This thread is for you to post family recipes that are (well) under a fiver .. with costs

[Twiglett]

I'd be interested in this, will allow for basics from stores (like butter and flour and herbs and spices)

You are allowed to guestimate costs

Just made Macaroni Cheese (like my mama used to make) £4.89 will do 2 meals easily

Big packet penne pasta (about 80p)
onion (about 30p)
butter and flour
milk (about 50p)
tin chopped tomatoes (optional but nice about 49p)
mature cheddar (£1.79 somerfield organic offer)
serve with green veg (allow £1)

Boil pasta with chopped onion till cooked
Make white sauce and add grated cheddar to taste, tin tomatoes (optional add tsp english mustard)
Mix together, sprinkle with cheese and bake 45 mins

What a brilliant idea for a thread. I am strealing sooo many of these ideas!

My suggestions are a bit crap in comparison to yours, but I'd feel bad if I didn't add some!

Mum's soup

1/4 packet of dried soup mix (lentils, beans etc)
Leek, sliced
Potato, chopped
Carrots, grated
Any other veg you fancy throwing in
Veg/chicken stock

Soak soup mix overnight, rinse and put in pan with all the other ingredients. Bring to the boil. Cover. Leave for 30 mins or so. Eat. Yummmmy!

Probably costs about £2.

---

Tuna pasta
Our current 'staple' - ridiculously boring, but very tasty

1 tin tuna
1 tin sweetcorn
Mayonaise
Pasta

Mix together, eat hot for tea and cold the next day for lunch. Yum. Also costs about £2.

---

Leek and potato dauphinase

Two large leeks
4-6 large potatoes
Veg stock
Handful grated cheese
Cream if you have any

Chop the leeks into three/four large chunks (big enough to stay together while boiling) and the potatoes into quarters. Boil in the veg stock for around five minutes. Drain, but keep the liquid they were cooked in. Slice potatoes and layer in a caserole dish with chunks of mushed up leek (I think you're supposed to slice them too, but after the par boiling they are soft so you don't really need to) Pour over about half of the reserved stock and a little cream if you're using it. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top. Cook in a medium temp oven for around 30 mins.

Can be eaten on its own or as a great side dish for meat or fish.

We love this Waitrose recipe - it's incredibly cheap - costed by Waitrose at their prices - would probably be half that if you shopped elsewhere

Potato and leek rösti with chickpea and coriander salad

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Total time: 35 minutes

Serves: 4; Cost 63p per serving

Ingredients

500g Maris Piper potatoes

2 tbsp olive oil

1 leek, thinly sliced

400g can Chick peas, drained

20g Coriander, chopped

1 carrot, grated

1tsp ground coriander

Juice of lemon

Method

1. Peel the potatoes and cut in half. Cook in pan of boiling water for 5-6 minutes until just starting to soften, then drain and leave until cool enough to handle. Coarsely grate the potatoes into a bowl. Heat half the oil in a non-stick frying pan and cook the leek for 5 minutes until soft but not browned. Add to the potato, season and mix well.

1. In a separate bowl, mix the chick peas, fresh coriander, carrot, ground coriander, lemon juice and some seasoning to make the salad.

1. Divide the potato mixture into 4 and shape into rough patties with your hands, then heat the remaining oil in a medium non-stick frying pan. Add the rösti to the pan and cook for 3-4 minutes until golden brown, then turn over and cook the other side. Serve with the coriander and chick pea salad. You could also add a spoonful of natural yogurt, if you like.

Cook?s tips
As an alternative, you can make one large rösti and cut it into wedges to serve. Try crushed cumin seeds instead of the ground coriander in the salad for a different flavour.

This, this, this and this are all well under a fiver and great favourites in here.

I make this regularly. I use the ready rolled frozen puff pastry sheets from Jusrol and there is enough filling for both sheets.It might cost just over a fiver depending on what kind of cheese you use but it will probably be enough for the basis of 3 meals for four. I use a chopped onion softened in butter, not spring onions because the kids don't like the strong spring onion taste.

These 2 are disgusting but much loved by the children:

Hotdog pasta

1 bag pasta 40p
2 tins sweetcorn £1
1 tin hotdogs £1
4oz or so grated cheese £1
knob of butter and splash of milk 25p

Boil pasta. Slice hotdogs and grate cheese. drain cooked pasta and chick in everything else. Heat through, stirring all the time until the cheese is melted and has coated the pasta.

