To ask what you can actually cook for 30p/meal?

[Porcupineintherough]

Following on from the comments by MP Lee Anderson I was wondering what I could actually make for 30p/head. I'm a pretty good thrifty cook but all I could come up with were:

beans on toast (budget brands)
tinned tomatoes on toast (budget brands)
tinned mushrooms on toast (budget brands)
egg on toast
cheese on toast (ditto)
some kind of veggie stew/sauces w red lentils (if cooking for more than one) to eat w pasta
stir fry noodles w a few shreds of veg
bowl of basics cereal

I'm not counting things like baked potatoes where the ingredients are cheap but the energy costs to cook them are high.

So what am I missing? What skills and recipes are this food bank teaching? Wild foraging? Poaching? Shop-lifting 101?

A one-off meal: yes you can do that very cheaply e.g. rice and lentils cooked up together with some fried onions.

What you can in no way do is a week of nutritionally balanced meals which meet current NHS recommendations e.g. 5 different fruits and vegetables a day, dairy products or alternatives, fish twice a week of which one is oily. It isn't just about food, the food needs to give enough nutrition to sustain you in the long term.

Exactly.

People are suggesting things likes 2x eggs for dinner with a few mushrooms. and if you are really pushing the boat out a bit of bread. That's what, 300-400 calories tops with limited nutritional value?

Sure, you won't literally starve but you cannot eat a healthy diet on such little money.

No, his comments were not taken out of context, and yes, he very definitely is a twat. Apart from anything, most people these days, including kids, can manage to cook a simple meal - they do cookery in school for two years for a start, so not only is he a twat, he’s an ill informed, patronising, twat. For Christ’s sake, man, read the room. This is about food poverty and the excruciating rise is the cost of living, not whether Marjorie feeds herself and her kid a 90p pizza because it’s cheaper and easier to cook than a lentil curry.

Where did anyone say it doesn't? The point was that it's not always possible to shop around for cheaper food, travel for bargains, go to a cheaper supermarket, or travel to bulk buy items as the travel costs would use up a hefty chunk of your food budget. A bus here is £6.40 for an adult return then £3.20 for a child return, if you're on a limited budget then that's a lot of money. There is a reason why people in poverty often shop at corner shops/local shops even though they're more expensive and have a limited range of stock.

People don't seem to realise that it costs money to be poor.

Perhaps when Boris was hiding the the fridge that time he was concocting lots of recipes? Perhaps all MP's live on invisible lentil and dust stew.

The amount of gobshite coming from these MP's at the moment on this issue is astounding. I think they are actually antagonising people on purpose.

They are very desperate to get the mum vote judging by the amount of Tory bot shit on these boards, so it would be good for the MP to drop by. He knows he will be ripped to shreds though, so I think you have more chance of the government giving every adult in the UK a bottle of champagne.

Haven't read the full thread, but I am betting that someone has mentioned the MN chicken already.

I think if we trace back to when it was first mentioned we might actually find that they cooked a roadkill ostrich.

MPs expenses aren't 'boring' - I'm forever amazed/angry/perplexed at the CONTINUAL stories of MPs, going back years and years, using their expenses for all kinds of things beyond the mere 'basics' of being able to do their job. Whether they're 'allowed' is not the point, quite a great many of them seem able to fund a certain lifestyle through this particular method - especially when they're employing family members and bumping up their household income that way. I've never understood why MPs employing family members should be permitted - it's nepotistic and open to 'in plain sight' abuse of the system.

Here are Jack Monroe's ideas - probably more than 30p now though with the fuel price increases.

cookingonabootstrap.com/category/recipes-under-30p/

Spaghetti 30p, pasata, 45p, hot dogs 50p. A squirt of tomato paste and a pinch of herbs (25p?) and you have got pasta for 4-6 meals for 30p ish a head.

Spaghetti 30p, 1/2 tub cream cheese 40p, small scoop of frozen peas 20p, a bit of ham scraps/off cuts 50p. Again, pasta for 4-6 meals for 30p ish a head

Roast chicken thighs (£2). Pull meat off them and boil the bones with any veg peelings etc. Drain and put the stock aside. Roughly blitz a tin of sweetcorn 50p, add to the stock and heat. Season to taste. Whisk 1 egg 20p and whisk the simmering soup as you pour the egg in. Add the smallest bits of the chicken meat.

