Cheap and cheerful

[Tilly2]

We've spent a lot of money today out and about so I thought I'd cook something cheap and cheerful for tea.....dinner, whatever.

So, I've made a Spaggy Bol from scratch. Cheap enough. However, we needed a £6.99 bottle of Chianti to go with it. Bumped up the cost of the meal a bit. How daft is that?

[Smowball]

Sorry, just seen your reply Tilly. You may not need it now but i will dig it out for you.

[Smowball]

Ragu bolognese:

400g minced beef
100g pancetta
3tsp olive oil
50g butter
1 onion finely chopped
1 carrot finely chopped stick celery finely chopped
150ml white wine
200ml vegetable stock
1 tin chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato puree


Heat oil and butter and gently fry all veg and pancetta for ten mins till
golden.
Add beef and cook till browned.Add tomatoes and puree, stir in well and then add wine, and cook till evaporated.
Season well, add stock and simmer, with no lid on, for about 30 mins.

[LesleyMAC]

After living on £25 a week for 2 years I learned some tricks to save on food .I have three fussy kids.
I use the cheap bags of cooking bacon from Sainsbury's ,Asda , Tesco's @ 1.20 for a decent size pack chop it up & fry it in a pan with some garlic & onion then freeze it .
add it to
a white sauce with some pasta shavings of Parmesan & lots of black pepper.

I make my white sauce with pint mix dried milk & 2 oz plain flour vegetable stock cube & bay leave.Just pour boiling milk mix with stock cube over flour (mixed to paste with about 3 tsp cold water) blitz with power stick or sieve back in pan back to heat simmer. This doesn't freeze

a tomato sauce with some pasta & chunky peppers grated cheese for a tasty pasta bake.
I make tomato sauce with tube of tomato puree,1 large carrot grated, fry 3 cloves garlic & one onion add herbs of your choice , a value chicken stock cube, a cup of apple juice to take away bitter flavour & some chopped value cooking peppers.
You can freeze this .
all using value brands from aldi.

[LesleyMAC]

If you blitz the cooked bacon/onion/garlic in a food processor mix it with same quantity of fine breadcrumbs it is a great filling for ravioli or tortellini.
my kids love making pasta but boy is a devil to clear up afterwards lol

[Tilly2]

Thanks for those recipes Smowball and Lesley.They're both different from the way I make mine, so I'll give them a go.
Thanks for going to the bother of doing all that typing!