Cheapest meal

janeawej

I do the same, if feeling flush will fry some chopped up value bacon off cuts and put them in a small bowl on the table the kids love to sprinkle some on top! or grated cheese in a bowl to sprinkle, or if u r an onion fan fried crispy onion is nice on top! also this is realy cheap! use the crusts of sliced loaves, spread with butter sprinkle with garlic granules and grill cut into fingers and you have very cheap garlic bread (I recently did this camping and my godson thought it was brill we then had to have it every day!) lovely with the pasta !

janeawej

or just put a bit of olive oil and some garlic in with your pasta lovely!

EllieB_2

Here's one you could try -if you haven't got around to growing your own veg yet - find a family member, friend or similar with an allotment - I got talking to a distant family member about his veg plot at a party on Saturday and he was only too pleased to show me round his allotment (and gave me tips to grow my own which I am going to do and save shedloads) and gave me a big bag of veg to take home. Tonight I did the following - fried potatoes, onions, peas, green beans and tomatoes gently in olive oil - added a teaspoon of vegetable stock, 1/4 pint milk and a spoon of curry paste - simmered for twenty mins - hey presto - tasty, healthy and nutritious meal and cost me less than 50p. And enough left for lunch tomorrow too.

Mirtos

Meditereanean Tomato Soup
Serves 4-6
1tblsp olive oil 10p?
1 onion 8p
9 oxos (chicken or veggie) about £1
1 tin value chopped tomatoes 9p
3 pints water
Sweat onion in oil till soft. Add tomatoes, crumbled stock cubes and water and boil until reduced by half. Salt and papper to taste. A drizzle of double cream makes it especially delicious, but costs a bit more!

Serve with Crusty bread 50p a loaf - so that feeds 6 people for £1.77 plus say 20p for water and gas etc..so £1.97 that's 32.8p per person!

Mirtos

To be honest, i don't think we ever eat anything for more than about 40p per person. Risotto, chilli, lasagne, spag bol, hm curry, stew and dumplings, lentil soup, grey peas and bacon bits - the list is endless. I think once you have a well stocked spice cupboard, anything can be done very cheaply and tastily. It's just that initial expenditure on herbs and spices etc...

loopyloulou_3

my fave cheap (although not sure how good for you!) meal is

spaghetti hoops
and mashed potato!!

not sure of the prices tho!

my neighour used to cook

tinned chooped toms, little garlic, chilli, frozen veg as a pasta sauce
it was nice! and well cheap!

loopyloulou_3

also my end of month dinner is generally beanfeast and spaghetti!
well cheap!

tanmu

I'm all for cutting down your food bill, but reading through these posts, I am not all that inspired by cheap sausages/ham etc... certain value foods are just as good as the more pricier versions, but some things you really have to spend that little bit more on. Cheap sausages are just scraps and leftovers (Tesco's own have skin and connective tissue listed amongst their ingredients :eek: ) by law a sausage only has to contain 50% pork (of any cut) to be labelled as pork - so if your sausage is just labelled 'sausage' then I can only imagine what they have thrown together to make it! I personally would rather buy the best I can afford and eat less of it, although unfortunately my budget does not stretch to organic/free range unless it is on offer. to cut my food bill and also cook healthily I try to eat 'vegetarian' once or twice a week, and pad out meat dishes with lots of beans/veggies. I steer clear of processed foods where possible and cook almost everything from scratch. There's often too much sugar/salt/additives/preservatives/colours etc in budget food to make up for a lack of quality. That's not to say all value food is bad, but I make a point of scrutinising and comparing ingredient lists.

One dish that goes down well in our house is my mixed bean chilli - I buy a mixture of dried beans and pulses from my local caribbean/asian supermarket by weight (they stock a wide variety and it costs mere pence per pound - I keep a wide range on hand in my store cupboard), soak them overnight, then boil the next day until soft. When they are cooked I simply sautee onion, garlic, celery and any other left over veggies I have left, add chilli powder and fresh/dried herbs, add the beans and cook together for 15 mins or so. Then serve with rice. I sometimes add a couple chopped up (good quality) sausages (if i have gotten a good deal!) at the sautee stage for an extra treat. This dish goes really far, is very filling, and extremely healthy. It can also be frozen.

My main point in this post is that whilst we are all trying to find cheaper ways to eat, I would like to see a few more healthier recipes, made with quality in mind

Forgive me if I sound a little preachy! I don't mean to offend, just passionate about food!

Snow_Angel

Glad wrote:

hubby used to work in a cheese factory that supplied all the main supermarkets and will never let me buy value cheese, he says that at end of each shift they would use all leftovers and scrapings from machinery and make up the value packs from it, if any cheese had gone mouldy they would cut the mould out and throw the rest in with the value stuff too

But technically, isn't all cheese mould anyway? Leftovers and scrapings from machinery - but if the machinery is clean, then does it matter. Sorry....but I'll eat anything!!! I ate bugs in Australia once :eek:

cupid_s

I find the thought of eating cheese horrific. So eating cheese which once had mould attached can surely be no worse...

I wanted to have deep fried locusts on holiday in thailand but no one would have them with me.

If it's good enough for my darling lizards its surely good enough for me