Suggestions for cheap but healthy meals

RoseyK

I am looking for suggestions for cheap but healthy meals. Three months ago, I had to replace my air conditioning/ heating system ($8500.00) and now I have to get a new roof ($5600.00). I am broker than broke with these unexpected monthly payment plans.

Any suggestions for cheap healthy meals/recipes. I have never cooked with beans before, but I am willing to give it a try. We already eat a lot of eggs and tuns fish.

orangesmartie

I know you are in the US, but check out this UK based forum: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=33

There is nothing these guys don't know about stretching a penny until it squeaks! Thats for food, household cleaning products, the whole lot. There are some great recipe threads, which should be easily convertable for you ingredients wise. They do all tend to be healthy recipes, because they don't have a lot of extra nonsense.

The recipe thread is a good place to start: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=710445

Also the slow cooker thread (crock-pot in american): http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4273

You might be able to use suggestions in the 'meals for under 50p' thread: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=326929

Finally one of the forum users came up with a meal planner, where a family of 4 could eat for approx £100 a month (a couple of years ago). there are some good recipes on there: http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/index.html

obviously you can scale your recipes up and down as needed.

If you are a meat eater, try planning in a couple of veggie meals each week, this will cut costs. Also try to plan out your weekly/monthly menus if you can, it will really reduce your wastage. Also, if you have a freezer, maybe get into the habit of batch cooking, so you build up a store of stuff in the freezer for those CBA days.

Also shop cleverly. Look for bargains in the supermarket - stuff that is about to go out of date. If you'll use it, buy it! Use it that night or freeze it. You're really lucky in the states that most of your supermarkets have fabulous discounts with coupons, so clip coupons and look for instore offers. There are people who buy hundreds of dollars worth of shopping for a few bucks, because they shop carefully.

These do require a bit of time and organisation from you, but your bank balance will thank you!

Take some time to look through the MSE old style forum, theres thousands of threads on there that you will find useful - i promise!

I'll also post up a few of my meals that are fairly inexpensive, nutritious and not overly cal heavy. Of course you can sub ingredients in and out as suits you

orangesmartie

ok here we go:

Rubber chicken:
Place a chicken in your slow cooker (make sure it fits!) You can put other veg in the pot, a glass of white wine or some stock
Leave to cook on low for 8-10 hours. When it is cooked it will absolutely fall apart, so I recommend lifting it out of the pot with 2 slotted spoons.

Strip all the meat off the chicken. You'll be able to get more meat off than if traditionally roasted.
Some people chuck the bones back in the pot to make stock.
Portion out the meat. You only need a little meat for the meals, bulk up the veg content instead. Use this chicken to make:
Curry
casserole
fajitas
sandwiches
soup

chicken noodle soup:
200g chicken
900ml stock (veg or chicken, whatever is on hand - i use stock cubes)
1 tsp mild curry powder
50g egg noodles
salt and pepper to taste

(if chicken is cooked ignore steps 1-4)
1. place chicken in saucepan
2. add stock and bring to the boil
3. lower heat and simmer until chicken is cooked
4. strain the chicken, keeping the cooking liquid
5. place chicken back in the empty pan and add curry powder
6. cook for 2-3 mins, stirring constantly
7. gradually return the stock to the pan
8. add the noodles and any seasoning
9. simmer for 10 mins and serve.

Pitta bread:
300ml water
1 tsp salt
2tbsp oil
525g bread flour
yeast

Combine in bread machine and put on dough cycle. Or mix by hand until a smooth round ball.
divide into 8 equal pieces
shape each piece into a smooth round ball
flatten each piece into a disc about 1inch thick
cover the dough and rest for 10 mins

Heat oven to 240 degrees Celsius (sorry not sure what that is in american )
place round of dough onto a hot baking sheet and bake for 3 minutes.

Dough should look like a balloon and be white in colour.
Leave to cool and deflate before storing.

Wholemeal tortillas
1/8 tsp salt
0.5oz water
377g wholewheat flour
1/8 tsp baking powder

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix until a single ball is formed
cover and leave for 15 mins
split dough into 2 balls (for 2 small tortillas)
roll very flat
place in ungreased pan and cook over medium heat until tortilla starts to show brown spots.

Lentil curry
250g red lentils
11/2 tsp salt (optional)
large chopped onion 3 cloves garlic
1 tsp crushed garlic (do crush it if you don't want a shock when eating)
2 squirts tomato puree
pinch of sugar (optional)
1 tsp turmeric powder (possibly optional).