Hot dog bake

tin hotdogs £1
2 tins beans £1
tin chopped toms 50p
1 onion, chopped 10p
mixed herbs
2lbs potatoes, cooked and mashed 50p
couple of spoonfuls of pickle, any kind 20p?
bit of grated cheese 50p

Soften the onion in some oil. Add beans, tomatoes and chopped hotdogs. Stir in a tspn or so of herbs and season with pepper. Pour into a baking dish. Mix the pickle into the mash and spread over the top of the bean mix. Sprinkle with a little grated cheese and bake for about 30 minutes until hot and browned.

Some more cheap stuff

carrot pie

2lbs carrots, chopped £1
2 onions, chopped 20p
3 or 4 ounces grated cheese 75p
2lbs potatoes, cooked and mashed 75p
milk, butter, flour 50p
frozen peas 50p

Steam carrots and onions until tender. Reserve cooking water and make up to 1 pint with milk. Use the milk/stock mix to make cheese sauce. Put the carrots and onions in a baking dish and pour over the sauce. Top with the mash and sprinkle with a little grated cheese. Bake until golden and bubbly. Serve with peas.

Root veg bake.

2lbs mixed root veg, chopped £1
grated cheese 75p
milk, butter, flour 50p
3 or 4 slices of bread, cut into cubes 30p

Steam veg until tender. Reserve cooking water and make up to 1 pint with milk. Make a cheese sauce with the milk/stock, butter and flour. Put veg in a baking dish and pour over sauce. Sprinkle the bread cubes over the top and drizzle with oil or melted butter. Bake until bread is crip and veg is bubbly. you can add a couple of chopped bacon rashers to the mix if you have any left over from something else.

made this for tea tonight. it very easily serves 6. Not fancy but filling and nutritious,

Barley and rice winter veg bake.

1 cup rice 20p
1 cup barley 20p
2 onions, chopped 20p
1 decent sized sweet potato 75p
1/2 butternut squash 50p
2 parsnips 50p
3 or 4 carrots 50p
salt pepper
1 cup apple juice 25p
3 cups veg stock 60p
box mushrooms 80p - optional

Cook rice and onions in 2 cups water. Mix with barley and spread in the bottom of a large casserole dish. You need a 3 or 4 litre dish for this. Peel and chop all the veg into bite sized pieces. Lay over the rice and season with salt, pepper and some dried parsley. Pour over the juice and stock. Cover tightly and bake at 180 for between an hour and an hour and a half until barley is soft and veg are fully cooked. I just swerve this with bread and butter but you could make a green veg like broccoli if you liked.

Lentil Wedges

Cook half a bag of red lentils in water with added curry powder/paste/your own blend of spices. Bring to boil then simmer until all the water had gone, then strain to get last bit of water out.

Beat 4 eggs and then stir into the lentil mix, add any herbs required, fresh coriander is nice, put the mix into a shallow tray and bake in the oven for around 30 mins till set and when cooled off a little cut into wedges/squares.

Serve warm or cold with salad and maybe some raita or sourcream dip.

Cheap as chips!

I made this yesterday. it's adapted from a recipe in the Simply in Season recipe book (I think, it might be the More with Less one.) It costs around a fiver to make but makes at least 12 servings, more if you are feeding little kids. It is a very substantial soup.

Potato and bean soup with dill

1 bag dried white beans (haricot/cannelini/black eyed) £1
1lb carrots, grated 50p
2 onions, chopped 20p
3 or 4 sticks celery, chopped 30p
8 or 9 decent sized potatoes, peeled and diced 75p
2 tablespoons dried dill 40p
veg stock 60p
big pot natural yoghurt £1
3tablespoons flour
salt and pepper

Soak beans over night. Drain, put in a BIG pot and cover generously with water. bring to the boil and cook until almost done. Add veg, top up water and add 5 stock cubes. Stir in dill and some black pepper. You will need about 6 pints of stock, maybe a bit more, so it needs to be a very big pan. Return to the boil and simmer for as long as you like, until everything is very tender. Stir the flour into the yoghurt and mix into the soup. Stir the soup continuously until it is hot and thickened.

I love this soup. I serve it with cornbread because I think that the dense sweetness of the bread goes well with the slight tartness of the soup. This is the recipe that I use:

1 1/2 cups cornmeal 40p
2 cups milk 40p
2 cups flour 20p
1tblspn baking powder
2 eggs 40p
1/2 cup sugar 15p
1/2cup veg oil 20p

Put the cornmeal in a bowl and stir in milk. Mix in all the rest of the ingredients till you get a smooth batter. Pour the batter into a greased 11 x 9 baking dish (the kind you would use for cottage pie or lasagne). Bake in a preheated oven at 200 for about 35minutes, until risen and beginning to brown. I cut this into 12 substantial squares, you could make 15 smaller ones for littler kids.

