The cheap meal thread

[newme]

Incredibly lazy pseudo-meatball dish.
Cheap Noodles - 8p
Tinned Meatballs in Tomato sauce - 31p

Potatoes
2kg sack of Potatoes - 1.40 averaging around 20 potatoes

Two of the larger potatoes - Baked - around 20p or so
Flora Light - idk, 6p? lol
Tinned Beans - 21p
Cheese - 20-30p depending how much u want.

Smaller potatoes from the sack
Boil and serve slathered in Flora light/your choice of grease

Midsized potatoes boil off aswel and leave to cool then refridgerate.
Can then be either sliced, and sauted. Goes well with most things.

Or for the lazy option again, sliced, and layer in a dish with for the particularily lazy Tinned Beef mince and gravy - 25p, option to add carrots or whatever other veg u fancy if you cant be bothered to cook it seperately. Or be less lazy cook your own mince and gravy, etc and add that in.

 

[mrsfran]

Tinned mince

 

[newme]

55p, but not two meals worth

That is cheap though, is that their value range?

Yup thats the value range, went and tried most of it in case ive sod all cash and stocked up the oh shit ive got no money cupboard.

Depends on your portion size really as to whether that constitutes 2 meals, personally almost every suggestion so far is about half the size Id eat lol. Think those cans total around 600-700g when drained which when considered along with the other ingredients Ive now forgotten may do some people for two meals.

 

[newme]

Tinned mince

Cant disagree with you there, but when uve had pasta for 2 weeks straight it was actually surprisingly edible.

 

[fractionMan]

My pasta with bacon and toms dish. Cook up a packet of cooking bacon with an onion and some garlic. Add tins of toms, dried herbs, green pepper and a pinch of chilli if it floats your boat. Cook up 500g packet of pasta 'til al dente. Mix together and pour into lasagne type dish. Sprinkle on grated cheese and melt under the grill.

It makes enough for about 5 decent servings and if you use a packet of value cooking bacon (sorry Mr Piggy but I'm broke and it's only the bits that would have been binned) then it's under 2 quid I reckon. Flashy and I have it for tea then lunch the next day as well cos it's super tasty when cold so it's pretty good value. I substitute the bacon with Hertas sometimes, peppers for peas etc. so it's flexible too.

I eat a similar thing but with spaghetti all the time, sans green pepper. Those things ming.

You can get really posh dry cured bacon bits from my local market for pennies. Beats the supermarket shit hands down.

 

[cesare]

Yup thats the value range, went and tried most of it in case ive sod all cash and stocked up the oh shit ive got no money cupboard.

Depends on your portion size really as to whether that constitutes 2 meals, personally almost every suggestion so far is about half the size Id eat lol. Think those cans total around 600-700g when drained which when considered along with the other ingredients Ive now forgotten may do some people for two meals.

It was longdog so I was imagining he'd have a big portion so he could sneak the doggies titbits

Is that value range any good? I've always thought most of it was a bit false economy specially stuff like washing up liquid, juice etc.

 

[mrsfran]

Mussels are cheap this time of year. Mussels, rice, bit of stock, very nice.

 

[newme]

It was longdog so I was imagining he'd have a big portion so he could sneak the doggies titbits

Is that value range any good? I've always thought most of it was a bit false economy specially stuff like washing up liquid, juice etc.

Tbh Id assumed they nicked the liver while he was ranting on urban about the TV license

Ive seen no noticeable difference in the vast majority of it. Admittedly its not always the same as stuff costing 3-5 times the price, but theres no way in hell that the more expensive stuff tasted 3-5 times better.

Washing up liquid seems fairly pointless when you can get the branded stuff on offer so often, think Fairy liquid is something like 2 for 1.50 atm at Iceland so we get that, not like it runs out amazingly fast. Have to pick and choose whats worth bothering with, Im within half a mile of Iceland, Tesco and Sainsburys so I get different things from different places to avoid the crap.

Things like sliced carrots I only throw in as an extra to stick some veg into something and bulk it out, plus I hate peeling stuff, if it was a Roast or something Id avoid and get some proper ones. Kidney beans Im yet to see any real difference in at any price. Sweetcorn much the same, other than I find it way better than the frozen shite, plus it stops someone drunkenly spilling half of it all over the inside of the freezer whilst looking for something to bung in the oven and set the firealarm off cos theyve gone and got stoned and forgotten about it. etc etc.

