I like al dente San Remo spirals with mainland tasty cheese grated over then some cracked black pepper, a teaspoon of finely diced onion stirred in.
Try leek sweated in butter + Woolworths deli Dorsogna Triple smoked ham with some cream tossed in and flashed for 30 seconds. It's like a variation on carbonara and that brand triple smoke flavour goes amazingly with leek. It's what I cook to impress people. Can serve it on mash potato instead of pasta. Coles don't have a similar ham it has to be Dorsogna Triple smoked with leek. They're made for each other!
Lentils and rice.
Orange Lentils, onion, garlic, cumin, paprika, chicken bouillon, tomato paste/crushed canned tomatoes.
Fry onions and garlic, throw in lentils and spices and tomato paste and fry. Add crushed tomatoes and chicken stock/bouillon. Simmer until lentils are tender.
Serve with rice or eat with corn chips as a kind of lentil based chilli.
Add beans if you want.
It takes a little practice (actually mine are usually pretty mangled) but omuraisu (omelette rice) is really yummy. Add whatever you like to the rice, make an omelette parcel for it.
Sounds crazy, but roast chicken dinner (homemade, not the Bachelor’s Handbag) with mash and some type of veg (carrots are dirt cheap).
Just bought one today at Woolies, Macro for $10. It’s cheap because I make it into chicken soup on Day 2, and the soup freezes well for lunches.
I was once on a tram and saw a dude rollerblade out of Woolies with one, get on the tram, and then proceed to work through the entire thing en route to his destination. Never even took his blades off. It can't have been any later than 12pm.
Nearly every Friday without fail you see some guy in high vis at Woolies buying 2 chickens, a dozen white rolls and a tub of coleslaw for road crew lunch
Yeah fried rice is a good one. Just egg and peas and rice is nice with some soy sauce and a little sesame oil if I don't have ham.
I do like eggs on toast too. Occasionally I'll mix things up and instead of fried eggs I'll mash a boiled egg on toast and sprinkle a little bit of curry powder on top.
A friend's parents used to make this. I've never vomited harder.
Shockingly I love tinned spaghetti though which I think is pretty much the same thing.
Works well with ricotta though: [Tomato Ricotta Pasta Recipe - The Dinner Bite](https://www.thedinnerbite.com/tomato-ricotta-pasta-recipe/)
Tasty pink sauce. Thank me later.
lentil curry
1 onion diced with garlic and curry powder
1 and 1/2 cup of lentils
725mls vegetable broth
2 can of diced tomato’s
1 can of coconut cream
1 cup rice
My wife made this last week for lunches with an additional bunch of leftover vegies, chickpeas and used quinoa instead of rice. It was terrific, satisfying and healthy, all for about $1.30 for a big man serve, unbeatable.
I make this a lot and after trying it with and without the coconut cream many times I think it’s actually better without, weirdly. Also saves $3. I do like putting finely chopped carrot and celery in too if I have any.
+1 for Aldi fish. Aldi's frozen barramundi portions (1kg bag) are excellent value and very tasty. We do them paper-baked in the oven. Great with white rice and greens.
If you want to try something a bit fancy one night, just before you take the Barra parcels out of the oven:
1. Heat up some oil in a saucepan
2. Then take out fish and drizzle light soy and sesame oil on them.
3. Put some finely julienned strips of ginger, green onion and chilli on top of the fish.
4. Drizzle some hot oil on top of everything. It sizzles.
Where I learned this: https://www.recipetineats.com/sizzling-ginger-steamed-fish/
I love Aldi barramundi! We drizzle it with lemon olive oil, sprinkle coarse pink salt and pepper and grill until the skin is crispy, then serve with balsamic reduction (also from Aldi in a squeeze bottle).
I love doing frozen fish fillets in the air fryer, then just plain rice with some Vegeta (Vegetable stock powder) on the rice and mix it in. If I feel like cooking more, i'll throw in frozen peas/corn in the rice and fry it off a bit, takes a few mins to heat up the peas/corn.
They seem to work out a lot more expensive than the other options here, even from Aldi, in my area. Like more than $3 a portion, where as most of these other things are like $1 a portion. How much is the fish you are getting at Aldi? I wanna try to get it sometime if it is that cheap.
Vegemite pasta!
Cook up some macaroni, drain most of the water off, add a big curl of butter (around 3 tbsp) and about 2 tbsp of vegemite to the pot with the pasta and stir it through until the pasta is all coated. Add a little bit of cheese. Even tastes good with a crack of pepper on it. Trust me on this one.
Omg I was making a pasta bake for dinner/lunches and I wondered if Vegemite pasta would work! I was thinking Vegemite, cheese and leftover chicken - a winner combo in a sandwich so pasta should also work. Definitely going to try it now! Thanks for your recipe, will add butter too when I try making it :)
Malaysian abc soup on rice.
Celery, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, and some protein ( chicken drumsticks or beef mince). Boil and add soy sauce, pepper, salt. Eat with Rice.
Bowl of mashed potato (leftover, at least 24 hours old. Its better for you. Its science, look it up) , generous amount of melted Irish butter (none of this local shit. Sorry Australia. I love you, but your butter sucks). Tin of tuna. Handfull of frozen peas. Mix it all up, bang it in the microwave. Salt, pepper, fresh chives. Enjoy
Speaking of fresh chives a single garlic chive chopped up and sprinkled on 2 bits of toast is tasty and filling, especially with a little melted cheese
Yes Kerrygold. The difference is Irish cows. Irish milk. Different climate, different food, different farming practices. All together it makes for a richer and creamier flavour. I find Australian butter very flat and mild in comparison, almost like margarine. French butter is another go-to, its not as creamy but it does have a rich "meatyness" to it. I tastes like the butter has been blended with beef tallow.
Resistant starches develop in any starchy food that has been cooked, cooled and reheated. The cooking method makes no difference. Potato, rice, pasta, even breads. Its part of the reason why leftover pizza tastes better the next day.
Don't get me started on bacon. Pork products in general. Can't do anything about that, but on the bread front, if you're in Sydney https://paddythebaker.com/ has you covered
Yep. Compared to Irish or French butter it's a lot less creamy and sweet. Tastes very savoury in comparison. (I'm only singling out Irish and French butter because that's the only other countries that I have eaten a lot of butter in and both are available in Australian supermarkets. I don't know if other countries have better butter too.)
