£20 a week for food - is it possible?

scaredy_cat

something i like and is quick and cheap is veggie doners -

pitta - value ones are fine
about 1/4 - 1-3 finely shredded white cabbage
1/2 finely sliced onion
sliced tomato and cucumber

put the shredded cabbage and onion in a bowl, sprinkle with 2 teasp salt and mix in thoughly. leave for about 1/2 hr. the salt start to 'break down' the cabbage and onion and makes it go soft and wet as the water is drawn out.

heat the pittas under the grill or in a microwave til they puff up, split open at the top, spread with a sauce if you like (i like a bbq sauce). fill with cabbage/onion mix, add the sliced toms and cucumber.

eat!!

you can add any veg/salad stuff you like really!

Kirri

ditsykitchen - I would be interested to see the recipe for carrot dahl if you have chance to post it

ditsykitchen

Kirri wrote: »

ditsykitchen - I would be interested to see the recipe for carrot dahl if you have chance to post it

This makes approx 2 portions:
Slice an onion, 2 carrots and 2 garlic cloves. Fry in oil or butter until softened. Add 2 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp tumeric, 1tsp coriander (could replace all of this with curry powder) and a finely chopped chilli. Add 100g dried lentils and cover with veg stock made from 1 stock cube (about 500ml). Simmer until the lentils are almost falling a part. Season with salt and pepper.
Enjoy! :beer:

catkins

Do you have a market near you that sells fruit and veg? Usually they are cheaper than supermarkets and most of them sell their fruit and veg off cheap at the end of the day.

If not, can you get to an Aldi or Lidl, both of which do cheap veg? Farm Foods do frozen veg cheap i.e. 3 bags of veg for £2

If you can get cheap veg there are lots of meals you can make:

Veg curry
Veg chilli
Shepherds Pie
Lasagne
Veg and pasta bake
Homemade pizza with roasted veg on top
Veg stew/casserole
Stir fry

If you add lentils to things like curry, shepherds pie etc it stretches the meal out even more or you can make things like bolognaise and shepherds pie with just lentils.

Chick peas can be bought at a reasonable price, particularly if you have an Asian shop close by. They can be used for curries, tangines, stews. I make spicy chickpea pasties which is just diced onions and potatoes friend with some cumin and coriander and then mix in the cooked chickpeas. Tinned chickpeas might seem cheap but bags of raw work out a lot cheaper.

You can often buy veggie sausages cheap (Lidl and Farm Foods often sell Linda McCartney ones for £1 whereas Tesco want over £2 for them). I cook a couple of sausages, cut them up, mix with some fried onions, a tin of bakes beans (can be really cheap ones), some dried herbs, mushrooms if you have any and then cover with mashed potato or sliced potato and put in the oven until brown. Cheap and tasty.

stoplurking

Hi if you need recipes try to get a copy of Rose Elliot's book Cheap and Easy. All recipes vegetarian, and indeed cheap and easy. Might be out of print now but libraries/health food shops might have it. SL.

hot.chick

Can whole heartedly recommend a girl called jacks blog - mostly veggie & about £10 a week meal plan - her recipes come out at pennies per portion - good luck - it's amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it

emmasmith7171

Thanks a lot to everyone!!! This is really helpful advice and ideas. We've just started buying all the ASDA smart price products.