Inspiration required for a tight budget

[sc0tt]

I'm a pastafarian. All I eat is pasta.

I'm not bored of it but need some fresh ideas but on a budget.

Can anyone give me some suggestions for a weeks worth of food, or a few days if you can't be arsed. My freezer consists of the following.

8 x Chicken Breasts
8 x Sausages
1kg Mince

I have herbs and spices etc but absolutely nothing in the fridge veggie wise.

What can I do with my food please? I'm pretty much cooking for one 4 days of the week.

[tomsugden]

You'll need to go shopping, but make a white sauce, add cheese, a tin of sweetcorn, some chopped garlic, and a tin of tuna. Stir until everything is mixed together then add to cooked pasta.

It will look as if someone has eaten it before you, but tastes great.

[sc0tt]

So more pasta?

[battered]

Sausage casserole is nice.
So is chilli con carne. Enough mince there for 8 portions.
Both dead easy.
Make meatballs with finely chopped onions and an egg and either fry them or make a pasta sauce with them.

[21TonyK]

Not sure if OP is looking for more pasta ideas or ideas other than pasta?

Whatever way round planning meals and only buying what you need for them is important.

My daughter moved away for Uni in September with a 3 week menu plan and shopping list. Things range from lasagne to chicken tikka to scrambled eggs and fish finger sandwiches.

She works on a budget of about £25 a week for food and eats very well on it.

[sc0tt]

21TonyK said:

Not sure if OP is looking for more pasta ideas or ideas other than pasta?

Whatever way round planning meals and only buying what you need for them is important.

My daughter moved away for Uni in September with a 3 week menu plan and shopping list. Things range from lasagne to chicken tikka to scrambled eggs and fish finger sandwiches.

She works on a budget of about £25 a week for food and eats very well on it.

Pref Less pasta.

I've just put together 17 days worth of meals for £50 excluding proteins as a food parcel of chicken and beef got delivered by mother

[spikeyhead]

The cheapest form of protein is tinned mackerel or sardines. Possible to use them in a quick dirty curry. Fry up some onions until soft, add assorted spices, or just curry powder, tinned toms and the fish. Cook through for about 20 mins.

Serve with rice, and if you are really after cheap then make a big batch of tarka dal. You can just about live on dal alone, and it's pennies per portion if you find an asian supermarket to get the dal from. Make up a huge batch and freeze it in portions.

[RizzoTheRat]

Chicken curry, plenty of recopies online plus a thread of recipies on here somewhere, basically you'll want a few onions that you cook slowly to make the base of the sauce, add a load of spices, chuck in a tin of tomatoes, and the simmer for a while to thicken before adding the chicken. It's at its best if you leave a portion in the fridge overnight before you eat it, and freezes well.

My basic recipe for 3-4 chicken breasts:

• 2 medium/large Onions
• 4 cloves of Garlic
• 1 inch piece of fresh Ginger
• 1 tsp of Cumin seeds
• 1 level tsp Garam Masala
• 1 level tsp Turmeric
• ¼ tsp Black Pepper
• ¼ tsp Ground Ginger
• ¼ tsp Ground Garlic
• 1 level tsp Ground Coriander
• 1 level tsp Salt
• ¼ tsp chilli powder
• 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tin Tomatoes

For chicken and sausages lookk up some Casoulet recipies, eg https://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/... (other supermarkets are available)


Another good option for cheap solo eating is chilli, make a big batch and freeze it in portions, like with curry it improves in flavour if you leave it in the fridge overnight too. Added benefit over other repeat meals in that it goes well with rice or a jacket potato so you can vary it a bit. Other than that my mince usage is usually bolagnase (again freezes well in portions) or lasagne (use the bolagnase mix) but that doesn't get you away from pasta.

[battered]

Another easy curry is one of the upmarket jars in Aldi. (Yes, I know. Haute cuisine it's not, but it's tasty and you can live on it.) Chop up and fry an onion. Add 1lb/500g meat, add the spice mix they give you. Fry that too. Chuck the jar in, then (this bit is critical) add some more chopped up veg. Without this it's just another jar curry, with it it's much much better. You will prob want to chuck in a few extra spices at this point. Cook it for an hour, serve with rice/naan/dhal (see above) etc, it's better than it has any right to be.

Serves 4. Costs buttons.

[Cotty]

battered said:

So is chilli con carne. Enough mince there for 8 portions.

Good thing about chili is you can use up any leftovers from other dishes. I sometimes add kidney beans but not always, cheap way of making it go further.

[Foliage]

Chicken chow mein

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chickenchowmein_...

Hummus and pitta bread (can also have salad with it or grilled chicken), or di http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/hummus_80249 leave out the tahini, buy a bottle of lemon juice from the backing aisle.

Chicken kebabs

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chickenbreastmar...

Donner kebab,

http://mydietjourney.co.uk/recipes/slimming-world-...

Toad in the hole, http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5822/toad-in-th...

Edited by Foliage on Monday 7th November 11:19

[Foliage]

Cotty said:

Good thing about chili is you can use up any leftovers from other dishes. I sometimes add kidney beans but not always, cheap way of making it go further.

A packet mix? have words with yourself :P

[Cotty]

Foliage said:

A packet mix? have words with yourself :P

A while back I lost all interest in cooking, so just wanted something easy and simple. I didn't want to be measuring out different spices, I just want it in the pot and in the oven. I like how it tastes, I could try and replicate it but why bother, for the price its a no brainer. Sometimes cooking for one it is just not worth going to too much effort.

[Vaud]

Cheap and very warming/filling. Swedish split pea soup.

http://freshfromevaskitchen.blogspot.fr/2012/11/sw...

Add more veg/less ham depending on budget. Most yellow split peas will cook more quickly (45-60mins) without a presoak.

You can also eat with rye crackers/bread etc if you need more carb. A dollop of mustard on top is very nice. Will freeze.

[battered]

Vaud said:

Cheap and very warming/filling. Swedish split pea soup.

http://freshfromevaskitchen.blogspot.fr/2012/11/sw...

Add more veg/less ham depending on budget. Most yellow split peas will cook more quickly (45-60mins) without a presoak.

You can also eat with rye crackers/bread etc if you need more carb. A dollop of mustard on top is very nice. Will freeze.

Oh right, well if we are getting into variants on "some part of a pig with some kind of pulses" then we are going to be here for some time!

[Vaud]

battered said:

Oh right, well if we are getting into variants on "some part of a pig with some kind of pulses" then we are going to be here for some time!

It was more of a "cheap, filling, healthy, warming" idea for the future, rather than his current larder.

[Don]

Get a slow cooker. Start enjoying dirt cheap cuts of meat like Breast of Lamb or Pork Belly. You can slow roast them in there without water. Or you can make casseroles.

Veg soup is unbelievably easy to make (boil veg in chicken stock, once tender, whizz) and tastes sooo much better than the expensive pots you can buy in the supermarket. I can four man-size portions for £1.

[battered]

Don said:

Get a slow cooker. Start enjoying dirt cheap cuts of meat like Breast of Lamb or Pork Belly. You can slow roast them in there without water. Or you can make casseroles.

Veg soup is unbelievably easy to make (boil veg in chicken stock, once tender, whizz) and tastes sooo much better than the expensive pots you can buy in the supermarket. I can four man-size portions for £1.

It is, but the £1-a-pint jobs you get in the supermarkets are very nice and extremely convenient. Stuff like this is why I never order a takeaway. Pay more and wait longer for worse quality food? Erm...