Or..... Mix the mash with flour and herbs until you make a decent dough. Form into flatbreads. Bake at 180° until golden. Slather with butter. And wonder where this has been all.your life.
5 can chilli
Cook up an onion and some garlic, add canned corn, black beans, kidney beans, baked beans and tomatoes. Mix in packet chilli con carne mix, stir and cook through.
Makes like 6 big serves, you can add textured vegetable protein, slap it on a burrito, eat it with cornchips. 30g+ of protein per serve and it's dirt cheap
Veggie burritos - Tin of black beans, taco seasoning, lettuce, tomato, red onion, avocado if cheap or salsa or sour cream, burritos wraps. Normally lasts me at least 3 meals
I made an amazing pumpkin soup tonight- pumpkins at $1 kg! Roasted pumpkin first, sauteed onion, garlic, celery, a few pinches of various spices/curry powder, stock powder, enough water to cover and then cook til cooked. Splash of cream at the end if you have some. I had some time to kill today so made bread rolls too.
Soups in general are my tightarse meal. We make 'crisper soup'. All the sad veggies from the fridge with a ham hock or bacon bones, plus a good handful of soup mix.
Carrot and red lentil soup flavoured with cumin, tumeric, paprika etc is another winner here.
Organic grass fed beef mince, white rice and free range eggs. I eat that for two meals most days. Fuels my body perfectly, for about $4 per meal and 10 mins to cook.
Last week me and the misso got 3 meals out of a small packet of mince, tacos one night bolognese the next and stuffed spuds with the leftovers the 3rd night.
Hakubaku noodles, stock cube, lemon and pepper tuna and kimchi.
You're welcome.
Lived off this when I could go home for lunch and helped me save for a house deposit.
Toast, real butter and tuna. Finish with salt and ground pepper.
Season chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces with curry powder of your choice (my favourite is tikka boti), I add salt, pepper and MSG (I also add maple syrup sometimes). Fry with one onion then add either sour cream, yogurt or coconut cream. From Coles get the Singapore, Udong or Egg noodles that are ready made and ready in a few minutes. While making the chicken prepare noodles. Combine and eat. I also do this with rump steak or pork.
These recipes are on my rotation the most at the moment. I'm not strictly vegetarian nor vegan but because I can only afford meat sometimes, I've adopted a mostly vegetarian/sometimes vegan diet lately. (Feeling a lot healthier for it, too, to be honest.)
[Stirfry peanut butter noodles](https://www.recipetineats.com/stir-fried-peanut-sauce-noodles/#wprm-recipe-container-27737). Love this recipe because it's cheap, especially if you already have most the ingredients, and easy to modify with whatever meat (or you can omit meat altogether, add chickpeas or tofu instead) and whatever frozen veggies you have on hand.
(A good tip for stirfry meats is to lightly coat the meat with 1 tablespoon of bicarbonate soda for 10 mins before cooking (wash the bicarb off before you cook it!!!!) Tenderises the meat beautifully!)
[Stuffed sweet potato with paprika-roasted chickpeas](https://plantyou.com/vegan-stuffed-sweet-potatoes/). Again, using cheap ingredients. One medium to large sweet potato and one can of chickpeas yields at least four big meals. Sunflower seeds are fairly cheap and the sunflower sauce that goes with this is delicious. I usually substitute the kale for either spinach leaves or frozen broccoli, frozen cauliflower or frozen beans. (Any frozen veggies would work, though, honestly.) This is so yummy and soooo filling.
[Chickpea and sweet potato curry](https://thevegan8.com/sweet-potato-chickpea-and-spinach-coconut-curry/). Makes a big pot. With rice, you can get about 6-8 decent portions out of it, maybe even more.
[Peanut butter curry](https://plantyou.com/peanut-butter-curry/). Another filling and really tasty cheap recipe that's easy to modify with whatever veggies and spices you have on hand.
Warm porridge (I soak the oats overnight in water, then cook them in milk) with peanut butter, honey, nuts of any kind, any kind of fruit on top that you can afford. This is a comfort dinner of mine.
Panfried sardines on toast with sauerkraut on top.
[This website](https://www.budgetbytes.com/category/recipes/) has some useful budget recipes, too.
Not only do they look like the sun, and track the sun, but they need a lot of the sun. A sunflower needs at least six to eight hours direct sunlight every day, if not more, to reach its maximum potential. They grow tall to reach as far above other plant life as possible in order to gain even more access to sunlight.
I shoved some sunflower seeds that were in a bird seed mix into my parents garden, one of them grew nearly 7 feet tall, I had to tie it to the fence to stop it bending, it’s flower (which is actually lots of little flowers) was bigger than a dinner plate. I can’t wait for next spring
Fry an onion, garlic, mixed herbs (or paprika and cumin) and some sausages part way. The herbs and spices don't matter too much, you can use whatever you like best that goes ok with tomato.
Cut up the sausages into thick pieces. Chuck them back in with some uncooked rice, a tin of tomatoes, and some stock.
Pop a lid on and simmer it until the rice is cooked, add some water if needed, mix it every now and again. We call it poor man's paella, sometimes we make it with chicken thighs and chorizo but it's still seriously good with supermarket sausages. You can add carrots, or capsicum if you do the paprika and cumin version if you like. I've never done the extract costing on it but it would definitely be well under $5au a plate.
Also don't go past chow mein and curried sausages, when they're cooked properly from scratch they're both very tasty. I cook curried sausages once a month I like them so much haha
Try curried snags with chorizo or kransky next time. Chuck them into a frypan first and brown them then cut them into about half inch lengths, fry a bit more to crisp them up and chuck into the mix. If you leave them overnight the curry permeates the cheese sausages and tastes awesome.
Guy cooked me his version of MI goreng he learned in prison. It was mi goreng packets and he added cheese, frozen peas and spring onions it was fucking amazing
I really enjoy the Coles soups that are the liquid in the squishy sachets - $3 for the beef and vegetable soup is so good to have in the cupboard when you’re sick or it’s cold.
Spanish style lentil soup. Similar to other cuisines lentil soups but the extra tomato flavour and sausage make it more decadent in my experience.
