Recipes - Simple & Cheap

[{sarah}]

We love it too Colleen. I've made it with chicken added in too which was great.

[*mitch*]

Hmmm. might have to try this tonight!!!!!...

But... how do you get a DH to eat it that dislikes rice & pasta (Grrrr he is a pain at times..) 8-[

[Mumma2three]

Im making this tonight. homemade pizza. Cheap and easy.
Just get a lebanese bread (DH and I have one to one and a half each) and spread with tomato sauce (better than paste) and add on top what you want. I like tomato, basil, red onion, mushroom, zuchinni, pineapple and cheese. DH has ham as well. Really delish. Just pop in the oven until cheese melted and bread crisp (prob 15-20 mins) xo

[Fee]

Tortilla Pie

Serves 4-6

1 tablespoon of oil
500g beef mince
50g packet burrito seasoning mix
1/4 cup water
420g can corn kernels, drained
1 red capsicum, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup chopped coriander
250g packet burrito tortillas
375g jar tomato salsa
2 cups grated tasty cheese
1 tomato, finely diced
1 green onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup sour cream

1. Heat oil in pan. Add mince, brown well over high heat, breaking up with spoon as it cooks.

2. Stir in seasoning mix and water. Simmer for 10 minutes or until cooked through. Add corn, capsicum and coriander.

3. Place a tortilla in a 23cm pie dish. Spread with 2 tablespoons of salsa. Top with 1/2 cup mince mixture and sprinkle with a little cheese. Repeat with remaining ingredients, finishing by sprinkling remaining cheese over tortilla.

4. Bake in a moderate oven (180 degrees C) for 15 minutes or until cheese is golden. Rest for 3 minutes before cutting into wedges.

5. Spoon combined tomato and onion onto tortilla. Top with sour cream to serve.

Cost per serve $3.10.

[{sarah}]

Oooh that sounds good Fee!

[becky23]

Ok I am so addicted to these, I am having a craving for it right now so I thought Id share the recipie.

Obviously amounts all depend on how many you wanna make so you can figure that bit out

Teriyaki Chicken or Beef Skewers

Diced beef or chickent
Capsicum (I prefer the red or yellow ones more flavour)
Onion
Tekiyaki Marinade (The water liquid type not the thick stuff you can buy it from Coles or wherever the one I used has an orange label)
Skewers

Marinate meat in teriyaki liquid for 1-2 hourse (depending on how much time you have you could leave it longer say pop the meat in a bowl cover with the marinade leave in fridge all day while at work or whatever)

Then thread on meat square of capsicum meat piece of onion simple and even the kids could have fun doing this.

I cook them under the grill usually but Dh loves them on the bbq just cook till they start to go brown and eat with rice salad or whatever oh so yum and oh so simple.

[Beckibee]

Pulled out some chicken breasts last night and didn't feel particularly impressed with my usual options. Found a recipe on the internet for baked chicken and thought I'd let you all know that it was SCRUMPIOUS!

Rub chicken breasts with a little olive oil, season with salt & pepper and put some garlic granules or minced garlic over the chicken breasts. Place in baking tray. Pour about 90mls of worsteshire sauce over the chicken and cover the lot with alfoil.

Bake in oven for about 45mins at 175 degrees. At the same time, I boiled some potato, pumpkin & sweet potato. With 15 minutes to go, I put the vegies on a tray and into the oven with the chicken.

When the time is up, remove the alfoil and check to see how chicken is cooked. As they suggest skin-on chicken breasts; I gave them another 15 minutes in the oven with the foil off and the skin browned well.

Nothing exciting but relatively cheap and I served the chicken breasts with the roast vegies and steamed broccoli. The chicken had a beautiful moist texture.

As an added note, I was fairly free-lance with the amount of sauce I added to the baking dish. Plus, rather than using a large baking tray, I used individual little baking dishes just bigger than the breasts. The sauce seemed to coat it more on the bottom and it meant the chicken almost steamed rather than roasted.

[BellyBelly]

This is a VERY simple and cheap meal I do when I am really busy, which seems to please everyone, especially me when I am in a rush! All I do is combine 1 x can minestrone soup (usually country ladel as it's very chunky - anything with chunky vegies to keep it healthy or add extras of your own!), a can of tomato soup and I cook up 4 sausages, chop them up and whack them in. You can add extra water if you like to get the consistency you want but I like it thicker with the little ones.

Especially when you leave this overnight it tastes yummo and it keeps the men of the house happy with the meat, and mum with vegies. To thicken it up for Elijah I put in lots of small pieces of country grain bread and he LOVES it and healthy too! So a very quick, cheap and yummy meal, I always love it the next day for flavour but still tastes fine after you make it. Kids love it.

[Danni]

ok i have heaps of easy recipes - i make them up myself

one of mine and hubbys favourite

i dont have exact measurements but there is no such thing as too many vegies or not enough

mince (either 500gm or 1 kilo)
carrots
broccoli
beans
mushrooms
cauliflower
onions
garlic
big bottle of pasta sauce
salt
pepper
chilli flakes (optional)
parsley(optional)
basil (optional)

ok so brown your onion and garlic then throw in the mince and brown it all together. then throw in the harder vegies like cauliflower and carrots, then you can throw in the rest of the vegies.

