Being the time of year that it is, most of us are pinching pennies wherever possible right? So lets see what money we can save by what we cook in the kitchen :)
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Being the time of year that it is, most of us are pinching pennies wherever possible right? So lets see what money we can save by what we cook in the kitchen :)
Ok here are some things I tend to cook when trying to be frugal:
Meatloaf (If I can't be bothered making it my butcher does 2 for $5)
Shepherds Pie
Porcupine Balls
Stroganoff with gravy beef in the SC
Osso Bucco in the SC
Corned Beef in the SC
Chicken Schnitzels with Salad/Potato Skins/Mash
Honey Soy Chicken Wings with Chicken Rice & Steamed Greens
Bolognese
Sausage Casserole
Steak, wine & mushroom casserole
Risotto
Fettucine Carbonara
Chili Con Carne & Cornbread & Mexican Rice
Will think of some more. But I'd love some new recipes if you are willing to share :) I have a great meatball hash recipe I'll share soon ;)
I buy a single lamb backstrap (marinated) and quick fry that, and cook up a mess of brown rice, diced carrot, peas and corn. This will do 4 serves ...
Come on guys I need recipes! What are some of your Budget friendly delights ;)
Kazbah that backstrap sounds delish!
You already have it but spring vegetable risotto. I have a REALLY easy way of making it in the oven too.
bunch of shallots / green onions chopped
2 cups of aborrio rice
4 cups stock (vegetable or beef / chicken)
tbs oil
chopped seasonal vegetables (I used asparagus and zucchini tonight) not too small or they overcook
Place shallots into an oven proof dish on the stove with the oil and cook until soft. Add aborrio rice and stir until coated with the oil and slightly translucent. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Cover and place in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. Stir and add the vegetables (parmesan too if desired). Return to the oven for 10 minutes. Remove, stir and serve.
Thanks so much Michelle71- sounds a lot easier than having it on the stovetop and adding water and stirring for 20 minutes - how does the risotto come out? - the texture ok?
OK here's one for you that’s as cheap as chips
Your favourite pasta
Sun dried tomatoes
Olives
Fetta cheese.
Olive oil
Cook and drain the pasta
Throw in all other ingredients in
add a splash of olive oil
You can also cook and add some bacon bits (chopped bacon)
Alan, I do something similar - no fetta but a can of tuna.
Really cheap, yummy eat is cook some pasta, drain it. while hot stir in a tin of flavoured tuna and some grated cheese.
Kazbah
I do that one as well. Try adding a little chilli
Tuna pie
2 cups grated tasty cheese
425g tin tuna
1/4 cup chopped onions
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1tbl lemon juice
1 cup crushed savoury biscuits (I use jatz or sometimes rice crackers)
chopped parsley.
Mix all ingredients together well and bake in a pie dish for about 45 minutes at 180C.
We don't like tuna so i make this recipe (which is one of my mum's) with tinned salmon.
Last night I made a very scrummy risotto using silverbeet & leftover spinach.
Diced 1 onion, sauted
Added 1 cup rice (aborio & long-grain mix) and coated 1 min
Added 1 cup simmering stock, stirred until absorbed.
Added 1 cup white wine, stirred until absorbed.
Added 1 cup sliced silverbeet, stirred to wilt
Added 1/2 cup simmering stock, stirred until absorbed. Alternated silverbeet/stock until all stock used (1L stock in total, about a bunch of silverbeet. I ran out of silverbeet and couldn't be bothered going down to the garden to pick more, so finished up some spinach I had in the fridge).
When all stock/silverbeet/rice cooked/tender, added about a cup and a half of peas. Removed pan from heat.
Stirred in a sprinkling of nutmeg & cracked pepper, a cup of cheese (tasty as I ran out of parmesan) and served.
Very yummy!
The oven risotto is lovely - not as creamy in texture as the stovetop variety but still really lovely.:
I actually find a ropast can be quite exconomical... Roast Chook in slow cooker or oven then spuds, pumpkin etc!
The Aldi marinated chooks are good & with roast veggies last us atleast 2 nights & then i still have chicken for rolls for lunch or dinner the next night with salad or something (3 nights in a row is Ok when being frugal IMHO ;-) )
It's like maybe $12 for chook & veggies & for 3 nigfhts family of 4 (Zy isnt eating yet) it's bloody cheap!!!!
