Appeal for cheap cold meal ideas

Rainbow82

The temperature in my house is currently well over 30 C and I am struggling to feed us in our normal budget, without cooking and adding to the unbearable heat, largely as I keep going to the supermarket for more salad items and can't resist picking up stuff we don't really need (ice cream) while there.

I have £50 to feed two vegetarian adults between now and 21st august (although if necessary there us some wiggle room in that budget with a £20 reserve) we will be away 11/8-15/8 so don't need to worry about food then. I would like to do a big shop this evening to last till we go away but don't think fresh food will last that long so need some ideas of what to make.

So far I have:
Quiche (can throw in freezer and defrost when needed)
Pasta salad (technically need to cook pasta but can do late at night when temp has dropped slightly)
Cream cheese on ryvita
Salad (not sure how long will keep for though)
Bean salad using tinned instead of dry beans so no cooking
Soaked aldente noodles in spicy peanut sauce
Cold pitta pizza (cold tomato sauce on top sprinkled with cheese
Marinated tofu and soaked noodles in soy and honey dressing
Garlic tomato and feta topped ryvita

Surely there must be more than this, any ideas? What is everyone else eating at the moment?

Grimbal

how about things like ploughmans - more substantial than salad with some nice interesting bread. Add in protein like quorn sausages or eggs etc?

Could you bear to boil potatoes ? You could make a huge amount of potato salad very cheaply that is an easy accompaniment to your protein of choice. Also things like cous cous & bulghar wheat salads are dead easy, quick & cheap to make & make good starchy staples. I often make up a huge bulghar wheat salad & add in a bit of feta for an easy quick meal

Seakay

tinned beans can be used to make hummus
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2029/homemade-houmous
good with ryvita, toast etc.
Many veg can be used in salads and root veg keep better than salad leaves -eg grated carrot is lovely with vinaigrette, maybe with a little orange juice and/or grated orange zest added, with some plumped raisins- more ideas on this site
http://www.yummly.com/recipes/raw-root-vegetable-salad
bulgar wheat and couscous add carbs and bulk to salads and can be 'cooked' by rehydration so not much heat.
There is a way of cooking pasta which only involves boiling for one minute
http://blog.ideasinfood.com/ideas_in_food/2009/08/one-minute-pasta.html

Rainbow82

I'm not sure about cooking quorn sausages as would need the oven but now I think about it I gave some quorn pieces which when defrosted in water go lovely in a wrap with some salsa am happy to cook potatoes the night before for potato salad that's a good idea. F I cooked rice the night before will that be ok to eat cold the next day? I seem to hear a lot of horror stories about leftover rice.

Thanks for reminding me as well about cous cous I love it, have loads in and can saut!e veggies night before to go in it.

Rainbow82

Thanks Seakay, all good ideas that humous looks lovely and I'll give the quick cook pasta a go as well ��

maman

Rainbow82 wrote: »

I'm not sure about cooking quorn sausages as would need the oven but now I think about it I gave some quorn pieces which when defrosted in water go lovely in a wrap with some salsa am happy to cook potatoes the night before for potato salad that's a good idea. F I cooked rice the night before will that be ok to eat cold the next day? I seem to hear a lot of horror stories about leftover rice.

Thanks for reminding me as well about cous cous I love it, have loads in and can saut!e veggies night before to go in it.

I think it's reheating rice that's risky, eating it cold from fridge should be fine.


You could chop cold veg into couscous like tomatoes, peppers and spring onions. Personally I don't buy leaves unless I have a plan to eat them PDQ. The salad veg I've listed can be used hot or cold which is a bonus.


I'd buy in loads of eggs then make fritattas/Spanish omelettes in the night/early morning. These are lovely cold and just like crustless quiche. A cheap cheat is to slice canned potatoes at about 14p in to make the omelettes more substantial.

Callie22

If you can stand to boil some small new potatoes then chuck in a few green beans and then you could make a salad nicoise - lettuce, tomates, olives, tin of tuna, the potatoes and beans and a hard-boiled egg. Add a bit of French dressing and you've got a quick meal.

If you like cous-cous then you could try the giant stuff (I think it's sold as Iranian cous-cous). Same flavour but it's bigger and chewier, and it makes a change.

I sympathise as at the moment we're living in an attic flat and it's so very hot, I can't bear to cook anything that needs the oven! We're living on salads, pasta, noodles, rice, basically anything I can cook on the stove top.

Grimbal

Rainbow82 wrote: »

F I cooked rice the night before will that be ok to eat cold the next day? I seem to hear a lot of horror stories about leftover rice..

As long as you cool it down quickly & pop in the fridge, rice should be fine. It's the rice that's left standing around at room temperature that is the problem - it can grow bacteria on it that causes food poisoning. If cooled quickly & stored properly, it shouldn't pose a problem

splishsplash

Caesar salad

Waldorf salad

Tomato, mozzarella, basil leaves marinaded in vinaigrette

I cook in the early mornings at the moment. When I use the oven, I'll always throw in a tray of croutons, pine nuts or walnuts to toast and then portion and freeze them. I also dry out lots of slices of white bread as the oven cools, to blitz and freeze for very fine, light, breadcrumbs.
I second the idea of cooking frittatas/quiches etc and freezing.

WantToBeSE

If you cant bear to boil the potatoes for the above recipes, you could always buy the tinned ones. I make my potato salad from them and they taste lovely

aggypanthus

Just good old fashioned sarnies, fill with salad.