48 hours, 1000 posts consisting of FAST, CHEAP and GOOD, over here please.

[HoneyDragon]

No smugginess, no social commentary or judginess.

I want EVERYONE'S go to, cheapest stand by meals that they use, on one cosmic, love in thread of sharing and nicety.

Lets help each other out with a bit of inspiration.

A lot of stuff I do is fast because I use a pressure cooker, which I highly recommend.

I also like leek and potato soup: fry 1 onion and two large leeks until soft, add 2 medium potatoes, cubed and some chicken stock or water. Cook at gentle simmer until potato is very soft. Add salt and pepper to taste, then a cup of milk and turn heat down, cook for another 5 mins or so.

This soup really needs to be blended smooth to be really nice but you can eat it chunky.

Bananas cooked in butter and brown sugar is a good quick pudding, especially if you add a splash of rum.

Gosh you are all so inventive!

My quick dish when alone is a tin of tomatoes, a tin of tuna and some cooked pasta, with grated cheese on top.

everyone's a little inventive, it just looks more so when all pooled together.

I have a TV chef to beat here

Baked eggs: defrost some frozen spinach in the microwave, put it in a dish, break some eggs carefully into it, top with grated cheddar and cook in a hot oven until the eggs are cooked to your liking.

Salsa chicken

Best done in a slow cooker but can be done in normal oven on lower heat for a couple of hours:

Frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts (defrosted if done in normal oven)
One large jar of salsa
an onion, chopped

Throw in the slow cooker all together, leave it all day.
If in normal oven I'd cover the dish with foil.

Serve over rice, sprinkle cheese on top if you like.

How many recipes do you reckon there are in his book?

That salsa chicken sounds lovely.

TiWi .... I have an entire nest of vipers resources to draw on. I want to rub it is as much as possible

Anyone got a recipe for nest of vipers? Could be tasty. Cheap source of protein, etc.

Pot noodles

A packet of glass noodles like this - cook them by boiling the kettle and putting soaking the noodles in the boiling water for about 5 mins

Cut a pepper into thin strips

Finely slice a red onion or spring onions

Peel a carrot and then either sine strips or use the peeler to make robbins

Make up boullion (I use this) and put in all the vegetables and cover with some cling film or a plate

Strain the glass noodles and add to the boullion& vegt.

Mix it all together with a squirt of fresh lime or lemon if you have.

It's one of DD's fave meal

When I was a student I had a budget of 5 Euros for food shopping for the week. My meal plan was:

Breakfast: a handful of porridge oats with one tbsp of natural yoghurt, one chopped banana and a drizzle of honey

Snack: a small orange

Lunch: whole wheat penne with grated Parmesan

Tea: whole wheat penne with a tbsp passata, frozen mixed vegetables, Parmesan and cayenne pepper

I was never hungry but beautifully slim...

Chili & Coconut Fish serves 2*
Ingredients:

• 2 river cobbler fillets
• 3 tbsp unsweetened dessicated coconut
• tbsp sweet chili sauce

Pre-heat the oven to 200C/180C fan. Dip each fish fillet in the chili sauce and then in the dessicated coconut, ensuring they're completely covered. Put on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. I serve it with mango salsa (1 chopped mango, half a chopped red onion, some torn coriander leaves and some lime juice from a bottle.)

*Adapted from Ainsley Harriot's Olympic Cookbook

Butternut squash mash with mackerel
Dice, boil and mash a butternut squash (or roast it then just scoop out the insides), put on a plate with some beetroot and a smoked mackerel fillet.

Winter salad
Dice and roast whatever vegetables are languishing in your cupboard - parsnips, beetroot, spuds, onion, squash - and serve warm in a big bowl with some crumbled goats or feta cheese.

Leftover rice pudding
if you have rice left over from dinner, put it in a baking dish and pour milk over it, add some cinnamon, mix in some sultanas and vanilla essence if you have any, and bake in the oven until it's puddingy. Cheap rather than fast!

Fast and cheap - toast bread, scramble eggs. Eat.

Or, nuclear beans - toast bread. Heat tin of baked beans with chopped red onion, worcestershire sauce, 2 drops tabasco, grated cheddar.

My mum used to make this on a monday;

all left over roast veg. ( mash, cabbage, peas, swede etc etc)
fry in olive oil into a kind of frittata
Done! could add cheese or herbs / basil/ anything to make more tasty!

