Hi

I'd welcome some advice on budget recipes for my family. We don't do fried food, chickpeas or anything too spicy though. Now there's a challenge!

Try this cheeky girl, this is fab - it is Brian Turner's steak and pasta pie, but that is a silly name, it is macaroni and mince bake... I have to say it is yummy. and that you can adapt it by taking out the sunblushed toms and just adding some chopped normal ones, but also you can add some frozen peas or sweetcorn etc. HTH, I have to say it really is nice:
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I don't do fried food either, another good budget meal is a sausage and bean stew. you can use any sausages, a couple of cans of mixed beans, some tinned tomatoes, stock, onions garlic, tomato puree, and serve with some home-made bread and butter - Mmmm! Let us know how it goes!

Corned beef hash is always our family's favourite

Failing that, what about chicken passatta? Just cook off some chicken thighs and throw them into a cassarole dish with some big chuncks of onion and mushrooms, cover with a jar of passatta and some dried basil and cook it all in the oven. Serve with either jackets or mash (we have a mash thing going in our house!)

Otherwise, you could always try www.sainsburys.co.uk. In their recipes section they have a drop down menu with meals on a budget in there, some are quite good.

There are many very good Cooking on a Budget type books but the one I still use 33years after becoming a student is The Pauper's Cookbook by Jocasta Innes. A new version of this book is available in paperback. It is really good and several of our favourites come from this book.

Thanks very much for all your suggestions everyone. Very inspirational, I'll give them a go very soon. [link]
[Big Grin]

I find that a good low budget meal is a stuffed marrow

Just use sausagemeat and onion mixed together, stuff your marrow tie some string around you marrow so as not to lose the stuffing, place in a casserole dish with enough water to come half way up the marrow and cook in the oven on a low heat gas mark 2/3 or or electric 150/160 centigrade for about 3hrs
serve with runner beans and new or old potatoes, gravy can be made with the water you cook your stuffed marrow in.

I hope this isn't too late, there was a very good thread about this a long time ago now, but still worth reading. There were a lot of good ideas from people on it and some very interesting recipes to a budget. It was called Cooking on a G string!!!
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An old family favourite. Cook some spaghetti, drain most of the water away and return to saucepan. add beaten egg stir to coat the pasta and cook. serve with ketchup and grated cheese. i use 1 egg to every 4 oz pasta. quick cheap and surprisingly yummy!

Hi All,

This is my first time on this website and I desperately need low fat budget meals to feed my family of 4. They eat most things but I'd ideally like recipes that I can also cook in bulk and freeze in advance as I work full time as well.

Any help your guys can give this cash strapped, health conscious, extremely busy mum and wife will be very gratefully received.

Thanks in advance

For low fat and cash strapped I would recommend pork mince. It is really cheap and you don't get any fat coming out of the meat. With it you can make allsorts. Stews, curries, spaghetti bol, burgers, lasagne the list is endless.

For a quick curry cook the mince add a chopped onion and soften it. Then add a tin of tomatoes, half a tin of baked beans, 2 - 3 tbs of curry paste (Pataks) and its done.

For a quick veg curry a tin of tomatoes add the curry paste and then any frozen veggies that you like. Heat through.

A quick pasta sauce. Soften an onion add a tin of tomatoes season add either dried oregano or basil and its done.

Baked beans in a curry might seem weird but they add a sweetness and its a great curry for left over turkey at christmas.

I agree with the beans, I had a veg curry made for me (and a load of other partygoers about 26 years ago now, I was 22 at the time) and thought it would be vile. Cathy prepared fresh veg + opened 2-3 tins of beans & poured them in. I thought OH MY GOD, YUK. The meal went down great and it was the first vegie dinner ate by about 16 people.

BUT BUT BUT, A mixture of fresh veg can now run expensive, GET a TIN or 2 of RATTATOUE instead, this is a great substitute as loads of different vegies are in it. Chop or break it up with a fork at first so the kids don't realise what their eating if veg is off the menu. Use your favourite curry paste or your own herbs & spices to create your own special dish.

Hope U Find this inexpensive and tasty. Lorraine

Woah, curry and baked beans, what a volatile combination!

