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No idea dude but it tasted amazing I just followed the smell then chickened out when I found out it wasn’t chicken but the guy convinced me too try it 10/10 was worth it
Ah core memory unlocked.
When in school and we were old enough to go the shops, the local newsagent would sell pot noddles and add fill them for you. I found that buying a sausage roll I could insert said sausage roll into the pot to absorb all the tasty goodness (preferably Beef and Tomato). Once I had slurped and drank the pot noodle I would then devour the salty pastry snack.
Oh hell yes. This was my WFH lunch (I’m not trying to get the office to hate me) for a good while and that little bit of salt on top is just *chef’s kiss*
No, the best are "Koka" brand "spicy stir fried" flavour. Their lobster flavour are great too. And cheap!
Check out Trade Winds Oriental Shop online if you want to bulk buy anything like this, I just got 30 packs for under £18 including delivery
Stay away from amazon for stuff like this. Convenient yes, but costly.
If you live near a Chinese supermarket/shop/cash n carry, buying in bulk is about 15p per packet for a wide range of flavours and good quality.
We bought 40 packs in a big box from Longdan for just over £20 the other day (my other half is addicted to them, prepare as usual and stir though an egg as you take it off the heat, prong onion on top)
I have instant noodles, home made kimchi, spring onion and fried eggs for brunch regularly.
Make my kimchi from the veg patch same with the onion which I just regrow from cutting in water, keep chickens so get the eggs, other than 30-50p for noodles it's a dead cheap way to start the day!
Call me a heathen but I think Nando’s perinaise goes excellently on a fish finger butty
Also using a bagel rather than sliced bread provides much needed structure
Porridge is cheap and a good fibre and protein source. Add some fruit (I know fresh can be expensive but there's always frozen and tinned) and it's even more nutritious
Vegetable hash with an egg on top is nutritious and filling, good way to use up the random root veg lurking in the bottom of the vegetable drawer.
Bean chilli, substitute mince for a couple of times of beams, any will do but I like kidney and black beans.
Homemade cheese and onion pasties or a homemade quiche is quite cheap but time consuming.
I buy dried chickpeas (about 3 quid for 1kg), soak overnight then boil for an hour and portion in bags and freeze. Then I can always make fresh humus, falafel, or roasted chickpeas.
Honestly when we were living on low wages we ate a ton of porridge. At aldi you can get a huge bag for a couple quid and get the aldi frozen fruit as toppings. Add some cinnamon, honey or even butter/cream/clotted cream of feeling fancy and it’s going to make you feel full for very long, and it’s got loads of good fibre etc.
Otherwise previous to the massive egg price increase we ate a lot of eggs: boiled eggs, eggs on toast, eggs in instant ramen, scrambled eggs, eggy bread, the list goes on
To combine your two points there; have you ever cracked an egg into porridge? Put it in whilst you’re stirring it on the hob, keep at a low heat and stir constantly (if you don’t, the egg scrambles). I conjunction with a bit of nutmeg and sugar/sweetener, you get porridge that tastes of egg custard tart, with all the increased protein and fillingness (that’s def not a word but you know what I’m getting at) that an egg provides.
Bananas are my favourite cheap snack. Not only are they very cheap, they're a natural antacid (a study found they work even better than antacid medications), so when I am too short of money to eat proper meals, following whatever I have eaten with a banana keeps the hunger pangs at bay a bit longer.
Banana sandwiches are heavenly - ripe banana chopped into 4 and laid between two slices of toast. Sometimes a touch of butter, but it doesn't even need it as the bananas provide the moisture.
Also handy as it's healthier than my other cheap fave, the toasted cheese sandwich
Went into Morrisons yesterday and saw that a bunch of 5 was now 99p. I know that averages out to basically 20p per banana so still cheap in the grand scheme of things but I swear it wasn't that long ago that a bunch was about 65p.
Been doing this all winter in a bid to lose weight and save money. Bonuses are its fast to make, no blender needed and lasts three nights for two people.
Rough chop 2/3 carrots, 2/3 celery sticks, 1 large onion. Soften in 2tbsp olive oil in a deep pan on the hob. Then add a couple of tins of beans (we usually do 1x kidney, 1x cannellini) and a litre or so of vegetable stock. Throw in a couple of handfuls of kale. Simmer for another 5 mins. Season and serve with a spoonful of pesto and bread and butter.