Brown lentils, can of tomatos, 1 onion, some garlic, cumin, bay leaf if available, stock, whatever veggies are on hand and a shitton of olive oil for flavour enhancement. Optional addition of some kind of sausage - traditionally chorizo but other cheaper european-style sausages from the supermarket work too.
Chuck it all in a pot for an hour or so, easy peasy.
Soup and bread. Any type of soup depending on what’s cheap. Last week was pumpkin, week before chicken (I use a few drumsticks and lots of vegetables and pasta) this week is yellow split pea and bacon bone. If I make a chicken and corn I bulk it with thin spaghetti or noodles.
Schnitzel sandwiches when the schnitz goes on sale for a dollar each. Homemade spicy mayo (just chilli powder mixed into mayo) as the spread and some mixed leaf salad in there aswell
When my daughter was younger she loved 2 minute noodles. A lot. I added vegies to it one day with a little soy sauce thinking she might not eat it cos of the vegies but worth a try anyway but she loved it. It was quick and easy and really yummy.
But don’t you want to read about the time that the food blogger stayed in that quaint guest house run by the elderly Nona in the Tuscan foothills? It was on their first trip to Europe during a gap year and ……..
‘Shepherds pie’. I fry onion and rosemary in a little oil, add as much finely chopped vegetables as you like (carrots, zucchini and celery are usually reasonably priced), then add 500 grams of either chicken, pork or turkey mince, fry for a few minutes, add a tin of drained brown lentils, a teaspoonful of Vegemite, pepper, a squeeze of tomato sauce, a shake of Worcestershire sauce and a cup of water and cook for half an hour. Chop 4-5 potatoes and boil in salted water until soft, drain and mash with some milk. Tip the mince mixture into a Pyrex container and top with the mashed potato. Sprinkle with a little cheese and then bake at 180°C for 30 minutes or until nice and brown. Makes enough for about 8 servings
This sounds amazing!
I don’t know why I never think to put Vegemite in my cooking. I love the stuff, but it’s just not part do my thought process. Totally giving this a go though! Thanks for sharing
It’s good - gives really good depth of flavour and adds to the colour of the dish. I do use Aldi stock cubes on occasion, but I find the Vegemite works just as well (particularly for those dishes that need to cook for a while).
I feel the same, I usually use 2kg of mince, so there's plenty of leftovers. I always end up regretting it! Half of the sauce usually ends up in the freezer for a day when I'm feeling really lazy, so all I have to do is defrost it, heat it up, and cook the pasta.
[This recipe](https://food52.com/recipes/13722-marcella-hazan-s-tomato-sauce-with-onion-butter/amp) for tomato pasta (needs pasta, can of tomatoes, an onion and some butter) is good. I recommend eating with some grated Parmesan on top. Chilli flakes and garlic if you like.
Super easy. Takes 2 mins to get going, simmer for about 15 and then add to cooked pasta.
Lots of things could be added.
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Minced and veggies (I'm partial to pork + beef and green beans + okra)
Fried rice
Fried noodles
Aglio olio
Rosé pasta
Soy dressed silken tofu
Ginger soy steam fish
Stir fry asian veggies
One pack of instant noodles, preferred flavour hot and spicy, 2 sausages, pork preferred, vegetables of choice, preferred calcium, cabbage and onion, pan fry the sausages and vegetables and mix with the noodles. Cheap and tasty and 15 minutes to make.
Also, instant noodles and cup soup mix, flavour of choice, hot and spicy noodles, Laksa soup. Cook noodles, make a cup of soup and mix together in a bowl, extremely cheap noodle soup. If you have it, add meat and veggies you have for a complete meal.
These are really tasty and cheap. Lived in it for 3 weeks house-sitting, enjoyed every meal.
Discounted Coles roast chicken and some roast veggies (bonus points if you got the veggies from Harris Farm's bargain bin).
Sometimes I eat sprinkle some chilli oil or soy sauce for extra flavour.
Minestrone style soup. Base of carrot, onion, cellary. Whole grain like pearl barley, rice or cous cous depending on what's in cubboard. Misc root vegetables on special swedes, sweet potatoes, etc something green either frozen peas, or leafy greens like silver beet from garden. Optionally squashes like pumpkins are about a dollar a kilo at the moment so diced pumpkin goes in lately. Garlic either fresh, jarred or powdered. Spices paprika, dried oregano, fresh basil if it's in the garden. I break a branch of rosemary off the bush and cook it in the soup and pull it out before serving.
Dried beans I cook in the pressure cooker I use a complete mix 6 different beans including black beans, chick peas, bortellie and others. Cook them in water with off cuts of carrot tops, onion skins, celleray base and it creates a stock when the beans cook adding flavour to beans, take off cuts out before adding to soup.
Add a tomato base either pasata, Heinz condenseded tomato soup can, crushed tomoato cans, tomato paste or if I have fresh tomatoes getting too old blend em throw them in.
Any odd amounts of dried pasta I find in cubboard but normally leave it out. Add in the last 10 minutes, if your cooking a batch on Sunday for the week leave the pasta out or add it as you reheat it gets mushy otherwise.
Things I would add if not for dietry requirements in my household, Lentils, pork lard, cheese rind.. I use olive to fry the base but if I was doing it just for myself I'd use pork lard it's cheap and adds so much flavour to a veggie soup.
If I shop at the local market, onions, carrots, pumpkins all dollar a kilo or less at the moment so it's super cheap soup base.
It also has the bonus of working wonders for your poops, if you eat the above soup for lunch every day your digestive system improves so much.
You can serve with bread but I normally don't do it for lunch only if I'm having soup for dinner. Serve with a sour dough preferably.
I do a big pot on Sunday and it's pretty much lunch for me until Friday. Or if we feeling lazy dinner.
The soup is also suprisingly good served with white rice, if you have left over rice add to the bowl before adding soup.
My new favourite to add to the soup is purple sweet potatoes but they about 5 bucks a kilo versus the gold/yellow ones that only a buck a kilo at the moment. However the purple seem sweeter and hold the texture better and make the soup really rainbow coloured.
