Your cheapest meals

[Arimeh]

Ok hit me with some of your cheapest (and tastiest) meals!! Gotta start saving money seriously now (she says after purchasing a JJB...)

Ones for under $10 for the family would be awesome

[Trillian]

Do you think your kids would eat soup? I make vegetable soup all the time through winter with seasonal vegetables, stock and legumes and it easy does us for 3 meals and it would definitely cost less than $10. Having vegetarian meals 2 times a week can save money too.

[Kazmar]

Lasagna! Chicken mince, bacon, olives, cheese!!!!

[Arimeh]

Trill - no go to the soup I'm afraid. I have made my mum's delicious chicken and vegie soup (mmmmmm) and have heaps of it in the freezer cos the kids just won't eat it. They hardly eat anything, so soup is definitely not one of the things they want to eat.

Kass - anything without the olives?

[Kazmar]

Trill - no go to the soup I'm afraid. I have made my mum's delicious chicken and vegie soup (mmmmmm) and have heaps of it in the freezer cos the kids just won't eat it. They hardly eat anything, so soup is definitely not one of the things they want to eat.

Kass - anything without the olives?

Well leave them out then!

[feeb]

Sausage casserole (sausages, onion, vegies of choice, tin of crushed toamtoes, flavour sachet, garli chuck in slow cooker cheap!)
Beef casserole (can add what ever u want)
Curry's (curry paste, or curry powder, or flavour sachet, meat and vegies of choice)
Pasta bake
Rissotto

[Trillian]

Bugger about them not eating soup. Maybe pasta dishes would be good for them? You can hide loads of veges in them too.

[~me~]

An omelette with whatever you have in the fridge on it..I like just plain cheese.

I just made a Lentil pie with chopped tinned tomatoes, tinned lentils, celery, onion, grated carrott and some flavouring like worster sauce or stock powder. I used short crust pastry as that is what I had in the freezer, you could easily make it a Lentil Shepherds pie by topping it with mashed potato and bake it for 40mins-1hr so.

Spag Bol...mince, onioin, garlic, tinned tomatoes or tomato soup (kids may prefer the flavour of the soup), grated carrot.

Tuna casserole, layer of large tinned tuna, layer of fresh sliced tomato, layer of sliced onion (could leave out if you like), top it with a very generous layer of mashed potato then grate cheese on that. In oven for 30mins or so.

An easy meal is just something like spaghetti or baked beans on toast..I like this when I just can't be bothered.

[Yeddi]

Nothing easier than a whole chicken for half an hour in a pressure cooker. The liquid makes chicken stock/broth, and then you can pull the cooked chicken off and put it on pitta bread pizzas, casseroles, or just whip up some gravy to go with a side of vegies. Then you can put the carcass back in the pressure cooker with more water and make more stock/broth. I normally get around 3-4 meals out of one chicken.

One of my favorites is the chicken one pot wonder (not quite one pot for me)
1 Cooked chicken
500 ml cream of chicken soup (you can make this at home by simply adding 1.5 cups of milk and 2/3 cup flour, some minced garlic and an onion to the broth if you do use the pressure cooker)
1/2 jar mayonnaise
vegies (broccoli, carrot, potatoes etc)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix cream of chicken soup and mayo in pot. Add the meat pulled from the chicken, veg, salt and pepper. Cook on medium for approx 30 mins on stove top or 4 hours in slow cooker on high.

[maz]

I make a cheats sheppards pie

1kg mince - $6-7
500gram bag of coles brand frozen peas/corn vegies - $2
1 packet of coles brand shepards pie mix $1.60
1kg potatoes. $1 - $2

Pop mince in pot and brown - put in frozen vegies and shepards pie mix allow to simmer and put on low.
In this time cook your potoatoes and mash to bugegry :P

get your bowls out....put mince mix as required in the bowl and top with mash potatoe.

You can put a little grated cheese on top as hair and use sauce to put a smiley face on aswell.

It feed's 5 of us (Wilhelm wil jsut have normal vegies and whole potatoe with an egg instead)

[~Kim~]

Cauliflower fried rice
sausage casserole
schnitzels taties and vegies
vege casseroles/curries in the SC
risotto
spag bol
heck anything mincey

[Just Me]

Easy pasta salad - we eat it more for lunch than dinner but my kids love it.

1 tin of 4 bean mix, a packet of vegeroni pasta, green beans, lemon juice.

Cook the pasta until almost done, add green beans (you can also add brocolli, asparagus, anything really) and cook until bright green. Drain the 4 bean mix and the pasta and beans, toss it all together with a squeeze of lemon juice. I have also added extras like avacado or if I don't have a 4 bean mix, kidney beans on their own or chickpeas. My kids really like it and will eat the green beans and the pasta. They have a go at the 4 bean mix but just don't eat it if they don't want to. It is a good way to put food in front of them that I want them to get used to but easy enough for them to pick out if they really don't want to eat it.

[Bathsheba]

Turkey is really good value... there's more of it around of late... shanks/mince. I tend to eat whatever is on special when times are lean. At the moment I go to my local FoodWorks supermarket where I know they HEAVILY reduce things at the end of every day ready about the time I do the afternoon school run. I can sometimes get quite gourmet foods for quite cheap if the timing is right. I have expensive tastes but am just flexible. At the moment we have stopped doing the big weekly shop and I'm just gathering a few things on special each day... to compliment the things that need using up in the fridge or pantry.

Biggest money saving tip: don't be frightened to thoroughly 'eat out' your pantry and fridge. ATM we only have about 8 things in our fridge. Milk, some condiments in the fridge door, eggs, butter and a cauliflower. Some people freak out when things actually look bare... but I love it... it's easier to make sure nothing is going to waste.

[Ginger]

home made pizzas on lebanese bread are cheap
also pasta bakes/ vegetarian pastas

[*Ali*]

Apricot chicken using drums
French onion chicken- drums, onion and french onion soup mix in a baking dish in the oven, when chicken is done remove and add some water and cornflour on the stove top with juices/ onion to make a gravy.
ATM I have a HUGE spag bol on the stove, will use the mince tonight with Taco shells and lettuce, carrots etc to make Tacos, and tomorrow night (work day for DH and I) I will use it for pasta. You can also use mince on toast with cheese, on baked potatos etc
Egg & Bacon pie- puff pastry 4-5 eggs, a couple of rashers of bacon, bit of onion and cheese, easy peasy
Wraps- Tortilla's bit of sour cream/ hommus salad veggies and either chicken or steak
Mince & Mash- Taste website has a good mince recipe, can also use the meat to make pies
Tomato & Bacon pasta with garlic bread
Fried Rice
Casseroles- using up old veggies, whatever you have in fridge/ cupboard
Sausages- crumbed, casserole, curry, toad in hole, pasta
I dont personally eat cooked tuna, but if you can get the kids to eat it- tuna bake, tuna mornay, tuna patties etc
Silverside

[maz]

Tania put me onto a great vegan/vegetarian site with the best recipes..will pass the link on for you hon...Its got one for the yummiest chick pea curry EVER!!!!

[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.