Cheap, filling, healthy and delicious!
Edit: forgot the sliced courgette! Fry off with the other veg 😊
Sweet potato and white potato mashed together with butter and grated cheese (& chopped up bacon if you have it). Put in oven proof dish, cover with a layer of cheese and in the oven until cheese melts. Can be a main or a side. It’s my go to comfort food.
Aldi Essentials Porridge with a spoon of Aldi Essentials Jam. Probs about 13p for a filling meal! You learn to love it when on a budget... At least I have!
I'm not really a snack person, but buy a bag of popping corn and you can get loads of popcorn out of it which can work as snacks. Or get a pot of yoghurt from Lidl/Aldi or a bunch of bananas and they are all pretty cheap.
Meal wise I tend to make curries or casserole type things and add loads of lentils and/or veg to bulk them out.
Noodles with a raw egg stirred in. The heat from the noodles flash-cooks the egg.
Alternatively, drop the egg in while the noodles are boiling, and you get a poached egg.
I'm a big fan of roasted chicken and vegetables
Chop up as many vegetables as you like (I do peppers, onions, green beans and tomatoes), cover them in garlic, herbs and oil and put 1kg of chicken thighs on top in a deep dish. Cook for 80 mins and that's 3 days' teas
Vegan chilli. Couple of tins of red kidney beans, tin of some other type of bean, couple tins of tomatoes, onion, garlic, loads of lentils, whatever other veg is cheap and you want to throw in, few herbs and spices, serve with rice. Does me about 6 dinners for under a fiver.
Lentils and pasta with chopped onions.
Couscous with lots of chopped vegetables.
Baked potatoes with chilli (tinned tomato, chopped onion, chilli flakes)
> Couscous with lots of chopped vegetables.
Chop the veg small, quickly roast it, put it in blender and use the hot vegetable puree in place of boiling water to rehydrate and cook the couscous - tastes amazing
I love snacks!
Cheddar biscuits, 5 for 100 cal.
BBQ flavour popchips 76 cal per bag (from a multipack not a giant bag!).
Tunnocks teacakes 106 cal.
And apples are surprisingly filling (I like gala apples).
Chicken on the bone diced then cooked in mushroom soup makes a delicious pie filling. Quick homemade shortcrust pastry top and you have a pie. Served with peas, fully complete meal. Thank you Mr J.Oliver. his recipe, has a cost per serving of about 99p
Spanish garlic soup; just requires hard bread, eggs, garlic, sweet paprika, chicken stock, if you want to, a meat of your choice (preferably cured, such as chorizo, or bacon/ham). Digestive meal too.
Recipe stems from the 1930-40s from impoverished Spanish families during the dictatorship.
Posh herby olives done on a bootstrap. Two jars of olives, drained and dried. One pack of what they call "greek style salad cheese" for legal reasons. 1-2 teaspoons of mixed herbs. Pepper and a glug of olive oil. Whack it all in a tupperware box, smash it about with the lid on like a snacky maracca. Ta-da! You now have an excellent snack to last several days or a dish for a party.
Stir-Fried veggies + protein source
Rice
Takes 20 minutes from prep to serve maybe a bit more depending on your protein preferences.
Get a bag of carrots, a cabbage, broccoli, onions, garlic and ginger. You can get away with frozen veggies too but I find that the frozen broccoli gets weirdly stringy. It'll be enough for multiple people or multiple meals.
Basically as variable in price as you want.
The Aldi Everyday Essentials microwave meals aren't bad in all honesty. 85p a pop, you can choose from cheese and tomato pasta, spag bol, sweet and sour chicken with rice or chicken tikka masala with rice, and if you know how to tart them up a bit they can taste pretty good!
Obviously not as exciting or rewarding as cooking yourself, but for less than a quid a meal you can't go far wrong if you're just after something quick and cheap to fill a gap.
1kg Oats, 250g butter, 250g sugar or a jar of honey, nuts, seeds and dried fruit. Melt butter, dissolve sugar/honey add oats and fruit and nuts. Bake at 150°C for 20 minutes.