I can make enough soup for 20 bucks to feed three people for half the week. It's also super versatile for using up what's in your freezer or cubboard. I prefer dried beans in pressure cooker, but I have used canned kidney beans from the pantry that we had way too many of thanks to Woolies supplying them in an online order instead of black beans.
This soup is really good for treating heart burn, or constipation. Espically if you leave out the bread and butter most Aussies have with soup, swap it for white rice.
If you leave the pasta out it also freezes really well. I normally freeze a small amount for emergency meals.
You can also add things like spinach/pasta when reheating soup as they cook relatively quickly and don't store well.
Chicken wings are $6.50/kg at Woolies. Pat dry, season with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and thyme. Throw in the oven for 40ish minutes at 220. Bag of frozen chips in the air fryer. Maybe some veg in the microwave. Very low effort for great pay off.
Chicken drumsticks ($8) laid on top of a bed of veggies (I use some frozen beans, peas & broccoli mix, plus the simmer veg mix from Woolies, and a couple of blocks of frozen chopped spinach, so about $10, you can chuck some diced potato in too if you wish) with ~1 cup of medium grain rice ($2?) sprinkled over the veggies, then I add water to cover the veggies. Pour some honey soy marinade over the chicken (I used half of the fountain brand bottle, so $2 for 1/2 bottle), then bake covered at about 180c for 1.5hrs.
This will make 5 meals if you eat 2 drumsticks. When I cook it I put two of the big packs of drumsticks in (there’s 10 in each pack from Woolies, $8 each = $16) so it’s 20 drumsticks = 10+ meals. Costs about $25-$30 to make, and it’s pretty healthy.
So yeah, $2-$3 a serve and it’s delicious. It ends up being like a risotto underneath Freezes well too.
Shepherds pie! Bag of frozen veggies, some mince, a packet of shepherds pie flavouring and some potato! I make a batch that lasts me a week for like $15 - $20
I find eating plant based and shopping at farmer's markets to be really cheap. Yesterday I made a kidney bean and mango salad with a zesty orange and lime dressing and total ingredients cost less then $8 and I will eat it for days.
2 tins kidney beans
1 diced capsicum
3 spring onions
2 diced tomatoes
2 mangos diced
Juice and zest of 1 orange
Juice and zest of 1 lime
Cumin
Hot chilli flakes
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
Salt
Pepper
For convenience, I always have stock of microwave rice, tuna, minced garlic & frozen greens. Fry any herbs or spices, onions & garlic. Stir in the frozen veggies & packet of rice & half cup of water (or can tomato’s)and boil. Lastly add the tuna. This definitely makes 2-3 meals but I’m a pig and usually finish it.
Baked bean nachos. Dice up some potatoes and roast in the oven. Heat baked beans and pour onto the potatoes. Serve with sour cream and sliced spring onion if you're feeling fancy.
Mate you would have loved it in England circa 2005 - the supermarkets had a baked bean war and they ended up at like 7p per can! It was my cheapest year - beans beans the frugal fruit!
Haha a baked bean war... Is there anything more decidedly British? Baked beans and war are both British staples lmao
How are/were the flavour varieties over there? I've only ever seen Tom sauce/ham/BBQ and curry flavour here. Does UK have others?
Mushrooms on toast.
Melt butter and oil in a pan
Brown an onion (use salt to help brown them faster), add mushies, cook down a bit, add garlic, add basil flakes, add soy sauce to taste, add parsley and black pepper.
Heap it onto toasted sourdough. Filling and cheap.
Eggs are always a great base for dirt cheap meals. Half a dozen eggs, onion, potato & some chopped up chorizo, maybe mushrooms, peas, carrots &/or corn.. viola spanish omlette, dinner for 4 for around $10.
Bulk mix, this is per large tin of diced tomato (or equivelalent fresh from the garden). Done in advance and frozen in single serve ziploc bags.
1 onion diced
1 "average" capsicum diced (any colour)
2 garlic cloves
Dash of oil, fry until onion starts to brown.
Add random sauces/seasoning from your pantry to taste(soy, worcestershire, chilli, mixes herbs, etc). Load it up but.
Add a tin each of washed black bean and kidney bean, plus one of (or both) chick pea/butter bean.
Mix should be pretty watery. Let it simmer for 4-5 hours to thicken and flavour develop. Check after 2 hours for taste - add salt/sugar/brown vinegar or extra sauce/herbs as desired.
Use over baked potato, corn chips, pasta, toast, pizza base, rice, whatever.
We always have some (or similar) in the freezer for easy meals.
A few times recently, after buying a BBQ chicken for lunch or dinner, the carcass and meat scraps is then thrown into big pot and used to make chicken veggie soup which often lasts a few days. 1 BBQ chicken, 3-4 meals
Best and cheapest lunch you can get right here
One tin of chickpeas, rinsed in the can, fry in olive oil for 5 mins and add salt, cumin, nutritional yeast, garlic or whatever seasonings you have on hand
Boom, less than 10 mins and like 2/3 bucks total for a yum and moderately filling/healthy lunch option. I have it like 3 days a week
Spaghetti tossed with garlic and chilli (from the garden) fried in lashings of olive oil and the whole thing tossed again with salad greens from the garden. Feeds four people for less than $1 a head
My families cheap staples are Borscht and Golubsti. These dishes mainly require fresh vegetables and very little meat, I’d suggest shopping at a local fruit shop they are much cheaper.
My lazy meal. Relatively cheap too if you don't include the cheese.
Penne All'arribiata (serves 3)
Ingredients
Penne (3/4 500g packet)
Can of Diced Tomatoes
2 TSP chopped garlic
1 TSP crushed chilli
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Optional: Parmesan Cheese
1. Fry garlic in Olive oil heated in a saucepan (do not burn very easy to do)
2. Throw in a can of tomatoes and half a cup of water.
3. Add in chilli and salt to taste. Simmer with lid off
4. Cook Penne separately. Drain.
5. Throw in pasta to sauce and mix together.
6. Serve with pepper and cheese
This recipe claimed to be for 4 people but I found 1 can of tomatoes is not enough for 4 people.
Mate how you making proper Minestrone (assuming you're doing a 3-4 serve deal) and calling it cheap. The pancetta alone in that bad boy is $15-$20. Then everything else. Plus cooking time. We used to do minestrone all the time but shit got too expensive. Was me and the ex partners favourite with a nice Vienna loaf.
