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chicken breast cubed, 1/2 onion chopped, any veg in basket all thrown into wok, pan,stir fried, then add a sachet of fajita mix from most supermarkets, mex section and stir fry for a few mins till chicken cooked through! i serve this with a crispy salad and tortilla, sour cream if u wish. let the kids all make up their own filling frm whats on the table!! thats what mine do, cheap ,easy ,quick!!! kim.

Bacon stock used in rissotto making gives it a lot of flavour and rissottos can cost pennies if you don't added expensive ingredients.

I'm making notes of a lot of these ideas, thanks everyone. We are always on a budget especially after christmas. One of the things i do is, boiling a smoked bacon joint with a whole onion, a carrot cut in half a few black pepper corns and a stick of celery if i have any and a couple of bay leaves. we have it hot with veg and parsley sauce (only if i have parsley in the garden or with an onion sauce, then a bit naughty have ham egg and chips or i make a cheese sauce and add the ham with pasta, or i mix some with left over chicken and make pies and last but not least, use the water i cooked the ham in, saute some onion, celery and carrot, sweat for a while, add the ham stock, some lentils and cook until really tender, then blitze in the food processor. Makes one bacon joint go a long way between five of us.

i have so many tins of hot dog sausages i have a good recipe 1 tin of hot dog sausages, fry some onion , little garlic,make some shortcrust pastry chop up in chunks the hot dog roll out pastry in 6 inch squares, chuck in the hot dog , onion ,garlic. couple spoonfuls of creme frache a bit of strong grated cheese fold over in a triangle crimp, brush with egg and bung in oven till cooked.

Well Done Martino I'd give you an A for that effort!!

OK I talked to my children about this problem and we did some research.

First pasta, rice, potatoes and bread are what they like as carbs.

Second, tomato "pulpa" tinned tomato cut up in little bits. frozen peas and beans.

Third, meat, sausages, bacon, chicken mince meat.

Fourth, milk and yogurt. One likes one tother likes the other.

Fidth, they are allowed to eat as much fruit as they want but no sweets unless I say so.

OK assuming you are with me so far and are happy about onions for flavourings etc. The children came up with 15 recipes they like form the above not including milk or yogurt. I came up with 30.

We came up with a nutritional diet from breakfast to dinner with everyone being happy.

So for example they like:

Risotto with tomatoes I like it with other things. Half way through I divide it. Pasta is the same.

Casseroles with chicken potatoes and onion etc.

Pastas with meat balls etc

Jointed chicken is cheaper can give you childrens favourite chicken sunday dinner. great!

All without touching junk food or making hard work!!

Has anyone tried spaghetti with baked beans? Hubby couldn't be bothered to cook one night so made some spaghetti and added baked beans, bacon and cheese. I've done the same but substituted hot dog sausages and the kids loved it!

But what do you serve when you have three boys, all enjoy their food, but have different tastes, also one elderly grandfather and a father who works shifts, a mother who seems to be constantly in the kitchen from 4.00 - 7.00 who used to love cooking but is now finding it a chore. HELP!!!!!!!!

i did this recipe two days ago and the left overs my husband took to work. beat some eggs in a bowl and season with salt and pepper, but i always add nutmeg and jamaican spice or also known old spice then stir any vegies u like but i added choped slightly fried spring onions and a can of sweetcorn and then fried some sliced hot dogs out of a jar and mix all that with the eggs and put in an ovenproof dish and bake.

Another one along the same lines I used to teach the First Years at School., is A tin of Baked Beans at the bottom of a dish, with a layer of chopped bacon on top, then cover it all with mashed potato. Put in the oven and bake till the potato is lovely and golden brown. Sometimes a layer of sliced tomato in between or bacon and onionworks. Also a bit of cheese on top helps the browning..The kids at school used to love this Really cheap and simply done, but it used to give the kids the peeling and mashing skills etc.,

Heres a quick and easy recipe for baked beans with a difference. All u need - Tin baked beans - spring onions, curry powder, (garlic/chilli powder optional) Put all ingredients apart from baked beans in a frying pan and gently cook till soft for 5 mins, then add the beans and cook for further 5 mins. You can add other ingredients/ flavours up to your taste, but my daughter has never been a lover of baked beans (unlike other normal children) but she WILL eat this. Now thats amazing. Good luck. Take care Marie

Jennifer264 your recipe 26th Jan sounds great, can`t wait to try it. It`s good to have recipes that don`t cost a fortune

I find home made soup a reasonably cheap and filling meal
1 pkt cheap frozen mixed veg
enough stock to cover {Chicken,beef or veg}
salt & pepper to taste and any other herbs you fancy
simmer until veg is soft
whizz with a hand blender
when finances are ok I add left over chicken from the Sunday dinner.
I hope this helps

Well Done KiwiChef.. Your recipe for the potato dish on todays GFL Show could be adapted for those on a lower income ,particularly with a more economical dipping sauce.. Nice to here someone listens.. More Please..