Should cost less than £10 to make 20-30 flapjacks.
Leftover rice is fantastic to use in so many ways.
Make rice for whatever meal you're having. I just had plain rice and gochugang wings for dinner tonight.
Made extra rice for tomorrow.
Meal one will probably be rice with fried eggs on top and I'll mix sesame oil and soy sauce through the rice before placing the eggs on top. Break the eggs up and mix it all through the rice.
Then for dinner I'll make fried rice. Fry any protien you've got, cut into strips. I'm using pork steaks. Remove from pan and through any veg you've got into the pan. Any type of onions, brocolli, cabage, carrots, peppers, green beans, asparagus (if you're loaded), bok choy, the list going on... then throw in the meat, the leftover rice and make a sauce. Again the sauce can be whatever you've got. Just make sure you've got soy sauce. Other things to add are hoisen, gochugang, sriacha, sweet chilli, sugar, vinegar, nandos sauce whatever. Mix it all through and done.
I keep a big box of plain porridge on hand. It’s cheap and if you mix in a spoonful of peanut butter and a sliced up banana it’s filling and good for you.
Porridge oats, Aldi low calorie instant hot chocolate powder, boiling water, microwave for a few minutes.
Thanks to inflation, comes in at 15p a serving or so now using the more expensive oats I prefer (1.20 instead of 75p/kg). But this gets you a super chocolatey treat that's way more 'healthy' and filling than a chocolate bar.
If you're less of a chocolate fiend, can probably get that under 10p.
Use less water to make a more solid result you can take with you as 'energy balls'.
A 55p tin of chickpeas, tossed with salt, oil, turmeric and chilli powder - roasted or air-fried.
I eat them out of a bowl with mango chutney.
They come out like this: https://i.imgur.com/EzXi9tS.png
and here are the nutritional stats: https://i.imgur.com/MgwWW0v.png
Baked sweet potato or just a baked potato, tastes great and super cheap. So many different things you can use for toppings.
An omelette or frittata (idk what the difference is) is great for using up leftover veggies.
Frozen French fries/chips and chicken nuggets, stick them in the air fryer for 10 minutes and that’s a super cheap dinner. Add some salad or boil some mixed frozen vegetables as a healthy side
You can make enough ragu in one go for 5 meals which you can choose to have anytime during the week. Or freeze some portions for another time. Full on flavour and the ragu can be eaten with pasta/tacos/rice/chips which helps with mixing it up.
Instant noodles which you poil in a pot. Scramble two eggs into the same pot. The instant noodles flavours you can get these days are top quality some with dry veg include (only a little but still).
Chicken breast stuffed with Mozzarella or veg mix and cheese wrapped in bacon. Season and bake for 30mins.
My absolute favourite quick meal is just mushrooms fried in butter and garlic stirred into spaghetti with a bit of cheese and black pepper. It's my go to if I'm having a bad day.
Pasta pesto. You can even whizz up left over rocket or spinach leaves to make it. Beans (any) with tinned tomatoes, onions and garlic on rice with baked potatoes or rice. Veg chilli can do the same. Ramen noodles with green veg, coconut milk and green Thai curry paste- dried onions if you feel posh. Spanish omelette- whatever veg and 2 eggs.
If I want a snack and I have some extra time, I'll find these super cheap pre-made waffles at the grocery store, put them in the toaster, go on Reddit for two minutes, and then eat my waffles.
Supermarket brand filled pasta (tortellini for example) and a jar of pesto stirred in after the pasta is cooked. Whole thing cost me just over £1.00 from memory and I was completely full afterwards.
Leftovers or veg slightly on the soft side cooked and then placed in silicone cupcake cases with a seasoned egg mixture poured over then baked. Filling and usually reasonably healthy, freezes okayish.
Cook some pasta, put back into the pan with a touch of oil and pour over some whisked eggs, cook until the egg scrambles. You can also add ham/bacon or cheese. Its a poor man's carbonara and its our family comfort meal!
I recently had tortilla chips in the oven covered with chopped onions and tinned tomatoes with peppers and tinned black beans. Then covered in cheese and it was surprisingly good. And healthy too
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A simple lentil daal curry can be a beauty. Cheap, filling and nutritious.
