To ask for your budget meals ??

[newmun]

Statutory maternity starts now. Please can I have everyones fave budget meals/recipes/tips???

Just got the cooking on a bootstrap books. They are fab. The one with a red front is best
Our favourites: Salmon paste pasta, jacks (bean) chilli, aubergine keraline curry, Car-brie-nara, mushroom strogonoff.
All come in at £1-2 four 3-4 people

Jaime Oliver's vegetable chilli is nice and cheap. In fact going mainly vegetarian has saved us a lot of money. Meal plan and don't waste anything! Swap to Aldi/Lidl if you haven't already.

Had my fave budget dinner tonight! Potatoes boulangere - Layered sliced potatoes with onion and stock. I also add bacon and cheese. Have it with some peas/beans/green beans etc. So nice and so cheap. I tend to fry the onions until they sweeten and also add sage and garlic into the onions. Yum.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5056/boulangre-potatoes

cookingonabootstrap.com/2018/07/24/cheap-salmon-pasta-recipe/
cookingonabootstrap.com/2018/07/22/budget-chilli-recipe/
cookingonabootstrap.com/2014/05/28/keralan-aubergine-curry-recipe/

All but the carbrie nara are still on the website. I tend to add an extra tin of tomatoes to most her recipes and frozen peas or broccoli on the side

Chilli beans and rice/jacket potato - one onion, half a teaspoon garlic granuals, tspoon chill i powder, tin baked beans, tin chopped tomatoes.
Vegetable and egg rice - rice, frozen mixed veg, eggs, soy sauce, chilli flakes
Split pea stew /soup. Yellow split peas, carrots, onion and potatoes. Flavour with ginger and a bit of curry powder and a veg stock cube.
Lentil bolognaise - onion, red lentils, chopped tomatoes, diced carrot, stock cube, garlic and mixed herbs. Makes nice soup as well if you add more water and blend it up.
Bubble and squeak with fried egg.

Tuna and baked bean pasta bake, lentil bolognese, bean chilli, beef chilli (I eat half with rice and a dollop of natural yoghurt, the other half over baked potatoes with grated cheese the next day), refried bean and cheese fajitas, Pitta bread pizzas, vegetable and Parmesan risotto, Spanish omelette, mini crust less quiches with potato salad, tuna pasta salad, sausage and bean casserole.

Basically what I normally eat, only with more beans and pulses and bulked out with cheap veg like carrots, celery, potatoes and frozen peas. Lots of tuna/tinned fish and other tinned foods, like tinned potatoes and baked beans, and other cheaper protein sources like eggs and cheese.
Veggie food is cheaper but I like meat. So I'll still make spag bol, but I'll use half a pack of mince instead of a whole one and bulk out with lots of extra veg.

Bean chilli.

We have chilli one night.

Make extra rice and mix with chilli the next night then stuff peppers, top with cheese and bake. Serve with sweet potato wedges and salad.

Then chilli on baked potatoes or I add a tin of tomatoes and blitz into soup.

Costs about £3 to make a ginormous, vat of the stuff.........saves on the heating when the arse orchestra starts up as well.

Fritata.

Basic tomato sauce (( fry garlic and onions, add frozen spinach a tin of tomatoes, squirt of tomato puree and water. Season and simmer for 20/ 30 mins )). with pasta and qourn balls (( exactly the same as Swedish meatballs ))

Potato, egg and bacon pie.

Parboil potatoes, mix with cooking bacon and 2 eggs. Use ready roll pastry to make a pie. Top filling with cheese if you have it. Serve with beans and sweet potato wedges.

Corned beef hash.

Homity pie (( Potato, cheese, leeks and onion. )) Bunged together and baked.

Chorizo pasta.
Fry off chorizo, peppers and onions. Add stock and pasta and cook until pasta is done. Stir in cream/crepe fraiche.

Stir fry

Chilli con carne.

Cheap food requires a bit of a rethink about what and how you eat rather than a few cheap recipes.

Rice, pasta, potatoes etc as the major source of calories in the meal

Fish and meat less frequently, smaller portions to ‘flavour’ the meal like in curries etc and/or cheaper cuts.

In-season vegetables or frozen vegetables - so no fresh asparagus in January.

Be smart with leftovers and reduce waste.