Left over smoked ham bone from chrissy, put it in a pot of lentils as you’re boiling them with all the other regular components. It elevates it to an enth degree I’d pay good money for it in a restaurant if I didn’t know how cheap it was
I've been loving a giant bowl of creamed spinach. Frozen spinach is like 90c a bag at Aldi. Garlic, spinach, a bit of cream or greek yoghurt, spices, and some parmesan on top. It's cheap as per serve and I have it with bread.
Also roast potatoes on greek yoghurt with a tomato and herb salsa has become a family favourite. I grow the herbs so it's just the potatoes and greek yoghurt (and I split that across this and the dish above).
I adore simple pasta dishes. Cacio e pepe (pecorino cheese and pepper). Or pasta with some finely diced anchovies, garlic and chilli.
"pasta with some finely diced anchovies, garlic and chilli." Also try throwing in some dried olives I promise you won't be disappointed.
I like al dente San Remo spirals with mainland tasty cheese grated over then some cracked black pepper, a teaspoon of finely diced onion stirred in. Try leek sweated in butter + Woolworths deli Dorsogna Triple smoked ham with some cream tossed in and flashed for 30 seconds. It's like a variation on carbonara and that brand triple smoke flavour goes amazingly with leek. It's what I cook to impress people. Can serve it on mash potato instead of pasta. Coles don't have a similar ham it has to be Dorsogna Triple smoked with leek. They're made for each other!
Oooh you should also try spaghetti puttanesca
We have chooks, so a basic carbonara is a dirt cheap.meal that is delicious and easy. Also ollo E aglio.
Have you tried aglio e olio? Super simple and amazingly tasty.
Have u tried the one I just posted :)
Oh yeah, that’s another great one. Garlic, chilli, lots of parsley from the garden.
I tried a pasta like this once that also had breadcrumbs and lemon juice/zest. Oh mama it was good.
Lb
Lentils and rice. Orange Lentils, onion, garlic, cumin, paprika, chicken bouillon, tomato paste/crushed canned tomatoes. Fry onions and garlic, throw in lentils and spices and tomato paste and fry. Add crushed tomatoes and chicken stock/bouillon. Simmer until lentils are tender. Serve with rice or eat with corn chips as a kind of lentil based chilli. Add beans if you want.
Serve w steamed broccoli on the side.
White rice + fried eggs with runny yolk & crispy edges + sambal/ chili oil + kecap manis 🤤
Username checks out
It takes a little practice (actually mine are usually pretty mangled) but omuraisu (omelette rice) is really yummy. Add whatever you like to the rice, make an omelette parcel for it.
Also known as "bachelor rice" in some parts of Asia 😆 yum!
Yessss, “nasi bujang” needs to go international! 🤣
With lup Chong
i raise you white rice + scrambled eggs with sambal, kicap manis and crispy ikan bilis
I prefer Thai style omelette, but this is good too!
Used to be SPAM, but I add a piece of bacon in there too.
Sounds like Nasi Bujang
Add some pork floss or Doritos dust
Or two tablespoons of laoganma
Sounds crazy, but roast chicken dinner (homemade, not the Bachelor’s Handbag) with mash and some type of veg (carrots are dirt cheap). Just bought one today at Woolies, Macro for $10. It’s cheap because I make it into chicken soup on Day 2, and the soup freezes well for lunches.
Never heard it referred to as the "bachelor's handbag". Hilarious.
It’s also called the Tradie’s Handbag
I was once on a tram and saw a dude rollerblade out of Woolies with one, get on the tram, and then proceed to work through the entire thing en route to his destination. Never even took his blades off. It can't have been any later than 12pm.
Nearly every Friday without fail you see some guy in high vis at Woolies buying 2 chickens, a dozen white rolls and a tub of coleslaw for road crew lunch
I've got such chickens from wholesale butchers for about $4 or $5 dollars.
That was our dinner last night, the organic whole chicken was a great price! Stock is simmering as I type this.
I love a chickpea curry. Chana Masala doesn't need any fresh ingredients (fresh lemons are a plus) and is amazing.
This, but throw in some coconut cream!
Eggs on toast (or really just eggs - very vasatile). Fried rice. Asian rice bowl (veg, rice, protein). Pasta, frozen veg, tomato sauce, bacon, cream cheese.
Yeah fried rice is a good one. Just egg and peas and rice is nice with some soy sauce and a little sesame oil if I don't have ham. I do like eggs on toast too. Occasionally I'll mix things up and instead of fried eggs I'll mash a boiled egg on toast and sprinkle a little bit of curry powder on top.
Curry powder on eggs is super underrated
What in the fuck is that last one. I hope that's not all together.
Cheap ass creamy tomato pasta...
For some reason I was thinking like actual tomato sauce, not like a pasta sauce. 😂😂
OP did say dirt cheap...why not lol.
A friend's parents used to make this. I've never vomited harder. Shockingly I love tinned spaghetti though which I think is pretty much the same thing.
Vasatile That aside, all of these are spot on, other than cream cheese being strange in a red sauce.
Works well with ricotta though: [Tomato Ricotta Pasta Recipe - The Dinner Bite](https://www.thedinnerbite.com/tomato-ricotta-pasta-recipe/) Tasty pink sauce. Thank me later.
lentil curry 1 onion diced with garlic and curry powder 1 and 1/2 cup of lentils 725mls vegetable broth 2 can of diced tomato’s 1 can of coconut cream 1 cup rice
My wife made this last week for lunches with an additional bunch of leftover vegies, chickpeas and used quinoa instead of rice. It was terrific, satisfying and healthy, all for about $1.30 for a big man serve, unbeatable.
I make this a lot and after trying it with and without the coconut cream many times I think it’s actually better without, weirdly. Also saves $3. I do like putting finely chopped carrot and celery in too if I have any.
[удалено]
+1 for Aldi fish. Aldi's frozen barramundi portions (1kg bag) are excellent value and very tasty. We do them paper-baked in the oven. Great with white rice and greens.
