Give me your best cheap meals!

[MollyBloomYes]

Unexpected bill, not much left for one more food shop this month. I need some cheap meals, to feed 5 plus a toddler. I'm pretty useless so usually do pots of stuff with rice or pasta. So far I've got a bean goulash, jacket potatoes and fillings, leek and bacon pasta bake, I need four more. No dietary requirements but one diner won't even eat cumin as it's 'too spicy' (yes this does make meal planning trickier!) Please inspire me lovely mumsnetters!

Just thought of another one. Baked hean pizza.
Pizza base or flatbread, tomato puree, baked beans, a bit of grated cheese on top.

Egg fried rice with any leftover veg and meat chopped up small and thrown in. The trick is to use very cold cooked rice.

Go to the market late and buy your veggies; prep and freeze some.

I always buy sacks of onions, cost is about £1.60 for red ones.

My root stew:

About equal parts of onions, carrots, parsnips, swede, potatoes' and perhaps a leek ( no celery; it doesn't work)

Saute onion and add some garlic if you have some.

Add thyme, salt and pepper, bay leaves and a small amount , perhaps half a teaspoon of cheapo curry powder.

Add other veggies, leave spuds in large pieces ,a tin of pulse of choice ( we like butter beans or chick peas) plus a few canned tomatoes or a little bit of passata.

Top up with water and a veg stock cube or a bit of Marmite.

Bring to a boil and simmer until done.

Lastly make some dumplings, SR flour and half the weight in fat, marge is fine. Some dried mixed herbs and a bit of seasoning helps.

Throw in the dumplings and simmer until they puff up.

Serve in a bowl and eat with a spoon and copious amounts of bread to soak up the juices.

I must warn you though; Senokot will not be required after this repast.

I make fridge soup about once a week - all the veg that won't last chopped into a pan with a tin of tomatoes, veg stock cube and lentils. Usually does a few lunches and a meal with breas

Socks,I wish more people would do that.

I despair at some of my friends who routinely throw away good food and then complain there is nothing to eat.

Hash browns.
Grate potato and squeeze out the moisture using a clean towel or muslin cloth, put a drop of olive oil in a non stick frying pan on a medium heat and place grated potato in without patting down just spread slightly. Cook for 10-15 mins each side only touching to flip over (when cooking other side add a dash more olive oil at the side and wiggle pan to work the oil under.
Serve with poached/fried or scrambled eggs and beans.

Proper hash browns are wonderful. I occasionally make them and add a few caraway seeds.

We all need to cook from scratch and not follow silly food trends that cost a fortune ( and make the supermarkets zillions)

Yes and so simple to make chilii. I try to make everything from scratch.

So do I...I'm a decent cook and I don't like supermarkets very much. Rather buy locally and more cheaply. Saves time and money.

I do confess to going to Waitrose once in a blue moon; at about 7 pm to buy the massively reduced fish.

I'm not very adventurous with fish. It's either fish pie, fish cakes or plain steamed fish and I do like grilled trout with a knob of melted butter. Boring really.

I don't think you have to be adventurous with fish Quiet - what you do sounds great to me. My family are all veggies but I'm a pesky pescatarian as I do love that tasty fish and seafood once in a while
Great to see so many excellent suggestions here - another MN at it's best kind of thread I think - along with Christmas bargains etc. So much collective wisdom for getting by - and with some style Not surprisingly I guess loads of great veggie suggestions here too.
We've rediscovered some sources of veggie pesto recently and that's my cheap, cheerful, and so easy stand-by these days

place marking!

We often have veg stew made out of whatever odds and ends of veg are left that need to be used up, cooked in the slow cooker, padded out with a tin of butter beans, with stock cubes, a floury potato cut up small to thicken, and then with dumplings added on top about half an hour before you serve. When you serve, add a little knob of butter on top of the dumplings.

When you do the dumpling mix (veg suet, flour, pinch of salt, twist of pepper, little bit of cold water, stir) you can add dried herbs if you like.

This is tasty, filling, and so, so cheap.

Also seconding dhal, if you like dhal. If you don't want really smooth dhal, you can make it with red lentils, then when it's done, add a tin of slightly smashed-up chickpeas for texture.

Shamelessly place marking - great thread

I've recently started making pastry after years of thinking I couldn't. A few ounces of flour some butter and lard is pennies and leftovers are magically nicer if bunged in a pie.

I'm a veggie, well pescky but I think liver makes a cheap tasty meal, and so cheap.

They still sell boiling fowl at our local market

Make a broth by boiling with veg and aromatics.

Add pasta or barley to make soup and use the chicken flesh for pies and sandwiches.

Here's a few links that might help, OP
www.agirlcalledjack.com
www.thriftylesley.com
www.budgetbytes.com

Wowzers, thank you everyone, some really great ideas and looks like I'm not the only one getting inspired! noeffingidea I have the Girl called Jack cookbook and it's fab, but haven't come across the others, will check them out!

I try cooking from scratch but am not very confident in the kitchen at all without a recipe, these have given some great things to go on so thank you all of you

The Austerity Housekeeping blog has a couple of weeks of menu plans called 'The crisis diet' which gives you a healthy diet on a very low budget.

austerityhousekeeping.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/the-crisis-diet-when-the-cupboard-is-bare/

austerityhousekeeping.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/week-2-crisis-diet/

austerityhousekeeping.wordpress.com/tag/crisis-diet/

Omlette and get a pack of bacon I used one pack for four meals last week. Pea soup, butternut soup, leek and potato, for puds crumbles lots of free fruit around and apples, pears etc. Also bread on Sundays at M&S before closing time is always cheap and lasts all week.

Bramley apple, onion and parsnip soup is v v cheap at this time of year, and goes well with a bit of home made bread.

Bacon offcuts from cheap freezer shop. About £1.99,also smoked salmon offcuts.

Ham hocks are good too.

Free ham bones from butcher, boil into stock.
Remove bones, leave behind any bits of meat, add lentils.
V good soup.