cheap easy meal ideas please . . .

[lucysmam]

hiya, I'm new to this site & have been reading through some really useful threads about food budgeting and budgeting in general, both of which I'm already good at as my oh lost his job last year and then again on valentines day this year so we've been living off benefits at the mo. I just wondered if anyone had any cheap and easy meal ideas as with my budget for a fortnightly food shop being around £40 (plus £20 if needed for toiletries, cleaning stuff, wash powder, nappies and milk through the week) we tend to end up eating a lot of the same stuff as we always have the same stuff in the cupboards!

However, now my freezer's broken down so we're having to shop every other day for fresh stuff and its costing us a fortune (the fridge part still works ok). I just wondered if anyone has any ideas for something other than stuff like omelettes, spag bol, beans on toast kinda stuff . . . .

I wouldn't know where to start with making my own soup but will be having a go at one posted earlier, never stuffed a pepper either but love them as well so will try that but have never tried cous cous so wouldnt know what to expect from it

couscous is easy - just pour on some boiling water or veg stock (cube or powder variety is fine) and leave it to fluff up for 10 mins (if you use too much water, strain it in a sieve). It's really good with chick peas and chopped dried apricots stirred in, or chopped fried veggies (eg courgettes/peppers), or tomatoes and basil, or experiment and see what you like...

Sounds like a rotten situation.
Favourite cheap meal in this house is lentil pasta.
Fry one onion and some garlic in a little oil
Chuck in a big handful of lentils.
Add a tin of tomatoes and some water
Chuck in a bay leaf and some dried herbs if you fancy
Simmer until lentils are mush
Serve on pasta with grated cheese

Same basic recipe can have carrots, or other root veg thrown in, which can be basis for veg shepherds pie, or veg spag bol.

Another useful resource is the moneysaving expert website. I think the forum has a grocery challence for people on a very tight budget.

hth

It is rotten hairtwiddler! Not having the freezer isn't so bad as most of the time I only use it to freeze leftovers so they don't go to waste or half a loaf of bread so it doesn't go mouldy & have odd bits in there like ready made fish pies and fish fingers or fish cakes but it's still a pain as I cant freeze anything or buy the things I would normally buy in a fortnightly shop and split them down to freeze and use later on like mince or chicken breasts. Although someone posted yesterday about buying a whole chicken & using leftovers to make stock and a stir fry or something which makes more sense thinking about it!

Do you have a local butcher so you could buy mince etc in smaller amounts? (apologies if someone has already suggested)
Are you a member of your local freecycle group? Sometimes see a freezer coming up on there.
Just remembered a good idea for stale bread. You can make a savoury bread and butter pudding by layering buttered bread with e.g. spinach and then pouring eggs over the top and sprinkling with cheese before baking in the oven.
The WRAP website also has some good ideas for using up leftovers.
Good luck and I hope things look up for you soon.

nearest butcher is in next village which is a bit of a trek away but sometimes walk it in the summer, thats y i tend to buy larger amounts when we go shopping and freeze some of it for later on in the month. I'm waiting for insurance with regards to the fridgefreezer as it and my cooker have only stopped working since we had a major pipe burst in kitchen and flooded the backs of them! never tried savoury bread& butter pudding but everyone's got some really great ideas i'd never have thought of which will make life more interesting in the kitchen rather than cooking and eating the same stuff all the time

In one pan add:

1 chopped onion
1 tins tomatoes
1 mattesons smoked sausage cut up in to bite sized bits
1 tin kidney beans
Add some chilli sauce, garlic powder & anything else that's a bit spicy
some water if needs be

Simmer for at least an hour and add a bit of flour to thicken the sauce if it's very runny and have it with rice. Delish!

SOUP
(As much or as little of each as you like)
Potatoes
Turnip
Carrots
Leeks
Lentils

Well, any veg really.
Bacon/chicken
Chop up veg, put in pan, cover with water, add stock cube if liked.
Boil till cooked,
Add cooked meat.
Season.

If you want to thicken it, chuck in a handful or so of porridge oats, keep stirring on lowish heat till absorbed.

porridge oats in soup?? I've never tried making my own soup so wouldn't know what to do until now but porridge oats sounds strange to me! I'm not keen on porridge though so hope you cant taste them as there's quite a few simple sounding soup recipes on this site that I want to try

Ok - here's my easy peasy, v nice lentil soup recipe - one that even fussy dd1 slurps up!

In a bit of olive oil fry a couple of chopped onions and diced carrots. You can add any other veggies you've got knocking around, small cubes of potato, green pepper, cauliflower in small florets, leeks etc. When they're reasonably soft add: turmeric (about a teaspoon), cumin (same); cumin seeds (teaspoon); mustard seeds (ditto) and a shake of chilli flakes (start with half a teaspoon, you can always add more) plus a good grinding of black pepper - no salt yet.