Boil the lentils until cooked. Should be minimal water left. Add above ingredients and simmer like a thick porridge.

In a separate pan 1tbsp oil
1 finely chopped onion
2tsp garam masala
chilli powder to taste

Fry onions in oil until dark brown. Add spices
cook for 30 sec, stirring all the time.
add lentils

(or you can bung it all in the slow cooker for about 4 hours and its fab. Serve with naan bread.

Cauliflower & Broccoli bake
400g mix cauliflower and broccoli
25g butter/marge
115g chopped mushrooms
25g flour
300ml milk
2tspmustard
115g cheese (doesn't have to be this amount)
2 tbsp breadcrumbs

Cook cauli and broccoli in bopiling water. Drain and place in ovenproof dish
melt butter/marge in pan. add mushrooms and cook for 3 mins
lift mushrooms out with slotted spoon
add flour to the butter/marge remaining in the pan and cook for 1-2 minutes stirring constantly
remove from heat and gradually add the milk
return to heat and boil, stirring continuously, until sauce is smooth and thickened.
Add the mushrooms and mustard.
Remove from heat and add most of the cheese, until melted. (leave some cheese behind)
season to taste
Pour sauce over cauli and broccoli.
Mix remaining cheese with breadcrumbs and sprinkle over the top.
Place under hot grill (broiler in american?) until topping is golden brown.

Creamy chicken and rice
2 tins of campbels condensed soups (get low fat low salt)
2 cups of water (i used stock cubes again)
6oz uncooked rice - long grain is fine
Chopped chicken - no bones
any veg you have on hand (don't add mushrooms though, it turns everything grey!)

Add soup, water and rice to slow cooker
add chicken, ensure chicken is well coated
Cook on low for 7-8 hours.

You can do this on the hob - cook rice in boiling water as normal. heat soup, fry off chicken. combine.

Cheese and lentil loaf
150g grated cheese
225g red lentils - cooked
100g porridge oats or breadcrumbs
100g mushrooms
1 large onion
3 cloves garlic
2 large carrots, grated
1 beaten egg

Preheat to 180 degrees C (or equivalent)
line a 2lb loaf tin with greaseproof paper and grease the paper
cook lentils until soft
gently soften onions, garlic, mushrooms and grated carrots then tip into a bowl
add lentils, cheese, oats and seasoning and mix
stir in beaten egg.
pour into loaf tin
bake for 30 -40 mins

Spanish omelette
2 eggs
1 potato
1/2 onion
100ml water
1 tbsp oil

Can add any cheese or veg to this during the frying stage.

beat eggs and season
peel potato and chop into 1cm cubes
chop onion
boil water. add potato, cook for 5 mins. drain
fry onion and potato in oil
when golden in colour, add eggs.
turn heat to low, cover and leave for 10 mins
brown top under grill (broiler).

Crustless quiche
3 eggs, beaten
200g cottage cheese
Any veg you like (mushrooms, sweetcorn, spinach, bacon etc)

Grease a pan tin (or deep cake tin)
put your beggies etc in flan tin
beat eggs and tip cottage cheese into eggs, stir.
Pour egg/cottage cheese mix over veg
place in oven at 180 degrees c for about 20 mins, until top is golden in colour and quite firm

Rice, mushroom, cheese savoury
56g rice
4ox mushroom
56g marge/butter
1 egg
1 tsp curry powder
113g cheese
seasoning

cook rice until it is just done
fry mushrooms
add cooked rice to mushrooms
add grated cheese and seasoning
add egg
place in oven proof dish
bake for 30 mins at 22 degrees C


Veg soup
Any veg lurking in the bottom of the freezer or fridge
chuck in a saucepan or slowcooker
add lots of stock (as much as there is room for)
cook slowly for an hour or so
blend
serve


I hope they help a bit.

babyskunkles

One thing I started cooking last year is Lentil Soup. I tried to find my recipe, but couldn't. Basically, it is just tomatoe sauce, diced tomatoes, lentils & ground turkey. I cook the lentils separate and the turkey separate, then put together with the tomatoe base. You can be pretty creative with it. Use whatever meat you want, use no meat, add veggies, different spices, etc. Not an expensive meal. Leaving the meat out, or switching to ground beef obviously helps the price.

RoseyK

thank you for the recipes.... I am definately going to try them as well as checking out the sites you mentioned.