OP thank you very much I have just printed all of these out.

Also cheap and quick - chop a chorizo sausage and sweat it in a big pan til the oil runs out. Fry a thinly sliced onion in the oil. add a bag of kale (chopped up a bit) or whatever other cabbage you have around, half a glass of cider (or apple juice) and put the lid on til it cooks down for a few minutes. Put some toasted almonds, or toasted flaked almonds, over it for a bit of crunch.

posh smoked salmon supper - 1 pack smoked salmon trimmings, 1 carton creme fraiche, 3 t/sp jiff lemon (or fresh if you have it) fresh or dried dill. Fry off the salmon till it goes lighter, stir in creme fraiche, lemon juice and dill and serve with lots of spaghetti.

Re the scrambled eggs

If you are down to one rasher of bacon, chop it into bits, fry until crisp and then scramble the eggs around it. Makes the bacon go a lot further!

Someone must have done 'pasta and bits' - using whatever 'bits' you happen to have left in fridge (but NOT all of the below!) ... cook the pasta (usually penne but whatever you have); separately fry any veg that need frying (e.g onion, pepper, garlic etc, also bacon); throw veg which need boiling in with the pasta at the appropriate time (e.g. cut up green beans, soy beans, peas, broad beans). Toss it all together with anything that doesn't need cooking (e.g. halved cherry toms or cut up larger toms, olives, herbs, rocket, ham) and top with cheese (grated or shaved parmesan or cheddar, or cubed feta or mozzarella or goat)

Chorizo is a brilliant flavouring - I often use a quarter of one sweated in oil to flavour rice dishes. Rice, onion and whatever veg is around, plus seasoning to taste.

Tonight I had 10 minutes to cook so did:

Macaroni with frozen sweetcorn added near the end of cooking
Drain and stir through a knob of butter, a handful of grated cheese, and flaked tuna.

My toddler ADORED it :)

Lookatthetwains spaghetti bake.-

Makes enough for 4 adults.

Fry an onion, 1 large clove of garlic, 4 slices of bacon and 1 red/green/yellow pepper or a mix of. Add Salt and pepper.

Boil spaghetti (more can be added for more people)

Add tin of tomatoes and spaghetti to an oven dish and mix in contents of frying pan. Grate over cheese and oven bake/grill for melted cheese.

Serve with garlic bread and parmesan/hard italian cheese.

Lookatthetwains cous cous dream.

Fry onion, mushroom, bacon, garlic and ginger.

Cook cous cous (I use a mix of plain and flavoured)

Mix together, serve with soy sauce.

Bloody lovely that!

Barley, tomato and cheese risotto in the slow cooker. Can add sausage if you have it.

Half a packet of barley, tin of tomatoes, any cheese you have left over, water. Leave for 4hrs.

Inauthentic but tasty minestrone:
Chop and fry onion, garlic, any veg that needs using up (carrot, courgette and celery are my favourites) until soft. Add pint chicken stock and tin tomatoes/passata.

Simmer for a few minutes, chuck in tin cannellini beans and a couple of handfuls of pasta, plus shredded savoy cabbage/kale/whatever. Season with black pepper and Italian ish seasoning (dried herbs all good, I also like pesto). Simmer for another 15 minutes or until pasta cooked.

Good served with parmesan and crusty bread, but also poured over jacket potatoes makes a really filling meal.

Polenta is an easy, cheap meal component. Not the ready made stuff but the type you buy in a health food shop. Stick it in a pan, add water, simmer and stir occasionally for 30 mins.

It's a nice alternative to pasta or mash. I know it's not as quick as pasta but if you are cooking something else it's easy enough to cook.

Polenta with roasted red peppers blitzed into sauce and sausages is lovely and takes 30 mins.

Sausage casserole:

Fry/grill/bake sausages (whatever your preference)
Remove and set aside.
Fry onions, garlic and chilli if you like it spicy
Add tomato purée, tin of tomatoes, can rach of kidney beans, chickpeas and butter beans.
Chuck in sausages. Add water to cover if it's a bit thick.
Simmer until needed. Mmm. Can also be done with chorizo. Or chicken drumsticks.

I add the chilli after I've taken out portions for ds. He likes it with rice too. I