 

[Epona]

Mussels are cheap this time of year. Mussels, rice, bit of stock, very nice.

Mussels are one of the few things I'm not fond of eating. There is not a lot that falls into that category tbh as I'll eat most things, but never been a fan of mussels.

 

[Thimble Queen]

Vegetable rice.

Put brown rice in the pan with boiling water, add a stock cube, add a few bits of chopped up veg (mushrooms, peppers and leeks is nice).

If you have them add some garlic and ginger to make it even tastier

Boil till water is gone, turn down heat, add a nob of butter and stir in. Cover with lid untill cooked

Serve with soy sauce.

 

[Mogden]

I did have a look for cheap ass bacony bits in the market when I was there earlier but no joy. I was tempted by a variety of livers my butcher had on display but I'm not sure which ones have the stronger flavour and which ones the softer.

 

[fractionMan]

carbonara is cheap and tasty too.

1 egg, some cheese, black pepper, some bacon bits, spaghetti, cream

about 60p a portion I recon.

 

[gentlegreen]

instant mash
can of sardines or other fish.
can of (cold) baked beans
tahini / mango chutney to taste.

HTH

 

[Thimble Queen]

carbonara is cheap and tasty too.

1 egg, some cheese, black pepper, some bacon bits, spaghetti, cream

about 60p a portion I recon.

^ this

but with mushroooms!

 

[fractionMan]

^ this

but with mushroooms!

that works too. yum.

 

[fractionMan]

Thai curry is fairly cheap

1/3 block coconut - 25p
big spoon thai paste (panang is my fav)- 15p
random vegetable, courgettes are good and cheap - 50p
random meat (whatever's reduced - pork, chicken, beef, ostrich, salmon whatever) - 200p
rice - 50p
dash fish sauce/soy sauce/fresh corriander optional.

serves 4 for less than a quid a portion, ready in 20 minutes.

 

[fractionMan]

Is a quid a portion considered cheap? It's not expensive imo.

 

[Paul Russell]

Tesco Value pesto is £1 or often 84 p, and is just about the only really veggie pesto easily available, as pesto usually contains Parmesan, which is not a veggie cheese.

Tesco kidney beans are about 16 p per tin, which is not bad for a source of protein.

 

[mrsfran]

I did have a look for cheap ass bacony bits in the market when I was there earlier but no joy. I was tempted by a variety of livers my butcher had on display but I'm not sure which ones have the stronger flavour and which ones the softer.

Calves liver is mild. Lamb's liver is best with trad liver and bacon. Pigs liver is strong. Chicken livers are for pate.

 

[fractionMan]

liver. I had to eat that as a kid.

bleurgh.

 

[fractionMan]

Veg gratin is also cheap. Great with bangers and veg.

Random root veg (spuds, carrots, onion, swede, sweet potato, parsnips etc. 50% spuds imo) £1.50
Cheese 50p
Whatever own brand sausages are on offer £1
Green veg (broccoi, peas, whatever) £1

Slice all the veg up thin and chuck it in the pot. Cover with cheese. Add cream and butter if you've got any. Bake for an hour.

4 quid all in. Serves 4 (if you have 2 bangers each) For an extra quid you can have posh sausages.

 

[newme]

liver. I had to eat that as a kid.

bleurgh.

Think I had it once and refused to ever again. Tho I fail to see the appeal of eating any organs. Particularily kidney, yummm piss marinade...

 

[sojourner]

carbonara is cheap and tasty too.

1 egg, some cheese, black pepper, some bacon bits, spaghetti, cream

about 60p a portion I recon.

that's what i was gonna post.

You can do it even cheaper, with a couple of mushrooms, or a bit of cheapo bacon, 1 egg, and parmesan over the top

Spinach and potato curry is dirt cheap - spuds, spinach, onion garlic - unless you don't already have a load of spices. In which case ferget it

 

[fractionMan]

unless you don't already have a load of spices. In which case ferget it

That's why I love those patak curry paste jars. 1 outlay of 1.50 and it'll make 15 portions of curry. Keep it in the fridge and it lasts forever.

 

[sojourner]

That's why I love those patak curry paste jars. 1 outlay of 1.50 and it'll make 15 portions of curry. Keep it in the fridge and it lasts forever.

Ah, but having all the spices means you can make untold amounts of curry, differing the flavours while you're at it . A little goes a lonnnng way

You can curry fucking anything really can't you? Apart from bacon or oysters I suppose

 

[strung out]

curried egg is good