What cheap meals do you make?

[ifonly4]

Looking for inspiration really, so just wondered what cheap meals others make on a budget.

I tend to do quite a few things with rice or pasta. Veggie Bolognese goes down well, as well as macaroni cheese with carrots, peas or whatever we have. I often cook rice or pasta with whatever else we have - sweetcorn, peas, pepper, onion, tuna, meat, quorn, kidney beans and so on, with tomato puree, canned tomatoes, herbs or chilli. I quite often stir fry onion and peppers and sweetcorn if we have them, add value baked beans, tomato puree, 1-2 tomatoes, pepper and chilli and serve with rice - I really like this one.

Last night we had jacket potatoes with value beans and cheese with sliced tomatoes on the side. Sometimes we have a frittata with whatever we have in the house.

[lorelai222]

Broccoli soup using frozen broccoli. Use onions, potato and leeks for the base. Then add stock and broccoli.

[lilacclery]

Homemade pizzas go down really well in our house - pack of wraps, tomato puree, whatevers in the fridge on top and a pack of mozzarella. Odds and ends really.

[howabout]

Cheese omelette and chips.

Lentil pie (lentils boiled then add fried onions, herbs etc, oatmeal, cheese and an egg to bind and bake for 30 mins)

[BabyGanoush]

egg fried rice (a tonne of cold rice, couple of eggs, an onion and some soy sauce is all that's needed. Sometimes add a few peas too).

Sometimes kids have this without anything else.

Omelet and chips

...and taadaaa...lentil soup (bit of bacon, onion, tinned toms and lentils. Is actually a favourite in this house)

[lilacclery]

Lentil soup is my favourite, got the recipe from here actually.
lentil Pie sounds intriguing haven't tried that.

[annielostit]

I make up 250g minced beef into bolognaise type sauce, with 2 cartons of pasatta onions mushrooms & carrots herbs & beef stock cube.split into 2.
Use 1 half for bolognaise for 3 people fold in the pasta so it looks lots.
Use the 2nd half add frozen peppers a small tin of chilli beans & chilli powder serve with rice.
There's some left to put on nachos or jacket with chopped onion salad & a bit of cheese on top.
9 meals for £5 ish.

[RooibosTeaAgain]

A lentil curry. Onion, red pepper, carrots, diced potatoes, vegetable stock, curry powder and red lentils. coconut milk is optional extra. freezes very well.

[eastmidswarwicknightnanny]

I do a bbq sausage casserole only thing I use cheap sausages for as decent ones go tough n dry in casserole.

This serves 2 adults a 5yr old and 10mths old (baby is done in seperate pan with water rather than stock)

Pack 12 sausages from aldi for 99p cut in 4-5 pieces each usually can cut into 5 bits if still a bit frozen but if use from fresh only get 4 bits as break up when chopping!! Marinate in 1/3-1/2 bottle bbq we buy aldi own or Heinz/up from£1 shop.

Veg is 4 carrots chopped, large onion, mushrooms and peas

Sausages fried off in sauce veg added with pint stock and any almost empty ketchup or bbq sauce bottles are used up by adding little water n chucking in.

This is simmered for a good hr plus and serve with mash and some green beans or broccoli.

Half is frozen and next time chucked in casserole dish with tin of aldi potatoes or some par boil fresh new potato dependant on time and in oven for 30mins and is served with garlic bread - now I am back at work this is a really great time saver.

[eastmidswarwicknightnanny]

a chicken is another cheap meal for us.

Aldi £5 free range chicken although could buy the large normal one for £4

Does a roast dinner one day, a second roast or just with boiled pot and veg another day then meat left is mixed with bbq and popped in oven for 20mins with some sliced onions mushroom ( peppers n bits bacon chopped if we have) and served in par baked baguettes with chips although the boys have pasta we only need 2 baguette at mo as boys only eat small amount.

So a chicken does us 3 dinners. I used to make pies from left over chicken but since going dairy free I don't like any milk alternatives for making a white sauce and also ds1 didn't like pies.

[Tigerblue]

Money has been really tight for us the last month. I managed to buy some French fry chips on offer and have served them with Tescos frozen sausages (approx. 10p) or a value fried egg (approx. 8p). I know this isn't particularly healthy, but it got a meal in us when money has been really tight. Both could be served with value baked beans or perhaps a tomato if there's more in the budget.

[Radiatorvalves]

Dahl? I love Dahl and if you already have the spices it is v cheap. Chuck veg in too to bulk up. Yum!