The cheapest recipe i know how to make is this, and my kids love it:
1 tin of woolworths brand chopped tomato, onion, garlic and basil (costs like $1)
Pasta ($1-2 a bag)
tasty cheese, grated
cook the pasta, drain and stick back into the pot, add the tin of tomatoes and grated cheese (enough so its nice and cheesy) mix it up and serve.
if you want a little extra body in it you could try sticking in maybe some chicken bits or something
I found this recipe on another website made it with my own alterations and its now a part of my fortnightly rotation of meals:
Here is the original recipe:
Recipe for Hearty Beef Noodle Casserole:
1 cup noodles
1 onion
1/2 green pepper
1 stalk celery
1 tablespoon butter
250g minced steak
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 chiken stock cube
1 cup water
2 tablespoon tomato paste
salt, pepper
150g cheddar cheese
Put noodles on to cook, peel and chop onion, and gently fry vegetables until tender, about 3 minutes. Add minced steak and curry powder and fry until meat is browned. Dissolve chicken cube in water and add to pan with tomato paste. Add cooked drained noodles and season with salt and pepper. Stir to combine.Turn into greased casserole and top with grated cheese. Bake in moderate oven for 30 minutes.
and here's what i did differently (i like my version much better)
1 1/2 cups elbow pasta
1 onion, chopped finely
2 stalks celery, chopped finely
1 small carrot, chopped finely
250g beef mince
2 chicken stock cubes
1 cup water
2 tablespoons tomato paste
salt, pepper
grated cheese
Prepare in the same way as above
My favorites are definitely herb intensive!
I love Italian basil in cold pasta dishes with olives, tuna and semi sun dried tomatoes.
I have just pulled a whole lot of fresh broad beans out of the garden, any ideas?
Tuna vege pasta:
I small tin flavoured tuna (garlic is good, so is chilli)
pasta
cut up veges, anything that is in the fridge (can even use broccoli stems)
tin chopped tomatoes
Boil water and put in pasta. Steam veges over the top of the pasta (they take the same time). Drain pasta, put back in pot with tomatoes, tuna, and veges. Mix well, serve with cheese and enjoy!!!
Here are my vego budget options
- tomato chilll pasta
- chickpea patties (had these last night and they were soooooo good!)
- vege fried rice made with brown rice
- sweet potato and chickpea curry
Ruth, any chance of your chickpea patties recipe please?
No worries Kazbah - here goes:
Dump into a food processor:
2 cans of chickpeas, drained
1/2 chopped onion (I used red onion)
2 cloves of crushed garlic
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 diced red capsicum
A large handful of baby spinach or grated carrot or zuchinni or other vege as you see fit
Seasonings: I used 1 teaspoon of morrocan seasoning and large shakes of smoked paprika, cumin and tumeric. What ever takes your fancy.
Whiz up till you get a mixture that is somewhere between chunky and smooth.
Using wet hands shape into patties (I got 11 patties) and leave in fridge/freezer for 10 minutes to firm up. (At this point I froze all the ones I wasn't going to eat that night, so that I can defrost and BBQ at a later date without dirtying the food processor again).
Cook either in a fry pan or on a BBQ (spray oil on pan or BBQ first) for about 4 minutes each side, flipping only once and being gentle so you don't break them.
I served with parsely, mint, lemon yoghurt and pita bread. Yum-o!
Cheap and healthy! Let me know if my recipe isn't clear.
oooo that sounds delish! I might have to make that for friends :D
This is another one of my recent budget recipes: morrocan lentil, vegetable and chickpea soup, served with crisped up pitabreads and a little crumbled feta. Mmm yum.
A favourite for us that we had the other night is garlic chicken & fried rice - cheap, quick & yummy!
Chop chicken (I usually use breast but you can use thigh which is cheaper) into chunks & cook it in the frypan with some butter & crushed garlic, the more the better ;)
While that's cooking I boil some rice in a pot. Throw an egg or two into the wok & basically scramble it without the milk, add in some frozen peas, corn & carrot. When they start to heat up put your cooked rice in. Mix everything together & when it's nice & hot splash in some soy sauce, to taste. (This is also yummy cold as a salad.)
Then when everything is nearly done I splash some cream in with the chicken to make a bit of a sauce.
ooh that sounds yummy Sarah!
Ooohhhhh, Sarah, that sounds YUMMO!!!!!:) Please explain why I don't have a chook available right now????
Def keeping your in mind for when Bubs arrives.
Thought I should post this as is one of my all time fav's/
My MIL made it years ago on my first trip to NZ and I left with the recipe and make it at least once a month now - it is sooo easy, and relaly cheap too!
Great with toast and a DVDin winter ;)
MICROWAVE CORN CHOWDER
2 Tbsp BUTTEER
1 lge ONION chopped
2 sticks CELERY chopped
2 CARROTS grated
4-5 rashers BACON sliced
2 tbsp FLOUR
1 can CREAMED CORN
3 cus BOILING WATER
s/p and mixedherbs to taste
1. COmbine all ingredients - except corn, flour and water - in microwave safe bowl and cook for 8 mins,stir at 4 mins.
2. Add corn, flour, water, adjust seasoning and cook further 8 mins, stirring at 4 mins.
3.Serve immediately with crusty bread!! :)
We do a yummy tuna and sweet potato cake (fishcake patties) Easy, cheap and kid friendly served with beans or any other vege...