Thank you moonmother sounds delicious, I have the in-laws coming for supper tomorrow evening and FIL only likes "proper food" so that solves the problem of what to cook perfectly!

Marking spot :)

oh i need this thread this month ...will be back

.

Some more for anyone that's interested - much cheaper than a fiver.

Pasta with chick peas -
1/2bag dried chick peas - soaked overnight and cooked, 50p
2 onions, chopped, 25p
head garlic, chopped, 25p
bag value pasta, 30p
oil, salt, pepper, 20p

Put the pasta on to cook. Meanwhile, fry the onion and garlic in the oil until soft. Add cooked chickpeas and heat through. Stir through drained, hot pasta and serve immediately. If you have any sprinkle with a little bit of gran padano.

pasta with walnuts and cream

bag pasta, 30p
4oz or so of chopped walnuts £1.20
some chopped parsley, 50p
some cream, 50p

Cook pasta. Add chopped walnuts and parsley to the drained pasta, add enough cream to coat and mix well. Season to taste and serve straight away.

Vegan Shepherdless Pie

6 potatoes, boiled, mashed with soya milk & seasoning
1 onion chopped, fried with 8 mushrooms
2 large carrots chopped small (I boil seperately to speed up)
1 can Tesco green lentils (59p)
A little soy sauce, worster sauce & seaoning
Bisto gravy browning

Fry off onion, mushroom, add soy sauce, worster & seaoning, add lentils, keep low so lentils don't mush. Add carrots when soft, add enough gravy browning to thicken & colour mix, put into casserole dish.

Mash spuds with soy milk, seasoning and I add nutritional yeast (for B12 and flavouring) spoon over base, fork a nice pattern on top, add a few bread crumbs and either toast under grill or pop in hot oven for 10 minutes to crisp up the topping.

This will serve 4 to 6 with side of brocholli or green beans, or whatever you want. Not sure of full costing as we buy our onions and potatoes in bulk but less than £4 :)

marks place - so broke this week - thanks for this thread :) will look later for dinner!!

ha - just noticed other people marking places

Marking my place too! :)

Can't remember if I've posted this before, but I made it yesterday from some leftover chicken and thought of this thread -

cream of chicken soup

4pints chicken stock - I use home-made but can use cubes just the same - 50p?
1/2 cup flour - 10p
1/2 cup milk -15p
6oz or so cooked chicken, chopped into little pieces -£1?
good pinch nutmeg, tablespoon lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste - 20p
4 or 5 tablespoons cream - 40p
handful chopped parsley - 50p

Bring to stock to the boil. Mix the flour and milk together until smooth and whisk into boiling stock. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes until soup is thickened slightly. Add chicken, nutmeg and lemon juice. Heat through. Add cream and season to taste and stir through parsley. Serve with crusty bread. Serves 6.

marking spot!

Marking spot too!

The Sainsbury's under a fiver is great.
Also found this on a website from another mum:
www.healthyindianrecipes.co.uk/three-course-curry-for-a-fiver/
You can get some great ingredients from Farmfoods eg fresh fish for a £1 and some spuds and do homemade fish and chips for the whole family.

Marking spot fab thread.

Ready roll puff pastry - £1.25
Basics mozerella - 45p
Beef tomato - 50p
Cherry tomatoes - £1 for a box

Put puff pastry on a baking sheet
Slice mozerella and beef tomato and layer. Halve cherry tomatoes and stick in gaps.

If you have some / are feeling flash scatter fresh basil over it.

Bake for 30 mins. Serve with salad.

chorizo ring £1.49
jar red pesto £0.99
value pasta £0.39
tin sweetcorn £0.39

cook past. slice chorizo and chop into small chunks. stir pesto, corn & chorizo through pasta.

penne pasta, spinach and pine nuts -

pine nuts 2.50 for a bag - but will do at least two meals, probably three for a family of four (don't need a lot and this meal is surprisingly filling)
pasta (dunno)
fresh spinach 1-2 quid

while pasta is cooking, wilt/fry the spinach in portions (I grab a handful per person), once all done fry the pine nuts until browned. Oil from the spinach and pine nuts will coat the pasta. Mix in pasta and season with salt and pepper.