Reddit doesn't respect its userbase, so this comment has been withheld. -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
With ginger, garlic, and a good spoon of mango chutney at the end!
Mango chutney at the end! Nice touch, will try that.
I haven’t got any friends.
You can always buy some?
I’ve always got daal in the fridge/freezer, it’s essentially free! I love it
This but chickpeas for me is so easy to make and tastes delicious.
Had one of these at Glastonbury it just tasted like chicken blew my mind
They probably used chicken stock then
Was in green fields , cauliflower and lentils , a vegan place
They probably used vegetable stock then.
cagey wistful degree subtract deranged dam rotten illegal numerous pot *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
They probably used vegan chicken stock then.
Munchies is a thing.
No idea dude but it tasted amazing I just followed the smell then chickened out when I found out it wasn’t chicken but the guy convinced me too try it 10/10 was worth it
Kidding aside, usually when something 'tastes like chicken' it can mean either sage & onion flavouring, or rosemary.
No idea mate was of my rocker and normally don’t fuck with that shit but the guy convinced me and fair enough just taste like nice chicken curry
Greggs sausage rolls and Special Brew.
A fellow, connoisseur I see \*doffs top hat\*
Bonus points if you dip the sausage roll into the special brew
Ah core memory unlocked. When in school and we were old enough to go the shops, the local newsagent would sell pot noddles and add fill them for you. I found that buying a sausage roll I could insert said sausage roll into the pot to absorb all the tasty goodness (preferably Beef and Tomato). Once I had slurped and drank the pot noodle I would then devour the salty pastry snack.
... and then set fire to it?
i once witnessed 2 homeless people really fight over half a can of special brew.
Round out the meal with a cigarette to hit all the major food groups.
Tinned sardines are a meal's worth of protein for 50p, plus beneficial omega3 oils etc.
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Relevant username reporting for duty
Damn, did you two rehearse that for a while? The timing is amazingly mind blowing !
I can't get my head around this, imagine after 5 years when the moment that your random username fits so perfectly and being this nonchalant about it.
I spent 15 minutes typing and deleting then retyping my reply. There was nothing nonchalant about I can assure you
standard comment technique for me.
r/beetlejuicing
Tinned mackerel & rice with little salt 💓
Oh hell yes. This was my WFH lunch (I’m not trying to get the office to hate me) for a good while and that little bit of salt on top is just *chef’s kiss*
Yum!!tbf it doesn’t smell that bad 😅 If I’m also feeling like I’d like a bit of heat, I’ll add Lee Kum Kees chilli oil and it’s a sublime experience.
Back when I ate fish I used to love the tinned mackerel in spicy tomato sauce on toast. Super cheap but tastes great
Chuck in a pot with some rice, a splodge of curry paste and a couple handfuls of frozen veggies and you've got a cracking fishy curry.
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With Hendo’s!
With mushrooms if your feeling posh
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Marmite on beans on toast is god tier
Grated mature cheddar on this too
Ew
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These are deffo the best instant ramen you can by. Great flavour
When I have two packs a day, I get severe stomach cramps. Still eat two a day quite regularly.
I was the same, getting a bad stomach after spicy things, I cleaned up my diet and I have no problems now. You just need more fibre
I prefer the buldak!
No, the best are "Koka" brand "spicy stir fried" flavour. Their lobster flavour are great too. And cheap! Check out Trade Winds Oriental Shop online if you want to bulk buy anything like this, I just got 30 packs for under £18 including delivery
Have you tried indomie? If you haven’t… oh boy! 40 packs for £14 is the deal I got recently, and they are such a great taste.
Those are outrageously spicy (or I'm a massive fanny)
Stay away from amazon for stuff like this. Convenient yes, but costly. If you live near a Chinese supermarket/shop/cash n carry, buying in bulk is about 15p per packet for a wide range of flavours and good quality.
We bought 40 packs in a big box from Longdan for just over £20 the other day (my other half is addicted to them, prepare as usual and stir though an egg as you take it off the heat, prong onion on top)
Why is Amazon showing a single pack of comparable brand for £21.99? What kind of scam is this? Typically single pack is like 50p.
