How to Eat Well Cheaply

Unemployment, fuel and food prices are rising. We're already reduced to rejections, far too much walking, and tightening the belt rather more than we wanted. Remember when you used to enjoy your favourite treats regularly? That cookie dough ice cream, gourmet crisps, tender steak…. Seems like a distant memory, now that cheap packets of tasteless, stodgy noodles can constitute the most exciting meal of the day.

But you don't have to live like a penniless student.

There are alternatives.

There are several ways to drastically reduce spending on food, and I'm going to provide you with these, as well as a few cheap and tasty but hasty recipes to try. Ready to whet your appetite without drinking your wallet dry?

The Keys to Eating Cheaply

1. Buy in Bulk

   Whether cooking for yourself, or 20 hungry hobos, quantity is the way to go. Try and buy wholesale if you can. There are also numerous outlets that sell amounts of storable goods quite cheaply, for example "Home Bargains" in the UK.
   

2. Look for Offers

   You can often double the amount of food you get for your money buy focusing on picking up food on special offer at the supermarket. For example, you might manage to get two packets of mince for £4, rather than one packet for £3.50. Even if the food is close to it's sell-by date, you can keep it in your fridge for a month or two.
   

3. Cook!

   Discarding the unhealthy and tasteless ready meals and cooking up something delicious from scratch doesn't have to be any extra effort. Simply make extra portions, and freeze them for a month or keep them in the fridge for simply heating up the next day. You'll soon find that cooking enough food for three meals instead of for one isn't any extra work. Preparing enough food in this way for seven days need only be done twice during that week.

Continue reading to find out what you can cook cheaply…

Cheap but Filling Recipes

There are a number of meals that can be cooked in a short amount of time without spending much money. You'll find that not only are these delicious, but also healthy.

Lasagna

There's nothing like Italian food to make the tummy and the heart satisfied, and lasagne is always a winner. This is a great one to cook for guests, too, as it never fails to impress. All these portions can be made for about £4-5!  Serves 4-6.

Ingredients

• 1 packet of mince
• 2 large carrots
• 1 aubergine, or 2 courgettes, or a handful of mushrooms.
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 jar of cheese sauce (even the cheapest ones taste nice with this recipe).
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• Lasagna sheets

Method

1. First, prepare all your vegetables.
2. Peel and chop the carrots, garlic and the onion, and chops the other veg into manageable chunks. You can do this in about 10 minutes.
3. Next, gently fry the onion and garlic in a wok until they are softening, then add the mince and continue to gently fry until it is brown.
4. Now add the rest of the veg and cook until it's as soft as you like it. It's a good idea to add some basil and oregano for that wonderful Italian flavour. All this should only take 25 minutes.
5. Now, empty this mixture into a large casserole dish and cover with a layer of lasagne sheets.
6. Pour the cheese sauce over the top of this till the pasta is entirely covered.
7. Put it in a preheated oven at a temperature of about 200'C.
8. In about 20 minutes, voila!

To make a vegetarian version, simply replace the meat with extra veg.

Stew

This is classic, and a great way to warm the body and soul on a cold winter's evening. You can make all these potions for about £5. Serves 4-6.

Ingredients

• 2 packets of steak pieces. You can buy fairly cheap meat, because the stewing process tenderises it a lot.
• 1 onion
• 2 carrots
• 2 medium sized potatoes
• 2 stock cubes
• 1 cup of red wine (cheap wine is fine for cooking)
• 1 tbsp of plain flour

Method

1. Firstly, peel and chop the veg and make sure you have cut the meat into small pieces. This all takes about 15 mins.
2. Now, gently fry the onion until it is soft, in a wok, and then add the meat.
3. Cook this until it is brown, then sprinkle in the flour and stir immediately until there are no lumps remaining. This can take as little as 10 minutes.
4. You can now add one of the (dissolved) stock cubes.
5. The stew now needs to be left to simmer at a low heat for a while, so the meat can become lovely and tender.
6. Cover the wok with a lid or tinfoil and leave for about 2 hours, stirring every 10-20 minutes.
7. Finally, add the vegetables for the last 20 minutes of cooking, then serve.