Cheapest recipies.

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Tin of value tuna £0.35
Packet of value pasta twirls £0.18
Jar of value pasta sauce £0.24.

Total cost £0.77.

Make tuna pasta.

1 bag of value plain flour £0.33
2.5 kg of generic potatoes £1.17.
1 tub of butter £0.96
2 tins of value baked beans £0.36.

Total is £ 2.82, but you only need a fraction of the butter and flour and not all the potatoes, so it works out cheaper. I usually cost things imagining a person has nothing in the cupboard.
Make potato cakes by boiling the potatoes, mashing them with a little butter and mixing in enough flour to form a dough. Roll out as you would pastry and cut into squares, place on a greased tray and bake. Serve with baked beans.

Chell

brightonman123 wrote: »

sausage with sweet n sour pasta

frozen sauages £2for 20- ist supermarker budget tranges (7-10 portions?)
tesco sweet n our cooking sauce - 79p (good for 2 portions)
pack of died pasta (£1.50, say - 10p a portion?)

preheat oven to 200'C
bake sausages for approx 20mins (use a grill tray to prevent swimming in fat).

10mins in, start pasta - about 8mins in microwave dish, filled with water..

drain water off the pasta, add sausages (cut into pieces i wanted), add sauce, stir together and m/wave again for 4-5mins.

stir again, serve.

these timigs work for fo 3 sausages, and handful of pasta- may need to adjust for larger servings.

You can get Value/Smart Price for just over 20p a jar/tin. The Asda one is nicer than Tescos.

David333

I've just started at university so really want to save some money and be a little more healthy (a meal used to involve giant chocolate buttons). I've started cooking pasta with tuna, sometimes spaghetti bolognese, sometimes some rice: nothing particularly exciting. Anyway, I thought about making my own pasta sauce to save some money but after buying tomatoes, tomato paste, etc, well it was cheaper just to buy a jar of tomato sauce. It's the same with microwave meals: they're £1 from the co-op. Is it not cheaper and less hassle to just do that then mess around, spending more money to make my own food...?

Pink.

Hi David,

It's possible to make cheap meals with cheaper ingredients that are almost certainly better for you than ready made microwave meals.

These threads may give you some ideas:

Cheapest recipes???

Meal for two for 50p. Suggestions?

The Cheapest Healthy Meal Ever!

Feed 6 for £1.62

Cheapest meal

Your Cheapest Evening Meal.

cheap, easy family meals

Show Jamie How To Cook On A Budget Champagne Contest

Meal idea's under £1

I'll add your thread to the most recent one later.

This thread may interest you too: Is OS *REALLY* cheaper?

Pink

David333

Thank you very much. I shall work my way through those threads: I really appreciate you collating them. Thanks!

blueberrypie

horsechestnut wrote: »

A U.S. measuring cup = 8 fluid oz (20 Fluid oz in a pint)

But if you're following a North American recipe, remember that a US pint is 16 fl oz, not 20.

There's a slight difference between a UK fluid ounce and a US fluid ounce too, but they're close enough that it probably won't make a difference. The pint difference would probably be noticeable though!

smarterbytheminute

Haven't had time to read all posts to see if this has already been mentioned but if your kids like bread pudding it is so easy to make your own and really cheap and filling too and much tastier than shop bought!!

I usually shop at Asda and buy up any packs of bread rolls/loaves when they are really cheap - like *10p for a pack of 8 rolls or 10p for a loaf etc. I then freeze them straight away for use in various ways but my main one is to make a yummy bread pudding and I only buy wholegrain/multi grain etc rather than plain white rolls or bread so it is more nutritional and tasty. (*Depending on the make/product the original price can be anything from 50p to £2.00 so there's quite a lot of saving and you have longer to use them if frozen).

I take one pack of rolls or a loaf and defrost.
Cut into small pieces and place in a large mixing bowl - cover with cold water to soak (approx 30 minutes but sometimes I leave it longer till I am ready)
Drain as much water from the soaked bread then add whatever sweet ingredients you want to use or have to hand in the storecupboard.

