To ask for your left over recipes/basic and cheap meals!

[gayandokay]

Just that really! Always left at the end of the week with no food in the house and when I look for recipes online I can never find easy recipes with basic ingredients. Thanks guys!

We usually plan meals and the leftovers too. For example, a gammon joint cooked would make ham, egg and chips with the leftover ham making pasta with ham and peas and maybe some for an omelette.

Some of our (rather boring) ideas...

Tuna pasta bake: tinned tuna, pasta, jar of pasta bake sauce, cheese for the top. We also cook some frozen beans to go with it (or salad items) to add some colour and vegetables!

Casserole: diced beef steak, root vegetables, tomato puree, beef stock cubes, Worcester sauce, bit of flour to thicken. Because we make this regularly, I have the ingredients in the cupboard all the time. Make loads (we use the slow cooker), freeze leftovers, makes a quick reheated meal with rice.

Curry: meat (we usually use chicken), jar of Indian sauce, vegetables such as peppers and potatoes. Another slow cooker favourite, again make loads and freeze the leftovers. Use old takeaway tubs to freeze and write contents on the lids with a marker pen.

BBC Good Food is a good recipe site and we've made some nice Jamie Oliver 30min meals (they take longer the first few times though).

We have a recipe called store cupboard surprise. It can be varied.
It includes
-some form of meat/fish, eg tinned tuna
-carb, eg potato or pasta

• white sauce
• grated cheese.

Make a white sauce(with onion if you have some). Add the protein. Cook the carb. Mix all the things together and put in a flattish dish with grated cheese on top if you have some. Bake until cheese is melted/brown. The last step is not necessary if electric costs are relevant. Just add the cheese to the sauce, mix it all together and serve.

Nigella's sweet corn fritters - you beat the egg whites separately and then fold in to the rest of the ingreds - makes them fluffier. Sometimes I fry bacon lardons and stir them in to the mix.

There's an egg and courgette bake (I think it's called Golden Wonder) in the Mumsnet cookery book. Quite a few of the recipes in there are nutritious/non- fussy.

Pea and ham soup.

Lentil soup.

Chana masala. (Felicity Cloake's recipe in the Guardian is good.)

End-of-the-week favourite here is lentil dhal. Red lentils (plus a tin of green ones if you like), onion, curry powder, coconut milk and stock. I buy the sachets of coconut cream so I always have some in, but you can use tinned coconut milk or blocks of coconut cream.

Microwave rice pouch stirred through a can of chili soup, with grated cheddar stirred in. Maybe some crunched up tortilla chips on top.

I can actually cook, but my DS prefers this.

I make a fabulous lentil bake - onions, red lentils and brown rice baked in veg stock with foil on top for 1 hr, add grated cheese and bake another 30 mins to make a crust. Serve with green salad. Yummy and costs pennies.

@snowflake9 fishfinger and mushy pea toasties or just bread yum x

Dried pea soup/stew
Brown rice and vegetables (frozen mixed veg is the cheapest)
Lentil bolognaise
Dal and rice
Potato wedges, beans and egg
Bubble and squeak with a fried egg
All of these meals come in well under a pound per portion.

Do you have recipe for lentil bake by any chance please Floatingthroughspace?

Yes recipe please, @floating!! Can I use white rice instead of brown?

I’d love that lentil bake recipe too please!

Cheap & Easy! (I always use my slow cooker but can be done in a casserole dish)
1x tin of Dahl / curryed chick peas or similar.
1x tin of butter beans or chick peas
About 50g lentils
300-400g frozen mixed vegetables
1x tin chopped tomatoes or some tomato puree - optional
top up with veg. stock & (optional) coconut milk
add extra curry powder to taste
Enjoy with bread ...

For the luxury version: add half a leg of lamb on the bone!

Photo attached of (well loved) lentil bake recipe for those asking. I guess you can use white rice floral but I think it might change the texture - make it mushier.

Thank you Floatingthroughspace! Spattered recipes always the best.

Ylvamoon that recipe looks good too!