Cheap & simple recipes

[allthingsred]

I've recently started a new job working with homeless people staying in emergency accommodation
Part if my role is teaching some of the younger people budgeting & life skills
I'm hoping to do some cooking lessons but I'm looking for more recipe ideas.
I've got some great soup & cassarole ideas
Some bread recipe.
But I'm looking for more. Any help?

Bootstrap cook is a great resource for cheap but nutritious meals.

Could you do carbonara? cheap simple and needs little more than pasta, eggs and ham for a very basic version

I would also teach how to roast a chicken and then strip it down to get a few meals out of it.

A basic omelette recipe might also be good, as your young people could be encouraged to add any left overs etc to make the most of their food

website

cookingonabootstrap.com/category/recipes-food/

I second bootstrap. Amazing budget meals

X post with sausage

Thank you all.
The 1 chicken a few meals idea was already in my plans 😀
I had heard about jack munroe but was wary about using from cookery books, as usually it costs a fortune to get the main ingredient's in (although I know once there in your cupboard you can use countless times) & these people just don't have the intial outlay to be buying herbs/spices etc.
So I'm pleasently surprised by the link to those recipes as they use stuff they would hopefully have in the cupboard or can buy really cheaply. Perfect for what I was looking for 😀😀

Macaroni cheese
Lentil soup or dhal
Jacket potatoes with quiche and beans
Fritata (sp?)
Yorkshire puddings
Basic sponge
Crumble

Ooh and pasta and a basic sauce.

Something to consider is that they will probably have only very basic cooking facilities, maybe only a single burner or a microwave.

So maybe you could do one session on very simple things like egg fried rice, adding soup pasta/a few vegetables etc to tinned soup to make it more filling, things they could add to instant noodles for flavour like mushrooms or spring onions or a little chopped up ham.

These are things I cook if away on holiday &/or want quick easy food.

Pasta with Philidelphia

Cook the pasta then add frozen peas & sweetcorn into the pan a minute before draining. Then stir in soft cheese & serve.

Vegetable curry with rice.

Use lentils in the curry, very cheap & 1 of your 5 a day. Potatoes & carrots are some of the cheapest veg. Add frozen peas at the end.

Egg fried rice. I fry mushrooms & a little onion, add cooked rice & frozen peas & sweetcorn & stir for a minute or 2. Push everything to the side of the pan & crack a couple of eggs in. Keep mixing everything for a few minutes then serve. Season with salt & pepper if nec.

MumsNet used to have little video of how to poach an egg with a splash of water in a mug using a microwave, also one of making a sort of egg omelette in a mug in the microwave ~ good for an egg sandwich.

They must be on MumsNet You Tube, worth a quick look!

Two tins of chopped tomatoes, one tin of butter beans (or any other beans). Pack of bacon offcuts.

Fry off the bacon bits, Stick it all in a pan (paprika and garlic are nice to add if you have them in, but not neccessary), cook through and crack four eggs in, effectively poaching them in the cooking mixture.

Works out at about 70p per portion from aldi and can be done one pot, and is a surprisingly hearty meal.

Omlettes and fritata are a good shout too, as quick, easy and a good way of using up leftovers.

Also, teaching to make a simple tomato sauce and a simple white sauce would be a good life skill, even if its not something that's practical for them now.

Bootstrap Cook's chickpea & peach curry is great, surprisingly so as the ingredients sound a bit odd to begin with.

My friend who is a very good cook does a spaghetti with a sauce made from a tin of mackerel in tomato sauce plus olive oil & chopped chilli.

Turkish salads are great to copy. I do one that is literally just VERY finely sliced white cabbage with a squeeze of lemon juice & olive oil, and it's really nice.

Baked bean pie www.taste.com.au/recipes/cheesy-bean-potato-bake/ce4a1320-c191-412b-bbaa-16f14ede2b60
Pasta bake using tinned tuna and tomato soup www.campbellsoup.co.uk/recipes/crunchy-tuna-pasta-bake
Shepherds pie www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/v/vegetable-shepherdspie.html

These are all brilliant.
I'm going to practice a few things myself before passing it on during cooking sessions.

If you mention using tinned chickpeas to bulk out stews, don't forget to sing the praises of aquafaba, the water that the chickpeas have been cooked with.

Don't drain it away, it's full of nutrients, so add it to the stew or use it to make other things such as meringues!

Re the mackerel spaghetti sauce, I checked with my friend who said to use garlic too, and a bit of chopped parsley at the end if you've got any but not essential.

Fried rice dishes are cheap and simple. So long as you have soy sauce, rice and Chinese 5 spice you can improvise using any meat or veg you have to hand. Also keeping tubes of staple flavours like tomato puree, chilli puree, garlic puree, ginger puree is good if you're on a budget. Most of the time you can use these instead of fresh and still cook something tasty.

Pasta and pesto. You can add extra bits like bacon, anchovies, mackerel, herbs, mushrooms, broccoli, tuna

Roti/ chapati are easy, cheap and weirdly satisfying to make. I love it when they puff up properly.

The Guardian has a series on using everything.. some of the suggestions are odd, but ones like packing lemon skins into salt are great. The preserved lemon skins can be used to flavour in other dishes. Limes can be made into chutney.

Try some mug cakes!
Super simple pudding for one made in a mug in the microwave.

I do spaghetti with tinned sardines, chilli flakes and tinned black olives - it's yummy and doesn't need any fresh ingredients.

cookingonabootstrap is a revelation! Thanks for sharing!