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

@FinnulaFloss

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.

That does sound delicious

Tuna/pasta bake. Onion, red pepper, cream of celery soup, tinned tuna fish, fusilli (cooked, obvs), grated cheese for on top and sliced toms on top of that. Bake till nice.

One that I started making in 2020 is bacon and onion roly-poly pudding. It's incredibly filling and you don't need a lot of bacon in it. Make a dough with SR flour and suet - roughly twice the amount of flour to suet, I use 280g flour to 115g suet. Roll out about 1cm thick and lay on bacon slices, finely chopped onion, white pepper. Roll up, seal the edges and wrap loosely in grease-proof, tie ends shut with string. Steam on low for two hours. It looks horrible but is really tasty. We have it with gravy and vegetables.

The first time I cooked this, it gave my digestive system a bit of a shock and I had to go for a lie down after eating

Pasta bake - cook broccoli, peas, penne, mix in with a jar of pesto. That can all be done in one pan. Put in Pyrex dish, top with feta and Parmesan, bake in the oven for 20 minutes on six. Sub feta for goats cheese if you prefer.

Carrot & coriander soup - carrots were looking a bit tired

Then chilli & brown rice, using pork mince rather than beef. More environmentally friendly & half the price.

Jacket spuds and beans/tuna/cheese.

Jacket potatoes with smoky beans made with dried beans.

Freezer dive...

yellow sticker chicken breast 79p
Leeks free from a friend
60g parmesan 50p
Risotto Rice 50p
chicken stock cube 10p

Four portions for less than £2.00

I'm trying to use this as inspiration as dh just said he's having his leftover pizza. I'm thinking spaghetti hoops on toast which is actually a favourite of mine I have jerk chicken marinating but that'll save for tomorrow for a pasta bake.

One of the best things I've found that is pretty cheap, gets you out a rut, quick to cook and minimal ingredients is Simply Cook. I do one per week and have never had a bad one 👍 if you want a code for a free box I have them 👍

Sweet potato soup
Crispy chicken wraps with cheese, salsa and sour cream

Turkey curry nom nom! Leftover turkey we cooked on Sunday. It was a crown at Xmas £5 down from £30. We had a roast with it on Sunday. Mayflower curry sauce and rice....yummy!

Spanish chicken and chorizo casserole (from Asda’s 3 for £10 meat section) with mash and broccoli. Simple and quick. I’m nearly 37 weeks pregnant so cooking has slumped in this house!

Mushrooms on toast for me. Need something quick and tasty I can bolt between ferrying teenagers around to activities!

Tuna pasta bake and salad...simple

Home made left over roast chicken and sweet potato pizza!!

Coconut and squash curry. Delicious and so cheap and easy.

One of the benefits of going veggie on week nights is the shopping is much cheaper.

Jacket potato’s here tonight and then the leftover pancake batter and toppings from last night.

Potatoes not potato’s *

Cornflakes with hot milk

Sorry I misread and thought you were asking what everyone was having 😂

Freezer delights

Left over pancakes from yesterday.

Chicken jalfrezi from Sainsbury’s reduced from £2.80 to £0.69.

We are having pancakes because DS was at his dad’s last night.