Our go-to cheapies are:
Bolognaise with 50% lentils, 50% mince
Black bean and sweet potato chilli
Homemade falafels and flatbreads
Homemade pizza
Vegetable fried rice with poached egg.
Huevos rancheros

rice and dhal
baked potatoes with cheese and beans
home made pizza
chick pea curry
rice with eggs, peas with mayo and curry powder
Lentil soup

chop grate leftover veg - 1 carrot, half a courgette, onion, some sweetcorn etc. Mix 1 egg, 4oz self raising flour and a pinch of bicarb of soda, mik to make into a batter. grate in some strong cheese and add veg. fry spoonfuls to make mini veg fritters and serve with sweet chilli sauce or ketchup.

Stir fry is always good (especially since you can just use whatever vegetables you have lying around at the end of the week). Jack's recipes are brilliant too - I like her fish cakes.

One of my favourite cheap ones is tuna, pesto pasta bake. Cook some pasta, add some frozen veg towards the end, drain add a tin of tuna, jar of pesto, some grated cheese and about half a tin of chopped tomatoes. Bake in the oven with some extra cheese on top.

For protein you can get some cheap frozen white fish - goes well in curries (for example from BBCGoodFood.)

The main thing is meticulous planning and batch cooking.

Fry onions and garlic and then add a couple of big bags of super cheap mixed frozen veg. Top up with veg stock and boil for ten minutes, then blitz it and season.

I hate the cheap bags of cubed frozen veg and wouldn’t buy it to eat but it makes a lovely cheap and quick soup.

Panisse - it's a good way of using up chickpea flour and they go with just simple salt and pepper, or a fried egg, or a basic tomato sauce with some cheap vegetables. (I don't use much oil to cook them.)

www.davidlebovitz.com/panisses-1/

Chickpea and potato curry is a firm family favourite. The ingredients are most like this one - using the cheapest boiling potatoes and whatever spices suit you and tinned tomatoes or passata.

www.crunchycreamysweet.com/2018/05/14/easy-chickpea-and-potato-curry-recipe-chana-aloo/

If you're using tinned chickpeas, save the liquid from the tin and use it for an aquafaba recipe.

www.vegansociety.com/whats-new/blog/20-amazing-things-you-can-do-aquafaba

Egg fried rice. Using basic ingredients costs me about 20p a portion. Obviously you can't always afford to be organic when your skint.

Biggest thing is to plan. Never go shopping hungry, take a list and only buy what’s on the list. Take out as v special treat. If you are going out for a day, take a picnic and a flask. Meal plan and use leftovers, and get good at making soup.

Chilli makes anything taste great. :)

Jamie Oliver’s Chicken Liver Bolognaise - it’s amazing, one of our favourite meals.

Make sure you buy full fat everything : milk, cheese, yog. Keeps you fuller and better for you.

Dahl is delicious and literally costs pennies to make
Veggie fried rice/biriyani
Pasta arrbiata
Jacket spuds with fillings
Egg and chips
Beans/mushrooms etc on toast

Top tip is to stock up on fresh herbs and spices when they’re reduced and freeze them. Plus, buying them already frozen from the freezer section can also save a bit of money (and time). I’m not a food snob, but you do need good flavourings to make cheap filler pulses and pasta taste good. Boiling up lentils or kidney beans with generic “curry powder” tastes of disappointment.

Actually, try and buy as much as you can reduced and freeze it. Co-ops are very good for reductions. Tesco, not so much.

Any fish poached in a tin of tomatoes with chorizo, chilli, green beans served with a boiled egg each and rice. Coriander optional.

Soup - never costs a lot to make
Bean chilli - love it and doesn’t cost a lot.

So many yummy suggestions!

If I need to cut my food budget, I cut out most of the meat and have it maybe once a week. So cottage pie or sausages on Sunday instead of a roast, and many many veggies and pulses the rest of the week.

Soups with whatever veggies are on offer, bean chilli, eggs, baked potatoes, pasta dishes etc.

I really like Hugh F-W’s veggie cookbook ( the first one). So many delicious ideas.

And I cut out the booze, but you’re probably doing that already!

Also strict meal planning and eliminating waste, as PPs have said.

I find I can usually go ten days between shops if I plan, switch maybe a trip locally to get fresh milk in between. That alone seems to save me money although if you only buy what you need each time, it shouldn’t make any difference!

Switch = except