Really struggling with dinner ideas

bouicca21

Fish pie - white fish plus a bit of smoked haddock, poach in milk. Use the milk for a white sauce. Mix fish and sauce together with capers and a couple of chopped hard boiled eggs. Roll out some puff pastry and ease it onto some greaseproof, dollop the mix on the middle of the pastry and fold over to make a parcel. Use the greaseproof to make it easy to lift it onto a baking tray. Cook.

Much better than the traditional mashed potato version.

luckofthe_irish

bouicca21 wrote: »

Fish pie - white fish plus a bit of smoked haddock, poach in milk. Use the milk for a white sauce. Mix fish and sauce together with capers and a couple of chopped hard boiled eggs. Roll out some puff pastry and ease it onto some greaseproof, dollop the mix on the middle of the pastry and fold over to make a parcel. Use the greaseproof to make it easy to lift it onto a baking tray. Cook.

Much better than the traditional mashed potato version.

Ah thank you but I am coeliac so can't have puff pastry:(. It sounds amazing! Deffo will take the tips for the base though. I never cook fish at home as I always thought it was too expensive but I eat meat every week so I guess this not quite accurate!

PasturesNew

An easy fish pie is a 500grams/similar bag of fish (defrosted), 300ml tub of creme fraiche, teaspoon of mustard powder ... few peas if you like those in your fish pies (a 1960s throwback choice) ... couple of shallots or a small onion chopped if you like onion. Toss that lot all together....

Into ovenproof dish, top with mashed potato (roughly the same weight as the fish).

Bake ~40 minutes at the usual temperature you use.

luckofthe_irish

PasturesNew wrote: »

An easy fish pie is a 500grams/similar bag of fish (defrosted), 300ml tub of creme fraiche, teaspoon of mustard powder ... few peas if you like those in your fish pies (a 1960s throwback choice) ... couple of shallots or a small onion chopped if you like onion. Toss that lot all together....

Into ovenproof dish, top with mashed potato (roughly the same weight as the fish).

Bake ~40 minutes at the usual temperature you use.

Thank you! This sounds achievable as a first go at fish pie! I will see if I can get a frozen bag of fish in Aldi this week :T

Shropshirelass

Did anyone mention corned beef hash yet? Top with thinly sliced tomatoes, breadcrumbs and a little grated cheese for a special crust.

When preparing fish I trim the ends and odd shapes, freeze them, and when I have enough make a 'free meal' of fish pie or fish cakes. You can add a few prawns too. Tinned salmon also makes good fish cakes with mashed potatoes.

Good luck!

suki1964

luckofthe_irish wrote: »

Could I have the recipe for the fish pie?? I love fish pie but never been brave enough to make it myself so always pester my Mom to make one when I visit home!

Pastures New pie sounds good to me

Mine is a bit more traditional but its what we like

Poach the fish in a pint of milk that has an onion and a bayleaf in it, till just cooked. Remove the fish, reserving the milk, if whole pieces flake large pieces into your dish, if its already pieces just plonk them in. Hard boil two eggs, quarter them and put over the top. Make white sauce with the reserved milk, using a table spoon of butter and tablespoon of flour ( I just whisk it all together over the heat until thick ) season and pour over the fish and eggs. Top with mashed potatoes and a good sprinkle of cheese. Bung in the oven till golden and bubbly.

I just serve with peas, pure comfort on a plate

Mr_Singleton

joedenise wrote: »

Cauliflower cheese, again fairly cheap if you can get a cheap cauliflower.

Is there such a thing as an expensive cauliflower?

OP check out YouTube!

falcieri

My food budget (which includes most toiletries etc) is £100 a month and I have lots of fresh fruit and veg. Well done on your £300 budget so many people. You're doing amazingly!



I do a lot of stirfry veg with either 30g rice, pasta or half a cup of cous cous. I then add 'something' to make it up to a proper meal and use soy sauce and or garlic to season.


I get the 3 for £10 deals on meat at the supermarket so generally have sausages, bacon, pork shoulder steak, beef mince, and frying steak in which divided cleverly will last a month. I also buy tins of tuna and mackerel as I love fish and I buy a bag of frozen prawns and the bags of white fish pieces which lasts a month easy. Morrisons fresh fish counter always has great 'reduced' deals too. I picked up 3 pairs of mackerel fillets for less than £2 yesterday and they also do lemon sole and cod substitite on the cheap. Everything goes into the freezer.



I also buy pizzas when they are reduced and chop them up into meal sized portions before they go into the freezer and Morrisons often have their fresh soups in the reduced aisle and I simply beef them up with lots of veg some meat if it needs it and they almost become casseroles. One of those will do 2 meals generally. Often the soups are 20p each because they just can't get rid of them.



I will put all sorts of weird concoctions together to create meals. I had 3 fishfingers left in the freezer today so I simply chopped them up into one of my pasta stirfrys. It was actually really nice.



I also buy my milk in 4 pint sizes from the reduced counter (sometimes as little as 28p) decant it into 1 pint bottles and freeze it.



I don't know if any of this helps. I hope so.

MrsSippi wrote: »

Hi all, I am really, really struggling with ideas for (cheap!) dinners at the moment and wondered if anyone can throw some inspiration my way!

So, due to when pay day falls, I need 35 meals. I know I can double a few up and will probably even just come up with maybe 20 and sort the rest out later but I'm so stuck for ideas.

So far I have:

Chicken (4 dinners to be decided)
Minced beef (4 dinners to be decided)
Pie and pots/veg
Sausage casserole with yorkies and veg
Shepherds pie
Beef kebabs (from freezer stock)
Meatballs (from freezer stock)
Chicken goujons (from freezer stock) - accompaniment to be decided


So that's about 14 dinners but I would rather spread these out a bit as it's a lot of red meat to be eating day after day!

Please help, I really need to get my grocery spend back on track as its gone AWOL lately. My budget is currently £300 pm for everything (toiletries, lunches, all food) and we are a family of 2 adults, 2 kids under 10.

falcieri

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth wrote: »

Bitsers Roulette!


Any bits (Bitsers) left in the fridge chopped up and tossed into the pan. Sir with soy, or any sauce. Serve on its own or with rice or pasta. Add chilli flakes for the roulette element!

This sounds like the kinds of meals I would make! Good job!

suki1964

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Is there such a thing as an expensive cauliflower?

OP check out YouTube!

When one week they are 49p and good sized and the next they are £1.20 and not much bigger then a tennis ball. - Yes