Cheapest meal

The_Thrilla

Cabbage and Bacon for Breakfast

rashers of bacon from Lidl or the refridgerated bargain counter

cheap white cabbage

stalk of onion from the garden

a little water


Put water in the pressure cooker. Chop cabbage and onion stalk and place in the pressure cooker. Bacon can be chopped or left whole as desired. Cook on high pressure for five minutes, while you brew your tea or coffee. You can use a steamer if you don't have a pressure cooker.

It's fast; it's cheap; it's nutritious; it's delicious. A real Irishman's breakfast!

Nodette

thriftlady wrote: »

This is from Jocasta Innes' The Pauper's Cookbook and is one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten.

Potato,Bacon and Onion Hotpot

Slice a potato for each person + one for the pot thinly
Slice a large onion or more if you like lots of onion
Chop up some bacon-as much or as little as you can spare-or you can use ham
Make a white sauce-add cheese if you like
Layer ingredients in a deep oven-proof dish to come half-way up
Pour on half sauce
Layer rest of ingredients and pour over rest of sauce
Cover with lid or foil and bake for 1 hour at 200c then take off lid/foil and bake for another hour at 180c.

I should add that you should end with a layer of potato as it looks nicer,and you can season the layers with pepper(salty already from bacon-but too your own taste obviously)

Serve with a cheap veg like carrots or cabbage.HTH :wave:

I just made this the other day and it is amazing.
Somebody (sorry, couldn't find who - but thanks whoever you are) mentioned it is also good with mackerel - and it is!

Sitting in my freezer were some raw smoked mackerel fillets that DH kept turning up his nose at. So I made this hotpot merely to use them up and hopefully hide them a bit.

"What's this?" my hubby said, "It's brilliant."
When I told him what it was, he replied, "So a sort of fish pie? But I don't like fish pie..."
He does now - and he even said I MUST do it again!

Hippeechiq

I'll 2nd that.

In fact I have recommended it in quite a few posts of mine.

I've only ever done it with a cheese sauce and chopped dry fried bacon, but it's unbelievably good for something so simple.

LizEstelle

I assume someone has pointed out this thread..?

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=326929

pennypusher

How about Sausage stew

1 lb Sausages
Carrots (as many as you need for all of you)
Potatoes (as above)
Tin Tomatoes
1/2 pint water

Fry sausages until lightly browned, add carrots thinly sliced and fry for 3 mins. Drain off surplus fat, add tin chopped tomatoes and water and bring to boil. Simmer for 30 mins. Add potatoes chopped into small squares and simmer for another 30 mins or until potatoes are soft and absorb some of the liquid. Serve with peas. Lovely!

learningalways

My biggest money-saving tip:a cheap steamer(cost £10 in Wilkinsons) and of course a slow cooker.Healthier,the vegetables benefit , less fuel, I use electric, less water,we are on a meter.No salt if you have blood pressure problems or if you have little ones.You soon get used to the taste of no salt.Make a Woolton pie. Dissolve a reduced salt veg stock cube in water you have used for steaming veg, add a good tablespoon medium oatmeal and allow to stand while you make pastry.Mix cubed cooked veg and add to mixture with fresh chopped parsley, cover with pastry and cook. Very tasty hot or cold.If you add a spoonful of tinned marrow fat peas , it boosts the protein level.Or instead of oatmeal, cook some red split lentils until mushy and add to veg.

learningalways

PS Further to above post. I despair at the cost of herbs in the SM so try one of our local markets or at a push use dried. Best grown in a pot at home or in garden but I never have much success.I f anyone can tell me the cheapest supermarket for herbs, I would be grateful

[Deleted User]

learningalways wrote: »

Make a Woolton pie. Dissolve a reduced salt veg stock cube in water you have used for steaming veg, add a good tablespoon medium oatmeal and allow to stand while you make pastry.Mix cubed cooked veg and add to mixture with fresh chopped parsley, cover with pastry and cook. Very tasty hot or cold.If you add a spoonful of tinned marrow fat peas , it boosts the protein level.Or instead of oatmeal, cook some red split lentils until mushy and add to veg.

I know it cheap and cheerful and costs pennies to make but having grown up eating Woolton Pie I think I would honestly eat a fresh air sandwich:rotfl: Trying to think of a really cheap meal today after looking at the price of the food stuff at the beginning of this thread I think probably egg and chips maybe or a pasta dish would be the cheapest. Anyone else have some good ideas about a really cheap inexpensive dish to fill the mealtime when pennies are short ???

zaxdog

Our cheapest meal this week has been Sausage, new potato and kale casserole:

Sausages - 0p (Mr Zaxdog is a breakfast chef and brings home the excess )
Kale - 5p YS
New potatoes - around 20p (1/2 bag of super 6)
Onion - 10p
Stock pot - 0p (roast garlic and a freebie)
Bisto - 0p (another freebie)

All in the slow cooker so - 35p and it made 4 big bowls :T

SailorSam

We're forever reading stories in the press about people who can't afford to put a meal on the table and are starving. But if you're willing to spend a little bit of time to prepare something, you don't have to spend much money.