Cheap Meals

[tim2100]

What with this credit crunch and many people feeling the pinch occasionally ones shopping bill has to be reduced.

So what cheap meals do PH'ers like?

I'm talking simple cheap meals to make/prepare or buy for 1, 2 or four people.

my favourite at the moment is Pasta Carbonara

Pasta
pack of chopped bacon or leftover meat from sunday roast
Cream
egg
parmesan & cheddar cheese

grand total of around £2.50 for two.

What you got?

[miniman]

Chicken risotto -

- left over chicken from Sunday roast
- onion
- handful of peas
- handful of parsley
- risotto rice

Can't see that being more than a fiver for enough for 4.

[Dan_1981]

That one pan sticky chicken thats doing the round in another thread - the chicken is on offer at £2, honey garlic etc is in the cupboard already.

And some potatoes to go with it.

And its lovely.

[toasty]

Try adding deskinned and chopped sausage to pasta and sauce.

Instant meatballs.

[brum]

Cooked rice
Chopped streaky bacon
Spring onion
handful of peas
2 eggs

Fry up the bacon, peas and onion, chuck in the cooked rice, add the beaten eggs, and stir fry until all cooked.

Proper delicious and costs pennies

[neilsfishing]

Pot nodle, cupasupe, etc

[Mobile Chicane]

Not a direct answer, but 'food' for thought:

- Wild food foraging (not so good at this time of year, but should pick up in the autumn when the fungi season gets going)

- Air rifle for wild meat (squirrels and wood pigeons can be shot year-round)

- Pay attention to the cheapest cooking methods (my steamer and slow cooker paid for themselves within a month)

- Grow things that are otherwise expensive to buy, like fresh herbs and chillies

- Keep supplies of basic sauces and stocks in the freezer to make opportunistic use of anything that's reduced or otherwise on offer.

Read all about my personal adventures here

[Parsnip]

Bangers and mash is always good - just get whatever half decent sausages are on offer.

Huge pot of spag bol or chilli con carne doesn't exactly break the bank either.

[loltolhurst]

home grown veg - cheap and healthy
pitta breads 45p for 6 bung anything in with home grown salad
pasta with whatever meat is on offer and value chopped tomatoes in tins with homegrown herbs
mince to make own burgers


if u have the time supermarkets have some great offers on that change frequently + reduced section always good for certain things

[loltolhurst]

Mobile Chicane said:

Not a direct answer, but 'food' for thought:

- Wild food foraging (not so good at this time of year, but should pick up in the autumn when the fungi season gets going)

- Air rifle for wild meat (squirrels and wood pigeons can be shot year-round)

- Pay attention to the cheapest cooking methods (my steamer and slow cooker paid for themselves within a month)

- Grow things that are otherwise expensive to buy, like fresh herbs and chillies

- Keep supplies of basic sauces and stocks in the freezer to make opportunistic use of anything that's reduced or otherwise on offer.

Read all about my personal adventures here

does slow cooking cheap pieces of meat cost more in elec/gas than cooking quicker expensive pieces of meat?

[Mobile Chicane]

loltolhurst said:

Mobile Chicane said:

Not a direct answer, but 'food' for thought:

- Wild food foraging (not so good at this time of year, but should pick up in the autumn when the fungi season gets going)

- Air rifle for wild meat (squirrels and wood pigeons can be shot year-round)

- Pay attention to the cheapest cooking methods (my steamer and slow cooker paid for themselves within a month)

- Grow things that are otherwise expensive to buy, like fresh herbs and chillies

- Keep supplies of basic sauces and stocks in the freezer to make opportunistic use of anything that's reduced or otherwise on offer.

Read all about my personal adventures here

does slow cooking cheap pieces of meat cost more in elec/gas than cooking quicker expensive pieces of meat?

Difficult to say, however (in my opinion at least) you've wiped out the saving in buying a cheap cut of meat if you've cooked it in an electric fan oven for eight hours.

ETA: My domestic electricity consumption reduced from £50 a month to £25 a month, purely by switching to a slow cooker and steamer. The difference in energy consumption between the various types of appliances is quite scary:

0.79 kW/hour for a typical oven, compared with 0.15 kW/hour for the slow cooker.

1.2kW/hour for a halogen hob, compared with 0.9 kW/hour for the steamer (the steamer also cooks faster).

At a cost of £11.97 for the slow cooker (Asda), and £14.65 for the steamer (Tesco), these acquisitions paid for themselves within a month.

Edited by Mobile Chicane on Wednesday 15th July 18:59

[grumbledoak]

Slightly O/T, but you can save quite a bit on basic goods by buying the 'basic' ranges for e.g. carrots, potatoes, apples. You won't notice the difference. (Not coffee though, as we are finding )

Beyond that, try to stick to basic ingredients rather than whole, finished products - to them is is 'adding value' but to you it is just more expensive. And, probably rammed full of fat and salt, but that's not important right now.


As far as recipes go, you're either going to be buying old battery hens, or turning largely vegetarian - good meat isn't cheap.
o Baked potatoes are good and cheap, beans, butter, cheese all good.
o A three, free range, egg omelette must be all of 60p, doesn't need much more than chives
o offal is unpopular, so it is almost absurdly cheap- I wouldn't recommend tongue, but chicken livers are nice.
o I cannot claim to be a fan of rice except as suppli, but all of those food types (rice, grains, pulses) and their products (pasta, noodles, etc) are pretty cheap (bread excepted, but you can make your own).