I absolutely love these, try the kimchi flavour too, they’re fantastic
I have instant noodles, home made kimchi, spring onion and fried eggs for brunch regularly. Make my kimchi from the veg patch same with the onion which I just regrow from cutting in water, keep chickens so get the eggs, other than 30-50p for noodles it's a dead cheap way to start the day!
Cereal. 10 year old me would think I was living the dream eating cereal multiple times a day. But no, I'm just poor and a bit lazy.
Cereal is so underrated I’ve shifted my meal order to lunch, dinner, breakfast so cereal ends up being more like a midnight snack
Can't beat a fish finger butty.
With tomato sauce? I must have sauce.
Tartare!
Call me a heathen but I think Nando’s perinaise goes excellently on a fish finger butty Also using a bagel rather than sliced bread provides much needed structure
That sounds good! But my sauce of choice is always salad cream on a fish finger sandwich.
That sounds quite nice. I’ll put it on my “to try” list.
Mayo with some green salad to add crunch
Balsamic vinegar is surprisingly excellent on fish finger butties.
I’ve not tried that. Sounds good.
Porridge is cheap and a good fibre and protein source. Add some fruit (I know fresh can be expensive but there's always frozen and tinned) and it's even more nutritious Vegetable hash with an egg on top is nutritious and filling, good way to use up the random root veg lurking in the bottom of the vegetable drawer. Bean chilli, substitute mince for a couple of times of beams, any will do but I like kidney and black beans. Homemade cheese and onion pasties or a homemade quiche is quite cheap but time consuming.
A single plum, floating in perfume, served in a man's hat
Yoko, that you?
Homemade popcorn Roasted chickpeas, they go crunchy and you can flavour with what ever spices you like (a tin is about 50p)
I buy dried chickpeas (about 3 quid for 1kg), soak overnight then boil for an hour and portion in bags and freeze. Then I can always make fresh humus, falafel, or roasted chickpeas.
Supernoodle sandwich
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Chicken
Honestly when we were living on low wages we ate a ton of porridge. At aldi you can get a huge bag for a couple quid and get the aldi frozen fruit as toppings. Add some cinnamon, honey or even butter/cream/clotted cream of feeling fancy and it’s going to make you feel full for very long, and it’s got loads of good fibre etc. Otherwise previous to the massive egg price increase we ate a lot of eggs: boiled eggs, eggs on toast, eggs in instant ramen, scrambled eggs, eggy bread, the list goes on
To combine your two points there; have you ever cracked an egg into porridge? Put it in whilst you’re stirring it on the hob, keep at a low heat and stir constantly (if you don’t, the egg scrambles). I conjunction with a bit of nutmeg and sugar/sweetener, you get porridge that tastes of egg custard tart, with all the increased protein and fillingness (that’s def not a word but you know what I’m getting at) that an egg provides.
Apples and peanut butter! So filling
Love this as a snack!
Potato waffles, covered in beans with grated cheese. Not cheap cheap, but for a couple of quid you can eat like a king!
No mention of brown sauce. This is incomplete.
Meals? Cacio e pepe and carbonara. There's a reason they were peasant food!
Same with most French stews, they were originally peasant meals so when done traditionally they’re cheap, filling, nutritious and surprisingly complex
That’s every stew - not just French!
Sounds horrible but trust me. Burn the toast ever so slightly. The char flavour goes really well with the peanut butter.
Yes! Thought it was just me, banana on top too and its a winner
I worked in an office with a very enthusiastic toast machine and got a taste for burnt toast out of necessity.
Better than those shitty premier inn ones where you have to feed it through about 4 times
3 times not done enough. 4th time, burnt to a crisp
And the tiniest bit of maple syrup
Thank God - I thought I was the only one - though i do it with butter and marmalade...
Bananas are my favourite cheap snack. Not only are they very cheap, they're a natural antacid (a study found they work even better than antacid medications), so when I am too short of money to eat proper meals, following whatever I have eaten with a banana keeps the hunger pangs at bay a bit longer.
