£7.00 per week - menu ideas

StarMummy_2

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

So I have come up with a few meals using this week's S6 and other prices that are low from there

cherry tomatoes are cheaper at 59p a punnet, so I will use those as a price guide

Fresh Tomato pasta (serves 4)

1 pk of spaghetti 19p
½ Pk cherry tomatoes halved 59p (29p's worth)
½ (150g) Pk danish blue cheese 99p (49p's worth)

Cook the spaghetti in boiling salted water
When it is cooked drain but leave some of the water in the bottom of the pan, then add the cheese and tomatoes and serve ............Quick, cheap and very tasy Total cost for four 97p ( 24p per person)

Mushroom Risotto (Serves 4)

Punnet of mushrooms wiped and sliced 69p
2 cloves garlic (bulb is 25p so about 6p's worth)
300g SG or risotto rice (500g is 97p so 40p's worth that is for a normal serving of 75g per person)
Vegetable or chicken stock, if you don't have any fresh then use 2 stock cubes (10p for 8 sainsbury's basics range) in boiling water made up to 500ml
A little butter
Quarter of a pack of blue cheese 25p

In a saucepan add a little butter with the crushed garlic cloves and mushrooms cook for a little while so that the butter and mushrooms take on the garlic, then make sure that the rice is well coated, add the stock a little at a time until it is creamy, serve with a quarter of the blue cheese that you have left from the pasta crumbled over the top.

Total cost for four people £1.84 (46p per person)

Butternut squash pasta (serves 4)

A little olive oil or sunflower oil if you don't have olive oil 10p
1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks (69p)
2 red onions (30p) peeled and quartered
300g pasta shells or fuselli (I use fuselli because it is half the price of shells) 500g fuselli 49p (35p's worth)
2 garlic cloves peeled and sliced
what is left of the blue cheese 25p
40g breadcrumbs 10p

Heat the oven to 180 C, 160 C fan, 350 F, gas 4. Place the squash in a roasting tin and drizzle with oil, season with salt and pepper and roast for 40 minutes, adding the onions to the tin after 20minutes.
Then ten minutes before the end of the roasting time, cook the pasta in boiling salted water for 7 minutes, until just undercooked.
Drain and coat in a little more oil. Mix the pasta, squash, onions, garlic and half of the blue cheese with seasoning and a drizzle of oil. Top with more blue cheese and the breadcrumbs. Bake on the top shelf of the oven for 10 minutes.

Total cost for four people £1.85 (46p per serving)

So that is 3 main meals for four people for £4.66 or £1.16 per person

I will work on more recipes later because I have to go out now.
TTFN x

All these recipes sound delish. right up my street. Love blue cheese although ironically i hated it until i fell pregnant and therefore was't allowed it.:rotfl:

prosaver

StarMummy wrote: »

All these recipes sound delish. right up my street. Love blue cheese although ironically i hated it until i fell pregnant and therefore was't allowed it.:rotfl:

wouldnt be cheaper tomake a big load of pasta (flour and eggs) and store it some how.plus you could use tomato puree instead of tomatoes- tesco sells it cheap and its double concentrated.

quintwins

This is a great frugal recipe (infact her whole blog is full of them) IT's only 15p a serving and could be done for less.

http://thriftylesley.com/gnocchi-made-dried-mash-15p-a-serving/

Possession

quintwins wrote: »

This is a great frugal recipe (infact her whole blog is full of them) IT's only 15p a serving and could be done for less.

http://thriftylesley.com/gnocchi-made-dried-mash-15p-a-serving/

I've made gnocchi like this. Definitely weren't light though! The children like them however, and I still have some left to use up in the freezer. I made so many I was sick of the sight of them, but they freeze perfectly well.

quintwins

Possession wrote: »

I've made gnocchi like this. Definitely weren't light though! The children like them however, and I still have some left to use up in the freezer. I made so many I was sick of the sight of them, but they freeze perfectly well.

I have gnocchi on my meal plan for tomorrow, but i have a nice big sack of spuds so I'll be using those. I havent made them before but I'm hoping i can pass them off as potatoe meatballs to the kids.

Jnelhams

I would suggest you track down a copy of Shirley Goode Kitchen book - really sensible recipes for cheap meals. Why the BBC do not re-run the TV series is beyond me.

gailey_2

Reading this reminded me of something saw on c4 cookery programme usually pricy but reckon could be easily adapted to be cheap

http://scrapbook.channel4.com/bookmarkBar/50290da4e4b0c31b8abe670f

its basically rolled up panckes like artic roll stuffed with what ever you want I guess think in past I did

grated chedder and spinach
cheese and ham.

the topped with cheap tomato sauce.

so bascally the pancake is a pasta substitute.

not sure if it be cheaper than pasta

Always find passtta best for tomato sauce with 2cloves garlic and some dried herbs 29p in ldls, aldis and tesco.Its just the right consistancy for sauce.

ps tesco couldent find any reasonably priced herbs sainsburys basics used to do some and lot from morrions 25p I think will need to check.

hubby went morrisons tonight got 2punnets peaches 19p each
loads reduced fish including salmon/lemon sole for 49p so quite chuffed with him as original price was £4+.

got aldi super six before change tommorow

so batch cook potato and leek soup and carrot soup tommorow.

did cheap tea kids dident eat much but will try cost it up and post.

gailey_2

tesco everyday cheesy pasta 34p serves 2 or 3kids.
Tesco did have 3 4pints for £
needs butter little bit and milk.

cheapest place milk farm foods 2 for 1.60
£1 lidls/aldis
tesco did have 4pints for £3 so 1quid each if buy 3 which we did as get through loads of milk. pasta needs 150ml I think.

tesco value frozen mixed veg 1kg 75p only need small handful blasted in micro, did pasta on the hob. so reckon 15p per serving maybe 20p as a push.

frozen sweetcorn was £1 bag for 907g again only tiny bit needed can omit just mine love sweetcorn.

tin value sweetcorn 35p wouldent need it all.

tesco every day value sliced ham 75p again only little needed.

light dusting grated chedder

so cheesy pasta with mixed veg and ham estimate at £1 maybe slightly less as so much can carry over.

if feeds 2 thats 50p each or 33.5 p per child portion.

shandyclover

StarMummy wrote: »

. I think the key is to go mostly veggie. infact baking vegan is really cheap using veg oil instead of butter and substituting eggs for baking powder and apple cider vinegar. the extra bonus is the fresh parts of the baking aren't fresh so you can keep them in your store cupboard hope this helps someone

In our household 3 of my teen daughters are either vegan or vegetarian. Consequently any baking I do is vegan. I use soya flour which can be bought inexpensively from Asian shops. 1 Tblsp of soya flour mixed with 1 Tblsp of water can substitute for 1 egg in baking recipes. I also add it to home baked bread, gravies or to thicken sauces to boost protein content. Apparently soya flour is added to a lot of commercial bakery products as it keeps them fresher for longer!

Savvy_sewing

Jnelhams wrote: »

I would suggest you track down a copy of Shirley Goode Kitchen book - really sensible recipes for cheap meals. Why the BBC do not re-run the TV series is beyond me.

I have one of Shirley's books left. Lent some out and never got them back. She has a blog called Shirley's Good Life I think. Followed it for a while but I also have Bernadine Lawrence's book written in the 80's about living on £28 a week or something similar. She is on MSE somewhere but I can't remember her avatar.
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