Dinner ideas for £3.60

[Thisnamechanger]

Anyone up for a cooking challenge?

I'm totally broke this week and I've got £3.60 in my pocket for dinner.

WWYC? (What would you cook?)

For reference I have some dried spaghetti and bean burgers at home, small amount of cheddar mostly full spice rack and I go past an M&S, Sainsbos and Iceland on the way home.

You can get a bag of pasta and jar of pasta sauce for under a quid so I'm not sure why £3.60 would be a struggle

Well obviously, I'm not stupid. Just canvassing for a range of ideas!

You can get steak and chips for that.

Confession time; I've never actually cooked lentils 😯 I read somewhere if cooked wrongly they can make you sick!

A whole chicken is about £2 in lidl....

I’d make a massive Dahl. For £3.60 you can freeze lots of portions.

Homemade meatball marinara. Spaghetti you already have. Meatballs are very cheap at aldi n lidl. You need an onion garlic and a tin of chopped toms

That’s if they’re undercooked, it’s really easy to not do that. Just don’t eat them if they are crunchy, cook until soft. Really not hard,

Defrost your hamburgers and cut them into about 6 even pieces roll into balls

This is a brilliant idea! Reckon it'll work even though they are bean burgers?

I’d just cook them and cut them into little pieces

Onion, tin of sardines in olive oil, bit of saffron from the spice rack, leftover spaghetti and a quarter bottle of white wine. Fry chopped onion in the oil from the sardines until really soft. Add sardines, pinch of saffron and cooked spaghetti, (and sultanas if you happen to have any). Eat with a glass of wine (perhaps put a splash in the cooking as well). Alternatively, if you’re feeling more in need of veg than , you could spend spare money on a fennel bulb instead, chop, blanch, add to the concoction and garnish with fronds.

The cheap split orange lentils are very quick and easy to cook. You know they are done because they turn yellow. Simples.

Wow Egypt that's so creative! I wish I liked sardines as I know how good they are for you but even as a fish lover I find them a bit to high on the fishiness scale!

These are my feed-four recipes that come in at about £3 for big portions

Sticky belly pork with spring greens and egg noodles
Curried cauliflower, paneer and peas with rice
Eggs florentine with crusty bread
Spaghetti carbonara with a green salad
Jacket sweet potatoes with black beans and feta
Chicken and broccoli pasta bake
Turkey teriyaki rice bowl
Chicken and vegetable soup with baked tortilla

Cheaper recipes, more like £2 for four people

Jacket potatoes with beans
Ham and pineapple burgers
Sweet corn fritters with tomato dip and crispy greens
Vegetable soup with jacket side
French onion soup with cheesy crutons (omitting the wine unfortunately)
Garlic mushroom stackers
Tuna fish cakes

Curried cauliflower, paneer and peas with rice

Is that £3 p.p?
I've never bought paneer, loved it when Ive had it in a curry though.

Google a dahl recipe OP.

Cooking red lentils is easy.

My emergency food is tinned mackerel in tomato sauce with cous cous. But lentils/beans r cheap and filling too - goes well with tinned tomatoes. Could buy some frozen veg (which you can put in pasta sauce or as a side).

Whoopsies are the marked down items that are sold off cheap cos they're going out of date that night.

My emergency food is tinned mackerel in tomato sauce with cous cous

I know I wish I liked them - my housemate loves them she has them probably every other day.

I think I've got a bit of brown rice in the tin so I'm going to try and find paneer in the corner shop and frozen spinach from Iceland. Can't stop thinking about paneer now someone mentioned it. Will post pics of what I'm sure will be questionable results... worried it'll be v.wet!

Whoopsies are the marked down items that are sold off cheap cos they're going out of date that night

Aaah never heard them called that! You must need sharp elbows at the little m&s as I've never seen marked down food there.

Vegetable biryani if you have some spices in. You'll need rice and an onion plus a pack of fresh or frozen veg (more variety for less money than separately.

That still leaves you leftover rice and probably veg plus still your spaghetti for another day. If you can get pesto with the change, that gives you:

Vegetable biryani
pasta and pesto
burgers and rice in day 3.

Tesco shop:

Pesto 90p
Wholemeal rice 1kg £1.50
Onions 60p
Frozen mixed veg £1

Total £3.50

Rice

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/254877454

Onions

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/292276376

Pesto
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/search?query=pesto

Actually the veg is £1.10 but you still have the exact amount £3.60

Actually, do look at M&S. They've got massive bags of carrots, parsnips, Brussels sprouts and spuds, all for 40p each.

Thanks so much for the ideas, these are awesome

Actually, do look at M&S

I went straight for the Sainsbos one but today was only sliced ox tongue which I'm not crazy about!

The good news is the saag paneer was utterly amazing and £3.50 😊

bad news is I ate a whole packet of cheese, fek it, is Christmas