. Crush or finely chop the garlic into the cold frying pan or Wok and add 4 tablespoons of
cold olive oil then turn on the heat to medium.
4. As soon as you start to see and smell the garlic cooking (be careful garlic burns easily)
add the chopped tomatoes, remember to half fill the can with water and add this to the
sauce (cleans the can for recycling at the same time).
5. Crush the chopped tomatoes in the pan with a potato masher to make a smoother sauce
but still with some texture. Turn up the heat to get it reducing and bubbling
6. Add a pinch of salt and some black pepper to taste (it really does need seasoning)
7. Reduce the sauce until it is nice coating consistency and keep stirring from time to time.
Turn down the heat once the sauce has thickened.
8. Tear the basil leaves (no knife needed as this can make the delicate basil leaves turn black)
9. When the pasta is cooked the sauce should be ready as well
10. Drain the pasta reserving a little of the pasta water (use this water if the sauce has over
thickened.)
11. Put the drained pasta into the sauce add in the torn basil leaves and stir everything
together making sure to coat all of the pasta.

Serve in bowls and enjoy
If you want to make it pretty add some fresh basil when you serve

Sometimes I push the boat out and go to ALDI, they have great garlic bread baguettes for very little and they are super tasty to serve with it.

This sauce also freezes well. I have small one portion lock and lock style plastic pots that I can portion this up into and freeze. So you can feed 1 person 4 times and only cook the sauce once :-). You can also add the pasta coated in the sauce and freeze, but this takes up much more space in the freezer and I prefer to cook the pasta fresh.

debbiedodge1737

wow its a dated thread, Great ideas, but I just read from the start and people where talking of 500g lambs mince for 66p and whole chickens for £2 ...... which is no longer the case. It got me thinking I used to budget a big roast with dessert for my own family of 5 plus company and I would spend £5 on that. ... now I spend almost that on the chicken, food getting ridiculously expensive.