Eating on a budget

[5lab]

this isnt nessesarily for students, but im sure they'll find it usefull...

does anyone have any recipes for stuff, the total cost of which will be no more than £2 for 2 (decent sized) servings? all decks recipes sound really nice, but i guess for a lot of the forum members here they are just out of financial reach.. so..hows about some recipes for people on a budget

ps. this isnt the same as student foods nessesarily - i would say 'student food' is stuff thats cheap but also very quick and easy to make - i dont mind spending a bit of time working towards something that comes out well, i just cant afford to spend lots of money


so.. to start us off..

corned beef hash

you need...

1 tin of cheap corned beef (30p)
1 tin of cheap beans (10p)
1 oxo cube (non-essencial) (10p)
1 largish onion (20p)
5 potatoes (30p)
a splash of cooking oil

equipmentwise..

1 large pan
something to drain the spuds with (pan lid/collander)
1 spud masher (can be done manually, but easier with a masher)
1 knife (sharpish)
1 casserole dish
1 potatoe peeler (can just use the sharp knife)
1 chopping board
1 frying pan

fill the pan with water and put on a high heat to boil. peel and chop the spuds into smallish pieces, then add them to the water, turn the heat down so its simmering rather than boiling. wait 15 mins. turn the oven on to 450F. now get the onion and chop into fine pieces. put the oil in the frying pan and add the onion once hot. open the tin of corned beef and slice into thin slices (not too thin, you'll find out theres a limit to how thin corned beef can go). now line the inside of the casserole dish with the corned beef. sprinkle the oxo cube over the corned beef and empty your tin of beans into the middle (spread them around if they dont look flatish. stir the onions, see how theyre doing, and prod the potatoes. turn the onions off once they are getting brownish, and once the potatoes are softish (so you can squash a bit between your fingers without too much difficulty) they're done. drain the spuds using your chosen draining device and put them back in the pan they came from. get your mashing device and mash them till they are fluffyish, and not lumpy. you can add a little butter if you want - its not essencial. add the onions to the mash and stir up. now spread the potato over the whole of the casserole dish, making sure it covers everything (including the corned beef round the sides). put in the oven (which should now be hot enough) and cook till the top of the mash is starting to go golden (should be 30ish mins). serve immediatly, with an optional vegatable on the side (something like sweetcorn is cheap and goes quite well).

recepe will serve 2-4 people, depending on how fat you are being.

[Moby-Dick]

I'll have to find my Meatloaf recepie - its dead easy

mince
Porrige oats
onion
little milk/stock
salt + pepper
lea & perrins
chilli flakes

mix & bake

[Moby-Dick]

Indian Style Sausage Burgers.

1pk of Sausage Meat ( about 80p from tescos )
1 oninon
Various Spices/Herbs ( what ever you have in the cupboard - I use cumin , corriander paprika , chilli flakes , a little mixed herbs , salt and pepper )

chop the onion , mix it all up , then form into buger sized lumps and grill.

serve with chips

[Stewart]

A student classic: Beans on Toast.

Not a very well known dish, I know, but I shall reunite you with this long forgotten favourite. It is a bit complicated to prepare, but stick with it, and wonders beyond your wildest dreams will be yours.

You Need:

1 tin of 'beans'. (You may have to shop around for these, as they are not easy to find; try larger supermarkets or websites that specialise in rare and exotic foods)

2 slices of 'bread'. (I know a lot of people are nervous of preparing meals containing exotic items such as bread, but if really is needed for this dish. If you are really unsure, ask the staff at the store to talk you through its basic uses)

A toaster, a saucepan.

Preparation:

1) Stick the beans in the pan, and heat 'em up a bit.

2) Whilst they are heating, stick 2 slices of bread in the toaster, and turn it to the 'on' position; on most modern toasters, this setting is directly opposite the 'off' position.

3) When both are ready (beans hot, toast brown), butter the toast, put it on a plate, and put the beans on it.

Serves: As many as you like.

Costs: As close to nowt as it’s possible to get.

Anyway, that’s the beginner lesson, tomorrow, I teach you all how to cook the far more involved 'Cheese on toast'!

[planetgong]

Jacket Potato with cheese

Take one large potato(about 50p), prick it with a fork. If you have any butter or olive oil, rub it into the skin. If not, never mind.

Stick it in the oven at about gas mark 6/7 for just over an hour.

Take out of oven, serve with grated cheese, or just about anything you can find - chilli and soured cream is an amazing topping.

Very cheap, very easy.

[HarryOatcake]

Hi', Vaul,

I thought your recipe was sheer inspiration, I can see a lot of effort went into
this creation of yours.

I would be obliged if you could state what type of Beans, as you omitted to mention this, Kidney beans, broad beans, harricot beans, butter beans, or has beans, also what sort of Bread and how thick ?.

I await your responce with bated breath.

Regards.
Harry

A student classic: Beans on Toast.

Not a very well known dish, I know, but I shall reunite you with this long forgotten favourite. It is a bit complicated to prepare, but stick with it, and wonders beyond your wildest dreams will be yours.

You Need:

1 tin of 'beans'. (You may have to shop around for these, as they are not easy to find; try larger supermarkets or websites that specialise in rare and exotic foods)

2 slices of 'bread'. (I know a lot of people are nervous of preparing meals containing exotic items such as bread, but if really is needed for this dish. If you are really unsure, ask the staff at the store to talk you through its basic uses)

A toaster, a saucepan.

Preparation:

1) Stick the beans in the pan, and heat 'em up a bit.

2) Whilst they are heating, stick 2 slices of bread in the toaster, and turn it to the 'on' position; on most modern toasters, this setting is directly opposite the 'off' position.

