The Cheapest Healthy Meal Ever!

spiddy100

I make fishcakes with tinned mackerel fillets for the kids - cheaper than salmon and very tasty, it's the only way I know to get them to eat oily fish. Nice with some chopped leek or spring onion in too, or a tin of sweetcorn, or even some chopped cabbage or leftover brocolli. I always put 1/2 a beaten egg in to bind it together.

philcdav

you will need beans, bread, butter and cheese to suit.

"grill" toast bread on one side and then butter untoasted side EDGES only.

spread beans, cold, from can up to the edges.

grill until steaming.

cover with grated cheese and grill until prefered state, dark brown for me!

Eat and enjoy the lack of washing up.

birdlip

As our bodies have been tuned over thousands of years to raw and natural food groups, the best diet for you is actually the cheapest. If you can handle no meat and no heat (difficult in winter I know!) and lots of, ahem, pumping then this diet reduces your cholestrol and blood pressure and improves mood - featured on BBC2 recently:

5kgs or 2,300 calories of fruit, vegetables, nuts and honey
On a 3-day rota, typically:
Broccoli, carrots, radishes
Cabbage, tomatoes, watercress
Strawberries, apricots, bananas
Mangoes, melons, figs, plums
Satsumas, hazelnuts
Water

jennyjelly

WOOHOO, WE MADE THREAD OF THE WEEK!!!!

This is a thead I shall keep coming back to time and time again as there are so many fab and cheap recipes on it.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed! :beer:

Liz19

thriftlady wrote:

No, you don't need to cook the bacon. The dish is cooked for a long time Here's the recipe

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=1669907&postcount=340

I should say it is adapted (slightly) from Jocasta Innes' 'Pauper's Cookbook'

It's also nice with smoked mackerel instead of bacon.

Many thanks for the recipe, Thriftlady. I made this yesterday and it was absolutely gorgeous!

BoingBoing_2

I've just made my own version of the original recipe in this post, substituting onions for leeks and only putting cheese on the top. Slightly more healthy but just as tasty. Thanks jennyjelly!

rosie383

This was our favourite food as kids in Belfast. It still goes down very well today with my family and all visiting kids.

Ingredients: potatoes peeled and diced
value pack mature cheese (sliced)
cheap baked beans
splash of milk
butter or marg

Put potatoes on to boil. Once they come to the boil, turn heat down to simmer. This means you don't get lumpy mash. When spuds are soft, mash immediately after draining while still very hot. Add slices of cheese, milk and butter and mix to quite sloppy consistency. Season to taste. Serve with baked beans poured over the top. Beware! A litlle goes a very long way with this dish. The ultimate tummy filler on a budget.

anne99

I know a previous post has mentioned stovies, but it is such a wonderful dish that it's worth another recipe. When I was young we were all delighted when we had a roast on Sunday, as it meant we would get delicious stovies on Monday. Actually, I still feel the same now.

You don't need much meat, but keep all the juices and scrapings from the roasting tin to maximise the tastiness. My favourite is roast lamb, but beef is great too.

Chop an onion or two into bite-sized pieces, and fry (medium heat) in some fat/dripping/pan scrapings from the roast lamb or beef in a heavy-bottomed pot which has a lid. You don't need much fat, and the aim is to get the onions slightly browned and softened. Add potatoes cut into quarters or eighths - chunks about 2x2x1 cm. Stir it up a bit, but leave most of the onions on the bottom. Add a little salt if your taste requires it, but nowadays I don't usually bother. Add water to about 1/4 up the potatoes at most. Cook gently on a low heat with the lid on for about 40 minutes, giving the pot a shake every few minutes and the occasional stir. Add more water if needed, but the aim is to finish with a dryish dish. When the potatoes are almost cooked to 'boiled potato' consistency, add any leftover meat chopped into small pieces, along with any more scrapings you can get off the roasting pan. Cook for a further ten minutes with the lid on or off depending on how much water is left. Serve, making sure you give it a good stir and scrape the pot well to share out the delicious brown bits from the bottom.

I'm not sure of quantities, but as a rule of thumb I use twice or three times as much potatoes as I would normally cook, as my potato-tolerant-but-not-loving family eat stovies until they are stuffed, and it reheats well for my lunch next day (if, rarely, there's any left.)

My mum still makes the best stovies, but mine are improving and not far behind. The secrets I have found are not to use too much fat, or it can be greasy, and to brown the onions bravely to maximise the caramelised flavour.

A few years ago, we were going to stay with my parents and I took a leg of lamb as a present - just so Mum would definitely make stovies while we were there!

I'm not sure of the costings of this, it would mostly depend on how much meat you used and what it had cost, but it is definitely our family's favourite left-overs/budget meal. Actually, I think it is just our favourite dish, full stop.

tiff

We too had the recipe in the OP tonight. It was delicious, now I'm thinking of variations to try. Was thinking we could add cooked sausages and add a dash of worcestershire sauce to the tinned tomatoes, almost like sausage casserole.

jennyjelly

rosie383 wrote:

This was our favourite food as kids in Belfast. It still goes down very well today with my family and all visiting kids.

Ingredients: potatoes peeled and diced
value pack mature cheese (sliced)
cheap baked beans
splash of milk
butter or marg

Put potatoes on to boil. Once they come to the boil, turn heat down to simmer. This means you don't get lumpy mash. When spuds are soft, mash immediately after draining while still very hot. Add slices of cheese, milk and butter and mix to quite sloppy consistency. Season to taste. Serve with baked beans poured over the top. Beware! A litlle goes a very long way with this dish. The ultimate tummy filler on a budget.

I used to do this for my kids when they were little, but with the beans mashed in as well. It was one of the first things they managed to spoon into their own mouths (though admittedly most of it went on their hair, the ceiling, the dog etc.), and even now they are almost grown up they still ask for it if they are ill.

As you say, the ultimate budget filler, but I think it's the ultimate comfort food too.