Cheap summery meals?

[Laugs]

When it's cooler we eat things like
homemade soup
stew
casserole
chilli
sausage and mash
pasta

ie all the cheap stuff.

It's all too heavy at the moment. I know I'm bring stupid, but I can't think of any really cheap summery dishes except for maybe omelette and salad. Any ideas?

Couscous salad with vinaigrette and shredded chicken? We practically live on it over the summer.
Summer Lasagne (ie veggies in light sauce between sheets)
Urm..... Pasta in simple sauces with cherry toms chucked in?

You can always have a good old BBQ, yum yum It needn't be too expensive if you don't have too much meat. I love vegetable brochettes myself

Shall be watching this thread for inspiration having just chucked in a pizza for supper

Spinach leaves with feta cheese and sundried tomatoes

Baked salmon with pesto and new potatoes

I LOVE a bit of coronation chicken and warm naan bread, but then I love naff retro food.

Huge Greek salad, with pitta bread.

Greek-style butter beans with Greek salad and pitta bread!

Pasta with green pesto, pine nuts and asparagus (when on special offer: green beans when not).

New potatoes, homemade quiche and salad.

Thanks for the ideas. They all sound lovely, but they are a bit more expensive than cheap winter meals, aren't they? Except pasta of course. Maybe you just can't do summer on the cheap.

Salmon/tuna cakes using tinned fish. Salmon ones are nice with a bit of pesto and tuna ones with an oriental twist (lime, sweet chilli sauce...). Serve with a nice salad

Salade nicoise with tuna or chicken, eggs, olives, green beans etc.

Fritata (spanish omelete/pastryless quiche)

Can all be made pretty cheaply.

I often make a big bowl of rice salad, it's dirt cheap and really nice. Add tinned sweetcorn, chopped cucumber, chopped peppers (if you like them) cooked frozen peas, chopped ham or shredded chicken, some herbs, anything you like really, cubes of cheese, a few pine nuts are nice too. Add a little splash of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Very nice, ds loves it. I know the weathers going to change soon, but i've got a hankering for homemade coleslaw now as well and that's dirt cheap, just grate white cabbage, some carrots, an onion and add mayo. You can add a bit of wholegrain mustard if you like a bit more punch. I usually do that with cold drumsticks or cold meats (left over roast etc) and some new potatoes.

In the summer i tend to make:

Spanish omlette (can add anything to it, leftovers etc)

Fishcakes (tinned tuna, mash potatoes and any veg chopped finely, rolled in breadcrumbs)

Jacket potatoes with any filling and salad

Wraps/chunky sandwhiches

Quiche (the value ones are actually quite good)

Cold pasta salad/rice salad with any veg/meat/leftovers

Copious amounts of icecream for pudding
I hope this helps at all

I do summer meals on the cheap, using pretty much the same ingreidnets I'd use for winter meals.

Salads are good, couscous salads great, easy to make and cheap too (just don't get expensive salad ingreidints, things like carrots, tomatoes, onions, lettuce)

Wraps

Instead of sausages and mash, do sausages with new potatoes and grated carrot salad

Instead of chilli, do bolognese and serve in wraps or tacos with shredded lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream

Instead of a thick blended soup, keep the soup chunky and the broth clear for a summey version.

I've been thinking recently, pasta isn't that cheap any more, I've decided bread is cheaper if I make my own with value flour, and you xan make all sorts of different breads with just plain flour, yeast and some imagination.

I make pitta breads, normal bread, foccaccia, pizza bases, garlic bread, dough balls, naan bread and serve that with our meal instead of pasta or other carbs.

One way is just adapting the way you cook the ingrediants you already use.

So rather than sausage and mash you do sausage, potato salad and salad stuff rather than veg.

Pasta can be with roasted seasonal veg and a light tomato sauce.

Also things like vegetable kebabs are good, couscous mixed with veg and then something like marinated chicken thighs.

Flat breads I find good - when you make your own they are very cheap, a basic roti is just flour, baking powder and water, and a lot quicker/easier as they don't need to rise and take minutes to cook.

Salads are easy and can be made very nice cheaply by having mixed salad with e.g. bacon offcuts cooked till crispy and then make your own croutons or flatbreads.

oooh what about chicken paella? good summery alternative to a stew..

In the summer we make lots of robust salads, eg:

mixed beans with onions and vinaigrette

pasta spirals with grated carrot, tinned sweetcorn, tinned tuna.

potato salad

coleslaw

chickpea, peppers, tomatoes and onions.

green salad with hard boiled egg

(frozen) seafood with peppers, onions, tomatoes and French dressing

couscous salad with grilled chicken

green beans with walnuts and goats cheese

I use tinned sardines, mackerel, tuna, salmon etc to up the protein content. Also hard boiled eggs and cheese.

Plus you can make cold soups - vichisoise, gazpacho, ajo blanco.

Thanks for all the suggestions - I'm getting really hungry reading this. Lots of good ideas I hadn't thought of.

Just looked in the cupboard and I think I'll try tuna fishcakes with salad and new potatoes tonight.

There is a great video on making Asian Pork Noodle Skillet - Meals around $2 below. Check it out.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-NgWqr4IRo