Please help! Need impressive lunch on a budget

PipneyJane

I'd either go for soup with nice bread or a cold starter like home made pât!. Since you've been baking, mention that you baked the bread yourself for extra brownie points. Whatever you choose, something prepared in advance is a godsend.

Main course: pasta as others have suggested, or a stew or risotto. I do my risotto in the oven - start it off on the stove then, when the first lot of hot stock is absorbed, add the rest of the HOT stock, stir well, cover and bake at 200C for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, stir well, top up with hot stock/boiling water if needed and return to the oven for another 10 minutes. Remove again from oven, check if rice is cooked and risotto is not soupy - if so return to the oven for another 10 minutes, if not finish off per the recipe (stir in cheese or cream or whatever) and serve.

Pudding - everyone loves a crumble. If you have electric beaters, a pavlova gives a lot of bang for 4 egg whites and a little sugar (my friends call it "the bling of cakes"). The case should be made the night before and filled at the last minute. There is a recipe on my blog.

Whatever you do, you will get big brownie points for serving something that is obviously home made with care and love, instead of a ready meal. Go for simple and tasty (pasta with salad) instead of something complex and you'll be fine.

squidgychesspiece

Pipney Jane I your signature!!! :rotfl:

Yes, I'm set on home made and think it'll work out cheaper too. Gone are the days of panic buying in Waitrose!! Now crumble is MIL's fave but isn't risotto notoriously hard to get right? Don't want to attempt anything with high disaster potential

adelight

An italian themed homely meal?
HM herb bread or focaccia and soup or pate(chunky pork, more rustic). If you did carbonara with egg yolk for main you could use the whites in pavlova as suggested. If you put the whites in a jug and spin a normal whisk between your palms it whisks egg whites really well very quickly. Some tiramisu recipes also use egg whites. Don't try to do tiramisu on the cheap, it's just not as nice without mascarpone.

ETA: buy some risotto rice and do a practice run in the week?

Stephen_Leak

OK. Cheap but impressive? This one immediately springs to mind ...

TROUT & BACON

This recipe is almost too good to be true. It uses a few inexpensive and wholesome ingredients, the preparation is really simple, yet it gives a really luxurious result with an unusual but delicious combination of flavours.

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

2 trout fillets, with the skin on
2 large or 4 small rashers of bacon
1 tablespoon of butter
¼ of a teaspoon of dried parsley

METHOD

Rinse the fish under cold water. Remove any excess water from the fish with some kitchen paper. Run your fingers along the fish and remove any remaining small bones with your thumb and forefinger or a pair of tweezers.

Put the bacon in the bottom of an ovenproof dish.

Put the trout fillet, skin side up, on top of the bacon.

Mix the butter and parsley together.

Spread half of the parsley butter on top of each trout fillet.

Cook in a preheated oven at 180°C, 350°F, gas mark 4 for about 25 minutes.

ADDITIONS & ALTERNATIVES

Use fresh parsley instead of dried parsley.

Serve with new potatoes and green vegetables or crusty bread and a salad.

TIPS

Buy a whole trout and get the fishmonger to fillet it. I did this when I tested this recipe and it only cost me £1.33 or 66½p per fillet.

You can get ready-made pats of butter with parsley in it from supermarket fish counters.

Petlamb

A slimming world idea is smoked salmon pate - could make an ace starter for not too much money? SW way is SS trimmings, quark, s&p and chives... but for cheapness and extra flavour you could make with value philly instead of the quark

VfM4meplse

I like the suggestions around soup and bread, and the middle eastern mezze and veggie dishes. Personally I'd go Indian, because the ingredients are cheap - but to do it properly, you do need a storecupboard that is well-stocked with spices and dried goods, and know what you are doing with them.

Making a decent focaccia is easy btw.

[Deleted User]

How does Egg Mayonnaise and Home made Bread and butter, followed by Boiled Gammon, New Potatoes and salad and for pudding Fresh Pineapple sound? Egg Mayo only needs 1 egg per person and a tablespoon of mayonnaise, sprinkled with a little paprika to pretty it up. Serve on a little bit of shredded lettuce to look professional. The Gammon is very reasonable if you get the Value joint from any of the big supermarkets, new pots with a bit of butter luxurious and if you have it a sprinkle of fresh parsley mmmmmmm! And fresh Pineapples are going for £1 each in the co op at the moment. Follow it with a really nice cup of coffee and they will feel spoiled. Hope that helps Lyn.

sillysid

from personal experience, a roast is not an easy option, too many things to be served hot at exact time, n too easy to get wrong.. i.e. slicing roast and it's half raw...

You want something that can't go on fire, something that everyone eats, something that doesn't require last minute racing round like a contestant on hells kitchen...

At end of day they want to see you n kids, relaxed and happy, food is bye the bye...

Scottish theme...

smoked haddock pots with oatcakes...easy, real tasty, prepared in advance...

whisky beef casserole - spring green cabbage and mash (bubble n squeak with leftovers next day) basically stew with slug of whisky and dumplings...

Creamed rice pudding- use a tin of carnation milk in with ordinary milk quota - makes it really carmel-ly, par cook on stove, then finish off in oven to get that lovely skin on top, serve with tin of peaches, pears...

Or a crumble...

crumble mix - use half white/ half brown sugar, rather than all white sugar - makes a real difference to taste. serve with vanilla ice cream = no faffing with custard...


French theme...

Cream of celery soup, cheap, incredibly easy, really light n moreish, on my xmas menu every year, even kids eat it...melba toast, looks great, stale bread user upper...

beef bourgineoun with creamed pots, green beans - delish...great for stress free dinner party, as only last minute cooking is mashing spuds and cooking frozen whole beans, and it tastes as if you've spend half your life getting it just so...

apple tart tatin...the easy one, using shop bought puff, apples n caramel sauce...

if any good I'll pass on recipes xx