Add flavourings and condiments, then pour in the pasta sauce.
let it simmer for a little bit to make sure all the vegies have soften and then add cooked rice to it or sometimes we add 2 minute noodles (cheap) or hokien noodles.

it is much nice than it sounds, especially if you had herbs---its delicous.
hope you love it as much as we do

[Ambah]

Thankyou Beth for your Spinach & sweet potato fritatta recipe, and Kelly for your sausage and soup recipe... they both turned out great and were really yummy - and DP likes them too, which is a big thing - as he is usually so fussy!

[Beckibee]

Yummo....tried out the pasta & herb quiche earlier this week although I had to substitute the zucchini with red capsicum because there was a bit of a shortage in the local shops and I couldn't buy any zucchini. Typical...can't stand the stuff normally and never have a problem finding that vegie when I don't want it! *L*

Was quite the success, DH had leftovers the next two days afterwards! *L*

Have just baked the Sweet Potato & spinach frittata and it smells SOOOO yummy!

[Danni]

hey guys...jillian in particular- am very keen to try your pasta and herb quiche but after you boil the pasta, it says to fry the vegies until the liquid evaporates...what liquid are you talking about?]

sorry for being a try hard blondie!

[Beckibee]

The fritatta has been a huge success in our house although both DH & I felt the sweet potato was a bit odd tasting in with the spinachy part if that makes sense? I baked one again last night, this time using plain potato and sprinking bacon over the top of the potato before pouring the spinach quiche mixture over the top. SCRUMPTIOUS!

[SuzL]

Here's one of my favs

Sausage penne with tomato and basil (serves 2)

Cook 1/2 packet of pasta. Cook 4 thin sausages and slice into pieces. Fry 1 tablespoon of minced garlic and a bunch of chopped shallots until soft, add 1/2 cup of white wine and simmer until reduced by half. Add a handleful of sliced black olives, a tin of crushed tomatoes and the sausage to the fry pan and simmer for 10 minutes. Put pasta and fry pan contents into a large bowl, mix through and add shredded basil leaves. Yummo!

[Lil_Aussie]

Mince, what more can I say, it is one of the most versitile meats out, and if you grab a few kilos when they are on special (bilo regularly sells it for only $4.95 a kilo:eekit is by far one of the cheapest to stock up on.
Here are some of the things we use it for:
Shepards pie (you can just brown the meat, add a little gravy or cornflour, and then either top with mashed potato, or deb potato)
spaghetti bollognaise (if you put a little sour cream, or plain yoghurt in it, it is absolutely yummy
Meatloaf
rissoles
sweat and sour meatballs and rice (we just use a bottle of the homebrand sweet and sour)
lasagna (simple spaghetti bol base, make up a white sauce, and layer it with the sheets of lasagna, very cheap, and a sure fire winner)
home version of beef stroganoff with pasta (brown your mince, add some sliced zuchinni, corn kernals and sliced beans (frozen homebrand is ok). When the veges are soft, add a 300ml carton of sour cream and turn down to the lowest heat setting, and then cook a whole pack of spiral or shell pasta. (homebrand sell it for like 59 cents a pack) then when cooked, mix through the meat and vege cream base. this is one of my family's favourites, and it freezes so well, so you can always have a couple of nights worth in the freezer, and it is really cheap to make.
home made pasties (just make gravy mince, with some homebrand mixed veges in it, and roll it up into little parcels using homebrand puff pastry, cook in the oven until nice and puffy.
Beef Roulades I use also pork mince for this, but you just take your raw mince, maybe some crushed garlic if you like it, add a little salt, an egg and a handful of flour so it doesn't crumble when cooking, and you spread it onto a sheet of puff pastry, leaving a couple of cm's on top without the mince on it. Roll it into a log, and put in the freezer for like 20 minutes to stiffen up so you can cut it. Slice the logg into about 1-2cm thick slices, and pan fry in a little butter or oil (i have tried just using the spray oil, but if you dont have a nonstick pan, they will stick and burn) turn and cook the other side, serve with veges, really yummy.

There are others we do, but i would be here all day.
Good luck with it hun, I think we have all gone through a spot where funds are low, and we have to get imaginitive with our meals to make our budget stretch further.

[Lea13]

Oh there are some really good ideas in there.

Does any one have ideas along the same line (cheap and easy LOL) but are good to freeze/reheat? I live by myself so I like to make things that I can freeze and reheat later. I do alot of stirfrys, spaghetti, lasagne etc. Any other ideas?

[Danni]

casseroles, soups and stews are great for reheating. Do you have a slow cooker? if not, you need one! Have a wander over to our chatter and recipe thread and see what your missing out on

[christy]

LOL just about to say the same. I make massive lasagne to reheat. I also do huge amounts of bolognaise & then freeze them in serving sizes so all we have to do is make the pasta and defrost the bolognaise.

I make soups that I can freeze and casseroles. Most of the recipe's I have in the SC thread can be done and then frozen afterwards.... HTH!