Cheap Healthy Meals - share your secrets!

[ValencianNails]

Going on from Adele's thread about Jamie and the peeps who won't/don't cook wholesome dinners, how about we all share our cheap and cheerful wholesome and healthy meal ideas???

I did Arroz al Horno tonight, aka baked rice risotto. Cheap, wholesome, healthy and tasted fab :green:
It's a twist on paella and so easy it's untrue.

Ingredients
A pack of cherry tomatoes
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped (I used 5!!!)
2 tbsp olive oil
500g risotto rice
enough chicken for 4-6 people (depending on how many you're cooking for)
chorizo, thickly sliced (or regular sausages, depending on availability and taste)
1 1/2 litre hot chicken stock
saffron or yellow food colourant, few shakes of the bottle
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven (220-240C)
Put the cherry tomatoes in a roasting tin and add onion, garlic and olive oil. Roast for 10-20 minutes until the tomatoes are softened.
Stir in the rice, chicken, chorizo/sausages, chicken stock, saffron/colourant and some salt and pepper, mixing well together. Return to the oven for 20-30 minutes.
(I precooked the sausage and chicken in a frying pan with a small amount of olive oil prior to adding to the tin)

It might take a little longer for the stock to be absorbed, go with the flow

When cooked leave to stand for 5 minutes to let any remaining liquid be absorbed by the rice.
This is the first time I've cooked this dish and my family LOVED it.

Cheap as chips (or not chips, as the case may be :green

 

[hippy-chick]

any type of soup, healthy, nutritious and cheap and oh so satisfying on a cold evening.

Jazz it up with a sandwich at lunch time. tres chic :!:

 

[1999judy]

Sounds great mate!!
When can we come?? A week of healthy eating will be ok... xxxx
Did that bloke give you the recipe nearby?? I like him:lol:

 

[adelekeegan1]

Very old fashioned, but very tasty. You can cook it when you have enough time and reheat it when required, it really doesn't affect the taste

One pack of diced stewing or braising steak 500g serves 4
2 large carrots (sliced)
1 large onion (chopped small)
Chopped mushrooms (optional)
1 beef oxo cube
water, beer or red wine
You can also add swede, parsnip, turnip, leeks and make it serve twice as many.

In a pan on the hob dissolve oxo cube in about half pint of liquid
add meat, and vegetables, but not the mushrooms - bring to boil

pop into an oven heated to 200C and leave for 30 mins turn down to 150C and cook for at least 2hrs - check half hourly and add more liquid as required, add mushrooms for the last half hour. If required can be thickened using gravy granules or similar (small amount)

Do not add the mushrooms or thicken if you are going to reheat later

Serve with mash and green veg

Very yummy and, I find, really popular

 

[ValencianNails]

Very yummy and, I find, really popular

MORE PLEASE

We can be the SGGHEB.
'Salon Geek Guide to Healthy Eating on a Budget' :green:

 

[oey]

Very old fashioned, but very tasty. You can cook it when you have enough time and reheat it when required, it really doesn't affect the taste

One pack of diced stewing or braising steak 500g serves 4
2 large carrots (sliced)
1 large onion (chopped small)
Chopped mushrooms (optional)
1 beef oxo cube
water, beer or red wine
You can also add swede, parsnip, turnip, leeks and make it serve twice as many.

In a pan on the hob dissolve oxo cube in about half pint of liquid
add meat, and vegetables, but not the mushrooms - bring to boil

pop into an oven heated to 200C and leave for 30 mins turn down to 150C and cook for at least 2hrs - check half hourly and add more liquid as required, add mushrooms for the last half hour. If required can be thickened using gravy granules or similar (small amount)

Do not add the mushrooms or thicken if you are going to reheat later

Serve with mash and green veg

Very yummy and, I find, really popular

I did a very similar Dish for tea tonight Adele except I did it in the slow cooker. Around these parts in North Staffordshire it is called LOBBY - usually made with dumplings too but I am currently dieting for the event party so no dumplins today. It was ideal to make as I had a evening client so got it all ready before I went and it was cooked to perfection when I got back.

I would be lost without my slow cooker - I can cook virtually any dish in it now :lol:

 

[ValencianNails]

I would be lost without my slow cooker - I can cook virtually any dish in it now :lol:

Recipes please

 

[adelekeegan1]

I would be lost without my slow cooker - I can cook virtually any dish in it now :lol:

I do have a slow cooker, very smart, brushed steel and black..........and it lives in my salon for hot cloths.

Perhaps I'd better get another, I don't want the aroma of onions in my Spa mani:lol:

 

[1999judy]

Sandi...If you froze it by the time it got to me it would be great!!
You can do this as many times a week as you want as well.
Well...I want!!

 

[ValencianNails]

Sandi...If you froze it by the time it got to me it would be great!!
You can do this as many times a week as you want as well.
Well...I want!!