[Passthecake30]

fry a few slices of chopped bacon, onion and garlic, add value passata and a handful of peas, reduce, and put on top of value spaghetti. Can't cost much more than £1.50?

[QuiteLikely5]

Potatoes, chopped into small squares or fritters

Tin of corned beef

2 onions

Gravy granules

Pop in slow cooker

Then bread and butter to serve. Yummy!

[BrandNewAndImproved]

Me and the dc eat Jamaican rice n peas quite a lot. I get 3 tins of coconut milk for a pound in the local Caribbean shop, along with huge bags of rice for around a tenner and kidney beans from aldis. We eat it with salad and frozen corn on the cobs if I'm broke, curry goat if I'm not. It also freezes really really well.

Left over Sunday veg gets turned into tomato sauce to have over pasta.

Someone told me a really good rice with chicken livers recipe on here a few years ago. Surprisingly it's really nice and I don't like liver. Will post recipe if your interested.

Jacket potatoes beans and cheese.

Basically the less meat the less it will cost.

[HeyMicky]

Stir fried mince and finely sliced cabbage with super noodles and store cupboard Asian flavours (ginger, garlic, soy, chilli). Ingredients cost about £3 and we get 4 adult portions from it

[BrandNewAndImproved]

Cabbage and cornbeef is really nice to heymicky

[MERLYPUSSEDOFF]

I make a red pasta sauce with bendy veg and passata. At the end I stir through a small tin of pilchards/sardines and 1/2 tub of basics philly cheese. It's really nice with pesto in too, serves 2 adults and 2 8y/o.

[Lessstressedhemum]

Cauliflower and chick pea pilaf from the BBC food website
Caramelised onion pasta with a little cheese on tóp
Chick pea, garlic and pasta soup
Ham and bean soup
Ham, green beans and potatoes in the slow cooker
Lentil curry
Bean chilli
Rice and beans
Pasta bake
Egg rice
Bean burgers
Bean and bacon burgers
Spiced chi k peas

[MrsPear]

My cheapest meal has to be pasta with homemade tomato sauce - I leave the sauce to stew in the slow cooker then blitz. It really store cupboard staple meal with a bit of grated cheese.

[BarryMerry]

Homemade pizza
Toad in the hole
Thai curry with turkey mince meatballs
Shepherd's pie
Tuoni e lampi (pasta & chickpeas, top with fried sliced onion, sourdough crumbs, rosemary & parmesan)
Lentil & tomato soup
Arroz a la cubana (spoon some homemade tomato sauce over rice, then top with a fried egg)
Homity pie (fill a pastry lined deep sided pie dish with leeks & cooked potato, then pour over cream egg & grated cheddar beaten together)
Butter bean goulash
Mushroom stroganoff
Imam bayildi (baked aubergine in tomato sauce)

[dementedma]

Corned beef hash/stories
Lentil curry
Any kind of home made soup
Jacket potatoes and beans/tuna
Egg and chips
Any slow cooker casserole with cheap cuts and veg
Spaghetti with basic tomato sauce, mozzarella, baked in oven
Home made pizzas made on wraps or naans
Cheesy mash.

[SealSong]

Pulses are brilliant for healthy filling budget meals.
I do
Mixed bean burgers
Black bean and veg chilli
Dhal using channa dhal
Chickpea and butternut squash curry
Kidney bean burritos
Green or brown lentil 'bolognese' which also makes a great base for a 'sherpherd's' pie
Butterbean tomato and feta casserole
Falafels using chickpeas
Hummus
Red lentil soup
Cannelini bean and (tinned) tuna salad
Chickpeas and roasted veg in couscous

[TPel]

I adapted Imam Bayildi by adding fried potatoes and spinach layers to the aubergine. It was amazing if I say so myself.

[Lessstressedhemum]

Sausage casserole
Toad in the hole
Lentils and rice
Lentil chilli
Bean burritos
Cauliflower and bacon soup
Cheesy mash with beans
Sweetcorn and black bean salad with baked potatoes
Pasta e fagioli
Lentil bake
Sausage and onion pie
Cheesy veg pie
Tomato rice with cheese
Tuna pasta salad
Creamed Tina, rice and peas
Savoury bread and butter pudding

[AdoraBell]

Cauliflower and egg curry.

Fry chopped onion, add curry paste/Sauce/spices, can of toms, chop and blanche cauliflower, boil eggs, add cauliflower To Sauce and serve over rice topped with quartered eggs. My DDs won't eat the egg so I add lentils To the Sauce before prepping the cauliflower and eggs.