If your on a tight budget like us come over here for CHEAP healthy meal options _

[fakeblonde]

So whats your best low cost healthy family meal as fed up of everything i serve up !

Armadillo- please dont laugh but how DO you make soup or stock with a chicken carcass ?
I have always wanted to know.I have a slow cooker if that helps.

couscous is v cheap and easy (pour boiling water just to cover it and then cover bowl with cling film/plate to steam, it's ready when the water has been absorbed) and can be flavoured with lemon juice/olive oil/harissa etc and served with grilled meat, salads, fish, sausages, anything.

My top tip is to only use cheaper cuts of meat. For example braising or stewing steak and brisket. They need long slow cooking but can be much nicer than expensive cuts of meat. I just add boiling water, a stock cube and whatever veg I've got in, usually carrots and onions.

I agree that minced beef is excellent. When I was growing up my Mum had a book called 101 Things To Do With Mince. I think that we were on No. 98 by the time we'd all left home!

Stock from a carcass:

Boil the bones in a big pan until all the remaining meat has detatched. Strain the liquid into another container. I also pick through the bones to get the last few bits of meat out. You can add stuff to it (noodles, pasta, veg, leftover chicken) to make a soup or just use the stock in something else. You can also freeze it.

whizz carrots, onions, garlic, whatever other veg you have in food processor. soften this mixture in large pan with olive oil/butter. add 2 tins tomatoes/passata and cook for ages on v low heat. lovely pasta sauce or base for pizzas (used sparingly) and freezes fine. can also be used to start things like chilli con carne, spag bol, lasagne etc

BAsically you're boiled the carcass to get the flavour off.

So for stocks you'd add carcass (plus any manky unedible bits) then onion, carrots, few herbs (bay leafs are usual), pepper. Boil for a couple of hours (or bung all in slow cooker and I leave for about a day on med or low). No need to peel veg for stock as you fish them all out anyway.

For freezing, either freeze as it is or reduce and reduce (by boiling high so you boil the liquid off - can't do this in slow cooker) till it coats the back of a spoon. Then freeze in ice cube trays. Can't remember what it's called but it's bascially concentrated stock, so takes up less space as you only need one or two cubes.

I don't add salt to it, cos then you got salt free stock for the kids.

Soups, do basically the same except peel the veg if you are adding, and don't forget to fish the carcass out after.

recipe for chicken stock here Has others on site too.

flamenco eggs for 4

2 red peppers
2 green peppers
2 yellow or orange peppers
tin of chopped tomatoes
tomato puree
1 clove of garlic
pinch of chilli flakes
4 eggs
olive oil

slice peppers, fry in a pan with the olive oil, garlic, and chilli for 5 mins, add tin tomatoes and a little puree to thicken, heat, then transfer to oven proof dish. make 4 wells in the mixture and crack an egg in each. put in oven until eggs are set.

serve with crusty bread.

very cheap, filling and tasty.

Cheese sauce is relatively cheap to make.

MAke it up and cook up loads of veg then mix them together bung in oven with cheese/breadcrumbs on top and have on its own or with a few bacon pieces.

MAke a cheese and potato pie and shove a bit of mince in for a change.

stir fried veg, add a bit of mince/bacon/sausages. Can do noodles/rice/potatoes to serve with it.

You can make up kebabs with mince - serve with pitta bread and salad and a yoghurt/mint dip.

Swedish meatballs sometimes make a change - I think you add half beef and half pork mince, allspice and white pepper (black seems to work well enough for me).

Sauce - half cream and half beef stock. Just boil the stock and add the cream.

MAkes a bit of a change from meatballs in tomato sauce in this house.

I know what you mean with the mince - so versitile, but it's still mince

i love fish pie (white sauce, different kinds of fish, prawns, boiled eggs, mushrooms, whatever) and sometimes instead of mashed potatoes I'll put rosti (grated) potatoes on top (first mix with couple oz melted butter, some cheese and chopped parsley)

We like homemade burgers
packet of mince
chopped onion
black pepper

put mince onion and pepper in mixing bowl shape into burger shapes and fry or grill till cooked
yummy

also like bean pie
2 tins beans
chopped hotdog sausages
grated cheese
breadcrumbs

pour beans into ovenproof dish add chopped hotdogs cover in breadcrumbs and sprinkle cheese on top
cook for 20 mins
delicious and filling my kids love it on halloween night

gnocci or pasta with cabbage/leek/peas/mushrooms whatever you've got in the veg dept and feta diced and added near the end. add fresh basil if you've got it too.

my cheapest meal is to make a great big pot of tomato and basil/vegtable soup... then it can be eaten as soup the first night, then you can add mince to make it a bolognase the next night then if there is still some left (it freezes well BTW) you can turn it into a cheats lasagna, by using cottage cheese as the base cheese instead of riccotta, and a bit of chedder on top... its one of the few things i could probably make every week and it would still all get eaten. also if you get plain pizza bases you can use the sauce as pizza sauce and then get the kids to put their own toppings on the pizzas.

Have you ever tried using plain dried soya mince for e.g. spaghetti bolognese or lasagna? It's less than a pound for a bag that does 4 decent meals.

Or something like tuna and sweetcorn pasties?

One of my favourite student meals:

potatoes and onions, sliced up
layer in a casserole/deep dish with whatever veg you have
peppers/celery work well
once all layered up, pour over a can of Campbells condensed soup (I usually used mushroom or celery) made up with water or milk - milk is better but water will be fine

bake in the oven for around an hour

if you have it, cheese on top makes a tasty adition

Message withdrawn