Add a carton of passata and a big handful or two of red lentils. Add a tin of coconut milk then fill the tin up with water and add that to the pan. Cook for 25 mins or so, adding water as needed. Then add a squirt of lemon juice, more pepper, more chilli flakes and a bit of salt if you think it needs it. Nice with naan bread or chapatis.

thanks janeite, i've got quite a few pages of stuff from on here to have a look through with oh and decide what he fancies to try out when we do a big (ish) shop friday and the good thing is, looking at most of it I shouldnt need my freezer for anything much so anything that does want freezing can go to mil's.

It my typing any better than yesterday by the way?

Sausage casserole
16 thin sausages chopped into 3 's .2 tins of toms ,a small amount of water and a sprinkle of mixed herbs oh and an onion chopped .

Put sausage and onions in an oven dish with a bit of oil cook for 15 minutes then pur over toms ,water and sprinkle herbs on top bung back in oven for 45 mins .

Serve with mash.

My 2 year old loved this and it's great for leftovers too

Great typing Although don't pay any attention to my moaning anyway - it's just that normal typing is much easier to read than text speak.

Are there any particular ingredients/kinds of meals that you all like? Then we can think of cheaper versions, or similar things you might enjoy.

erm, anything really, none of us is fussy although lo is not too keen on meat at the moment, tends to chew the flavour out of it then pass it to me or try to feed it to me (lovely!). My oh likes pasta with pretty much anything but I never know what to put in it or with it. And I couldn't care less what im eating really so long as its tasty and easy as it gets quite boring spending ages in the kitchen sometimes

Pasta with cream, peas (frozen or fresh) and grated cheese is really popular with my two DSs who are 3 and 1.
Its really easy and cheap:
Cook the pasta, add the peas a couple of mins before the pasta is ready,
drain and return to pan
add cream to heat through and stir in grated cheese (or add this at the table).

Seasonal fruit and veg is always the cheapest, and use your local butcher and greengrocer if you can, they'll give advice on whats in season/local/well priced.
Some good recipes on the BBC website.

I have decided I love this site!! Everyone's soooo much more helpful than on any of the others I've tried in the past!!! And everyone's managing to cook so cheaply too, is there anything else anyone buys cheap apart from food??

Is there a Wilkinson's anywhere near you? They sell things from kitchen roll to loo cleaner to branded toiletries cheaper than the supermarkets (and lots of other random stuff too)

yeah there's a wilko's, i go into town on the bus once or twice a fortnight and always pop in there for cleaning stuff, other than that its asda as town is half an hour on bus and asda is an hour which is a pain but tend to get everything at once rather than pop to shops but have had no choice over past 2 weeks nearly

Have you got an Aldi or Lidl anywhere near ? Good for cheap stuff - loo rolls, kitchen roll, soap, nappies, wipes etc etc

Risotto is quite cheap - just risotto rice and stock (cubes are fine) and then add anything you have hanging around (ham, fish, veg etc)

never tried risotto either, always willing to try something new though!

refering to an earlier post where someone suggested buying a whole chicken for a roast, then leftovers with something the day after and then using the rest to make stock from . . . how would you go about making stock from a chicken?

Lidl not too far away but costs more from there in taxi for some reason than asda!! Usually use netto nappies and buy 2 for 1 wipes at wilko when theyre on offer

hairtwiddler - love the wrap website, it is good for food planning aswell and cooking once for two meals have put that on favs

to make chicken stock:

put the chicken carcas in a big pan with some roughly chopped onion and carrots, a couple of pints of water, a bayleaf, and put a lid on it, bring to the boil and simmer for about 2 hours.

Then strain off the liquid, which is the stock, pick any remaining meat off the bones, and throw the rest away. I always sieve it as well, because there are some very tiny bones in chicken and also bits of boiled bone can break off. You can fish out the veggies and then put the stock and the veggies in the blender to make thicker stock/soup if you like.

You can then use the stock to make soup, risotto, and just about anything else that needs stock. I prefer to use it withing 24 hours, but you can freeze it.

I forgot to say, I season the stock afterwards: if you put salt in at the beginning, it can end up too salty.

cheers roskva, i'll be experimenting with that at some point this week . . . wish me luck!! would the stock with veggies in it make a decent soup or would it need something else?

I always buy a large/ex large chicken for us me,dh,dd1 and dd2.

I can get 4 plus meals from it

Sunday - Roast
Monday - Cold meat and salad/mash/chips (depending on my mood )
then i use the rest to make chicken and mushroom pies/mixture.

Then stock with bones for soup or stock as per Roskva.

For chicken and mushroom pie.

1 onion chopped
1 tin condensed mushroom soup
1 punnet of mushroom chopped (whatever type you have)
and leftover chicken
add any herbs of your choice.

1. Fry onions in a little oil
2. Add mushrooms fry together for 5mins.
3. Add mushroom soup and 1 can of water, bring to the boil.
4. Add chopped up leftover chicken and herbs you want to use. Cook for 30mins. Season to taste.

I then throw in a couple of handfuls of any other veg i have around and allow to cool. Then either i put in a pie tin add pastry top and cook for 45mins or freeze for another day.

I also serve over jacket potatoes or rice or pasta.