Use the rest of the chicken and 5 eggs £1 and any spare fridge veg to make a large omelette/frittata with a generous splash of milk 10p. Serve with beans 40p

That's enough soup and omelette and beans for 4-5 people for £4.

I do enjoy cooking too a budget but not when I'm forced to do it. I really feel for people that won't be able to afford to replace herbs and spices going forward etc.

Where are you buying hot dogs for 50p?

they do cookery in school for two years for a start

They do? Someone should probably inform my DCs schools. They did about half a term each of cookery. And most of that wasn't practical lessons.

The Aldi super six are quite good, though not as cheap at the moment as they are sometimes.

A few of these you don't need to cook and also keep a few days in the fridge, blueberries also freeze, and grapes keep for ages anyway.

groceries.aldi.co.uk/en-GB/Super-6

So do we all have access to cooking equipment at meal times. I've gone to hospital for appointment over meal times and it's taken hours then have to sue for a hour for prescription. Get faint and its m&s and no where to refill water. I could take stuff but I struggle carrying stuff on crutches not just because of them but spine arthritis. Anyone who defends a man who puts down poor people a stupid is a fascist. As much as there are poor people that don't spend money well I know people with money who just but ready made food and many people with different incomes who can't cook.

Fair enough in the short term but what about fruit and vegetables? That's also a lot if simple carbs and wholemeal pasta is more expensive.

Those just sound like light lunches. Nowhere near enough calories for grown adults as main meals.

Also their carrots are 24p a bag, bananas 14p each- other things you can have raw. Cucumbers 69p each, 47p for a clump of fresh celery.

If you were doing one of the "on toast" meals or some kind of dahl with rice you could serve things like two celery sticks, cucumber sticks and five cherry tomatoes on the side and you've got three (more) of your five a day without any more cooking.

I often have something on toast plus raw veg like this on the side anyway for my lunch and sometimes I fancy it for dinner. Kids will also often eat sticks of crunchy veg.

But again you need the money to buy tomato paste, herbs, milk, meat in the full sizes not just a portion.

You need a blender to blitz up the sweetcorn and the soup. Not everyone has these things.

Asda tinned hot dogs are eight for 59p. 31 calories per hot dog. If you’re going between six, that’s only 45 calories and 1.5 hot dogs each.

Those just sound like light lunches. Nowhere near enough calories for grown adults as main meals

Depends on portion sizes. You've got protein, fat, carbs and veg there, I don't see why what @myceliumama suggested wouldn't constitute a nutritious meal.

My whippet thin teen would hoover than up and ask what was for dinner. And God help anyone with dietary restrictions, my middle ds has coeliacs and best of luck putting together a menu with 30p meals then.

As an aside, does anyone know of any dried red lentils that doesn't have the dreaded words, may contain wheat?

You need a blender to blitz up the sweetcorn and the soup. Not everyone has these things

You can make chicken and sweetcorn soup though without blitzing the sweetcorn.

He should complain to whoever is curently leader of the party that brought in the National Curriculum and decided that - instad of learning to cook - children should learn 'food technology' and deconstruct pizzas and design boxes for them.

He doesn't need to look further than the leader of his own party...

The YouTuber is Atomic Shrimp and he does a lot of £1 a day or £7 a week challenges. Some of his ideas are inventive but he treats it like an experiment so can spend a lot of time doing it. He also forages quite a lot which is just not something possible for most of us.

Depends on portion sizes. You've got protein, fat, carbs and veg there, I don't see why what @myceliumama suggested wouldn't constitute a nutritious meal.

You can work out the portion sizes. You think one and a half tinned hot dogs is an adequate portion of protein to keep you full? What nutrition do you get from them?! 80g pasta is on the small side if you’ve got nothing except a bit of passata and a measly amount of hot dog to go with it.

Well, apparently a life of potatoes with beans and cheese (not together obviously - that would be extravagant) is totally reasonable.

In portions small enough to fit the 30p budget.