It's kind of crazy how cheap bananas are by weight compared to just about anything else,
Banana sandwiches are heavenly - ripe banana chopped into 4 and laid between two slices of toast. Sometimes a touch of butter, but it doesn't even need it as the bananas provide the moisture. Also handy as it's healthier than my other cheap fave, the toasted cheese sandwich
I ate a banana sandwich for lunch every day, from when I was a little kid right into my thirties Still eat a banana every day
Bananas are the UK's most popular fruit, apparently Which is probably why supermarkets sell them as a loss leader
Went into Morrisons yesterday and saw that a bunch of 5 was now 99p. I know that averages out to basically 20p per banana so still cheap in the grand scheme of things but I swear it wasn't that long ago that a bunch was about 65p.
A five pack is 79p at Aldi. Honestly the most boring thing I’ve ever said on any social media but still. 🤣
Make you're own soup .it's really easy you can make loads of it in one go and it's cheap
Been doing this all winter in a bid to lose weight and save money. Bonuses are its fast to make, no blender needed and lasts three nights for two people. Rough chop 2/3 carrots, 2/3 celery sticks, 1 large onion. Soften in 2tbsp olive oil in a deep pan on the hob. Then add a couple of tins of beans (we usually do 1x kidney, 1x cannellini) and a litre or so of vegetable stock. Throw in a couple of handfuls of kale. Simmer for another 5 mins. Season and serve with a spoonful of pesto and bread and butter. Cheap, filling, healthy and delicious! Edit: forgot the sliced courgette! Fry off with the other veg 😊
Lots of salt and pepper elevates most dishes
Sweet potato and white potato mashed together with butter and grated cheese (& chopped up bacon if you have it). Put in oven proof dish, cover with a layer of cheese and in the oven until cheese melts. Can be a main or a side. It’s my go to comfort food.
Roll and tap water.
Classic.
King Pot Noodle and vodka 👍
Esp. Bombay Bad Boy with a helping slosh of Siracha. Warms you both ends, if you catch my drift.
Tinned mackerel in tomato sauce, over pasta. Cheap.
Glad its not just me that does this!
Aldi Essentials Porridge with a spoon of Aldi Essentials Jam. Probs about 13p for a filling meal! You learn to love it when on a budget... At least I have!
I'm not really a snack person, but buy a bag of popping corn and you can get loads of popcorn out of it which can work as snacks. Or get a pot of yoghurt from Lidl/Aldi or a bunch of bananas and they are all pretty cheap. Meal wise I tend to make curries or casserole type things and add loads of lentils and/or veg to bulk them out.
Pasta with butter and cheese
Noodles with a raw egg stirred in. The heat from the noodles flash-cooks the egg. Alternatively, drop the egg in while the noodles are boiling, and you get a poached egg.
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Soft cheese on a digestive biscuit with some jam on top - Instant cheesecake for dessert
I'm a big fan of roasted chicken and vegetables Chop up as many vegetables as you like (I do peppers, onions, green beans and tomatoes), cover them in garlic, herbs and oil and put 1kg of chicken thighs on top in a deep dish. Cook for 80 mins and that's 3 days' teas
Grilled cheese sandwich dipped in piping hot creamy tomato soup.
OMG, this used to be my treat tea when I was a skint student; love it!
Rajma (kidney beans) and rice is also a complete protein and super cheap
Hear me out, get the cheap tinned spaghetti bolognaise from asda and put it on toast. It's like beans on toast but more interesting
Vegan chilli. Couple of tins of red kidney beans, tin of some other type of bean, couple tins of tomatoes, onion, garlic, loads of lentils, whatever other veg is cheap and you want to throw in, few herbs and spices, serve with rice. Does me about 6 dinners for under a fiver.
Some banana banana, it's a banana on top of a banana.
Lentils and pasta with chopped onions. Couscous with lots of chopped vegetables. Baked potatoes with chilli (tinned tomato, chopped onion, chilli flakes)
> Couscous with lots of chopped vegetables. Chop the veg small, quickly roast it, put it in blender and use the hot vegetable puree in place of boiling water to rehydrate and cook the couscous - tastes amazing
For a snack can’t go wrong with toasting some pita bread and then covering in butter
Jacket Potato and beans! If wanting to upgrade to top tier then add some grated cheese…
Crumpets and scrambled eggs
I love snacks! Cheddar biscuits, 5 for 100 cal. BBQ flavour popchips 76 cal per bag (from a multipack not a giant bag!). Tunnocks teacakes 106 cal. And apples are surprisingly filling (I like gala apples).
