The Cheapest Healthy Meal Ever!

basil1

Hello, thank you for that. Im new to this but thought Id share my 2 favourite store cupboard recipes. This is a useful one which tastes divine and more expensive than it is. You will need:
2 tins of plum tomatoes
olive oil
pinch sugar
pinch salt
any herbs you have
pasta

Pour some olive oil in a roasting dish (according to taste - from about 3 tbsp to as much as you like). Take out the toms with a spoon, reserving juice and place them carefully in dish. Sprinkle with salt, sugar and herbs (Ive got some rosemary in the garden so I just chuck a bit of that in) oh and a couple of garlic cloves if you have them in. Then roast on about GM 7 for 30 mins. You can turn them if you wish. The roasting caramelises them a bit and really intensifies the flavour. I was giving this to my 3 year old so I blended and seived before I added the rest of the juice from the tin. I gave him his with spaghetti and a couple of lumps of frozen spinach (microwaved) with a bit of grated cheese on. I chucked some olives in mine which had been in the fridge for about 6 months. This is a really lovely pasta sauce which freezes well too. V cheap and cheerful, easy and no need to go out in the peeing rain.

While Im on...
The easiest one in the world is this. You will need:
A butternut squash (only 99p in Morrisons t'other week and last ages)
1 packet of mexican style cous-cous (49p in Sainsburys)

Cut squash in half and scoop out seeds (keep and dry them if you can be bothered).
Put in a roasting tin and bake on GM7 for about 30 mins until soft.Make up the cous-cous and stuff it into the holes piling it up a bit, return to oven for about 15 mins. V nice, v healthy and it looks prettty impressive too. £1.48. Hurray!

studentphil

You might be bettr leaving the layers of cheese until the last. In the OP Cheese mixed in with the toms might be a bit sickly.

organic_wanabe

basil1, thanks for the tomatoes in oven bit above - it just occurred to me that this would be a great way to do a HM pizza sauce if you have the oven on anyway. (I usually do it to a similar recipe on the hob -isn't it odd how you read something and a penny drops!)

jcr16

i often do this. it so cheap , simple and filling. i just call it potato , cheese and onion pie tho. ( i wonder why he he )

but sometimes i add some frozen sweetcorn to each layer and this makes a great change and because of the cheese the sweetcorn is even more devine than usual.

jennyjelly

Love the idea of caramelising the toms in the oven - can't believe it's never occurred to me to do this before!

On the subject of pasta, here's another nice one.

Soften some sliced onions in oil, add herbs, S&P and a couple of tins of chopped toms & cook gently for a few mins. Add grated or crumbled or chopped cheese (or preferably torn up mozarella) let it melt, then stir in as much cooked pasta as you want.

Really quick, really cheap if you use value stuff, and utterly delicious.

I think this was on one of those recipe cards sainsburys give out about 15 years ago, I don't have the card any more but I do still make the recipe.

elona

If you make your own thin pancakes, spread with a little tomato pizza type sauce, then add leftover chopped chicken, sauteed onions and grated cheese in a cheese sauce - roll up pancakes and put in oven dish and spread cheese sauce over the top and sprinkle with grated cheese on top.

.
Bake for about half an hour. My family love this but as there are six of us it takes a while to make the pancakes - worth it though.

jennyjelly

elona wrote:

If you make your own thin pancakes, spread with a little tomato pizza type sauce, then add leftover chopped chicken, sauteed onions and grated cheese in a cheese sauce - roll up pancakes and put in oven dish and spread cheese sauce over the top and sprinkle with grated cheese on top.

.
Bake for about half an hour. My family love this but as there are six of us it takes a while to make the pancakes - worth it though.

Oooh yum! This is one I must try. A bit of green salad and a french stick and I can't imagine anything nicer. Thanks so much for posting it.

pavlovs_dog

this thread is making me hungry!

jennyjelly

pavlovs_dog wrote:

this thread is making me hungry!

Me too! How long to go till lunch? Damn, a good couple of hours yet. Oh well, maybe I'll just have a cuppa and some Christmas cake .... again.

jcr16

just had a thought ( and yes it did hurt, lol) what about adding tuna aswell to it. so a layer of spud , onion , sweetcorn , tuna and cheese and carry on till top of dish.

this recipe is so versitile , i guess anything could be added.depending on what u had that needed using.