Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

Any ideas. Ive one lad with an enormous appetite here. Now normally he is at school for his dinners (he gets free school meals) and i dont eat a dinner. With the school holidays amongst us its costing me a fortune in food.
Any ideas for cheap , filling and cheerfull dinners !

Getting fedup with soup and beans on toast.

To set this challenge even better how about say a limit to 50p per dinner.

Chrissie

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

Soup!

I love it. You can make a big pan for next to nothing, and it doesn't need to be cold outside to enjoy it.

He'll be getting his vegetables too, and if he is a big eater a nice wedge of bread to dip in should fill him.

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

Just had Golden Veg soup today Garinda and added corn on the cob to it, lol.

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

Veggie curry with rice; Bubble & Squeak: Hotpot (using bacon bits)

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

How about a large baked potato......cook it in the microwave for 3-4 minutes then finish it off in the oven......cut the potato in half...scoop out the flesh and mash it with a couple of slices of corned beef and a sliced spring onion.......put the mashed spud back in its jacket.....sprinkle a bit of tasty cheese on top and bung it back in the oven for 5 minutes.......tasty nourishing lunch......cheap too... specially if you do more than one at a time.......you could also add tuna and sweetcorn as an alternative to corned beef.

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

Sounds good !
p.s. we are not vegetarians so meat dishes are welcome too ! :^O

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

Yum, yum.

One of the tastiest things ever!!!

You can even prepare these earlier, and just slam them in the oven to brown.

I've served these to people at supper parties who had never even heard of corned beef and converted them.

Home made soup is much cheaper and better for you than tinned stuff. You can get hand held blenders from Argos from £8 if sonny Jim doesn't like lumps.:)

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

Pasta is also cheap and filling.......home and Bargain have some very good cheap sauces that would do for more than one meal......and you could always bulk them up with whatever veggies you have to hand......sweetcorn,peppers and a sliced spicy sausage.

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Tuna and sweetcorn pasta! :p

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Wouldn't it be good if a few mums could band together and organise a lunch club for the kids while they are off school....? I suppose there would be some health and safety reason why it wouldn't happen.

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

Spanish Omlette (2 eggs, one medium spud) - should be less than 50p.

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

A long time ago I posted a recipe for winter warmer soup, but it would be just as good in summer.....if you put Winter warmer in the search option it should bring up the recipe.
it is cheap and filling and it freezes well.

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

omlette sounds good. Trouble is my son believes that a non-stick frying pan and a metal spoon work well together !

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

Oh he needs educating in the kitchen then....!

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

try doing omlette in a wok you can use metal spoons with a wok (not a non-stick wok) I have 2 of them and make a big bol sauce at least once a week and that makes 4 large servings. Or scrambled eggs in micro-wave only take about 2min per egg used to cook, low fat content cooking that way. might put recipes on a thread later.

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

try sending him round to relatives for dinner, its cheap and certainly cheerful,cos you dont have to make it lol

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

When I was at college we used to make a sort of lasagne.

layers of baked beans, cottage cheese and lasagne sheets (cooked in boiling water first), topped off with some grated cheese. Just bake it until ready. My friend was a vegetarian but I'm sure it would work just as well with other ingredients added. It was really quick and easy to make.

Other thing I used to eat a lot of was peanut butter on toast but I'm guessing you're asking us for more nutricious options than that.

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

Ham & mushroom omelette. Ham & mushroom pasta. Cook pasta put in an ovenproof dish, Then an ounce of marg melted in a pan throw mushrooms in cook for 2 mins add 1 ounce flour stir for a minute pour in half pint milk bring to boil stirring all the time, turn heat off & grate cheese into it when melted pour over pasta add 3 or 4 slices of wafer thin ham mix it together grate cheese on top bung in oven till it's brown on top & voila a delicious filling meal. Alternatively Boil pasta drain add 3 or 4 slices of wafer thin ham & as much or little tomato ketchup as you like & serve quick simple and most of all filling.

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

Corned beef hash

Risotto with any bits of left over chicken/beef etc

Fried Rice (again , throw in any old bits of meat and a few onions, cabbage/broccoli, carrot), stick an egg in to bind it all.

Spag bol(1 lb of mince is well under a pound and will make 3/4 portions easily which freeze for when needed)

Home made mince an onion pies, cheese pies

Potato rosti with a bit of curry powder and some peppers/carrot etc

Sausage & mash( Cheesy, garlic, curry etc to taste)!

Spud pie(Old fashioned with a crust)

Home made pizza(french bread if youu can't be bothered to make the bases)

Quiche

Pancakes with a filling(mince and onion, cheese, chicken in sauce, beans, chilli)


Basically make a big pan of chilli, a pan of mince & onion, chicken in white sauce and a curry) Freeze these in portion sizes and get them out as required, Some of the ideas above pies, pancakes, Yorkshire pud filled whatever,

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Pancakes lol

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Turkey Twizlers & chips!:D

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I tend to make leftover stew. Whatever meat you have left over from a meal (corned beef is great for this too) and leftover veg. Boil some chopped up potatos in a pan with an oxo cube, add the leftovers, serve with bread to dip in the gravy and add some HP Sauce to the gravy to spice it up a bit. Whatever is left of the stew gets a crust added to it the day after, and miraculously becomes spud pie...:D

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Excellent contribution Tealeaf. Now I know you eat that stuff it explains a lot more about you! lol

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

Colcannon.

GET SOME GREENS IN HIM PROBABLY WITHOUT HIM KNOWING.

Cook some shredded cabbage
Dice some potatoes and slice some leeks. Simmer in boiling milk until cooked mash and add cabbage and a little grated nutmeg (OPTIONAL)
put in a serving dish make a hollow in the top and melt butter in the hollow or break an egg in the hollow and place in oven till egg done. Again Optional

FILLING CHEAP AND HEALTHY FOR KIDS.

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

fry 1lb mince with an onion, till brown, then add tin baked beans, & a tin of oxtail soup, simmer & serve with loads bread & butter that will fill him up.

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

corn beef hash

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

But what sort of corn beef hash - my recipe is really simple, just uses mash potato, fried onions and chunks of corn beef all mixed together. My husband has a really complicated recipe that involves far more cooking in a sort of gravy and the end result is more what you'd call a corn beef mush.

Sure both would come in under budget though.

Re: Cheap And Cheerfull Dinners !
 

Onion curry...........................

Boil some onions in a pan til soft. Add a teaspoon of tumeric, Chilli powder to(as much as you can take).
Let that simmer for ten minutes. Then add gravy granuals, add a good helping of tomato sauce.
Boil some halved then quartered spuds. Then pop them in the deep fryer til light brown.
Place the spuds in a bowl, and pour over the curry.

This may sound awful BUT!!! believe me the amount of people that keep coming to my house asking me o make it. And it is a really good supper on a cold winter night.

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Old fashioned Lancashire potato pie. When I was a student, I fed loads of people off a quarter of corned beef! - you can buy a can of corned beef for less than 50p, boil up some potatoes, mash them, stir in the corned beef so that it breaks up, a few fried onions if you like them, bung a shortcrust lid on it and bake until the pastry is golden. Serve with HP sauce, or Worcester sauce if you're posh. It's delicious, filling, and one of the best things about it - you can make it last over two days and it's even better warmed up.

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You cant beat casserole or home made soup, it doesn't cost a lot and you can make loads and freeze it.