JUDY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get off your arzz and make some It's so easy it's untrue, honestly!
If I can do it anyone can do it, even Jamie's lazy arzed people :lol:

 

[Susie H]

Corned beef hash pie

1lb of short crust pastry
1lb spuds pealed and chopped small
1 tin baked beans
1 tin corned beef chopped into cubes
1 large onion pealed and rough chopped

roll out 2/3 of pastry and line any large deep dish I use the pyrex lid from a large chip pan
mix beans, corned beef, onions and spuds together and place inside pastry
moisten edges of pastry with milk
roll out remaining pastry and fit as a lid to your pie make a hole in the middle of the top of the pie to allow steam to escape brush milk over the top of your pie
cook in the center of a warm oven (180/190 0c) for 1 hour
Serve with veg of your choice or chips and gravy will feed 6

 

[1999judy]

JUDY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get off your arzz and make some It's so easy it's untrue, honestly!
If I can do it anyone can do it, even Jamie's lazy arzed people :lol:

I DO NOT DO COOKING!!!
It always looks like a load of ....well...crap.:lol:
I'm not eating THAT!!!
Just gimme a pot noodle and shutit lmao:hug:

 

[ValencianNails]

I used to love that years ago Susie, must try it again, thanks :hug:

 

[oey]

Recipes please

Ok - if I must! :lol:

Curry is ideal to make in a slow cooker!

Chicken breast sliced, chopped onions, curry spices, and depending on what type of curry I want I will add either tinned tomatoes and passata or coconut milk. quite often I will ad chickpeas or chopped potatoes and other veggies too. Leave for a few hours and when about half an hour from done I mostly add mushrooms and towards the end fresh spinach too for a few minutes.

I have also used the ingredients from your Paella recipe you gave me a while back in the slow cooker to but kept a close eye on in that the curry and added the prawns towards the end.

Sausage casserole - cooked in a similar way to the curry above but used different herbs to suit the sausage meat.

Chilli - with minced beef or quorn depending on whether I am on a Red day or green day, onions, kidney beans, tinned tomatoes, chilli powder, mushrooms herbs to taste and quite often will add crushed chilli seeds for a little extra kick.

I have even done stir fries in the slow cooker too as it has adjustable heat levels and cooks quickly as well as it does slowly. chicken, chopped veggies like carrots, onions, mushrooms, peppers etc. Soy sauce to flavour and quite often add bean sprouts, noodles etc. Nice and quick when we are in a rush!

Quite often with some of these dishes I will use the vegetable steamer to cook steamed rice and will quite often add herbs to that too to give a delicious taste and great light rice too.



There will be a few more to add to it as you only need to vary your ingredients slightly to get a totally different dish.

 

[1999judy]

Corned beef hash pie

1lb of short crust pastry
1lb spuds pealed and chopped small
1 tin baked beans
1 tin corned beef chopped into cubes
1 large onion pealed and rough chopped

roll out 2/3 of pastry and line any large deep dish I use the pyrex lid from a large chip pan
mix beans, corned beef, onions and spuds together and place inside pastry
moisten edges of pastry with milk
roll out remaining pastry and fit as a lid to your pie make a hole in the middle of the top of the pie to allow steam to escape brush milk over the top of your pie
cook in the center of a warm oven (180/190 0c) for 1 hour
Serve with veg of your choice or chips and gravy will feed 6

Is the pastry ready made?
My dad would like this and YES...I could actually say I'd made it...unsure about pastry though
YES Sandi I know I'm lazzzzzzy but not on Wednesdays when my dad comes round!!!
It's my whole reason for cooking...no-one else eats it
Well..Jordan might if I lied about the onions and chopped em REALLY small.

 

[UKRed]

Have you tried the 'feed the family for a fiver' thing at sainsbury's?
I have tried the sausage one and it fed four with nothing with it but mine didn't look as good as the one that the woman on the advert pulls out of her oven lol :lol:

 

[ValencianNails]

My daughter's totally against onions and shrooms, she had finely diced shrooms in her cannelloni's last night and finely diced onions in her risotto tonight and didnt' know the difference :lol:
She loved them both :lol:

 

[Lellipop]

Sausage and stuffing pie

one pound of sausage meat
packet of stuffing
3 hard boiled eggs
short crust pastry

Add boiling water to the stuffing mix and leave to stand for 5 minutes
then add to the sausage meat.
Line a loaf tin with short crust pastry and chuck in the eggs, Add the sausage mixture and pop a pastry lid on.
Cook in oven and serve Mmmmmmmmm

 

[1999judy]

I actually am known to do a mean chilli...BELIEVE IT OR NOT!!! I USED to cook all the time a while ago....I HAD TO...but the prob is no-one eats it except me and my dad now. (well I do put the leftovers in a tupperware for Ted I guess...I can't be mean lol) and I don't have parties anymore.
BUT there is nothing to make for 2 of us..Jordan eats a lot of stuff so any meals for 2 ideas would be great tbh.
It always ends up...chicken 2nite etc.
BORING.

 

[Fitz]

This is quite Healthy and I had this tonight.



1. Chopped White Onion



2. Chopped Red Onion



3. Lettuce



4. Olives



5. Red Peppers



6. Green Peppers



7. Pitta Bread



8. Keebab Meat



9. Chilli Sauce

Yum diddy dum, dum YUM, YUM! :lol: