The Cheapest Healthy Meal Ever!

Aged_P

pavlovs_dog wrote:

mmm thriftlady - yum yum pigs bum! cheers for the linky :beer:

That saying as a blast from the past 1940.s. Made me laugh.

queenpig

Not healthy as such but fairly cheap and quiet filling actually.

Glug of oil
mushrooms
sherreded lettuce
dash of worcester sauce, dash of black pepper
4-6 eggs
grated cheese.

Preheat oven to 200.

fry mushrooms and lettuce in a pan till mushrooms are soft, add worcester sauce add to taste and stir.

Divide the mixture into 4-6 "nests" in an oven proof dish, break an egg on top of each nest sprinkle cheese on egg bake for around 10 mins or until eggs or cooked and cheeese has melted.

Boomdocker

I cannot take the credit for this. Was posted by Seraphina on another thread but sounds delish and is very cheap and healthy.

Pea and mint soup.
"I make pea and mint soup and rarely measure anything - I just chuck in a small packet of frozen petits pois and about a litre of stock into a large pan, after frying off some finely chopped onion. I then add mint just before I blend it - how much you want to add is up to you!"

How good does that sound eh? :T

missthang

Thank you. I made it today it was yummy, we had mixed veg with it. It does take a while to cook though 45 mins +

Carolie38_2

Hi Guys
Feel mean that I've got your scrummy receipes!

Heres my great veggie soup!

1 Bag root veg, most supermarkets do this in their cheap range, or 1lb carrots, 2 onions, small turnip & 3 parsnips.
4 med sized potatoes.
Sml tub Dble cream
2 stock cubes

Chop all veg and place in pressure cooker or stock pot, I only peel the onions. cover to 1" above veg add salt 2 stock cubes, I use 1 veg, 1 chicken. sprinkle of black pepper and herbs. cook untill all veg is soft or pressure cooker is at pressure.

whiz with a hand blender till smooth add more pepper etc to taste, and sml tub of cream.

this usually feeds us for a good part of the week and some lunches at work too!

jennyjelly

Carolie38 wrote:

Hi Guys
Feel mean that I've got your scrummy receipes!

Heres my great veggie soup!

1 Bag root veg, most supermarkets do this in their cheap range, or 1lb carrots, 2 onions, small turnip & 3 parsnips.
4 med sized potatoes.
Sml tub Dble cream
2 stock cubes

Chop all veg and place in pressure cooker or stock pot, I only peel the onions. cover to 1" above veg add salt 2 stock cubes, I use 1 veg, 1 chicken. sprinkle of black pepper and herbs. cook untill all veg is soft or pressure cooker is at pressure. whiz with a hand blender till smooth add more pepper etc to taste, and sml tub of cream.

this usually feeds us for a good part of the week and some lunches at work too!

That sounds really nice. It's very similar to one I've been making for years (which was originally done by Michael Barry on BBC Food & Drink) but I think it would taste much more luxurious because of the cream, so I will try yours next time I do soup. Here's my old standby anyway:

8oz each of leeks, carrots, potatoes and onions
1oz butter
2 pints of veg stock made with 5 cubes
Salt & pepper

Cube veges, fry in butter, add s&p and stock and simmer for about 30 mins, check seasoning then blend.

Really quick, and easy to double up. Useful if all the cream has been eaten by greedy sons as it always is in our house!

jennyjelly

thriftlady wrote:

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! QUOTE]


The one I use is actually about 10 miles away from me too It's a toss up between driving all over the countryside to get cheap, locally grown produce from friendly people who know me and need the business, or walking to my local shop and buying produce that's travelled all over the country and the rest of the world from a mega-business who treat farmers badly and claim something like 30 % of the country's grocery spend. My local shop is Tesco.

That is such a valid point thriftlady. You are absolutely right, there is more to be considered than the price at the checkout, and we do all have a responsibility to do what we can to shop ethically.

I have a couple of friends who are also keen on buying fresh local and cheap, so I'm going to suggest a rota to do the farm shop run. If they are not interested (I suppose it could be difficult if we all use our spuds at a different rate) then I'm going to try doing a monthly run myself and hope the spuds will keep that long (should be ok at this time of year but might be a bit dodgy in the summer).

I'll let you know how it goes.

Tried the boot sale this moring but no sacks of spuds - maybe that price hike is kicking in already.

jennyjelly

By the way, on the subject of The Pauper's Cookbook, I'd also like to recommend a book I've had for many years and wouldn't like to be without. It's The Austerity Cookbook by Bridget Ardley, and is based on recipes invented to cope with wartime rationing. The emphasis is on things you can grow yourself, and on making basic ingredients a bit special, so it's very OS.

I believe it's out of print now, but it's well worth keeping an eye open at boot sales. Meanwhile if anyone is interested I could post some of the recipes.

nodwah

jojo3 wrote:

I've done this layered dish using leftover slices of any cooked joint.
layer 1 - meat and branston pickle or similar
layer 2 - onions
layer 3 - sliced potato, marg/butter dotted on plus seasoning.
Cook for ages. Eat. Lovely!

this is a bit like the traditional scottish dinner of stovies. You take all the meat+ veg leftovers from the Sunday roast, layer it up with sliced onion and potato and any gravy or add some water. We've always done this in a frying pan with a tight fitting lid and cooked slowly for about an hour. There are family variations on this, some people like the potatos all mushy so add more gravy etc, but it's actually more tasty than the roast was usually!

sharonr

Made this Monday night. Had a rolled shoulder of Pork for Sunday lunch which cost £3 two of us ate some of it for Sunday lunch, then made the layer thing below which two and a small one ate, plus OH had leftovers for lunch the next day and I had a roast pork sandwich, not bad value at all. The layer thing was delicious, shall be doing that a lot in the future!

Layer potatoes
Layer sliced pork and leftover veg
Sliced raw onion
Sprinkle of garlic powder
another layer pork
Tin tomatoes
Layer potatoes
Spinkle of cheese
Topped up to just below top layer of potatoes with chicken stock

Cooked on 180 degress for an hour with lid on, then a bit longer without lid until crispy on top. FANTASTIC.