Let's talk about easy, cheap healthy meals

[madamezouzou]

I like cooking high-falluted stuff when I have the time, but in the week I just want something easy, nutritious and filling.

I want to avoid using pre-prepared ingredients.

So far I have:

Baked potato with cottage cheese and salad

Mashed potato with chick peas and veg on the side

Pasta with home-made tomato sauce and tuna

Scrambled eggs on toast

Spanish omelette

Looking for ideas to add to my list! I'm vegetarian.

Veg chilli. Peppers (bag of frozen if tight for time), tin of beans, onion ( again can do frozen), passata, aubergine, courgette, seasoning. Simmer for 20 mins. Yum. We 're not vegetarians but have at least one veg meal a week.

vegetable and bean enchiladas
spinach and tomato lasagne
courgette lasagne

What about kebabs?

Onion, pepper, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms etc on a stick under the grill for 10-15 mins, or in the oven for about the same. Have with salad, couscous...

I've had Shakshuka tonight from the Jerusalem cookbook and it was delicious. I can't link a recipe ad I'm on the app but if you Google it there's loads of variations on the recipe.

I have linked to this great blog before

Corned beef hash
Dhal
You can make tonnes of nice things with basic onion/garlic/celery base, dried beans, salami or dried sausage of some sort and veggies.

Tomato soup: sweat off 1 carrot, 1 onion, 1 stick celery and 1 clove garlic in olive oil. Add 500g tomatoes 1/4d - make sure you cut off the hard bits top middle iykwim. Put lid on saucepan and leave to simmer for a while until the tomatoes start to break down and release fluid. Add 500ml veg stock. Simmer then blend. That was my dinner tonight with homemade bread.

Curry made out of whatever veg is seasonal/cheap plus chickpeas or lentils. A good quality curry paste won't have much in the way of additives, and you can mix it with tinned tomatoes or coconut milk to stretch it further.

Homemade baked beans - fry onions and garlic then add haricot/other beans with half a tin of tomato, a slug of vinegar, pinch of sugar and a stick cube. Great with baked potatoes or toast.

Veggie burgers are very cheap to make, and less of a faff than you'd think. Plenty of good recipes around.

Pasta or couscous mixed with frozen veg is incredibly cheap and almost as healthy as fresh.

How about this roasted veg with Halloumi recipe? You can also do many variations on this if you're that way inclined...

You describe your self as veggie but eat fish?

I'm highly carnivorous myself but I find that a little odd!

red lentil dahl with garlic and lemon, serve with flat breads or rice and stir fried spinach with chilli.

I'd love your anchovy recipe tsc! Love them but only do about 3 things with them.

These are all great and will be banked for future use, thank you!

Scotch ah yes, apologies, recently became a fish-eater after many years of lacto-ovo vegetarianism. I suppose I should say I'm a pescetarian now!

Quorn chilli and rice

Soup - BBC Good Food website has some lovely recipes, this one is lush

Cauliflower & broccoli cheese bake

Baked salmon with homemade mash or potato wedges & veg

Baked potatoes stuffed with leek and cheese

Ate you prepared to Batch cook on the weekend and freeze in preparation for the week? If so I have done great recipes for the freezer!

One roll of puff pastry
Two mozzarella
Any other cheese
Tomatoes
Peppers
Anything else left in the fridge

Undo roll put mozzarella and cheese on pastry (leave a CM around the edge) pile everything else on. Lots if basil and black pepper. Cook in a hot oven till puffed up :)

How about batch cooking? In my freezer I have risotto, curry, ratatouille, veg Moroccan stews, spinach and ricotta pasta sauce.
Watching with interest as a fellow veggie looking for healthy ideas!

I did Boulangere potatoes yesterday, which are easy to cook, you just chop them, sweat an onion and bung it all in the oven for an hour, and made a nice change from mash / jacket potato. Because they're just cooked in vegetable stock, you can eat half and freeze the rest for another day.

We had ours with cauliflower cheese and pie, which you could make vegetarian (plus you get to take the other half of the cauli cheese to work the next day for lunch if only you really like it - roll on 1pm!)

I'm going to try these next week:

Tunisian vegetable tagine

Aubergine and cauliflower curry

mushrooms and pearl barley
rinse barley bring to the boil and cook for 20 mins (should have a bit of bite to it) then drain
fry off mushroom in plenty of oil with garlic. Add to barley when cooked, season add some grated parmesan and parsley (if available) - eat

lentil soup with cumin

Veg Soup

Veg pizza on wholemeal pitta

Stuffed peppers or large field mushrooms

Bulgur wheat salad with watercress and sliced peaches

Grilled halloumi and veg kebabs

Cajun spiced potato wedges and yoghurt dip

Spicy carrot and courgette fritters

Tuna and bean salad

Butternut squash risotto (cheat's way, done in oven like pilaff)

Veg stir fry with peanuts / satay sauce

Pasta with garlic and broccoli

Sardines on toast

Rocket, sliced pear and strong cheddar with chutney on granary bread sandwich

Felafals

Vegetable stir fried noodles is very quick and easy. You can add tofu or quorn to make it a bit more interesting.They're great because you don't really need a recipe- just chuck in what you've got!

My favourite easy veg dishes are daal and rice, spinach and potatoes, pasta bake, one pot veggie rice, kidney beans and chickpeas and pizza on wholemeal naan bread. As a working mum, I love to eat healthy but can't be slaving away in the kitchen for ages, life's too short! There's some great quick and healthy veggie recipes here:

Cheap n Quick Veggie Recipes