3) When both are ready (beans hot, toast brown), butter the toast, put it on a plate, and put the beans on it.

Serves: As many as you like.

Costs: As close to nowt as it’s possible to get.

Anyway, that’s the beginner lesson, tomorrow, I teach you all how to cook the far more involved 'Cheese on toast'!

[megah0]

poormans pasta:

Pasta (duh)
couple of cloves of garlic
a small onion
Butter
handful of mushrooms sliced
splash of soy sauce

Put a pan of water on to boil, salt and chuck the pasta in.

Melt the butter in a fryingpan or large saucepan, toss in the onions, mushrooms and garlic and fry until the mushrooms are cooked through, turn the heat right down low and throw in the soy sauce. Stir it r ound a bit and then add the cooked pasta to the "sauce".

eat and enjoy.

To liven it up a wee bit i like to add sliced pepperami, dried chilli flakes and sliced jalepenos but you can put almost anything in this dish and have it taste nice.

[daniel_owen_uk]

You wanna get yourself a sandwich maker, those things are essential, chuck some cheese and ham inbetween some bread and then sandwich maker that thing until its incredibly hot inside

Garnish with your favourite lager and 20 malboro lights

[Lujan]

I'll tell you something. Add and egg to each slice of bread in Vaul's recipe and you have yourself a "Birdsnest". Let that yoke run freee!!....hmmmmm...baked bean sauce and runny egg yoke.. you'll never taste anything so beautiful again!

[Rave]

Ick! I just can't cope with egg and beans together for some reason. Seperately I love them both, together: bleurgh!

Anyway, how about Carbonara? Cook some pasta. Bung it in a colander when it's done. Then using the pan you cooked the pasta in, fry a couple of rashers of bacon (chopped up into pieces*), and when it's nearly done, add an egg or two and stir. If you like (and can afford it) you can also add cream and/or ham at this point. Then, once the egg is nearly cooked, put the pasta back in the pan and stir it all up.

It's cheap, tasty, and pretty good for you. Good for lazy people too because you only have one pan to wash up (and a colander, but they're easy;p). Serve with a salad if you want some vitamins too.

*if you want to be extra stingy, you can use bacon ends. They're often tastier than the value bacon you can buy, because usually they're made up off offcuts of good bacon.

EDIT: I have two things to add actually. The first is my all time favourite student recipe. Get 1/2-1lb of cheap minced beef (depending on how hungry you are). Don't get extra lean mince, it's poncy. Bung it in a non-stick frying pan and fry it; don't add any oil, there's plenty of fat in the mince already . As it's cooking, add a generous sprinkle of mixed herbs, a bit of salt + pepper, and Encona hot sauce to taste. While it's cooking, bung two pitta breads in the toaster, flip 'em over half way so both ends get warmed up. Serve the fried mince in the toasted pittas. If you're feeling flush add shredded lettuce and grated cheese. Watch for grease running down your chin .

Second thing to say is that if you're so poor that you can't really afford expensive food (and I am, at the moment), you should definately look into raiding bins. I'm 100% serious here- you simply would not believe what supermarkets throw away. You'll have to scout around until you find a shop without a compactor but if you find one you're in business. My local big store (starts with a T) throws out tins if they're dented, packets of pasta and rice if they get a tiny hole in them (I once got a 4KG bag of basmati rice which we're still eating), and tons of vegetables which are past their date but still perfectly fresh and edible. I even found nine cans of beer once, thrown away because the multipack was damaged. A couple of weeks ago I found two boxes of Guylian seashell truffles, still plastic wrapped and in perfect condition, 10 days past expiry. I've been scoffing them since, and they are delicious!

If you can swallow your pride (believe me, tasting your first free meal makes it pretty easy), you can eat a lot better for free than you would if you were paying! Last night I had a quick look in the bins on my way home (the shop was still open so I didn't hang around), and there was £200+ worth of wrapped cheese in one bin! I would have had the lot if I actually had a way of storing or disposing of it. Anyone know if you can put cheese in the freezer?

Rich :¬)

[planetgong]

Don't reckon you can store cheese in the freezer, although I could be wrong. You can store milk in the freezer, so maybe(they are both dairy products, that's the connection!)

[Elmo]

why would you want to store cheese in the freezer?

you'd have to take it out hours in advance of using it, cos u couldnt put it in the micowave to defrost cos it'd melt. It may be a dairy product like milk, but it's hardly the same. Just buy it as you need it.

[Rave]

why would you want to store cheese in the freezer?

Read my post.

Rich :¬)

[sdp]

Dunno if this has been posted before but beanizza:

1 x tin of baked beans,
1x lump of cheese from the back of the fridge
1x 1/3 of that stale onion with all the frizzled up bits removed

Grate the cheese, chop the onion dump it in a pan with beans and add chopped bacon, mushrooms, whatever's in the fridge. If you have an egg spare crack it over the beans and stir it in the saucepan with the beanizza, it'll go all pink and gooey but it's tasty, specially with a bit of pepper.

[HarryOatcake]

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh, Yuk. Pass me the Sick Bag. Lol

Dunno if this has been posted before but beanizza:

1 x tin of baked beans,
1x lump of cheese from the back of the fridge
1x 1/3 of that stale onion with all the frizzled up bits removed

Grate the cheese, chop the onion dump it in a pan with beans and add chopped bacon, mushrooms, whatever's in the fridge. If you have an egg spare crack it over the beans and stir it in the saucepan with the beanizza, it'll go all pink and gooey but it's tasty, specially with a bit of pepper.

[Zak33]

cheddar freezes ok...

I often make a weeks worth of cheddar/ham sandwichs....freeze the lot....in batches....and take em out everymorning for work...

defrosted by 11......job done