I use: raisins, sultanas, chopped dates, cherries, chopped ginger pieces, prunes, chopped nuts, any mixed dried fruit selection, chopped apple or a mashed banana that is perhaps on the turn (if they don't like to eat them browning)
large spoonful of mixed spice, or cinnamon, nutmeg etc to taste
large spoonful of golden syrup and/or honey (sometimes I use some of the syrup from a jar of stem ginger if I have it - there are endless possibilities).
1 or 2 eggs

Basically you add whatever you want or have available and I never measure, once mixed just turn into a greased baking tray and sprinkle with any sugar you like/mixed with spices is nice on top and firm it down in a baking dish and bake in the oven (at approx 180 for about 30-45 mins or until you get the texture you like on top - I leave mine a bit longer to get crunchy on top.

If I have a handful of fruit such as blueberries etc I throw these in the mix too.. you can make it your very own recipe and once cooked and cooled down - I place it in a tupperware type container and put in the fridge as it is much better cold although I never can resist a bite whilst it's still hot!!

The kids can take some in their lunchbox and it's much more healthy for them than biscuits or sweets.

I also use the cheap bread purchases to make bread and butter pudding - using the sweeter breads such as brioch/or even crossants - but I also use the grained breads for this too - just slice and butter/add fruit/dried fruits as above/3 eggs mixed with milk and sugar/pop in oven ..... yummy!!!

For a snack - defrost some rolls - sprinkle with grated cheese, top with a tomato slice or two and some dried herbs and place under grill - tasty and cheap!

Happy New Year

lottemaxwell

3 meals that we like are Corned Beef hash? (lots of different ideas of how this should be done!), Spicy Spaghetti, and Chicken and Bacon Ranch Salad.

We use - 1 and a half tins of value peeled new potatoes, in water
1 tin of corned beef
beans

Drain potatoes from there water, heat potatoes in the pan, mash, add the corned beef, mash again, heat throughly then serve with beans!

Can be modified to make dry hash if you place in oven for shorth while. Probably feed 3 comfortably for £2?

Another favourite is spicy spaghetti,

3 rashers of bacon, chopped up
1/2 a chilli
2 x garlic cloves crushed
Spaghetti
garlic bread (optional)

Fry bacon, then add chilli, garlic, add a small amount of olive oil, whilst you are frying this boil spaghetti, and cook your optional garlic bread. once spaghetti is cooked, drain and add bacon to the pan, stir through then serve! Very tasty and very cheap. Especially if you buy chillis cheap - they freeze really well but stick to you when you are chopping (you can freeze from frozen)

This meal can be adapted to make something more "gourmet" - I sometimes swap the bacon for chorizo and prawn - although you dont need any where as much chilli as I once learnt!!!

Another favourite is Chicken and bacon ranch salad - Asda's do a ranch salad pack for £1, add 1 x cooked chicken breast, and 2 x rashers of bacon (once fried and left to cool) and you have a lovely salad - again this is probably about £2 for you both?

Stephen_Leak

PEA SOUP

This has got to be the simplest and cheapest recipe for the most wholesome and filling end result – ever. My box of dried peas cost 36p, so each serving cost just 9p!

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

125g (½ a 250g box) of dried peas
500ml of water
Ground black pepper to taste

METHOD

Soak the peas in water according to the instructions.

Put the peas into a saucepan and cover with fresh water. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat until it is just boiling (simmering). Check the liquid level from time to time and top up if it starts to dry out.

Continue cooking the peas until they are the desired consistency. Adjust the quantity of the liquid to the required quantity of soup.

If you have a food processor, put the soup in it and blend it to the desired consistency. If you have a hand blender, put it in the soup and blend it to the desired consistency. If you don’t have a food processor or hand blender, press the soup through a sieve with the back of a spoon.

Season with the pepper. Continue to cook for another couple of minutes.

ADDITIONS & ALTERNATIVES

You can use fresh, frozen or tinned peas. These do not need to be soaked, and should be added after the joint has been removed.

Pea soup can be any consistency from a thin liquid with soft peas floating in it to a thick paste you can stand a spoon up in.

kittyredcat

My cheap family meal that my kids absolutly love is sausage and bean pie.

this serves me, and 2 kids age 12 and 4:

4 sausages
1 tin of beans
mashed potato
grated cheese


cook the sausages and cut into bite sized chunks, put in a casserole dish and cover with value beans, top this with mashed potato (either ready made or your own made is even cheaper) and sprinkle with cheese. Pop it in the oven for about 30-40 mins. I serve it with Garlic bread, but you could have veg, or whatever you fancy. Total cost per portion about 50 p x