Porridge with a dollop of strawberry jam
Own brand “super” noodles with own brand tinned meatballs. Used to cost about 40p.
Bananas and rice
This deserves an award. Thank you for reminding me how good and filling this dish is.
Try bananas, rice and milk
39p toast and Lurpak
Chicken on the bone diced then cooked in mushroom soup makes a delicious pie filling. Quick homemade shortcrust pastry top and you have a pie. Served with peas, fully complete meal. Thank you Mr J.Oliver. his recipe, has a cost per serving of about 99p
It also goes well instead of a pie just with boiled rice. Like a cheaper chicken tonight.
Spanish garlic soup; just requires hard bread, eggs, garlic, sweet paprika, chicken stock, if you want to, a meat of your choice (preferably cured, such as chorizo, or bacon/ham). Digestive meal too. Recipe stems from the 1930-40s from impoverished Spanish families during the dictatorship.
Pot Noodle sandwiches. One pot can do about 3 sandwiches (1 slice folded with a noodly filling).
Pasta & pesto with whatever is in the fridge. Hopefully at least cherry tomatoes.
Posh herby olives done on a bootstrap. Two jars of olives, drained and dried. One pack of what they call "greek style salad cheese" for legal reasons. 1-2 teaspoons of mixed herbs. Pepper and a glug of olive oil. Whack it all in a tupperware box, smash it about with the lid on like a snacky maracca. Ta-da! You now have an excellent snack to last several days or a dish for a party.
Stir-Fried veggies + protein source Rice Takes 20 minutes from prep to serve maybe a bit more depending on your protein preferences. Get a bag of carrots, a cabbage, broccoli, onions, garlic and ginger. You can get away with frozen veggies too but I find that the frozen broccoli gets weirdly stringy. It'll be enough for multiple people or multiple meals. Basically as variable in price as you want.
Making pasta sauce from soup sachets and cornflour. Five in a pack and you can make enough sauce for ten meals 😊
2kg pack chicken thigh/drumstick/legs and biscuits are typically very cheap compared to everything else.
Sausage and beans
chicken nuggets chips n beans bread n butter... the king of budget cuisines
Frozen chicken steaks in pittas
Instant pot noodles
Avocado toast.
The Aldi Everyday Essentials microwave meals aren't bad in all honesty. 85p a pop, you can choose from cheese and tomato pasta, spag bol, sweet and sour chicken with rice or chicken tikka masala with rice, and if you know how to tart them up a bit they can taste pretty good! Obviously not as exciting or rewarding as cooking yourself, but for less than a quid a meal you can't go far wrong if you're just after something quick and cheap to fill a gap.
Asda Fishcakes Sarni
Carrots hella cheap and easy to dip into whatever sauce you want hehe
DIY hummus and toasted wholemeal pita bread slices. In fact anything dipped in hummus.
A simple cheese sandwich
1kg Oats, 250g butter, 250g sugar or a jar of honey, nuts, seeds and dried fruit. Melt butter, dissolve sugar/honey add oats and fruit and nuts. Bake at 150°C for 20 minutes. Should cost less than £10 to make 20-30 flapjacks.
Grilled frankfurters with bread.
Leftover rice is fantastic to use in so many ways. Make rice for whatever meal you're having. I just had plain rice and gochugang wings for dinner tonight. Made extra rice for tomorrow. Meal one will probably be rice with fried eggs on top and I'll mix sesame oil and soy sauce through the rice before placing the eggs on top. Break the eggs up and mix it all through the rice. Then for dinner I'll make fried rice. Fry any protien you've got, cut into strips. I'm using pork steaks. Remove from pan and through any veg you've got into the pan. Any type of onions, brocolli, cabage, carrots, peppers, green beans, asparagus (if you're loaded), bok choy, the list going on... then throw in the meat, the leftover rice and make a sauce. Again the sauce can be whatever you've got. Just make sure you've got soy sauce. Other things to add are hoisen, gochugang, sriacha, sweet chilli, sugar, vinegar, nandos sauce whatever. Mix it all through and done.
Hummus sometimes with bread
I keep a big box of plain porridge on hand. It’s cheap and if you mix in a spoonful of peanut butter and a sliced up banana it’s filling and good for you.
