To have found the best cheap lunch

[Overthebow]

with the cost of living going up I’m trying to find cheap lunch ideas for work.

this week: pot of pate £1, loaf of bread £0.80, bag of apples £1.50. Pate on toast and an apple, cost for the whole week only £3.30 and really filling.

anyone else got any cheap lunch ideas?

I need to know more about this… recipe please

No. If you are careful about keeping it refrigerated, cutting in to it only with a CLEAN knife and keeping in a sealed container it will be fine for a week. The guidance is for people that are not careful.

I second many of the dal recipes - mine is frozen spinach, tin chopped toms, lentils, onion, garlic (fresh/paste/granules) cumin, garam masala, coconut milk if you are feeling a bit fancier, and an essential I have not seen mentioned is CHICK PEAS! Yum. The kids love it too, especially with a dollop of plain yogurt.

One of my easy and cheap-ish go-to lunches is packet of veggie rice with a tin of tuna.

A chicken a week goes a LONG way towards making tasty food. Stock is super important. I pressure cook the bones for half an hour, remove the liquid for stock, and almost everything else has basically liquidised for the dog (I carefully separate out the bones that haven’t gelatinised).

Yeah, I think my family had better stick to the guidance!

My mum would Chuck any old leftovers in an omelette, and have that in French bread. Also condensed milk sandwich. Yum!
any old veg make soup. So easy, fry onion, Chuck in whatever, and stock. As a pp says lentil soups is delicious. Add potato’s and carrots. Or tomato’s. Or sprinkle with crispy bits of bacon or toast or bits of stale cheese grated.
ooh! also spaghetti - add chopped dried chilli, garlic and a slug of olive oil fried till garlic is cooked. or fry old breadcrumbs with a sprinkle of Parmesan and lemon zest. Not sure if lunch as such, but So simple and cheap and yum.
i sprinkled garlic granules in a packet of passata from lidl and warmed it thru on pasta when I cba. For the teens tea. They liked it more than dads slow fried toms in olive oil that he makes a big do about!

Marmite spaghetti takes me back. When I went to my best friend's house back in the 70s it was a great favourite there. I tried making it myself many years later and it wasn't great, but that could have been my fault. As I recall, they made it by putting uncooked spaghetti (yes, I know) in a baking dish and plonking a tin of tomatoes on top, followed by some Marmite dissolved in hot water. Baked in the oven until the spaghetti was more or less cooked. Grated cheese was involved somehow too.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g - just discovered marmite spaghetti but using boiled pasta added to sauce of butter/garlic/marmite/pasta water. Grated cheese sprinkled on top.

Ready in about 15 mins and very yummy!

I like marmite and I like spaghetti but marmite spaghetti sounds like an abomination! My mum used to throw together spaghetti with butter and garlic for a quick lunch, and somehow made it taste fucking amazing. 😋

It was a novelty for me as we didn't have Marmite at home. I knew the taste of yeast extract only from Twiglets which we sometimes had at Christmas or at birthday parties. My husband, who could live on Marmite, thinks I had a deprived childhood.

@PinkSyCo - I don’t even like marmite as a thing! but this is scrummy - think I used Nigella’s recipe.

It’s quick, cheap and very good if you want a meat free meal with umami flavour.

We didn’t have marmite at home either. Didn’t even know it was even invented back then-I’m 51 and didn’t ‘discover’ the stuff until I was well into my 20’s. I’ve just remembered, back when I was newly left home and even poorer ( both at cooking and monetary) than I am now, eating plain pasta cooked in water with an oxo cube in it, so I guess that isn’t too far removed from spaghetti marmite?

Actually your recipe does sound pretty good. I’m gonna give it a try!

Soup: carrot and sweet potato (or butternut squash)

Frozen veg are really nutritious and handy. This takes less than 30 mins from starting to chop the onion/garlic to blending with stick blender. I made this today at 7.30am for the kids lunches while getting them breakfast. It’s cheap, healthy and doesn’t take much effort as the frozen veg and ginger are handy. I make it frequently and there’s few ingredients so I don’t have to think much about it. I’m not super organised, I just have a few things like this that keep everyone fed with something nutritious that they like.

Fry Onion and garlic in saucepan with pinch of salt for 3-4 mins.
Add 2/3 bag (1kg) frozen sliced carrots and whole bag (600g) of sweet potato cubes.
Grate frozen ginger into soup and add 1L veg stock. Cook for 20 mins.
Blend.

Prices from Tesco:
Frozen 1kg Carrot- £1.10 used 2/3 = £0.73
Frozen 600g Sweet potato - £ 1.50
Tin Coconut milk (Tesco) - £0.90
Large onion (or equivalent volume from smaller cheaper options eg Redmere) £0.10
Garlic cloves £0.05
Ginger (bought fresh and frozen) £0.05
Vegetable stock 2 cubes - £0.10

Total 🟰 £3.43
It serves approx 6 people, possibly more.
Portion cost = £57p

Ive also bought creamed coconut 4 sachets for £1.45. Half a sachet and more veg stock can substitute for the canned coconut milk.

Add a bread roll if you want more.

Egg fried rice is a really quick and cheap lunch.
I use dried rice but you could use microwave rice if you wanted.
200g cooked basmati rice - 37p
2 eggs - 20p if using battery eggs or 30p if using free range
Whatever vegetables in the fridge that need using, spinach/peas/sweetcorn/broccoli
maybe some cooked chicken if I have any in the fridge or even chopped up ham is nice
2 spring onions, garlic, soy sauce are pennies.

I make this at least once a week and it serves me and DH a decent portion each for less than a £1 for 2 lunches.

I've recently got a small breadmaker.

It isn't cheaper to make bread in it, and I do know how to make bread but arthritic hands don't knead very well.

Anyway I have found the bread made in it much more filling than bought bread.

I'm still experimenting, but Sainsbury's multiseed mix is 85p and makes a filling meal with soup or topped with cheese.

I know 85p plus cooking isn't cheap for a loaf of bread but if you can afford it then it can make a good addition to a lunch.

Broccoli and peanut butter soup.
A head of broccoli and the skinned stem, a clove or 2 of garlic, veg or chicken stock, 2 sticks of celery. Seasoning. Cook in the usual way, blitz, add a dessert spoon of peanut butter at the end if you like, which I do. Healthy and very, very cheap. Obviously you can titivate it with some kale or peas etc, but it's fine as it is.

I'd have to eat the entire tub slathered thickly onto a hot baked baguette. There's no way it would last a week with me

Anyone after cheap dal recipes, watch some tarka dal or dal dry recipe videos on YouTube. Easiest way to see and learn, also see a variety of tips, slight recipe variations, etc. Dal should be pretty simple in general. Likewise, watch chapati making videos if you fancy a go at that.