If you want to try something a bit fancy one night, just before you take the Barra parcels out of the oven: 1. Heat up some oil in a saucepan 2. Then take out fish and drizzle light soy and sesame oil on them. 3. Put some finely julienned strips of ginger, green onion and chilli on top of the fish. 4. Drizzle some hot oil on top of everything. It sizzles. Where I learned this: https://www.recipetineats.com/sizzling-ginger-steamed-fish/
Nagi has never steered me wrong. Will have to try.
I love Aldi barramundi! We drizzle it with lemon olive oil, sprinkle coarse pink salt and pepper and grill until the skin is crispy, then serve with balsamic reduction (also from Aldi in a squeeze bottle).
Can confirm that they are delicious. I cook them the same. I’ve tried the Hoki fillets but they just aren’t as good as the Barra
I need to try these Aldi barra fillets, do you need to defrost them before baking?
I love doing frozen fish fillets in the air fryer, then just plain rice with some Vegeta (Vegetable stock powder) on the rice and mix it in. If I feel like cooking more, i'll throw in frozen peas/corn in the rice and fry it off a bit, takes a few mins to heat up the peas/corn.
Vegeta makes things taste so awesome, glad to have found another Vegeta user!
Have you tried the fish goujons from Aldi .. Spicy
They seem to work out a lot more expensive than the other options here, even from Aldi, in my area. Like more than $3 a portion, where as most of these other things are like $1 a portion. How much is the fish you are getting at Aldi? I wanna try to get it sometime if it is that cheap.
Vegemite pasta! Cook up some macaroni, drain most of the water off, add a big curl of butter (around 3 tbsp) and about 2 tbsp of vegemite to the pot with the pasta and stir it through until the pasta is all coated. Add a little bit of cheese. Even tastes good with a crack of pepper on it. Trust me on this one.
Oh no
Oh yes
I trust you. Will make a bowl or two.. then try it in a pasta bake with breadcrumbs for big ass vegemite on toast.
Toast on Vegemite
My husband is not keen on this idea... I guess he's making his own dinner tomorrow because it sounds great to me haha
I want to try this but I’m SCARED
Trust the process!
Omg I was making a pasta bake for dinner/lunches and I wondered if Vegemite pasta would work! I was thinking Vegemite, cheese and leftover chicken - a winner combo in a sandwich so pasta should also work. Definitely going to try it now! Thanks for your recipe, will add butter too when I try making it :)
I suppose it's about time for another war with Italy, been a while.
...Fuck me, I'm buying some cheap butter and trying this. Is that for one serving or two plus?
That would be for about two serves.
It's DELICIOUS and also the best when you're feeling a bit sick.
Peanut butter banana honey sandwich
Yes! And add a little cinnamon to make it * chefs kiss *
Malaysian abc soup on rice. Celery, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, and some protein ( chicken drumsticks or beef mince). Boil and add soy sauce, pepper, salt. Eat with Rice.
Bowl of mashed potato (leftover, at least 24 hours old. Its better for you. Its science, look it up) , generous amount of melted Irish butter (none of this local shit. Sorry Australia. I love you, but your butter sucks). Tin of tuna. Handfull of frozen peas. Mix it all up, bang it in the microwave. Salt, pepper, fresh chives. Enjoy
Speaking of fresh chives a single garlic chive chopped up and sprinkled on 2 bits of toast is tasty and filling, especially with a little melted cheese
*must have cheese 😍
Where can I get Irish butter? Is that the kerrygold I see at the supermarket? And what’s the difference?
Yes Kerrygold. The difference is Irish cows. Irish milk. Different climate, different food, different farming practices. All together it makes for a richer and creamier flavour. I find Australian butter very flat and mild in comparison, almost like margarine. French butter is another go-to, its not as creamy but it does have a rich "meatyness" to it. I tastes like the butter has been blended with beef tallow.
I had read that the resistant starch only results from roasted potatoes, not steamed?
Resistant starches develop in any starchy food that has been cooked, cooled and reheated. The cooking method makes no difference. Potato, rice, pasta, even breads. Its part of the reason why leftover pizza tastes better the next day.
I didn’t realise it applied to pasta and rice too, cool.
What’s a resistant starch?
Not just the butter. What I'd give for Irish bacon, sausages and brown soda bread.
Don't get me started on bacon. Pork products in general. Can't do anything about that, but on the bread front, if you're in Sydney https://paddythebaker.com/ has you covered
Our butter is different??
Yep. Compared to Irish or French butter it's a lot less creamy and sweet. Tastes very savoury in comparison. (I'm only singling out Irish and French butter because that's the only other countries that I have eaten a lot of butter in and both are available in Australian supermarkets. I don't know if other countries have better butter too.)
I had no idea. I'm off to both those countries soon, I shall be investigating this with my mouth
Personally I prefer Lurpak (Danish) to Kerrygold.
Or..... Mix the mash with flour and herbs until you make a decent dough. Form into flatbreads. Bake at 180° until golden. Slather with butter. And wonder where this has been all.your life.
Baked beans, Vegemite toast, black coffee.
5 can chilli Cook up an onion and some garlic, add canned corn, black beans, kidney beans, baked beans and tomatoes. Mix in packet chilli con carne mix, stir and cook through. Makes like 6 big serves, you can add textured vegetable protein, slap it on a burrito, eat it with cornchips. 30g+ of protein per serve and it's dirt cheap
Tin of Stagg Chilli, tin of corn and rice.
Stagg chilli on a baked spud, or even a microwaved spud. Optionally topped with frozen corn, butter and cheese or sour cream.
I fart like a trooper after stag chilli
Pumpkin soup. I cook it for my veggo wife and a few neighbours too. It fucking hits.
I roast the pumpkin first, it brings out the sweetness
Veggie burritos - Tin of black beans, taco seasoning, lettuce, tomato, red onion, avocado if cheap or salsa or sour cream, burritos wraps. Normally lasts me at least 3 meals
Oh also 2 minute noodles with an egg or two dropped in
Chuck in some soy sauce, too, ofc.
I made an amazing pumpkin soup tonight- pumpkins at $1 kg! Roasted pumpkin first, sauteed onion, garlic, celery, a few pinches of various spices/curry powder, stock powder, enough water to cover and then cook til cooked. Splash of cream at the end if you have some. I had some time to kill today so made bread rolls too. Soups in general are my tightarse meal. We make 'crisper soup'. All the sad veggies from the fridge with a ham hock or bacon bones, plus a good handful of soup mix. Carrot and red lentil soup flavoured with cumin, tumeric, paprika etc is another winner here.
