What's for dinner? Budget version

[LottyD32]

I thought a budget dinner thread might be a good idea for inspo and ideas.

I'm having soup tonight:

Shredded chicken
Onion
Celery
Garlic
Ginger
Turmeric
S&P and herbs
Water
Stock cube
Worcester sauce
Tinned mushrooms
Frozen broccoli, spinach and cauliflower

Cheap, easy, goes far and has load of immunity boosting ingredients.

And I'll probably add a couple of flour and water dumplings or flatten and fry them into flatbreads the whole reason I eat soup

Leek and potato soup with bread.

Pizza:
SRflour
Natural yog
Tomato purée
Cheese
Whatever looks like it’s about to die in the veg drawer

@Harrriet

Leek and potato soup with bread.

Nice, I've never made that but when I've had it a friends house it was delicious.

@FTEngineerM

Pizza: SRflour Natural yog Tomato purée Cheese Whatever looks like it’s about to die in the veg drawer

That sounds an easy base recipe, I'll try that.

This might be cheating, but I am doing a freezer raid:

Beef roast that was originally £25, yellow stickered to £10 (will form the base for several other meals)

Similarly discounted root veg mash and roasted potatoes

Yellow stickered sprouts

Leftover chilli and DH is having leftover chicken casserole.

Chicken stir fry with roast chicken from Sunday, noodles and veg

Also make a lovely leek and potato soup

Jacket potatoes with cheese and beans or tuna and sweetcorn. About £2.50 for 4.

I have no freezer stuff to raid and I'm missing it more than I thought I would.

I am having tonight, macaroni cheese.

Macaroni.

Butter melted, add cornflour and mustard powder and make a sauce with milk. Cook until it thickens.

Add pepper and salt and cheese, and keep cooking until all melted in.

Drop cooked macaroni in, mix and scrape into a casserole dish.

Slice some tomatoes, and place on top.

Sprinkle some more cheese and Tabasco, and cook under the grill until the cheese darkens.

Take out, and graba spoon or fork and eat.

Lovely stuff. And exceedingly cost effective.

Sweet potatoes with cream cheese.

A £1.45 frozen pepperoni pizza from tescos!
I'm kind of fussy over pizza (hate overly "bready" ones) but the tesco's ones actually aren't bad, though I do add a bit of extra mozarella.

We're having corned beef hash (or possibly corned beef Not-hash, not certain of the definition)

onions
peppers (bought in cheap bag, chopped and frozen)
garlic (home-grown)
rosemary (home-grown)
celery (sell-off chopped and frozen)
mushrooms
tin of tomatoes
tin of corned beef
s&p
potatoes, skin-on, chopped and parboiled
water used to parboil the potatoes
frozen peas will be added a few minutes before serving

Have made four portions so am freezing half.

Student sons don't like this and we are seizing their absence to eat all the stuff we haven't had for the last decade!

Chicken casserole made with a load of veg from Oddbox (they save & sell on wonky veg).

Sausages, egg and chips with white buttered bread! Sausages were yellow stickered and eggs were free from a neighbour

Leftover vegetable chilli dish I cobbled together couple of days ago with rice.

Vegan chilli con carne.

It's ridiculously easy. Make the chilli sauce the same as you would anyway, using any recipe - fry onions, add tins tomatoes, puree, stock and all the standard chilli spices. Then instead of mince, chuck in tins of kidney beans, rinsed off baked beans and butter beans. Let it simmer a while for the beans to absorb the flavour, done. Serve over rice or in wraps with a side salad.

Delicious, cheap and healthy.

Haven't decided yet but either curry or stew, depending on what we have in the fridge or freezer.

Black bean burritos and roasted cauliflower.

Oh tell a lie, it’s actually vegan chilli I’m having, not vegetarian. Go me.

Just a pie from the freezer and some veg for us tonight!

Chicken drumsticks marinaded in honey, Moroccan spices, mixed herbs
Stir fried green peppers and onions
Rice

@BirdyBee

Sausages, egg and chips with white buttered bread! Sausages were yellow stickered and eggs were free from a neighbour

I did hash browns, eggs and beans last night. So yummy and a great quick tea after work!

Vegetarian cottage pie...again. Made it Sunday and we've eaten it every night. It's really nice but i am a bit bored of it now

Good value though!

Lunch is beans on toast and dinner is baked potatoes with cheese/coleslaw.