I need cheap yummy recipes..

[missmoopy]

We are financially embarrassed beyong belief and I am trying to save money wherever I can. So, am starting to plan meals for week and shop accordingly - so I need ideas for cheap, delicious (and not too complicated) meals.

All ideas very gratefully recieved

bacon pasta bake- tinned tomatoes,onions, mushrooms etc bacon and pasta all cooked together chucked in with cheese on top. Served with salad can last a couple of days.
Veggie or meat enchilades (make own flatbreads or just flour water and butter and dry fried)
cheese and potato pie with (cheap) sausages etc
stews to last two or three days.
Roast chicken one day, chicken and potato wedges (home made) next and 3rd day chicken curry.
HTH?

Lentil chilli - Nigella's recipe is pretty good but I usually throw a load more vege in, make a massive tub full and use it over two meals.

We do cheese and potato pie a lot too.

Homemade wedges with omelettes and peas or salad.

Lentil soup.

Pasta with homemade tomato sauce.

Chick pea curry and rice.

Cheese and potato pie? Ymu. Recipe please? I am not a confident cook

Are you squeamish?

B'cos I made the most delicious meal - "beans and a bone" - which basically was pigs' trotters and beans (in this case butter beans). Will give you the recipe if you are interested - it was incredibly tasty, and v cheap, as the trotters were free (think most butchers would give them away). Also v easy, but the pigs' feet were a bit freaky to deal with.

Also would second having roast chicken, but you must make stock, as that will be another meal (as soup with noodles in, or in risotto, etc). So I reckon you'd get 3 or 4 meals out of a roast chicken.

you can pad mince out hugely with carrots, onions and cheap tinned tomatoes...even then serve with twice as much pasta as usual and half as much mince!

Soup. I make a carrot one that is just a bag of carrots, peeled and chopped, one chopped onion, a bit of butter to 'sweat' the veg in to soften, a chicken stock cube and a pint [roughly] of water, add as much as you want to get consistancy required, blend. I sometimes add some celery or leeks to it too, depending what is at the bottom of the fridge.

Sausage casserole. Get sausages from the meat counter as they work out cheaper [in waitrose anyway] grill sausages, fry some onion, carrots, celery [any veg really] over a low heat to soften, add the grilled sausages, a tin of tomatoes, some chicken stock and some chopped potatoes if you like, simmer until potatoes are soft or put in oven for about an hour on a lowish heat, add some peas about 10mins before serving. I also add worcester sauce to it before going in the oven.

Chicken potato pie. To use leftover chicken, soften some leeks in butter/oil and a splash of water/stock, add a tin of condensed soup [i use chicken and white wine] and some milk, mix in the chicken and put in a dish. Top with either mash or slices of potato [and cheese] or pastry

HTH

The slow cooker is your friend if you have one! Cheap cuts of meat in a bit of stock, low power for 4-6 hours.

Lots of very tasty ideas so fai, although not sure I can handle trotters....
I am busy scribbling these down to try them. Keep em coming

Well if trotters are a bit much, the recipe works with most bones..!

And to add to expat's - the same thing, slow cooked cheap cuts of meat plus lots of beans (can you tell, I like my beans)

Well its not really a pie as such.... boil potatoes masch them with cheese and butter (and some onion too) add a little bit of mustard then put it all in a pyrex dish with cheese on top (and we add tomatoes) and wack it in the oven for 20mins.

Also we do jacket potatoes and then take them out,cut them in half and scoop the middle out. Mix it with butter,cheese, tuna (or corned beef!)and at it back into the shells. then add a bit of cheese to the top and pop the halves back in the oven until brown. You can also add tune and cream cheese, pesto and roasted vegetables....

Jacket potatoes once or twice a week with different fillings or leftovers are a really cheap meal. If you buy them loose you can choose really decent sized ones. Tuna & sweetcorn, cheese and bacon, baked beans, frozenleftover chilli/bolognaise/casseroles.

Chuck lentils into anything mince based eg shepherds pie/bolognaise/chilli - cheap and makes them go further, fill people up quicker (then you have more to go with jacket pots as above )!

Third the whole chicken suggestion - free range £4.99 in Aldi at the mo - I can get a good few days' worth of meals out of one bird - roast chicken, chicken stir fry with noodles, special fried rice with chicken and egg, tortillas with onions and peppers, chicken mayo for jacket pots /sandwiches, chicken pie (fill out with leeks/mushrooms/sweetcorn/white sauce and use the grey meat/skin), then use carcass for stock and soup. (I am quite stingy with chicken in these meals - chop up small and add loads of veg).

Yup, that's just about how we do cheese and potato pie too.

oooh also thought of.....
soup padded out with pasta and nice bread to dunk in it.
soya mince is great to pad mince meals out with and is cheap too.
pitta bread pizzas (I but the value range pittas) or pizza made out of stale french stick or even the crust end off crusty loaves.
pasta with tomato sauce and some chilli in it for a bit of a kick with any left over meat and then breadcrumbs and cheese on the top.
I hate how expensive cheese is so If I am putting cheese on the top of anything I mix it with breadcrumbs (I grate and freeze stale bread)
I make my own pastry and make pasties with left over meat and gravy in them.
When I was ittle my mom would give us cake with custard as pudding or home made jam tart etc and unbeknown to us would give us smaller portions of dinner. We wouldnt know as we were full from the pudding and always thought it was a great treat getting a nice desert too!

cheese pie

Line a 8in pastry case with shortcrust pastry

Mix 4/5 eggs with a little mustard powder and a good 2 or 3 handfuls of cheese.

Pour into pastry case bake for 30/45 mins until set serve with salad or veg

Fried rice.

Cold boiled rice.

Fry onions for 5mins add a couple handful of peas/sweetcorn.

Sramble a egg per person.

Add cold rice to veg and fry until heated through and egg.

Season with a pinch of 5 spice.

You can add any scrapes of meat leftovers.

Potato, bacon and cabbage.

Boil some potatoes and cabbage until cooked and cooled.

Fry a couple of cut up rashers of bacon until crispy add cubes of Potatoes cook until crispy.

Add cabbage cook until heated through serve with poached eggs.

We make this amazing soup once week - usually on a Monday after a Sunday roast the day before; using all the left over veg! The recipe is from the Leon cook book (which is a great investment - we cook loads from it!) and it's so delicious and really cheap/easy/quick to make! Plus is pretty healthy too!