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?

Go to an eastern shop for a big (cheap) bag of lentils and flour for chapattis.
Eat cold or put in a microwave. Add your apple. That would cost very little.

I forgot to say use it to make dhal and chappatis.

I am ashamed because this is desperately unhealthy but my favourite lunch is fried bread with a fried egg on it and a splash of tomato sauce.
Sorry but it really is delicious 😋

BBC good food 10 minute cous cous salad. Absolutely delicious. The pine nuts are expensive, but I leave them out if trying to save money.

^

Re. Pine nuts. Use sunflower seeds instead. Far cheaper. Even better if you toast them in a dry pan before eating. Really, really nice

When I was saving for our house deposit, I ate pasta pesto for every week day lunch for a year! I like that you can eat it hot or cold.

I was thinking this to be honest but then I realised that for a lot of people lunch isn't their main meal and they may eat lots more in the evening.

For me lunch is a main meal and would have to be a lot more than that. Breakfast is not very much and even without trying to gain weight say you would have a 600 / 600 / 600 split for meals and some left for other things... breakfast just never hits that 600 and if lunch doesn't as well you have a massive deficit.

I'm in agreement with you though as for me a lot of the meal ideas would be way too little unfortunately. I would love it if they were OK in terms of calories as I would save a lot of money (if I could get away with having half a can of soup and a piece of bread!).

Actually if anyone has any good or unusual recipes that are CHEAP without rare ingredients that are good for gaining weight (i.e. high calorie)... that don't involve protein powder I'd love to hear them. I'm really in a rut with food and just having the same things repetitively. The problem is a lot of the things that would fit this (and that I would like) are really expensive.

Chicken liver pate is dirt cheap to make. Well cheap, the cost of butter has made it less so.

Chicken livers - most supermarkets have them frozen for 50p or not much more.

You also need butter and salt and pepper.

Optional is onion, brandy, herbs - depending on what you have in the cupboard.

Fry the onion and chicken livers in butter - lots of butter, almost as much butter as livers. Add seasonings and once the livers are cooked through, pour everything into a blender.

Pour the gloopy, really unappetising brown mush into a dish or dishes, I often use ramekins for individual portions.

Optional melt more butter and pour over to 'seal' and put in the fridge overnight.
You can also freeze it.

I've just costed it from Sainsbury's.

Chicken livers 60p
Onion 11p
Butter £1.90

Total £2.60, assuming you have the salt and pepper in the cupboard and obviously you have the cost of cooking.

^ That sounds good especially if there is an offer on butter. I can get parsley from the park.

Mmm. Used to love chicken liver pate! Also chicken livers fried with butter and tarragon deglazed with a drop of balsamic and pored onto on a leaf salad. Had at posh dinner, very posh very cheap!

I just wrote a long answer but it has disappeared, I'll be back later but @skybluee pancakes, make with savory stuffings such as cheese and bacon.

Also make pancakes and use like lasagne.

Cucumber and tomato salad, salt, can add any old veg from the night before, crumb a bit of feta over the top and you think you are in the Balkans or Greece. Make ahead to get the tomatoes to release their juice.

Bag of apples, sliced and add Aldi peanut butter

Cucumber de- seeded filled with tuna or mackerel filling, pepper, lemon

All soup in the world

Not sure if it fits your definition of cheap, but something like macaroni cheese, with or without bacon would fit the bill.

Get whatever strong cheddar is on offer, or from Lidl/Aldi, add double cream (often reduced and lasts for a week or two beyond the use by date) and bacon bits. Serve with buttered white toast and you have possibly a million calories a portion.

Or beans or egg on toast with lots of butter and cheese. Or baked potato with butter and cheese, do you see a theme here? (start in microwave and crisp up in oven/air fryer for a few mins on hot).

