The Cheapest Healthy Meal Ever!

thriftlady_2

Those brown crusty bits are the best bit Apple . Credit must go to Jocasta Innes though not me

apple_mint

Aaah but .. you brought it to my attention Thriftlady and it has the added bonus of only costing around a pound to make :T

jennyjelly

A bit later than I promised, but here is my costing for the potato dish:

2.5kg spuds (@ £1.76 for 5 kg in Asda) - 88p
2 tins Asda Smart Price chopped toms @ 15p - 30p
1lb onions (@ 40p kg in Asda) - 20p
8oz cheese (Asda Smart price @ 3.34 kg) - 76p
Oil - just a little - say - 10p

This makes a grand total of a whopping £2.24.

When you consider that this feeds 4 very hungry/greedy people on its own, or 6 or even 8 it they are less greedy or if you put something else with it, I reckon this is a bit of a bargain. :beer:

Happy New Year everyone!

jcr16

i have just made this for tonight. and for the cheese i used some left over red lecister from xmas. i must say it look so striking in the bowl. the layer of cheese makes it look so interesting.

thriftlady_2

Thanks for costing that out Jennyjelly.

If you buy a 20 kg sack of spuds from a farmshop they work out at 25p a kilo (£5 a sack) which brings the cost of the dish down to £1.98

They last for ages in a cold garage too.

jcr16

i think u could get away with using less cheese. i have used 100g of cheese. i grated it on the small side of cheese grater and i have done 3 layers of cheese plus generous helping for top.

the cheese i bought was 3 packs for 3 pound. so 1 pound a pack and i used half . so for me cost 50p for cheese. hope that makes sence. also the spuds i used were 2 bags of king edward for 2.20. i used half of 1 bag . so 55p. ( tesco prices )

but thanks for ur costing jenny jelly. i am loving this thread

jcr16

i worked out for me to cook this cost.

spuds as above 55p
cheese as above 50p
onions (80p bag had 20 small in there) used 4 16p
dash of milk 20p
salt and pepper pinch on each level. (no idea on cost maybe 2p )

so this cost me 1.61. and it will serve 2 adults. plus 1 child ( one of my children refuses to eat it 0. and hubby will have second's. if not thirds.

jennyjelly

thriftlady wrote:

Thanks for costing that out Jennyjelly.

If you buy a 20 kg sack of spuds from a farmshop they work out at 25p a kilo (£5 a sack) which brings the cost of the dish down to £1.98

They last for ages in a cold garage too.

I only wish we had a farm shop near enough to make it cost effective. Our nearest one is about 10 miles away, which kind of defeats the object! We have a farmers market locally but it is mostly high end organic stuff - very nice but hardly MS!

It occurs to me though that most car boot sales have a veg seller, so I shall investigate on Sunday - while the weather is this cold it would probably be possible to buy enough of everything for the week. (It'll give me a chance for a good old rummage too - so what I save on veges I'll probably spend on what DH will see as more junk;) ).

Until recently Asda sold value spuds (perfectly good, just unwashed and odd sizes and shapes) in 10 kg brown paper sacks and they were really cheap, about £2.50 if memory serves, but they haven't had any for ages which is why I've been buying their ordinary ones. Could be because of the time of year. Hopefully they will appear again - I'll let you know if they do.

tiff

Whereabouts in Somerset are you Jenny? There is a very popular farm shop at Farrington Gurney just off the A37 (between Bristola and Wells) and there is another one at Brockley Coombe, cant remember the name of that road.

shinydriver

jennyjelly wrote:

I only wish we had a farm shop near enough to make it cost effective. Our nearest one is about 10 miles away, which kind of defeats the object! We have a farmers market locally but it is mostly high end organic stuff - very nice but hardly MS!

It occurs to me though that most car boot sales have a veg seller, so I shall investigate on Sunday - while the weather is this cold it would probably be possible to buy enough of everything for the week. (It'll give me a chance for a good old rummage too - so what I save on veges I'll probably spend on what DH will see as more junk;) ).

Until recently Asda sold value spuds (perfectly good, just unwashed and odd sizes and shapes) in 10 kg brown paper sacks and they were really cheap, about £2.50 if memory serves, but they haven't had any for ages which is why I've been buying their ordinary ones. Could be because of the time of year. Hopefully they will appear again - I'll let you know if they do.

My first post I hope if this goes OK!

Dad is a potato farmer and is predicting shortages this year so you may find that value potatoes are being sold for higher prices to suppliers rather than reaching teh supermarket shelves. I know the shortage has been reported on the news and dad predicts that sacks of potatoes that usually sell for between £3.50-£7 in our area will be selling for £16.

I'm lucky as I have a free supply (and will def be trying this recipe!) but if you are able to bulk buy potatoes I would as the supermarket prices may rocket.

BTW what we call corn beef hash is a bit of a variation on this recipe but we do baked bean/toms/corned beef with any suitable veg and then potato layered on teh top with a sprinkling of cheese. It is fine served on its own.