What cheap meals do you make?

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Looking for inspiration really, so just wondered what cheap meals others make on a budget.

I tend to do quite a few things with rice or pasta. Veggie Bolognese goes down well, as well as macaroni cheese with carrots, peas or whatever we have. I often cook rice or pasta with whatever else we have - sweetcorn, peas, pepper, onion, tuna, meat, quorn, kidney beans and so on, with tomato puree, canned tomatoes, herbs or chilli. I quite often stir fry onion and peppers and sweetcorn if we have them, add value baked beans, tomato puree, 1-2 tomatoes, pepper and chilli and serve with rice - I really like this one.

Last night we had jacket potatoes with value beans and cheese with sliced tomatoes on the side. Sometimes we have a frittata with whatever we have in the house.

Ooh, that reminds me of another one

Egg curry

Boil an egg each. Cook rice (2 cups in 4 cups water for 4 people). Add cinnamon, ginger and cumin to rice cooking water if you like, this gives a nice gentle spice. Make a curry sauce by frying a couple of chopped onions until soft. Add 3 tablespoons of flour and curry powder to taste. Cook for a couple of minutes. Gradually add a pint of milk and proceed as for white sauce. Stir a couple of tablespoons mango chutney through the sauce. Put the rice in the bottom of an oven dish. Place the halved, hard boiled eggs on top,our over the sauce and stick in the oven at 180 for 10 or 15 minutes.

Supernoodles with sliced carrots, broccoli/green beans and a tin of sardines - 5 mins tops. Swap the sardines with an egg or ham or just leftover roast.

we use Jack Monroe's recipes - they're great and very cheap!

Jack Monroe's carrot garlic and chickpea soup is lovely and v cheap, especially if you have spices in already. Google 'A girl called Jack'. Our cheap staples are beans on toast, jacket potatoes, omelettes, pasta with tomato sauce (passata or chopped tinned toms are usually cheaper than jars of sauce and aren't full of sugar. I spruce it up with herbs, an onion, any spare veg etc), sausage pasta (same as before but take the skin off a couple of sausages, roll onto balls and fry for cheap meatballs), veg/leftover meat stir fry, corned beef hash, and when I cook anything with meat I pad it out with loads of lentils and veg so it goes further. A 500g pack of mince used to make enough spag bol to feed me and dh with no leftovers, now I can get a good 3 meals (6 servings) out of it as I put so much other stuff in. I make big batches and freeze them in portions, and when I serve it I mix the pasta in before plating it up so dh doesn't complain of a tiny portion.

Agree with previous poster who said she could get 3 meals out of a roast chicken (family of 5, primary school aged children). Roast, then chicken pie or chicken curry, then chicken soup.

Broad bean & lemon risotto (lovely - 1 lemon, frozen broad beans and cupboard ingredients)
Egg and chips
Butternut squash and (frozen) green bean thai curry
Pork meatballs
Tomato soup & bread
Macaroni cheese
Dhaal with nan
Hummus and veg pittas
My kids love "brunch" - we missed breakfast one day so had pancakes, eggs and bacon (all sainsburys basics range) - they think that's the name of the meal (when I ask what they want for dinner sometimes, they ask for brunch!!)
Beans on toast
Spanish omelette

Huevos rancheros is cheap too. A basic bung everything in a a tomato based sauce and poach eggs on the top for the last five mins or so.
Alien pasta - frozen broccoli cooked with pasta and basics philly slackened with milk stirred through at the end. Can be pimped with bacon or ham and grilled. Pork mince is often cheaper than beef mince I have found for some reason?

We have recently found aldi tinned New potatoes for 15p a tin n taste nice enough bunged in a casserole, sliced and fried, roasted with onions n peppers in olive oil n paprika sprinkled on.

