Relatively Cheap (and Easy) Meal Ideas and Recipes

joedenise

Have you looked at the recipes at the start of the Grocery Challenge on the Old Style Board?  Lots of cheap ideas on there.

www.cookingonabootstrap.com has loads of cheap recipes as does www.thriftylesley.com - both worth a look.

bouicca21

Lots of recipes on this board but a lot depends on just how thrifty, whether there is enough money to create a store cupboard  and what cooking facilities are available.

My cheapest meal used to be Chili pork kidneys (pork kidneys, tomatoes, onion, garlic, Chili flakes) served with rice.  That works out at Sainsbury's prices to under £2 for 2 - 3 portions. But I’m assuming someone has enough money to buy a packet of rice.  My new cheapest is old fashioned bacon pudding, made with what Sainsbury's and Tesco call cooking bacon.  The weird thing about that is that the suet costs more than the bacon, and of course you either need to have access to a hob and enough money to steam the pudding for 2 or 3 hours or have a slow cooker (I’ve no idea whether it would work with an air fryer). 

Brambling

Soups are always cheap and cheerful either as a lunch or a mug as a starter before dinner so you need less of the main meal

i make a similar lentil and tomato soup to this one just add onion or leek and miss out the cream / herbs and finish off with lemon juice to season 

https://www.thespruceeats.com/easy-red-lentil-and-tomato-soup-435639

fridge bottom soup is idea at the end of the week

thriftytracey

Recipe in this week's Lidl newsletter which I am going to try out

https://recipes.lidl.co.uk/recipes/smoky-sausage-and-potato-salad

It's a "side" but I think it would do as a main course.  Bought Hungarian sausage and some kabanos and cheese sausages today at Lidl.  Reasonably priced.

ArbitraryRandom

bouicca21 said:

Lots of recipes on this board but a lot depends on just how thrifty, whether there is enough money to create a store cupboard  and what cooking facilities are available.

My cheapest meal used to be Chili pork kidneys (pork kidneys, tomatoes, onion, garlic, Chili flakes) served with rice.  That works out at Sainsbury's prices to under £2 for 2 - 3 portions. But I’m assuming someone has enough money to buy a packet of rice.  My new cheapest is old fashioned bacon pudding, made with what Sainsbury's and Tesco call cooking bacon.  The weird thing about that is that the suet costs more than the bacon, and of course you either need to have access to a hob and enough money to steam the pudding for 2 or 3 hours or have a slow cooker (I’ve no idea whether it would work with an air fryer). 

You can use bacon fat at a suet alternative in cooking (not recommended for birds, but I can attest that dogs like it) - just pour it off into a bowl and let it set first so you can skim off the white 'clean' fat from the top.  

thara1996

Some new additional ideas 

Scrambled eggs on bread 
Rice cakes 
Pancakes
Mini meals of any sort
Casserole 
Chutney and cheese sandwiches 
Pizza

newmommyjen

Pasta and spam.

This is a typical Hong Kong comfort meal.

Penne pasta 41p Lidl GB 

Pek pork £1 at time of purchase

Two teaspoons of Polish seasoning powder 

(Lidl 85p, roughly same price in Asda,Tesco, Sainsburys in the world food aisle)

Optional extra

Dash of white pepper

Dash of sesame oil

Half a teaspoon of garlic powder/salt.

Chopped up spring onions.

Instructions

*Boil all the pasta as by instructions with a pinch of salt.

*Chop up the ham, leave it to the side.

*Remove pasta from pan and drain in colander.

*In the same pan add a full kettle of water roughly 1.7litres. 

*Add the polish seasoning and the extras if using.

*Stir to dissolve the seasonings, add the chopped up ham and pasta.

* Give it another stir through to loosen up the pasta.

*Serve

PipneyJane

bouicca21 said:

Lots of recipes on this board but a lot depends on just how thrifty, whether there is enough money to create a store cupboard  and what cooking facilities are available.

My cheapest meal used to be Chili pork kidneys (pork kidneys, tomatoes, onion, garlic, Chili flakes) served with rice.  That works out at Sainsbury's prices to under £2 for 2 - 3 portions. But I’m assuming someone has enough money to buy a packet of rice.  My new cheapest is old fashioned bacon pudding, made with what Sainsbury's and Tesco call cooking bacon.  The weird thing about that is that the suet costs more than the bacon, and of course you either need to have access to a hob and enough money to steam the pudding for 2 or 3 hours or have a slow cooker (I’ve no idea whether it would work with an air fryer). 

Please share your recipe for the bacon pudding @bouicca21.  I regularly buy L!dl's cooking bacon and use it in quiches, slow-cooker bean dishes, etc.  It's a bargain.

Many thanks,

Pip

bouicca21

@PipneyJane  

it’s the simplest possible.  Quantities obviously dependent on the number of mouths.  My mum made this the classic way, rolled up, then wrapped and steamed, but there were 6 of us to feed.  I’m a singleton so use a mini pudding bowl with a lid which goes into my (mini) slow cooker with boiling water to just over half way up the bowl and then on for about 6 hours.  I did it on auto but suspect I could get away with low and will try that next time.

Line the pudding bowl with the pastry, reserving some for the lid.  Fill with chopped onion, bacon and the secret ingredient - crumbled beef stock cube. My mum would have used oxo.  My first attempt to recreate this did not use a stock cube and it is amazing what a difference it makes to the overall flavour. Cover with the reserved pastry, snap on the lid, or tie on pleated grease proof if the bowl doesn’t come with a lid.  That’s it.  For my singleton portion I use somewhere between 50-75 grams of bacon, half an onion (could easily use leek instead) and about a quarter to a third of a stock cube.  There isn’t a lot of room in a mini pudding bowl for anything else but if I were using a larger bowl I’d be thinking of adding some extras like chopped mushrooms.

Serve with parsley sauce and veg of choice.

PipneyJane

bouicca21 said:

@PipneyJane  

it’s the simplest possible.  Quantities obviously dependent on the number of mouths.  My mum made this the classic way, rolled up, then wrapped and steamed, but there were 6 of us to feed.  I’m a singleton so use a mini pudding bowl with a lid which goes into my (mini) slow cooker with boiling water to just over half way up the bowl and then on for about 6 hours.  I did it on auto but suspect I could get away with low and will try that next time.

Line the pudding bowl with the pastry, reserving some for the lid.  Fill with chopped onion, bacon and the secret ingredient - crumbled beef stock cube. My mum would have used oxo.  My first attempt to recreate this did not use a stock cube and it is amazing what a difference it makes to the overall flavour. Cover with the reserved pastry, snap on the lid, or tie on pleated grease proof if the bowl doesn’t come with a lid.  That’s it.  For my singleton portion I use somewhere between 50-75 grams of bacon, half an onion (could easily use leek instead) and about a quarter to a third of a stock cube.  There isn’t a lot of room in a mini pudding bowl for anything else but if I were using a larger bowl I’d be thinking of adding some extras like chopped mushrooms.

Serve with parsley sauce and veg of choice.

Thanks @bouicca21.  Sounds yummy!  I may give it a go, next month, when I've bought some suet.

Cheers

Pip