Any use?

Edited by grumbledoak on Wednesday 15th July 19:08

[loltolhurst]

Mobile Chicane said:

loltolhurst said:

Mobile Chicane said:

Not a direct answer, but 'food' for thought:

- Wild food foraging (not so good at this time of year, but should pick up in the autumn when the fungi season gets going)

- Air rifle for wild meat (squirrels and wood pigeons can be shot year-round)

- Pay attention to the cheapest cooking methods (my steamer and slow cooker paid for themselves within a month)

- Grow things that are otherwise expensive to buy, like fresh herbs and chillies

- Keep supplies of basic sauces and stocks in the freezer to make opportunistic use of anything that's reduced or otherwise on offer.

Read all about my personal adventures here

does slow cooking cheap pieces of meat cost more in elec/gas than cooking quicker expensive pieces of meat?

Difficult to say, however (in my opinion at least) you've wiped out the saving in buying a cheap cut of meat if you've cooked it in an electric fan oven for eight hours.

ETA: My domestic electricity consumption reduced from £50 a month to £25 a month, purely by switching to a slow cooker and steamer. The difference in energy consumption between the various types of appliances is quite scary:

0.79 kW/hour for a typical oven, compared with 0.15 kW/hour for the slow cooker.

1.2kW/hour for a halogen hob, compared with 0.9 kW/hour for the steamer (the steamer also cooks faster).

At a cost of £11.97 for the slow cooker (Asda), and £14.65 for the steamer (Tesco), these acquisitions paid for themselves within a month.

Edited by Mobile Chicane on Wednesday 15th July 18:59

interesting may have a look

edited to say do all the slow cookers all have low elec usage or does it vary much? what do you cook in it?

Edited by loltolhurst on Wednesday 15th July 19:16

[Nefarious]

Mobile Chicane said:

Difficult to say, however (in my opinion at least) you've wiped out the saving in buying a cheap cut of meat if you've cooked it in an electric fan oven for eight hours.

ETA: My domestic electricity consumption reduced from £50 a month to £25 a month, purely by switching to a slow cooker and steamer. The difference in energy consumption between the various types of appliances is quite scary:

0.79 kW/hour for a typical oven, compared with 0.15 kW/hour for the slow cooker.

1.2kW/hour for a halogen hob, compared with 0.9 kW/hour for the steamer (the steamer also cooks faster).

At a cost of £11.97 for the slow cooker (Asda), and £14.65 for the steamer (Tesco), these acquisitions paid for themselves within a month.

[pedant mode]Not wishing to shoot you down, but the numbers here don't quite add up.

My 'lecky comes in at 8.5p per kw/h, which means that the total cost of 8 hours in the oven is 53.7p using your figure of 0.79kw/h (does that take into account the lower temps for slow roasting). The equiveleant figure for the slow cooker is 10.2p, so there's a total saving of 40p per "cooking event". Certainly not enough to outweigh the cost saving of a brisket over a top-side, say.
Even if you were previously doing an 8 hour roast every day for a month, that's still only a saving of £12.
Also, if you're making stuff to freeze, then there's no reason why you can't double or treble-up in the oven and cook multiple pots at the same time.

On the steamer issue - surely the microwave is more efficient still. Same 0.7/0.8kw/h power consumption, but much quicker, with no warm-up time etc. For certain veg (e.g. brocolli, peas, sweetcorn etc), the results are exactly the same as steaming, IMO.

I agree with just about everything else you say, though.[/pedant mode]

[ewenm]

Anything big and simple. For examples, chilli and rice; bolognese or other pasta-based dishes; steamed vegetables done over the boiling rice/pasta - so re-using the heat.

[Nefarious]

Oh, and my best cheap eat recipe: Pork goulash.

Something like this: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/sp..., although you can use one of the massively dicounted cuts of pork they usually have on offer in the supermarket, and leave out some of the more expensive ingredients (e.g. jarred peppers). Use budget rice, but soak it well before cooking (at least 30 mins, plus a good rinse). You can also wang in a few new potatoes too to bulk it out a bit.

[Akers]

Chicken and Cous-Cous with Roasted Veg

For 2 people
250g of chicken - can be fresh or leftovers

1 x Bell pepper - sliced
1 x Garlic clove - finely chopped
1 x Onion - chopped
1 x courgette - sliced
+ any other veg you fancy - we've used sliced carrot, baby corn, Mange Tout, etc

Herb & spices of your choice - I use ground cumin, dried basil, dried oregano.
Olive oil

100g dry Cous-cous

Place all the veg in a large baking dish, drizzle with olive and scatter over herb and spices. then give it all a good mix up. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 200 degs for 30-40 mins , turning occasionally.

If chicken is fresh, chop into chunks/strips place in a small over dish and drizzle with a little olive oil and some lemon or lime juice. Roast along side the veg for 20-25 mins.

serve with the cooked Cous cous.

[10 Pence Short]

Free. Freshly caught trout. Caught by me.

[brum]

Free Trout? Really? Where did you poach catch these trout from then?

Edited by brum on Tuesday 21st July 17:43

[tim2100]

brum said:

Free Trout? Really? Where did you poach catch these trout from then?

Edited by brum on Tuesday 21st July 17:43

plus how much for fishing gear, and the skills to be able to catch them