Actually one of our quick after work dinners is tinned potatoes, onions, mushrooms, peppers, courgettes (whatever we have really) and chipolata sausages all coated in olive oil and paprika left Sat in cold oven all day to marinate and oven switched on when I get in and it cooks in 30mins and sometimes serve with steamed broccoli (we have oven dinners as I have to bf the baby literally as soon as we get in as he refuses milk from all other sources so goes from 7.15-5.30!)

We are a family of 3 and get 4 meals out of a whole medium chicken.
Thighs in a curry, one breast I butterfly out, bash down then portion it, flour, egg and breadcrumb for chicken burgers (it's enough in a bun with some beans and wedges), final breast I chop to use in something (maybe a one pot with some chickpeas, cous cous and spices, or in the freezer for more burgers)
Then I roast the carcass as I never get all the meat off with my bad butchery skills. I then strip the meat that's left and use that in a risotto or something.
We also do quesedillas, using mashed kidney beans and spices.
Buy a cheap gammon joint and slice it at home for gammon steaks.
Sausages for meatballs.
We also use turkey and pork mince (a lot). I only ever use half a pack for bolognaise/cottage pie etc and fill it full of carrots, courgettes, brocolli etc. We always have leftover to freeze as well as the other half pack of mince.

Suet pastry; roll out on a thin rectangle, spread with passata, chopped onion and bacon pieces (buy a pack of bacon bits), roll up, seal with milk, brush with egg. Bake about 40m
Or use pizza dough as above with added grated mozzarella, roll up, cut into slices, bake. Latter called Stromboli I think!

Risotto (mushroom / butternut and sage / pea and mint)

Pork and apple meat ball casserole, make meatballs out of pork mince, some breadcrumbs, bit of sage, salt, pepper, cook them n the oven for about 15mins then add them to a slowcooker with more onions, sliced apple, bit of cider if you have it and a knorr chicken stock cube. Thicken the sauce with cornflour or gravy granules at the end if needed.

Spicy sausage pasta, buy a pack of sweet chilli sausages (Lidl's are nice) Take the meat out of the skins and cook in a frying pan (breaking it up as you stir) with onion and garlic and peppers if you have some. Add a tin of tomatoes, basil, simmer for a bit and serve mixed through spaghetti.

The cheapest meal I made for myself was with a reduced to 50p flat cabbage from Tesco. Take four or five of the outer leaves off carefully and keep to one side. Cut a quarter of the cabbage and then dice it and put it in the microwave for three minutes until it is cooked and soft, then mix it with garlic and butter and season to taste. Take the outer leaves and microwave them for 2 minutes until they go floppy. Then use the outer leaves as a wrap and fill them with the cabbage mixture. They are yummy. I would estimate that meal would be fractions of a penny.
I suppose you could add bargain crumbled bacon and grated bargain cheese to give a protein hit and make it better nutritional value. Cooking bacon is extremely cheap and amazing value and you can get very nice cheese in the own brand ranges or from Lidl or Aldi.

Buy reduced food from shops eg bread
or grow your own eg veg
or any left overs
Put all into freezer

Later in the year gradually eat the contents of the freezer

The joy of discovering things you had forgotten about in the freezer !

We've been having a very lean few weeks, so I now feel able to contribute to this thread! Our food budget has been very minimal, fortunately 2 out of 3 DC get free school meals as they are at Infant school, so for DH, 20-month old DS3 & me, evening meals have been as follows:

Egg & chips (we have chickens & buy a 25kg sack of potatoes for £7 from a farm shop)

Risotto - with whatever is in the fridge. Last night was 1/4 pack of value cooking bacon (80p per pack), a couple of wrinkly carrots & some wrinkly mushrooms, a few slices of chicken meant for sandwiches (down from £2 to 50p in the co-op), couple of eggs

Tomato pasta - tin of tomatoes, dried value pasta. Sometimes I'll also add other veg & blend the sauce if any needs using up in the fridge. Cheese to grate on top.

Chicken casserole - 2 thighs (yellow label), carrots, parsnips, onions. There was gravy left over so DH & I had it for lunch the next day with some bread to dip in it, yummy

Chicken drumsticks, jacket potato, salad.