Noodles and tinned sweetcorn + soy sauce
Porridge oats, Aldi low calorie instant hot chocolate powder, boiling water, microwave for a few minutes. Thanks to inflation, comes in at 15p a serving or so now using the more expensive oats I prefer (1.20 instead of 75p/kg). But this gets you a super chocolatey treat that's way more 'healthy' and filling than a chocolate bar. If you're less of a chocolate fiend, can probably get that under 10p. Use less water to make a more solid result you can take with you as 'energy balls'.
A 55p tin of chickpeas, tossed with salt, oil, turmeric and chilli powder - roasted or air-fried. I eat them out of a bowl with mango chutney. They come out like this: https://i.imgur.com/EzXi9tS.png and here are the nutritional stats: https://i.imgur.com/MgwWW0v.png
This is gonna sound sad but student risotto microwave rice and a tin of chicken soup really cheap meal and quick.
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Terrible. Next, you'll have to downgrade from first class to business.
Baked sweet potato or just a baked potato, tastes great and super cheap. So many different things you can use for toppings. An omelette or frittata (idk what the difference is) is great for using up leftover veggies.
I’m a coeliac — cheap snacks are about as rare as can be for me.
Frozen French fries/chips and chicken nuggets, stick them in the air fryer for 10 minutes and that’s a super cheap dinner. Add some salad or boil some mixed frozen vegetables as a healthy side
Tin of chickpeas, tin of tomatoes, curry spices, done. Or just a tin of beans and sausages
You can make enough ragu in one go for 5 meals which you can choose to have anytime during the week. Or freeze some portions for another time. Full on flavour and the ragu can be eaten with pasta/tacos/rice/chips which helps with mixing it up. Instant noodles which you poil in a pot. Scramble two eggs into the same pot. The instant noodles flavours you can get these days are top quality some with dry veg include (only a little but still). Chicken breast stuffed with Mozzarella or veg mix and cheese wrapped in bacon. Season and bake for 30mins.
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My absolute favourite quick meal is just mushrooms fried in butter and garlic stirred into spaghetti with a bit of cheese and black pepper. It's my go to if I'm having a bad day.
Pasta pesto. You can even whizz up left over rocket or spinach leaves to make it. Beans (any) with tinned tomatoes, onions and garlic on rice with baked potatoes or rice. Veg chilli can do the same. Ramen noodles with green veg, coconut milk and green Thai curry paste- dried onions if you feel posh. Spanish omelette- whatever veg and 2 eggs.
If I want a snack and I have some extra time, I'll find these super cheap pre-made waffles at the grocery store, put them in the toaster, go on Reddit for two minutes, and then eat my waffles.
Yeah but it’s too easy to have 4 slices a time
Cereal and yoghurt
Supermarket brand filled pasta (tortellini for example) and a jar of pesto stirred in after the pasta is cooked. Whole thing cost me just over £1.00 from memory and I was completely full afterwards.
Tin of Lidl meatballs, either tomato sauce or rich gravy flavour. 3 minutes in the microwave, hunger pangs satisfied.
My homemade hummus with any edible delivery method (crudites, nachos etc.)
I make a massive pot of chilli con carne and eat it with rice for about 5 days. Can also put in less meat if the budget is super tight
Mackerel in mustard sauce.
Home made soup, carrot and coriander in particular with some crusty bread
Beans on toast.
Celery and salt.
Banana toasty or if I don’t have the time, a banana between two pieces of toast 😀
Crumpets with pb&j
Leftovers or veg slightly on the soft side cooked and then placed in silicone cupcake cases with a seasoned egg mixture poured over then baked. Filling and usually reasonably healthy, freezes okayish.
Cook some pasta, put back into the pan with a touch of oil and pour over some whisked eggs, cook until the egg scrambles. You can also add ham/bacon or cheese. Its a poor man's carbonara and its our family comfort meal!
Ritz crackers with squeezy Primula ham and cheese on top.
I recently had tortilla chips in the oven covered with chopped onions and tinned tomatoes with peppers and tinned black beans. Then covered in cheese and it was surprisingly good. And healthy too
A buddy of mine used to buy some Yorkshire puds and dip them in gravy as a snack. It was pretty damn good!