Your cheapest meals

[Nelle]

Hey Mel, if the soup thing is a texture issue, could you try thickening the soup? My boys are wary of liquid meals, and so I break up small chunks of bread into their soup to soak it up a bit and make it easier to eat. Even mashed potato with soup mixed in might work...?

[mrsmac]

So my kids feel like they have had a treat sometimes we buy a loaf of fresh bread form the supermarket and hot chips and make hot chip sandwiches! Not healthy but a cheap and easy take away.

[Ryatha]

half a dozen chicken legs, 1 cup of orange juice, 1 cup of stock, 2 onions cut in 1/4's and 4 garlics, put into a caserole dish and bake in oven til chicken is cooked, then serve over rice - tasty!

[Mak]

Check out the $120 food challenge blog - awesome recipes and ideas/tips!
We have breaky for dinner a bit - so eggs, beans and toast.
Yummy pumpkin curry. Pumpkin, tinned tomatoes, red kidney beans, curry powder to your taste, spinach and serve with rice.
Also try and check out bulk suppliers of meat or areas to shop where there are heaps of competition.
We've replaced red meat with kangaroo and that is heaps cheaper generally.

[{sarah}]

Check out the $120 food challenge blog - awesome recipes and ideas/tips!

I was going to post the exact same thing! She feeds the family for $120 a week

[Arimeh]

We've replaced red meat with kangaroo and that is heaps cheaper generally.

Sorry, I could never do that... could never ever eat kangaroo. I dunno why, its just wrong to me.. LOL

[Alan]

Spag with homemade meatballs
Cottage pie
Chicken and rice
Casserole If you do it in the slow cooker you could use very cheap cuts of meat (gravy beef)
Homemade meat pies. Again use cheap cuts of meat in the slow cooker
Homemade burgers

[mrsmac]

I have found we save a lot of money just shopping at Aldi.

[Laranna]

My cheapest meal is a tuna bake

1 large tin of tuna, drained
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 stick of celery finely chopped
1 small onion finely chopped
2 cups of rice

Cook the rice first then mix in with all the other ingredients and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes at 200 degrees. Sometimes I add corn kernals and/or grated cheese. In winter I have with steamed veggies and in summer with salad.

Other cheap meals are the vegetarian ones - roast pumpkin and zucchini risotto is a good one.

[AnyDream]

Roast chicken - but done with drummies (season like a normal roast) but add the veggies in at the same time as it cooks quicker, Pumpkin & carrots are cheap this time of year, everyone loves roast veggies!!

[Rouge]

Sticky Chicken Wings:

3/4 c brown sugar
3/4 c soy sauce
2 tsp garlic
1 tsp ginger
a good sprinkle of chinese 5 spice
a good splosh of sesame oil

Marinade the wingettes (A kilo feeds us all and is about $3 - $4 kg

Cook the wings on a baking tray with baking paper at about 220c check every 15 mins but you want them really golden, takes about an hour.
Home made fried rice, diced carrot, diced onion, diced corn, egg, bacon, garlic, ginger, soy, sesame oil and sometimes I sprinkled the preservative free vege chicken stock powder.

[feeb]

So my kids feel like they have had a treat sometimes we buy a loaf of fresh bread form the supermarket and hot chips and make hot chip sandwiches! Not healthy but a cheap and easy take away.

Got to love a chip butty!!!!!!! YUM YUM

[Mum2SweetCs]

Chicken wings!
Marinate 2 kilos of chicken wings with heaps of oyster sauce, a tablespoon of sugar, some finely chopped garlic, and a pinch of salt. Grill. Serve with rice!

YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cherished]

Risotto, it makes so much and it's filling plus low cal, what else could you ask for. You can make it with so many different flavours, mixed herbs and roasted garlic & pumpkin with mushrooms tossed through it or even a more asian flavour and add coconut cream, lemon grass, kaffier lime etc, I'm vego but I imagine some chicken would go nice with that one. I also make a rice bake kinda thing, few cups of cooked rice, 1 lrg onion,1 can crushed tom, 1 can chick peas or 4 bean mix, basil, parsley, lemon juice to taste and then add about 1/2 cup of tahini with water and stir or shake until it's creamy and poor into the mix. The tahini gives the mix a lovely texture once cooked. just throw it all into an oven dish and I put it in the oven on about 180 for around 45 mins, if you wanted you could also put cheese on the top.

[Rouge]

Oh and with the leftover risotto you can make arancini balls! NOMS!

I love anything with chickpeas, they really fill out a meal. I also love puree'd cannelloni beens with olive oil, salt & pepper as a side to meat.

[Rouge]

My biggest tip is DO NOT buy packet mixes. So expensive and so much crap in them. We rarely spend more than $10 per meal but I make all my spice mixes myself and sauces, marinades etc. You'd be surprised how cheaper it is!

[Arimeh]

Rouge - are you going to write your own recipe book soon? I think I'd like to buy it

Thanks for all the ideas guys, going to start writing them down!!