Spanish Omelette - I make a massive one, and then I have some portions left for packed lunches as well, to avoid spending money during the day.

Today I made minestrone soup with all the left over veg from the fridge, a tin of tomatoes, garlic, tomato purée, stock, spaghetti and Parmesan cheese - I have surprised myself at how nice it is, John Lewis cafeteria were selling it for about £7 a bowl with a roll the other day - extortionate x

Leek and potato soup
Jacket potatoes
Sausage and mash
Corned beef hash
Value white fish fillets in parsley sauce
Egg and chips

Mexican wraps. Chop up half a pack of chicken thighs, fry with an onion. Add chopped tomatoes and two tins of value beans and some spice - bit of chilli, cumin and cinnamon usually. Put into wraps with sweet corn and rice and either serve immediately with shredded lettuce and other salad bits or baked in oven with a bit of grated cheese on top. DC love it. This feeds big tall DH, two v hungry tall teen boys and greedy me, so you could probably make smaller portions. Costs about £5 or less to make 8 wraps like this.

Pasta carbonara is good too. You only need a couple of slice of streaky bacon, chopped fine (can use more if you have it) fried with an onion and some garlic. Add a generous mug of frozen peas.
Beat together two eggs with a couple of dollops of herby cream cheese and stir into boiled pasta, returning it to the ring for a couple of minutes to cook the egg through. Stir in the onion, peas and bacon.
Makes enough for four adults.

I do a nice kedgeree using frozen value white fish from Sainsbury or Lidl. fry rice, spice and onion, add water or veg stock and white fish, cook for a couple of mins then add peas. You can stir in a beaten egg or two and add parsley if you want.

Baked potatoes filled with leftover chilli or Bolognese.
Frittata with left over potatoes, onion and frozen peas/tinned sweet corn.
Lentil curry.
Lots of veg soups.
Bubble and squeak with leftover potatoes and greens/roast parsnips are also good in it.
Pasta with homemade tomato sauce with cream cheese stirred through.
Things with cheese sauce e.g. cauliflower or macaroni.

Lentil soup
Pea soup with chopped tinned tomatoes
Omelette
Porridge
All healthy and filling if bread is included

Anything using pulses. A lentil dahl is cheap and filling you can add veg to it if you like. Serve with rice, chapattis or if keeping low on carbs on it's own.

I've just made a meal plan for the week to help with budgeting and time. I make enough that I can eat in the evening and take the same thing into work for lunch the next day. For breakfast I make smoothies using milk, mixed frozen berries and bananas. Here's my shopping list for the week if anyone else might find it useful. I shop at Asda hence the mention of Asda below! I'll let you know tomorrow how it costs :)

Vegetarian cottage pie
Spicy chickpea salad with Mediterranean vegetables
Roasted broccoli pasta salad
Mediterranean-style salmon tray-bake
Vietnamese-style chilli veg noodles

Vegetables
• 200g carrots
• celery
• 250g chestnut mushrooms
• 100g broccoli florets
• 50g spinach
• cherry tomatoes
• 2 peppers
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 aubergine
• 2 courgettes
• 2 red onions
• Thyme
• Coriander
• Garlic
• Lemongrass
• Red chilli
• 1 x 175g baby corn and mangetout

Dairy
• 50g recued-fat crème fraiche
• 15g grated Parmesan

Tinned
• 400g Green Lentils
• 400g can of chickpeas
• 220g can Cannellini Beans

Condiments
• Asda Spicy Piri Piri Dressing
• Wholegrain mustard

Pasta/Noodles
• 75g pasta farfalle
• 375g rice noodles

Other
• 25g roasted peanuts

Frozen
• Good & Balanced Med Vegetables with Cherry Tomatoes
• Chosen by You Oven Cook Crispy Potatoes
• Chosen by You Cook from Frozen Salmon Fillets