Really Cheap Dinners

[spacemonkey]

I'm skint at the moment and seem to have lost the will to live when it comes to dinners. Baked potatoes with cheese and beans always goes down well. Also like casseroles (have noted recipes on the casserole thread). Any other ideas for cheapo meals please?

mothers pride and blueband sandwiches

sorry I am being very flippant and over familiar

sorry, I shall get my thinking cap on and come back to this thread when I can behave like a grown up

that's right wong laugh at my misfortunes why dontcha!

sausage and mash

Vegetable soup. Any mix you like - potatoe, swede, carrot, onion, lentils, perhaps, salt and pepper and herbs of choice. Boil it up until veg is soft and blend. Eat with bread and butter. I like to sprinkle cheese on top cos I'm a big pig.

Eggy bread and beans!

bubble and squeak is a fav of mine too

am doing online shop and am scratching head about what to get

cheaper cuts of meat eg lamb shoulder braised with lentils, seasonal root veg, v cheap too. cook on low temp or in a slow cooker and it will fall apart. i bought a huge pumpkin for £1.50 which made a vat of hearty soup (after roasting it with butter/olive oil), just used an onion, garlic and a teaspoon curry powder, cream or yoghurt to finish. and a hunk of bread.

2 x tin of hot dogs £1.50 for decent ones, 60p for cheap
asda jar of passatta 50p
2 teaspoons of paprika 60p if you have to buy in
onion 20p
pasta 60p at the most

fry onion, add chopped saus foe kast min, add paprika, fry for 1 min, pour over passatta and heat thro' while you boil up the pasta.
if you're really rushed/fed up/can't be arsed leave out the onion

can also chuck in some frozen peas

aslo good with garlic braed

\link{http://www.cookbooksforsale.com/displayRecipe.php/rid.7608/by.sub/display.htm\arkansas ham hock and beans is delicious. Add carrots and celery and bayleaf and small pickling onions and you've got yourself a feast. We eat it with the broth over rice. Smoked ham hock is one of the cheapest cuts you can get and you have a splendid butcher round the corner, madame. It would do at least two meals.

errm what else

macaroni cheese topped with bacon

that pasta I did for you guys for lunch was a cheapy, I could dig out the recipe

What do you like to base your meals around and I'll have a go.

xxxx

don't bother with passata, buy cheapest tinned tomatoes and whizz them if you have a hand blender, you get the same texture.

Pitta breads make good pizza bases and you can heap on loads of toppings. 2mins under the grill and you're sorted.

the trouble is my kids are horrid fussy eaters and this has got to stop

ds will eat pasta and mild curries but dd won't touch em

neither of them like mash

ds is weird and asks for things like smoked mackerel korma and i pander to him

am terrible mother

i love things like shepherds pie, bubble and squeak, winter stews with dumplings, all manner of pasta - think i'll just make a meal and the kids can take it or leave it (will buy earplugs as defence against their whingeing)

oh yes shoulder of lamb and lentils

corned beef hash, minestrone, frittata

Did someone say smoked mackerel? Cook some rice. Chuck frozen peas into it near the end of cooking. Flake smoked mackerel into it when cooked. Squeeze over lemon. Add anything you feel like (artichoke hearts if feeling posh, halved cherry tomatoes, chopped red onion) if you feel like it, otherwise just eat it.

excellent suggestions!

does one buy those puy lentils or do you use red ones?

I would pander to your ds in similar circumstances, SM, he has a winning smile

dahl
egg curry
bean and pasta soup.....(ds LOVES this...dead easy to make and very filling..)

puy or green but not red

crumpets make excellent quick pizza bases if you let them do their own with bits of cheese,ham, whatever you have in and pop them under the grill. put healthy stuff like cucumber, salad on side

like the smoked mackerel kedgeree variant, ds might eat that

I was going to say smoked mackeral.
Kippers may work in kedgeree too but can you be faffed with the bones?

no i can't be faffed with the bones

am v lazy

what about goulash? could be made with cheapo braising steak?

I was thinking that smoked mackeral kedgeree type looks really nice.
How about a 'type' of risotto thing. (I made it up) Fry an onion with garlic, add a tin of tuna and frozen peas, sweetcorn or red kidney beans. Season with lots of parsley, lemon, white wineworcestershire sauce, pepper anything at hand really. Use a stoke cube and make up maybe a litre of stoke, add it slowly to rice (a mug?) until its all absorbed or the rice is soft. Add it all together and yummmy!

chicken thighs with a tomatoey gloop, cooked nice & slowly? shove in celery, carrots, potatoes etc and olives are quite nice too.