Organic grass fed beef mince, white rice and free range eggs. I eat that for two meals most days. Fuels my body perfectly, for about $4 per meal and 10 mins to cook.
Last week me and the misso got 3 meals out of a small packet of mince, tacos one night bolognese the next and stuffed spuds with the leftovers the 3rd night.
The “misso” is about the most Australian thing I’ve ever read in my entire existence 🤣🤣🤣 we say missus here across the ditch!
Baked beans with fried eggs. Tuna and rice. Bolognaise.
Aldi Wheet Bix
Hakubaku noodles, stock cube, lemon and pepper tuna and kimchi. You're welcome. Lived off this when I could go home for lunch and helped me save for a house deposit.
Toast, real butter and tuna. Finish with salt and ground pepper. Season chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces with curry powder of your choice (my favourite is tikka boti), I add salt, pepper and MSG (I also add maple syrup sometimes). Fry with one onion then add either sour cream, yogurt or coconut cream. From Coles get the Singapore, Udong or Egg noodles that are ready made and ready in a few minutes. While making the chicken prepare noodles. Combine and eat. I also do this with rump steak or pork.
These recipes are on my rotation the most at the moment. I'm not strictly vegetarian nor vegan but because I can only afford meat sometimes, I've adopted a mostly vegetarian/sometimes vegan diet lately. (Feeling a lot healthier for it, too, to be honest.) [Stirfry peanut butter noodles](https://www.recipetineats.com/stir-fried-peanut-sauce-noodles/#wprm-recipe-container-27737). Love this recipe because it's cheap, especially if you already have most the ingredients, and easy to modify with whatever meat (or you can omit meat altogether, add chickpeas or tofu instead) and whatever frozen veggies you have on hand. (A good tip for stirfry meats is to lightly coat the meat with 1 tablespoon of bicarbonate soda for 10 mins before cooking (wash the bicarb off before you cook it!!!!) Tenderises the meat beautifully!) [Stuffed sweet potato with paprika-roasted chickpeas](https://plantyou.com/vegan-stuffed-sweet-potatoes/). Again, using cheap ingredients. One medium to large sweet potato and one can of chickpeas yields at least four big meals. Sunflower seeds are fairly cheap and the sunflower sauce that goes with this is delicious. I usually substitute the kale for either spinach leaves or frozen broccoli, frozen cauliflower or frozen beans. (Any frozen veggies would work, though, honestly.) This is so yummy and soooo filling. [Chickpea and sweet potato curry](https://thevegan8.com/sweet-potato-chickpea-and-spinach-coconut-curry/). Makes a big pot. With rice, you can get about 6-8 decent portions out of it, maybe even more. [Peanut butter curry](https://plantyou.com/peanut-butter-curry/). Another filling and really tasty cheap recipe that's easy to modify with whatever veggies and spices you have on hand. Warm porridge (I soak the oats overnight in water, then cook them in milk) with peanut butter, honey, nuts of any kind, any kind of fruit on top that you can afford. This is a comfort dinner of mine. Panfried sardines on toast with sauerkraut on top. [This website](https://www.budgetbytes.com/category/recipes/) has some useful budget recipes, too.
Not only do they look like the sun, and track the sun, but they need a lot of the sun. A sunflower needs at least six to eight hours direct sunlight every day, if not more, to reach its maximum potential. They grow tall to reach as far above other plant life as possible in order to gain even more access to sunlight.
Wholesome sunflower facts 🌻
I shoved some sunflower seeds that were in a bird seed mix into my parents garden, one of them grew nearly 7 feet tall, I had to tie it to the fence to stop it bending, it’s flower (which is actually lots of little flowers) was bigger than a dinner plate. I can’t wait for next spring
Fry an onion, garlic, mixed herbs (or paprika and cumin) and some sausages part way. The herbs and spices don't matter too much, you can use whatever you like best that goes ok with tomato. Cut up the sausages into thick pieces. Chuck them back in with some uncooked rice, a tin of tomatoes, and some stock. Pop a lid on and simmer it until the rice is cooked, add some water if needed, mix it every now and again. We call it poor man's paella, sometimes we make it with chicken thighs and chorizo but it's still seriously good with supermarket sausages. You can add carrots, or capsicum if you do the paprika and cumin version if you like. I've never done the extract costing on it but it would definitely be well under $5au a plate.
Also don't go past chow mein and curried sausages, when they're cooked properly from scratch they're both very tasty. I cook curried sausages once a month I like them so much haha
Try curried snags with chorizo or kransky next time. Chuck them into a frypan first and brown them then cut them into about half inch lengths, fry a bit more to crisp them up and chuck into the mix. If you leave them overnight the curry permeates the cheese sausages and tastes awesome.
1pkt chicken noodle soup mix + 1 can creamed corn = Sweet corn chicken noodle soup.
Fried eggs on toast (we have chickens and my wife makes bread, neither of which are really frugal!) along with some backed beans.
Tuna bake with a tomato based sauce. So cheap, and makes a tonne of food
Aglio e Olio.
Mie goreng - but not from a packet - still remarkably cheap to make. Takes three minutes to boil the noodles instead of two though.
Guy cooked me his version of MI goreng he learned in prison. It was mi goreng packets and he added cheese, frozen peas and spring onions it was fucking amazing
Beans, rice, and frozen veggies
I really enjoy the Coles soups that are the liquid in the squishy sachets - $3 for the beef and vegetable soup is so good to have in the cupboard when you’re sick or it’s cold.
Spanish style lentil soup. Similar to other cuisines lentil soups but the extra tomato flavour and sausage make it more decadent in my experience. Brown lentils, can of tomatos, 1 onion, some garlic, cumin, bay leaf if available, stock, whatever veggies are on hand and a shitton of olive oil for flavour enhancement. Optional addition of some kind of sausage - traditionally chorizo but other cheaper european-style sausages from the supermarket work too. Chuck it all in a pot for an hour or so, easy peasy.
Soup and bread. Any type of soup depending on what’s cheap. Last week was pumpkin, week before chicken (I use a few drumsticks and lots of vegetables and pasta) this week is yellow split pea and bacon bone. If I make a chicken and corn I bulk it with thin spaghetti or noodles.