Back to dhal, I use the Gymkhana recipe because it's very easy, really nice and the closest I've found to what they sell in Bundobust, one of my favourite places to eat. It was published in The Times some time ago.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-to-cook-britains-best-indian-food-at-home-qpz0llqb5

Or here it is from my Copy Me That recipe saving app. I'm not sure about the cooking times, soaking instructions or colour of lentils, because I usually use red ones because they cook quicker, but in my non expert opinion I think you can use either but yellow ones take a lot longer to cook to mush, which is how I like dhal (I'm working my way through a 2 kilo bag of yellow ones and I think they may take even longer to cook now as probably years old, will probably stick to red ones in future). But just give it a good simmer until it looks and tastes like dhal.

200g split yellow lentils
½ tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp chilli powder (or to taste, I probably use a bit
2 tsp salt (again I probably use a bit less, because this sounds like quite a lot and you can just put more in at the end if you think it needs more)
15g garlic paste (I probably use more than this, as I put in one big frozen cube of garlic and ginger)
10g ginger paste

15g ghee or clarified butter
4 red chillies
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 Wash the lentils under cold running water until it runs clear. Put the lentils in a bowl, cover with warm water and leave to soak for 35-45 minutes.

2 Drain the lentils and put in a pot with the turmeric, chilli powder and salt. Cover with about 800ml warm water, then stir in the garlic and ginger pastes. Bring to a boil and cook on a medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are just tender, about 20 minutes.

3 Gently melt the ghee in a frying pan on a low heat. Add the chillies and stir until they begin to darken, then add the cumin seeds until they become brown and you can smell the aroma. Add the garlic and sauté until it turns golden brown. Pour onto the daal, cover again and simmer for 10 minutes, then serve.

But whatever you have for lunch, just about everything home made, especially if you shop in the cheaper supermarkets, is far cheaper than even cheaper lunch places like supermarket sandwich £3 meal deals, Greggs, Subway or McDonalds.

And to me, often a lot nicer, such that I find a lot of bought lunches disappointing compared to home made.

I often have cous cous salad.
Couscous with celery, cucumber, tomatoes sometimes chick peas and feta cheese and or avocado.

Costs pennies.

I think about £2:50 for 3 lunches.

But would always have an apple with it.

Fritters/pakoras are good. If you have gram (chickpea) flour just mix spices, flour, water and veg and fry it.

Or with normal flour add baking powder, salt, slices and egg. For both then just random veg then fry dollops off the mix. Serve with yogurt mixed with mint sauce and sweet chilli sauce.

Fish cakes using tinned fish and left over mash (or microwave a jacket or two)

I'm expecting GS to have it for a year, he has fads for things and then suddenly doesn't want them. He's had a chicken wrap for school lunch for 2.5 terms and then wanted a change.

He has his pasta and pesto hot some days and cold others. If we had roast chicken on Sunday he probably gets some chicken in his cold pasta.

Only a year to go and he'll be leaving school.

I have 100g Tesco Wholewheat Cous Cous (70p for 500g) and mix it with a tin of Asda Mixed Bean Salad (60p) and that will be my lunch for two days. Works out at 37p a day with the only additional expense being how much it costs to boil 125ml of water.

Have you tried making your own houmous once you find a recipe you like it's a game changer as sooo much cheaper and can often be frozen

Fried egg sandwiches are amazing

The yellow sticker full ready roasted chicken I just bought from Morrisons for 84p it was at 1620 if anyone wants to check theirs out. I walked there. I will do roasted veggies bought for less than a pound from my local Turkish grocer and I will buy flat bread from there. I do love living in London and feel that although the rent is ridiculous food is very very cheap compared to my home town up North.

There's still woods filled with wild garlic (you can eat the entire plant, but try to leave the bulb in the ground). I'm making a variation of 'free' pesto on a loop for the freezer.

Wild Garlic
Any cheese (I use odds and ends, sometimes a ball of mozzarella)
Any nuts/sunflower seeds (I often use cashew or walnuts, but frequently sunflower seeds as they're so cheap)
Lemon Juice
Seasoning

Whiz in a blender/food processor and tweak for seasoning. Freeze in portions.

That's it. Wonderful to pull out for a fast dinner, just stirred through pasta. Very low cost and no cooking either.

I made dhal on the back of this thread, pretty much Jamie Oliver’s but with a can of coconut milk making up some of the liquid. It was lush, thanks!