I'm trying a turkeyloaf tonight, woollies has turkey mince on special for $3.99 500gms so I'm going to try it and I'll let you all know :) It will cost me $7.00 to make a dinner for 4 including the mash potatos and steamed carrots to go with the meatloaf.
ALSO.... going to try some lentil patties this week, sound heaps like Ruth's chick pea patties
In Safeway and Coles you can get little skinless sausages called cevape. They're from my background (Serbian) and they are scrumptious. You just grill them or you can put them in the oven, BBQ whatever really (except for boiling them eeew! he!) I usually slice up an onion and some cabbage and fry it up on the stove with some seasoning and with some fresh long rolls, whala ! Dinner for under $10 bucks !
I forgot to say that the turkey loaf went off!!! We eat turkey burgers regularly now. But at our new house, our coles doesn't have turkey mince, so I'll have to find some.
:bump: I need some more ideas!
:bump:
i am obsessed with the masterfoods and continentals dry packet mixes
very shopping trip i buy 4 or 5 500g beef mince, sooo cheap at the moment
then i get the following packet mixes
meatloaf
shepards pie
cottage pie (yes there is a difference lol)
rissoles
mexicano nachos
they are about $1-2 each and u can sometimes grab them on special eg 3 for $3
they make dinner soooo quick and easy and i always add extra vegies eg mushrooms in the meatloaf and mushrooms and tomatoes in the nachos mix
also they do mixes for tuna eg tuna mornay, tuna potato pie
they do chicken mixes but chickens too expensive for us at the moment
We do a "No Cook" Tuna pasta sauce-
You have to cook the pasta, but the sauce just needs warming...
- tin of tomatoes
-tin of tuna in oil
- capers
-kalamata olives
- a little garlic
Stir all the ingredients together with a little seasoning, and toss through pasta, warm if you need to... EAT!
I get emails from a site called All recipes Australia New Zealand which has a lot of ideas for meals and the one I just got has ideas for cheap meals.
Christy, ask your local Coles if they can get Turkey mince in.
I am making one of the recipes tonight that was in the Coles catalogue a few weeks back called Chicken Potato Pie.
A cheap fav in my house is sausage casserole
6-8 sausages
1 onion chopped
1 carrot grated
1/2 zucchini grated
400g pasta (spirals or penne)
800g tinned tomato soup
grated cheese for the top
Fry sausages and onions, then chop sausages into small pieces. place in baking dish, add carrot, zucchini, cooked pasta. Stir thru soup and top with cheese. Bake for about 25 minutes at 180 or until golden.
This normally feeds me, DF and a 13yr old for 2 nights and 1 lunch
I've been following some frugal blogs lately so I have heaps of recipes to try out. Will post soon.
Made this for dinner tonight. It's lovely. DD wolfed it down. I used less stock (half) so it was thicker and added avocado to the top instead of yoghurt (cos I didn't have any :dunno:). We had rolls with it.
Roasted tomato and lentil soup
Ingredients (serves 6)
1.5kg roma tomatoes, halved lengthways
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 brown onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons tomato paste
6 cups Massel Liquid Chicken Stock
1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
400ml can brown lentils, drained, rinsed
2 tablespoons basil leaves, finely chopped
1/2 cup Greek-style yoghurt
Method
Preheat oven to 220°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Arrange tomatoes, cut side up, on trays. Drizzle with vinegar and 2 tablespoons oil. Season with salt and pepper. Roast tomatoes for 10 minutes. Swap trays over in oven and roast for a further 10 to 15 minutes or until tender. Transfer to a food processor. Process until smooth.
Heat remaining oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook, stirring often, for 2 to 3 minutes or until onion is soft. Add tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Add stock, sugar and roast tomato mixture. Cover and bring to the boil.
Reduce heat to medium. Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Stir in lentils and simmer for 5 minutes or until heated through. Season with salt and pepper.
Combine basil and yoghurt in a bowl. Ladle soup into warmed bowls. Top with a dollop of basil yoghurt. Serve.
love it
Okay....I made this last night and have been making it for years. It is CHEAP and EASY!
Continental Curry Chciken Pasta - family size
Big can of Tuna in Springwater
Optional - cooked frozen mixed veg
Cook pasta as per packet instructions and at the end add the drained can of tuna and mix through. i leave it on low as I mix it through to heat the tuna through.
Optional - also add the vegies.
Another option - i sometimes put it in a oven proof dish with bread crumbs and grated cheese sprinkled over the top and brown the top!
It truely is my lazy night dinner when it is just the pasta and tuna! :redface::lol:
Enjoy!
xxxx