Cheapest recipies.

tiptoes

My cheap meals inclued:

dahl and rice
Pasta n sauce bulked up with frozen veg
Ham and spinch omlette and HM chips
Butternut squah soup


though have picked up a few more from here

moanymoany

elona wrote: »

Potato and cheese flan


quote]

elona, is this mashed potatoes with cheese cooked in a pastry crust? I remember it from school, lovely.

moanymoany

bellaquidsin wrote: »

Some great ideas here for survival. Don't think I've spotted lentil curry?

If chicken livers are liked they make a great little stove top casserole cooked with some onions and tinned tomatoes and then thickened to make a tasty gravy serve with mash and veg. - My hubby's favourite, he doesn't even know it's cheap.

Tuna rissotto. Fry onion and garlic add veg of your choice, we like sweetcorn and courgette or frozen mixed veg is nice, just stir into cooked rice.

Bacon roly poly. Fry some onion and bacon pieces (from a cheap bag of bits).
Make a suet pastry, spread onion and bacon mixture over it and roll up like a swiss roll and bake in the oven.

Some more of the cheap bacon piece made into a quiche.

If there are any bacon pieces left they are nice fried and cooked in the bottom of a cauliflower cheese to make it a bit more 'meaty'.

bellaquidsin, I'd forgotten all about bacon roly poly, my gran used to steam hers, but I do love them baked. They are also nice cold in lunches.

bellaquidsin

Here I am again (slow thinker)

A frozen chicken for less than £3 should do a family of four, for four meals.
1. Roast and just eat the legs (half each) and a very little of the breast.
2. Many ways to use up chicken but breast could go into curry with lots of veg, or even, depending on the ages of the youngest two could be just sliced into gravy and reheated.
3. 'Pickings' and meat taken from wings could go into a pie or quiche.
4. Boil up the left over bones to make stock and use for a lovely root vegetable soup. Delicious served with a hunk of homemade bread and if the budget will run to it a wedge of cheese.

Another favourite from my archives is a pork hock. I haven't seen these for ages, the butcher I last had them from has closed but I think I could get one for under a pound. I used to slow roast these (with a lid on) Gas 2 for 3 - 4 hours until the meat just fell off the bone - it was gorgeous! I served it as a roast dinner with apple sauce, in fact I once gave it to visitors and they loved it but I never let on which bit of the pig it was, so they didn't know what they were eating, and she was a domestic science teacher!

I was hunting, unsuccessfully for a pork hock on Saturday and came across a gammon hock in Morrison's for £1-39. I bought it and will cook it in the slow cooker and see what wonders I can dream up with it. Sainsbury's sell them ready roasted on the hot counter for £2-49. I think it will be more succulent slow cooked than roasted and if it's not too salty I will have a stock for soup. Should have a bit of mileage.

Bella

specialhat

It's a lot cheaper to avoid salty, ready-made foods like Pasta & Sauce, instant noodles etc, and to just cook normal dried pasta and make your own sauce from egg/cheese/bacon/cream or chilli/tomato/garlic/veg etc. Even pesto is simple and cheap and can be used in loads of other dishes.

My staples in times of need are chilli con carne (replace half the mince with a can of lentils or, even more cheaply, dried split yellow peas), shepherd's pie, lentil dal, butterbean bake, egg dishes, smoked mackerel, canned sardines, homemade bread, beef stews and chicken curries etc. Starting from scratch is so much cheaper, tastier and better for you.

If you can get your hands on the classic The Bean Book by Rose Elliot it will give you loads of ideas with lentils. Try eBay, mine was 99p.

Look out for any based on beef mince (drain off the fat after frying then add the other ingredients), lentils/beans/pulses, rice, pasta and vegetables. They will all be cheap. Buying a whole chicken is cheaper than chicken pieces, although I tend to avoid chicken altogether if on a budget as I don't feel comfortable buying anything battery farmed. Even free-range eggs are cheap food though.

It saddens me to see people resorting to disgusting-sounding, ready-made food when you can eat like a king for a few pence if you go for whole foods. Saying that, you can't beat corned beef hash and baked beans.

ETA: Homemade soup, based on lentils and canned tomatoes with various herbs and spices, costs pence to make. My current favourite is lentil and smoked bacon.

frosty

Hi everyone,We had home made pizza last night and I decided to make it a bit different,we had the usual tomato sauce topped with cheese but then I added little pieces of left over stuffing (from sunday roast)and bits of chicken from the carcus and some crispy bacon bits,everyone thought it was very tasty,good job I made two or I would of had a riot on my hands.We are always looking for ways to use up leftover chicken.
our cheap meals are
shepherds pie
cheesy pasta
baked potatoes with various fillings
pizza
home made pies
casseroles

moanymoany

The dried soya mince or TVP as it can be called, is great mixed with mince. If you mix it 3:1 or 4:1 with meat mince it is almost impossible to tell the difference. Very cheap!

bellaquidsin

This recipe from Elizabeth West's book 'Kitchen in the Hills' is tasty and very economical.

Pilchard Pie (or Fish Cakes)`

l 15oz(425g) can pilchards
2lb potatoes, boiled and mashed
4 oz breadcrumbs
2 tsps mixed dried herbs
4 tbsps chopped parsley
Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper.

Mix all ingredients together. Turn into a greased pie dish and brown under a hot grill or in a hot oven.

Variation: For Pilchard Fish cakes, make mixture into little flat cakes with floured hands, coat with plain flour and fry until browned on both sides.

Serves 4

I used to make the pie as a family meal omitting the breadcrumbs.

Bella.

Tracey04

ok so for the start of January can we think of 31 dinners and teas that are cheap, warming and will help save the pennies. Any ideas? Thanks

thriftlady_2

Do they all have to be different Tracey ? I'm all for repeating a favourite meal if no one in the family minds.