Ideas!

[indieanna86]

Hi guys, I live with mum and dad still and try to help out with the cooking whenever I can. Trouble is, my mums not very imaginative when it comes to meals and we have the same things on the same days every week! eg. Bolognese on Monday, casserole on tuesday, salad on wednesday, week in, week out and I'm just so fed up with it all. I have mentioned this to her but she comes back with 'there is nothing else we could have!', but I'm sure there are more than 7 meals in existence.
So I was wondering if you could give me some ideas for easy, healthy meals that don't cost alot to make (money's tight!), you have no idea how grateful I would be!

Thank you!

[ernestoba]

Try cous-cous, or polenta, or different type of pastas with just a tomato sauce or salsa (i.e heat a tin of toms. put some herbs in it, onions, peppers if you like,and presto)
Instead of spag bog. try and make pate or meat pudding, with mashed potatoes.
I can go forever. The beauty of cooking is that if you are dearing you can experiment with almost everything.
Good luck and good appetite.

[scoobysoo]

These are the sort of things I do:

Lasagne (using Tesco Value lasagne sheets...v cheap)
Cheap joints of meat cooked in a slow cooker
Stir fry (with Tesco Value stir-fry veg and TV prawns!)
Toad in the Hole (TV batter mix)
Curry
Fajitas
Falafel (made from packet mix) with pittas (TV), salad and sweet chilli dip
Chicken breast wrapped in bacon and oven baked (TV chicken and bacon)
Spaghetti (TV) and pork mince meatballs
Cheese and Potato pie (you can use instant mash)
Tuna fishcakes (TV tinned tuna and instant mash)
Chill Con Carne

Hope this gives you a few ideas. All easy and all cheap

[pingping]

i make a lot of meals from scratch and enjoy making all of the following:

sausage casserole, chili con carne (you can use same ingredients as spag bol, then chuck some chilli powder in for very simple change to your monday dish!), corned beef and potato pie, lasagne, potato gratin, bubble and squeak (from any left over veges), indian curry, thai green curry, fajitas,

most of the above use same veg e.g onions, garlic, peppers, mushrooms, courgettes, potatos so you can buy job lots from supermarkets and have very little wastage.

why not offer to cook something one night to give her an evening off, then you can cook anything you fancy!

[natalie_1982]

We make the following from scratch, on a budget!:
Tortillas / Chicken and salad wraps
Beef burgers
Pizzas
Chunky soups
Stews
Fish pie (they had haddock on offer, and a bag of prawns - buy one get one free!)
Chilli con carne

I get all of our meat from the butchers, and that makes a huge difference because not only is it better but it is cheaper too!

[kaztuz]

Chicken Stir Fry - Quick, easy and cheap.
To serve roughly two people
2 chicken breasts - diced
1 red,green or yellow pepper deseeded
1 medium onion
6 closed cup mushrooms
1 small courgette
1 clove garlic chopped
Half teaspoon ground ginger
Teaspoon of oil
Soy Sauce to taste
Black pepper to taste
Tablespoon of golden syrup


Brown the chicken in a teaspoon of oil, chop vegetables add to chicken, add all or some of the other ingredients to taste, stir fry on high heat until cooked to liking. Serve with rice or noodles.

[hammerman]

I do the same as Kaztuz above but i add a small tub of double cream, a dash of white wine vinegar, runny honey, lemon or lime juice and a dash of soy sauce.
Reduce it down and then add some cooked and drained tagliatelle and simmer for 5 minutes.

You end up with a big plateful of creamy stirfry veg, chicken and tagliatelle....delicious. And you can add chillis if you want a kick to it.

[SRH]

The BBC website (www.bbc.co.uk) is absolutely brilliant for getting ideas on things to cook - from stuff by famous chefs to quick meals from shows like Ready Steady Cook. I always get ideas from there when I'm stuck (and it's cheaper than buying recipe books!)

[BBWCHATT]

indieanna - try looking back thru some of the old posts here on Food & Drink and on Recipes as well - we have posted tons of inexpensive, easy and some healthy - some not so healthy - recipes for you to choose from. If you need others after you look at those - we are here for you:) Just give us some clues what foods you like most and we will inundate you with recipes:)