Strangely enough, I bought some pork mince the other day a AND I bought a marrow yesterday with the very thought of stuffing it. Good idea re the tieing together with string - so simple but I hadn't thought if that one, duh me. I usually stuff my marrow in half pieces and cook them open. I often use corned beef, fried off with some softened onion chopped tomato and tomato puree and a few mixed herbs, sprinkled with grated cheese. Yum! Might do that for tea tonight........... Shall also check out the G srting tip Jennifer264.

A neighbour tipped my off that our local butcher sells ham ends off really cheap too, good for soup or putting in a pasta or rice dish. Off to the cauldron to toil and trouble....

rolled lamb, starburst,found in chiller at tesco "value brand"unroll cut into strips then smaller pieces, put into cooking pot +onions, carrots (can use ur own faves,root veg) not 4gettin'diced potato put into oven on high for 20 mins turn down low then cook slo'til meat is tender,serve with mashed pots lovely winter food,u could make dumplings as well.

Hey Guys,

Starburst here again - thanks for all your ideas, they're all great but particularly like the sound of your rolled lamb recipe spangled - YUM !!!

Anyone out there that knows of any recipes that I can make a batch of and freeze in advance I would really like to hear from as I've been off sick from work and am due to go back soon so would love to make a load of meals that I can freeze - pies, etc - it would be really handy rather than fried or convenience foods which are costly and unhealthy .

Please keep the recipes coming and any books that you can recommend as well that I can get low fat, healthy, low cost dinners from for all my family would be great as well

Bye for now


Starburst

Hi Starburst, I agree on the combined low fat, low cost AND healthy recipes book request. I have searched high and low and haven't found one, so I eagerly await any info from the forum. Maybe we should write one! There's obviously a big market for it.

Hi Starburst, I agree on the combined low fat, low cost AND healthy recipes book request. I have searched high and low and haven't found one, so I eagerly await any info from the forum. Maybe we should write one! There's obviously a big market for it.

oops I'm so keen I clicked twice! Sorry!

hi this is my first time here
i find it easy to cook a batch of shearperds pie mince and freeze it cos on the morn that i want it take it out defrost it then all you have to do is make the mash put the cold mince in a dish then top with the mash the best bit is the mash wont sink in to the meat it is fast and yummy

Hiya Cheekygirl

Im keen if you are - as you say there is obviously a market out there for it - I can always pick my mum's brains a bit more as well as she is sooooo irish and can make something out of nothing and it's tasty too.

But I'm still waiting for anymore ideas guys so please keep em coming.

Thanks for your idea as well nikki-jane - hadn't thought of that but makes brilliant sense.

Talk to you all again soon.


Starburst
xxxx

Hi Starburst

The book was just throwing ideas around, I'm not sure it's a good idea in practice, although it would be a bible to someone like me for my family meals! However, I'd feel bad pinching everyone's ideas from this chat forum to put into a book, and they'd probably be a bit miffed if their recipes were pinched and then put in a book from which they did not profit... it's all a bit tricky. Plus I don't think UKTV would be too chuffed. Is there a UK TV monitor in here who checks the chat pages, if so "Hi!, what's the UKTV policy on this? I'm sure this issue has come up before"...... What do others think?

Hey Cheekygirl,

Ooops put my foot in it me thinks - apologies to anyone who I may of offended - that was not my intention, just a giggle that went wrong BIG TIME :-0 - am due back at work next week hopefully so time is of the essence.

I think I'll stick to swapping ideas with you guys quietly and see how that goes - as I have received some good ideas from you so far.

I'll check back in soon

Love


Star xxxx

Hey, no big deal, please don't feel bad Star. :-) We were only chatting. No harm done. This forum is great isn't it for solving those little foodie niggles and big recipes questions. It's certainly helped me out a lot recently. Look forward to chatting to you and swapping ideas again soon.
cheekygirl x

Hey Cheekgirl

Yep, I'm finding this place a life saver - after being off of work for 3 months with my leg being broke, I am now looking at returning to work with ALOT of trepidation as there's alot of changes going on at the mo. What with that and trying to lose weight and cook healthy meals for the family so we can all eat the same meals means I am definitely keeping my eyes wide open for more recipes.

I started my homebaking yesterday and made some meat pies with my eldest daughter (which she LOVED :-) and am going to do another load today in time for me going back to work either next week or the week after as my hubby is now changing to nite shifts at work as well so there's gonna be some juggling to do :-)

Wish me luck and we'll chat again soon.


Star
xxx