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tight budget meals

How to curb your cravings and stay away from the ice cream!
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tight budget meals

Postby GilesMurray » Fri Jan 29, 2016 12:39 pm

im on a very tight budget but want to sort out my diet by eating healthier.
can anyone recommend some low budget meals that are delicious and healthy but wont cost me too much to make?
thanks

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Re: tight budget meals

Postby Suelle » Fri Jan 29, 2016 10:09 pm

On of the simplest ways of cutting costs is to cut down on meat. You can do this by adding a proportion of beans or lentils to meat dishes such as curries, stews and chillies. Or cut out meat altogether for one or two meals a week and make a completely vegetarian dish.

Another way is to buy the cheapest cuts of meat and learn how to cook them properly - this often involves long slow cooking, so it's worth investing in a slow cooker if you are not at home all day. Ox-cheek, for instance, is a cheap cut of beef, but needs 4 or 5 hours at a low temperature, in a stew, to be really tender.

You can sometimes make savings by doing some of the butcher's work yourself - a chicken cut into 6 or 8 portions will be cheaper than buying chicken joints. Chicken thighs on the bone are cheaper than ready-boned thighs.

It can be expensive to add more fruit and vegetables to your diet, but if you concentrate on seasonal British produce like root vegetables, cabbages, leeks and onions it will be much cheaper than things like imported green beans, tomatoes and asparagus.

Frozen vegetables can be much cheaper than fresh, but you do have to try them to see what you like - some have completely different textures when thawed.

Don't dismiss tinned fruit either - it's often cheaper than fresh and if you buy fruit in juice rather than syrup, it can help you towards a healthy diet.

PS -tinned baked beans are one of the cheapest ways of eating protein. The blogger Jack Monroe, who became famous for writing about eating while on the poverty line, used to buy baked beans and rinse off the sauce for many recipes - it was a lot cheaper than buying other types of tinned beans.

Google for 'recipes on a budget' or 'cheap meals' and also for using leftovers - food waste is one thing you can't afford on a tight budget.
The blog which does what it says on the tin:

http://mainlybaking.blogspot.co.uk/

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Re: tight budget meals

Postby Suelle » Sat Jan 30, 2016 11:07 am

I realised after I posted that I hadn't really answered your question.

It seems the best thing anyone can do to eat healthier is cut down on sugar, so the first thing to do is to look at the food you buy already. if you see that you rely a lot on foods with added sugar - bought cooking sauces, for example - then try making them from scratch to cut out sugar.

They will probably be cheaper too - cook tomato sauce in bulk, then freeze so you have some ready when needed - it can be the base of stews, curries, pasta sauces etc. At the same time, you can add a lot of chopped vegetables to these sort of sauces - either leave them finely chopped or blend the sauce a little to make the veg less obvious.

Cutting down on sugar means cutting out a lot of bought snacks too, and possibly fizzy drinks - this frees up money to spend on healthier alternatives such as fruit, or leaving out between meals eating altogether. (Depends whether you need to lose weight, or just eat healthier!).

Next important, in my view, is eating 5 portions (around 400g) of fruit and veg a day. This needn't be too expensive if you use seasonal British veg, and the cheapest fruit you can buy - generally apples and bananas. If you want to lose weight, bias the 5 a day in favour of veg, as most fruits are higher in sugar than most veg. Eat a wide range of colours to get maximum benefits from health boosting anti-oxidants in fruit and veg.

Cutting down on red meat is thought to be good for general health too - it will definitely reduce food costs to replace meat with one or two vegetarian (or less meat) meals, as suggested in my last post. Avoid processed meat such as bacon and sausages as much as possible - use them as an occasional treat or as flavouring in mostly vegetable stews and sauces. If you do cut down on meat you need to replace it with vegetable protein - beans, lentils, Quorn if it's within budget etc.
The blog which does what it says on the tin:

http://mainlybaking.blogspot.co.uk/

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Re: tight budget meals

Postby DEB » Sat Jan 30, 2016 4:16 pm

Hi

I agree with the last answer you can really reduce your food costs by reducing the amount of meat you eat. In my mind lentils are the way to go. You can make a great ragù using lentils, to the point where m OH can not see the point of using mince for lasagne or moussaka. When cooking meat think about reducing the portion size in the 60's 4oz was the normal serving.

You can reduce your costs if you need a provide a lunch at work think about taking your own, if you have aces to a microwave at work then leftovers and homemade soups are the way to go.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... nacks.html


http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/coll ... nd-healthy

posting.php?mode=reply&f=6&t=3185#
Hope this helps

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/search/recip ... vegetarian

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Re: tight budget meals

Postby WhitefieldFoodie » Tue Feb 16, 2016 12:31 am

For me it is replacing the favourable cuts of red meat.

Me and mrs WFF eat a lot of chicken and pork and eat very seasonally. If you have a market near by, hit it up and see what they are selling. It is usually whats in season.

If you dont. I really recommend swapping (if not already) to a budget supermarket and live off their specials. Aldis super six for example. Fruit and veg at 59p a packet is a bargain.

Staples for me include:

- Chicken Legs
- Pork fillet
- Pork shoulder
- Pork mince
- Lentils
- Chickpeas
- Kidney beans

You can make a range of stews, curries and burgers/koftas with the above, if you have a decebt store cupboard. Which leads me on to the store cupboard. It is the most important part of budget/healthy eating. Stock it up with lots of tasty herbs, spicies and vinegars. They are what turn miserable bland salad, veg and cheap meats into marvelous plates of lovelines!

My favourite cheap dinners are; chickpea and spinach curry with brown rice pilaf, spicy pork koftas in wholemeal pittas with tinned pineapple salsa and some griddled babygems, lentil and kidney bean chilli con carne (made with bovril), roasted chicken leg with pea risotto and spinach, roasted shoulder of pork for sunday lunch with rapeseed oil mash with some lovely.root veg and mustardy gravy.

For a real treat I love doing sushi. By sticking to mainly salmon I can feed 4 people for less then 10quid.

For health benefits make the above meals pack in the fruit and veg, albeit being frozen, tinned or what ever and also where ever possible limit the number of carbs you take in. View them as fuel and nothing else.

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Re: tight budget meals

Postby Yoland » Tue Feb 16, 2016 1:05 am

Well with a little effort, you guys can be eating well at home because home cooked food can be ridiculously cheap (and easy) to make. Buy some pasta - whatever shape you want. Spaghetti noodles, penne rigate (little tubes) whatever.

Buy some canned tomato sauce, and when you're heating it up add some dry basil, oregano, red chili flakes, garlic powder. If you want a meat sauce then you can brown some ground beef, then heat up the sauce right in the same pot with the beef.

you can serve it with a salad and garlic toast if you want, and the whole meal for 2 is around $10-15, and you'll probably have leftovers for tomorrows lunch.

You can get taco kits for pretty cheap that include the shells, salsa, meat seasoning mix.. all you need to add is like the beef or chicken and shredded cheese.

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Re: tight budget meals

Postby almadolce » Fri Jul 22, 2016 11:32 am

Try to buy inexpensive food ingredients that can help stretch your budget. Some items are: Sweet potatoes, Lentils, Eggs, Squash, Beans, brown rice, mushrooms, tofu, chicken, peanut butter.

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