£7.00 per week - menu ideas

prepareathome

I made basically the same as your easy cheese spaggitti but using sainsbobs basics - this is for two

basics long spaggitti 39p x 500g ( use half a packet)
basics cheese spread 43p x 150g tub

after cooking and draining pasta I just threw it back in pan with a small amount of butter ( could use oil or margarine) then stirred in the cheese sauce keeping it on a low light till cheese spread had spread all over the pasta.

If I was really, really stuck for cash I could add a tad more butter/marg/oil and only half the tub of cheese spread, wouldn't be as tasty but still edible.

I serve it with basics garlic bread or any make if I can get it cheaper in reduced section.

If only having that then a full packet of spaghetti would be used to fill us up.

quintwins

i make pasta sauce using the fake value philly at 50p half a tub with a few value mushrooms and some pasta is yummy

Butterfly_Brain

Here's another spaghetti dish

Lemon and Pea Spaghetti

Spaghetti
Juice of ½ a lemon
100g peas tinned, fresh or frozen
3 chopped spring onions

Cook spaghetti
finely chop and saute the onions and peas in a little butter or oil until the peas are heated through add the lemon juice add to the spaghetti and serve with a little grated cheese if you have it

faerie~spangles

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Here's another spaghetti dish

Lemon and Pea Spaghetti

Spaghetti
Juice of ½ a lemon
100g peas tinned, fresh or frozen
3 chopped spring onions

Cook spaghetti
finely chop and saute the onions and peas in a little butter or oil until the peas are heated through add the lemon juice add to the spaghetti and serve with a little grated cheese if you have it

That sounds delicious:)

I would eat pasta every day but OH isn't so keen.

Oh I prefer lime to lemon:)

smiler34

The BB on the lentils isn't desperate x

Pink.

Hi chunkysmum,

I have added your storecupboard thread to your existing one on living on £7.00 a week so that people who are trying to help can see what you have in stock.

Pink

debbym

Pasta with Garlic and Tomato (serves 4)

my go to storecupboard recipe for the end of the week - or when I'm doing crazy menu plans!
300g spaghetti (14p) (Tescos everyday shaphetti is 24p for 500g)
1 carton passata (29p) (price for Tescos, Morrisons and Lidl at the mo)
1 clove garlic (8p)

Cook the pasta in boiling water according to packet instructions.
Whilst pasta is cooking take a wide-based pan (I use a frying pan) pour in the passata and then rinse out the carton and pour too.
Peel and crush your clove of garlic and add to the passata and allow to simmer and reduce whilst the pasta is cooking (since spaghetti takes only a few minutes I need the passata to reduce quickly hence the wide pan)
When the pasta is cooked drain and put into the pan with the passata, toss around to ensure the pasta is coated. Serve.

total cost =51p 13p per head

variations:
should your store cupboard allow
add basil leaves to the passata just before serving
grate over cheese before serving
throw in any odds and sods like cooked chicken from the roast, chopped cooked veggies etc (the infamous bendy carrots for example, just cook first)

PhGage

Soworried wrote: »

lentil based meals.

Cheap Family Recipes: red lentil pate; tomato and olive pudding (doesn't have to be olives, this work with leftover dried green peas substituted for them small cubes of cooked potato, or peanuts).

Lentil Recipes UK has a number of useful recipes (that would need to be simplified to match available ingredients if you don't have the spices). It even has a lentil and rice pudding which is a very good dessert/breakfast if you can spare the milk (powdered milk works well), substitute the cardamom (which is lovely but if you haven't got it, you just don't) with mixed spice (for baking), add the raisins or other dried fruit, but omit the nuts if you don't have them. Plain white granulated sugar doesn't have the same slightly toffee-ish overtones of palm sugar but is an OK substitute for it (Mix white with soft brown if you have some, or even heat a little of the sugar in a dry pan until it starts to turn colour and slightly caramelise.)

PhGage

We tend to cook up a batch of lentils or yellow split peas until they're cooked, mushy but thick and holding their shape and then we treat the mix several different ways depending on what we are eating.

If half of the mix is stirred thoroughly until it breaks down into a thick sort of mash, add butter, salt and pepper to taste for pease pudding and serve with meat substitute, pork, sausages etc. or onion gravy. Leftover pease pudding is good microwaved or fried, served with more gravy or a mustard sauce.

Pease pudding can be pressed level in a small baking dish and, if you need to stretch the meat, or have a small amount of cooking bacon, then cook the sausage or bacon, and cut into appropriately small pieces (slices for sausage, dice for bacon). Press the meat at regular intervals into the pease pudding (imagine the number of servings that you want and distribute the meat accordingly) and then top with another layer of pease pudding or some leftover mash potato (if you have any). Heat in the microwave/oven until hot/slightly browned (as appropriate) and then serve with suitable gravy or just some fried onions.

The plain, cooked, lentils or split peas can be beaten into a thick puree, seasoned to taste or with suitable available spices, slackened a little with cooking water or cooking oil and then used as either a dip for vegetables/crackers or a sandwich spread for bread.

Our dhals aren't authentic but they're a good way to vary lentils/split peas when you've made a batch. Fry onion and whatever suitable spices are available, add the lentils/split peas and keep stirring, add a little water or stock to keep thick, or add more water to make a thinner dhal that can be served with rice and/or breads and pickles. This spiced version can also be substantially thinned (to taste but re-season) to make a good soup.

Similarly, plain, cooked, lentils or split peas can be heated adjusted to a preferred thickness (correct the seasoning), and then have tempered spices poured over them.

If you don't have many spices because you're building up your store cupboard, then an early purchase might be garam masala, add a little to fried onions and pour that over (not at all authentic but adds flavour). When you can afford to buy a spice (but not all the separate ones such as cumin, coriander, curry leaves etc.) then we find panch poran to be a good mix for tempering (spices cooked whole in oil or with a little onion until sizzling and then poured over).

If you don't have spices for dhal (even some mixed spice of the sort used for baking can be very tasty), then just the fried onions and even a little zest of lemon/orange are good.

debbym

I don't use lentils much myself as OH hates them so much he describes them as "scales off the Devils ars*" just the thing to inspire our 3 kids to try them!
As a result I tend to use the red ones hidden in plain sight as it were:
Tomato and red lentil soup - blitzed
sprinkle of red lentils in spag bol sauce/ chilli/ shepherds pie etc (tell them its tomato seeds from using tinned toms he he)
Cooked red lentils pureed with chickpeas in hummus
same mixture as the soup but left thick for a pasta sauce
red lentil dahl (kids will eat it not OH, he's wise to what it is)