Garlicky, tomatoey and meaty recipes that don't break the bank

[CarriesBucketOfBlood]

I am a big fan of things like Chicken Marengo, Provençal etc and I have just made this which is delicious.

I like them partly because I can make them off the top of my head without needing to go to the shops for special ingredients, that I can easily substitute ingredients, e.g. butternut squash for mushrooms and partly because nothing is too expensive.

I also love casserole type dishes, but these don't actually need the oven which is great because they are slightly quicker to make. I can never plan far enough in advance to be cooking hours before I need to eat and most of these things are 30-45 minutes maximum which is perfect for me.

Can anyone recommend anything similar? I would love to extend my repertoire a bit but I need to keep costs as low as possible, around £12 a week. Unfortunately I don't have a car and travel to a big supermarket isn't possible and I have to shop in either a Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons local.

Spag bol? It does take a while to cook, but it's cheap and you make loads and freeze the spare.

I also make a thing with cut up sausages, smoked paprika, tinned tomatoes and onions - and an oxo cube. That always goes down well.

How about:

Chilli Beef Stew

tyne-teas.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/chilli-beef-stew_24.html

Loaded skins

tyne-teas.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/loaded-skins.html

Stuffed Peppers

tyne-teas.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/stuffed-peppers.html

Spaghetti and Meatballs

tyne-teas.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/spaghetti-and-meatballs.html

Bacon and tomato pasta

tyne-teas.blogspot.com/2015/06/bacon-and-tomato-pasta.html

omg yes - my fave is this one from 2004 in the times. I love it and use the principle to do lots of other flavours - eg with tiny spuds or chorizo too

\CHICKEN POMODORO////
Ingredients
Serves 4

Prep: 20 min
Cook: 45 min

500g potatoes, peeled
6 or 8 chicken thighs, depending on size (i do boneless skinless)
Sea salt and pepper
1tbsp olive oil
400g tinned chopped tomatoes or 400ml tomato passata
2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
½tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp salted capers, rinsed
2tbsp minced parsley

METHOD

Heat the oven to 190C/Gas 5. Finely slice the potatoes and place on the base of an oiled roasting/baking tin. Trim the thighs of excess skin, season the inside and roll tightly.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and sear the chicken until golden, allowing the fat to drain off. Arrange the chicken on top of the potatoes.

Combine the chopped tomatoes or passata with the olive oil, crushed garlic, dried oregano, capers, sea salt, pepper and most of the chopped parsley. Pour the mixture over the chicken.

Cover the pan with kitchen foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for a further 15 minutes until the chicken is tender. Scatter with remaining chopped parsley and serve. [email protected]

For more Jill Dupleix recipes: Very Simple Food (Quadrille, £20) is available from Times Books First for £16 plus £2.25 p&p. 0870-160 8080

this similar
www.goodfood.com.au/good-food/cook/recipe/chicken-cacciatore-20140428-37dqo.html

Agree meatballs in a tomato sauce. Very popular here

These are great suggestions. I should've said, I can do spag bol, moussaka and lasagne etc, which I do enjoy but I find very boring.

Stuffed peppers sounds lovely.

I am really not a fan of kidney beans. Can anyone suggest an alternative for when I make chilli?

Any beans really. I often stick in mixed beans. Leftover baked beans fit in quite comfortably too.

If you don't like beans at all, what about chickpeas?

It's not overly tomatoey...or meaty really...but this is delicious: smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/01/mushroom-bourguignon/

DH and DD won't eat any kind of pulses (grrr) so I put sweet corn in chilli.

Much prefer meatballs to a spag bol here, for some reason it always seems less boring - even though the basis is primarily the same.

I saw something recently where mozzerella was put inside meatballs which were then cooked in tomato sauce. Looked lovely :)

These are great suggestions! I have already made 3 days worth of food this afternoon but I am either going to try the peppers or the pomodoro later in the week and will update.

This has everything you're looking for!

We had sausage cobbler tonight which is a huge favourite with dcs and can be adapted depending what you have in. The basics are chopped onions and garlic, maybe a sliced red pepper . while they are frying, remove the skins from a load of sausages and break the sausages into blobs. Add to mix. Stir to prevent sticking. Then add any combination of baked beans, cannelloni beans ( we used chickpeas tonight too), green lentils, pasta sauce, tinned tomatoes, passata - whatever you have and need to get a good thick texture. Tonight I also added a handful of kale to use it up and a few mushrooms. Season very well - add dried herbs and chilli as well as salt and pepper. Simmer for a few minutes while you make a bog standard dumpling mix ( flour, butter, milk, pinch of salt, mixed herbs). Add blobs of dumpling mix to surface of sausage mix,grate over some cheese and bung in oven for half an hour. Delicious, cheap, quick and easy.

We had a kind of paella thing tonight. Did in oven as I prefer this so I can get on with bedtime while its cooking, but could easily do in pan. Made up recipe but think it was (for 2 adults)
-leg meat from left over roast chicken

• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 red onion
• 1 red pepper
• about 180g paella or risotto rice
• 400ml chicken stock
• couple glugs white wine
• 50g chorizo
• ounce saffron if you have some in
• handful prawns optional

-parsley

Chop garlic, onion, pepper, chorizo and out in oven with olive oil (or you could do in frying pan) for about 15 mins
Add rice, wine and stock and saffron. Back in oven or pan for 15 mins or so
Add chicken and prawns and more stock is needed, cook for 10 mins or until rice cooked
Add parsley and serve