£7.00 per week - menu ideas

joedenise

Any strong cheese that melts would be fine in pasta. I often just use ordinary mature cheddar if that's all I've got in the fridge.

Denise

Fruball

Mooloo wrote: »

Oh I wish I liked blue cheese!

Ha! Me too - abominable stuff!

Any cheese would be fine - those soft philadelph!a imitation ones with garlic and herbs would be good. Or plain soft cheese with lots of crushed garlic

Butterfly_Brain

Goats cheese, feta cheese (I use the Greek style one at 75p) Parmesan, grated mature cheddar whatever you want to use. I like the tang of blue cheese that is why I use it.

Maitane

BB, thanks so much for the recipes. I always need a bit of a nudge with the super six.
I really love this thread

Butterfly_Brain

Stuffed Roasted Butternut Squash.. Serves 4

3 tbsp olive oil 20p
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, crushed 6p
1 red pepper, chopped 33p (3pk in Aldi are 99p at the moment)
1 courgette, chopped 23p (from pack of 3
1 butternut squash, halved and deseeded 69p
2 tsps mixed herbs 5p
Salt and pepper 2p
1 ball of mozzarella cubed 44p
breadcrumbs 10p

Heat the oven to 200°C /180C fan /gas mark 6.

Put the pepper, garlic and courgette on a baking tray and drizzle over 2tbsp of olive oil.
Turn the vegetables to coat them well in the oil.
Use a sharp knife to score a criss-cross on the cut surface of the butternut squash halves and put them on the baking tray, cut-side up, alongside the other vegetables. Brush the remaining olive oil over the squash.
Place the baking tray in the middle of the oven and bake for about half an hour or until the vegetables are starting to go golden.
Remove from the oven and remove the garlic cloves. Spoon out the middle of the butternut squash and mix carefully with the herbs, pepper, and courgette then season with salt and pepper. Fill the the halves of butternut squash with it , cut the mozzarella into cubes and scatter over the top along with the breadcrumbs
Return the baking tray with the butternut squash to the oven to cook for a further 25 mins, or until the cheese is melted
Remove from the oven, cut each piece in two, and serve immediately, If you're really hungry, you can have a side each, but that's more expensive.

£2.12 for 4 = 53p a serving

Just had this for dinner with a nice fresh salad from the garden
Nomnomnom

Nicki_Sue

Morning all. I spent most of last night re-reading this thread from the beginning (it was in my subscribed threads!) and some of the meals are brilliant. Very inventive.

A blog with some great inventive very cheap recipes is A Girl Called Jack (Google it, I'll not link as it looks spammy). I've found some great ideas to put into my meal plan for pennies.

Butterfly_Brain

Latest Aldi super six

plums
nectarines
runner beans
salad potatoes
tomatoes
2 pack sweetcorn

All at 69p

cazzasmazza

Hi all, I've not posted on MSE for a LONG time, but have always been an avid lurker! I just thought I would do a quick post with a couple of cheap recipes - hopefully it will help. There are some amazing things on this thread, absolutely fantastic, I love reading everyone's ideas!

My OH and I love [B]sausage curry[/B] here's what we do for 2 people, but it would be easy to adjust quantities for more people:

4 cheap sausages - cooked and diced into bitesize pieces
heaped teaspoon of flour
1 onion - sliced
2 teaspoons basics curry powder (or whatever you have similar)
half teaspoon garlic powder OR 1 clove of fresh (optional)
2 cups (on a measuring jug) of veg stock or chicken stock
Any frozen veg or fresh veg you want (we like frozen peas and frozen sliced peppers (v. economical). Cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, squash, courgettes, etc - all work well

TIP - to save on oil, you can dry fry sausages til their fat comes out and use a bit of that to fry your onion in, if you wish.

Fry onion gently til transcluscent. If using fresh garlic, fry that with onion too.
Add flour and curry powder (and garlic powder if using) and cook out for about a minute
Pour in the hot stock and add vegetables.
Simmer til veg are done and add sausages to reheat through. Reduce til you get a consistency that is "saucy" - not too runny.

This curry goes well with pasta, potatoes, mash, rice, couscous, pearl barley, chips, wedges, dippy bread....anything you have in!



To add to the butternut squash ideas I've been reading, I have a fab recipe using Pearl Barley which is cheap and more nutritious than a lot of carbs, as it's a good source of protein, vitamins and minerals.

Butternut squash pearl barley risotto - serves 4

splash of oil (or a knob of butter or margarine)
800g or so of butternut squash (peeled and roughly diced)
1 onion - peeled and chopped
some garlic powder (OR 2 cloves of fresh garlic)
1 litre vegetable OR chicken stock (made with stock cube or fresh)
250g pearl barley
good shake of dried sage (or fresh if you have it in the garden)
salt and pepper to taste

Gently fry the onion and squash in a splash of oil/marge and a pinch of salt for about 10 mins til transluscent
Ensure dried sage is warmed up with the stock in a separate pan. If using fresh, just pop half sage in the stock.
Add the pearl barley to the oinoins/squash and gently fry for a couple of mins.
Add the hot stock and simmer very gently - keep checking that it doesn't stick and til it absorbes all the stock and is tender - about 30 mins.
If using fresh sage, add the rest of it at the end. If you are feeling decadent, add a knob of butter or splash of olive oil at the end and stir through. Season to taste and serve!


Hope you enjoy these two recipes - I wanted to contribute and hopefully they are something a bit different, but still cheap to make (sorry if you've made them/heard of them before!)

Caz xx

Butterfly_Brain

Looking at the super six this week.............
1kg carrots
broccoli
spring onions
6 tomatoes
200g radish
2 little gem lettuce
all at 39p
I hope that next week's is a lot better.
I can only come up with a few recipes for that lot, but I have bought six bags of carrots and a couple of bunches of spring onions sliced, diced and julienned them and I have also made a few batches of carrot and ginger, carrot and corriander, and carrot and lentil soup. for the winter.
Handy for lunches just a quick zap in the microwave and they are ready to eat with a crusty roll. The broccoli has been frozen and the tomatoes have been made into a few jars of pasta sauce.

gailey_2

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Looking at the super six this week.............
1kg carrots
broccoli
spring onions
6 tomatoes
200g radish
2 little gem lettuce
all at 39p
I hope that next week's is a lot better.
I can only come up with a few recipes for that lot, but I have bought six bags of carrots and a couple of bunches of spring onions sliced, diced and julienned them and I have also made a few batches of carrot and ginger, carrot and corriander, and carrot and lentil soup. for the winter.
Handy for lunches just a quick zap in the microwave and they are ready to eat with a crusty roll. The broccoli has been frozen and the tomatoes have been made into a few jars of pasta sauce.

Forgot how much I loved this thread.

shame foodprices keep going up.

read inflation fell july/august-foodprices still going up.

way im trying beat it is foraging free stuff, growing free stuff and great reduced hunt.

thanks butterfly brain off to adlis for carrots and make big batch soup.