I had very little time this evening to prepare fresh fruit for a crumble for dessert .I have made this lots of times with different canned fruits.Butter a pudding dish,empty 2-3 cans of pears and apricots with just a little of the syrup add vanilla extract.Make your crumble topping with butter,sprinkle ontop of fruit add demerar sugar pop into oven gas 5 25-30.The fruit is nice and firm and the top is crunchy caramel. I served it with single cream.Simple dessert but very tasty.I have also used the same method with the fruit but covered it with a sponge topping.

well i am doing a recipe i have done for years you can vary it as well i am doing this tonight ok pack of cheap value bacon its about 80p grated cheese as much as you want and cheap pasta about 25p a packet make a cheese sauce and put a shot of worcester sauce in and a teaspoon of mustard (to taste), boil your pasta with the finely diced value bacon together (so it cooks with the pasta and all the stock from the bacon is soaked up by the pasta yum) drain pasta/bacon add the sauce stir it all up in a pan add some fresh herbs and enjoy you could add wine instead of worcester and a posh version for the chefs instead of ham add some prawns.

I make these for my little ones,good for adults to. tuna,herby rolls. 2x200grm tins of tuna chunks in oil.creamed potatoes,salt/pepper parsley. Mix together roll into a long sausage,dip into seasoned flour then eggs then into two day old breadcrumbs with crushed up cornflakes,browned all over in frying-panand finished off n moderate oven for 10 min's. This is not a copy right because the cornflakes fell in by accident when I first made them and I left it am I'm glad I did. It gives an extra crunch.

I agree with the comments about chefs using expensive food. Although we are not perhaps as stretched as some, we certainly don't have the money to go out and buy a whole sea bass or wild trout for a normal meal, or the huge pieces of prime meat they often use. And it makes me laugh when I see Tamasin or Jamie (both of whom I love watching of course) go to a specialist cheese shop and buy about 10 different types of cheese - that would cost a fortune, the cheese course would be more than the main!

I agree that we need to see more cheaper meals on GFL, I have sent many messages with this fact in mind. I agree Cauliflower Cheese is cheap, try adding different kinds of veg....PS Iam also an Arsenal fan (sorry)....Helen, Cornwall

Try a Chilli Slice.. My 20 year old daughter at uni even likes this one and she's the pickiest girl in the world..
A packet of Puff pastry cut into 1/2 and each one rolled out to fit a baking tin something like a swiss roll tin. In the middle a stiffish Chilli mix made with minced beef ,a tin of kidney beans, a small tin of tomatoes, some grated cheese (about 4 or 6 oz.) and some cooked white rice, about 2oz uncooked weight. Then enough Chilli spice to taste. not too hot works best so its tasty but not firey!! You have to judge this a bit so its spreadable and not too runny.
Put the mix in the middle cover with the lid and brush with egg or milk, or my daughter doesn't bother.. I put a bit of extra grated cheese on top as well. Bake it all in the oven till risen and brown and crispy.. about 1/2 hour.
This is well known in Manchester Uni now her friends love it so I should think your kids would.(By the way daugahter uses a tin of Chilli Beans in the sauce so you don't need the Chilli Spice)
Hope this is not too rambling..It's well meant.

I would like to help you gunner, but it sounds like you are an xxxxnal fan, and being a Chelsea fan, it would go against my better principles (esp, as I remember the last 3 times we have met in the cup !!!!)But seriously though you asked the right people - At least you are not a Man U fan :(

Cauliflower cheese is always cheap and nice. And anything to do with liver - chicken liver casserole is fab. Another thing we do is never throw any food away. When we buy a roast chicken we'll by a huge one, and use the leftovers for soup, stick, rissotto, curry etc. And of course bubble and squeek with leftover vegetables.
Instead of buying ingredients to go with a recipe, we make up recipes to go with what's in the cupboard or on offer in the shops..

what about corned beef hash all you need is corned beef potato's cheese and a selection of veg (to go by the side on the plate) the dearest ingredient is the corned beef 2 tins potato's are cheap

if you type corned beef hash in the google tool bar you get over 14000 sites with different versions of the recipe

Gunners7, This is a recipe I made up for a private school on a low budget.Line a pie plate with shortcrust pastry,lay skinned sausages or sausage meat on the bottom,top with lightly fried sliced onions and fried mushrooms(cool first) cover with pastry,brush with egg yolk and milk,slit top to allow steam to escape.Gas 5-6 35-40 mins. NO 2.....Line shallow dish with short crust pastry,fill bottom with diced cooked ham,lay sliced in half hard boiled eggs to cover ham cover with a cheese sauce .Gas no 4 untill cheese browns. Ps .....The pastry must be baked blind first.

Jennifer that sounds like something that I will definitely try.

Judging by what is being suggested by way of how to buy and what to do with it we don't need chefs on this thread. Great ideas guys.

I had some (now ex) in-laws who had a hen farm (eggs), a dad who delivered (free then) skimmed milk to pig farmers who gave him spuds. = egg and chips with brown sauce - it is now my comfort food treat - just now and then.

I'm lucky enough at the moment to be a spendthrift with regards to ingredients (well its all relative) but I still try and be careful. So shin beef in a pressure cooker or slow cooked - depends on the mood, either are wonderful!

Keep putting your recipes and savings up here.

Oh eck! have I gone on a bit? I'm normally quiet it just brought back many memories.