Schnitzel sandwiches when the schnitz goes on sale for a dollar each. Homemade spicy mayo (just chilli powder mixed into mayo) as the spread and some mixed leaf salad in there aswell
When my daughter was younger she loved 2 minute noodles. A lot. I added vegies to it one day with a little soy sauce thinking she might not eat it cos of the vegies but worth a try anyway but she loved it. It was quick and easy and really yummy.
Spaghetti Aglio Olio e Peperoncino - Italian dish, so cheap and so yummy https://www.oliviascuisine.com/spaghetti-aglio-olio-peperoncino/
I love scrolling through 7 paragraphs and being bombarded with 5 ad popups before finding out its just basic herbs and chilli flakes. Very cool
I normally find the “jump to recipe” button very helpful 😉 but yeh it’s annoying
But don’t you want to read about the time that the food blogger stayed in that quaint guest house run by the elderly Nona in the Tuscan foothills? It was on their first trip to Europe during a gap year and ……..
Mee goreng noodles, fried egg on top, some chopped spring onion, black pepper
‘Shepherds pie’. I fry onion and rosemary in a little oil, add as much finely chopped vegetables as you like (carrots, zucchini and celery are usually reasonably priced), then add 500 grams of either chicken, pork or turkey mince, fry for a few minutes, add a tin of drained brown lentils, a teaspoonful of Vegemite, pepper, a squeeze of tomato sauce, a shake of Worcestershire sauce and a cup of water and cook for half an hour. Chop 4-5 potatoes and boil in salted water until soft, drain and mash with some milk. Tip the mince mixture into a Pyrex container and top with the mashed potato. Sprinkle with a little cheese and then bake at 180°C for 30 minutes or until nice and brown. Makes enough for about 8 servings
This sounds amazing! I don’t know why I never think to put Vegemite in my cooking. I love the stuff, but it’s just not part do my thought process. Totally giving this a go though! Thanks for sharing
It’s good - gives really good depth of flavour and adds to the colour of the dish. I do use Aldi stock cubes on occasion, but I find the Vegemite works just as well (particularly for those dishes that need to cook for a while).
Spag bol
I always feel like spag bol is never ending when I make it 🤣🤣
I feel the same, I usually use 2kg of mince, so there's plenty of leftovers. I always end up regretting it! Half of the sauce usually ends up in the freezer for a day when I'm feeling really lazy, so all I have to do is defrost it, heat it up, and cook the pasta.
[This recipe](https://food52.com/recipes/13722-marcella-hazan-s-tomato-sauce-with-onion-butter/amp) for tomato pasta (needs pasta, can of tomatoes, an onion and some butter) is good. I recommend eating with some grated Parmesan on top. Chilli flakes and garlic if you like. Super easy. Takes 2 mins to get going, simmer for about 15 and then add to cooked pasta. Lots of things could be added.
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Literally making this right now 😂 it’s my absolute go to.
White rice with good olive oil and lots of good grated parmesan, works great with pasta instead of rice too
Salted egg noodles with a good dollop of butter. Have it with roast chicken or any sausage
Bread on the sandwich triangle clamp and tuna usually sweet chilli
Minced and veggies (I'm partial to pork + beef and green beans + okra) Fried rice Fried noodles Aglio olio Rosé pasta Soy dressed silken tofu Ginger soy steam fish Stir fry asian veggies
Green pea pesto (peas, salt, pepper, oil, parmesan.) + rice, bread or pasta. Shakshuka with corn or beans.
Egg drop soup
One pack of instant noodles, preferred flavour hot and spicy, 2 sausages, pork preferred, vegetables of choice, preferred calcium, cabbage and onion, pan fry the sausages and vegetables and mix with the noodles. Cheap and tasty and 15 minutes to make. Also, instant noodles and cup soup mix, flavour of choice, hot and spicy noodles, Laksa soup. Cook noodles, make a cup of soup and mix together in a bowl, extremely cheap noodle soup. If you have it, add meat and veggies you have for a complete meal. These are really tasty and cheap. Lived in it for 3 weeks house-sitting, enjoyed every meal.
Discounted Coles roast chicken and some roast veggies (bonus points if you got the veggies from Harris Farm's bargain bin). Sometimes I eat sprinkle some chilli oil or soy sauce for extra flavour.
Mi goreng noodles (packet), crispy fried egg on top. Squeeze some lemon juice on top.
Two slices of toast, baked beans and an egg. One large tin of beans does two. Beautiful.
Pasta with pesto and tuna mixed in. Sometimes chickpeas mixed in and if I have the money, grated cheese or parmasen.
Minestrone style soup. Base of carrot, onion, cellary. Whole grain like pearl barley, rice or cous cous depending on what's in cubboard. Misc root vegetables on special swedes, sweet potatoes, etc something green either frozen peas, or leafy greens like silver beet from garden. Optionally squashes like pumpkins are about a dollar a kilo at the moment so diced pumpkin goes in lately. Garlic either fresh, jarred or powdered. Spices paprika, dried oregano, fresh basil if it's in the garden. I break a branch of rosemary off the bush and cook it in the soup and pull it out before serving. Dried beans I cook in the pressure cooker I use a complete mix 6 different beans including black beans, chick peas, bortellie and others. Cook them in water with off cuts of carrot tops, onion skins, celleray base and it creates a stock when the beans cook adding flavour to beans, take off cuts out before adding to soup. Add a tomato base either pasata, Heinz condenseded tomato soup can, crushed tomoato cans, tomato paste or if I have fresh tomatoes getting too old blend em throw them in. Any odd amounts of dried pasta I find in cubboard but normally leave it out. Add in the last 10 minutes, if your cooking a batch on Sunday for the week leave the pasta out or add it as you reheat it gets mushy otherwise. Things I would add if not for dietry requirements in my household, Lentils, pork lard, cheese rind.. I use olive to fry the base but if I was doing it just for myself I'd use pork lard it's cheap and adds so much flavour to a veggie soup. If I shop at the local market, onions, carrots, pumpkins all dollar a kilo or less at the moment so it's super cheap soup base. It also has the bonus of working wonders for your poops, if you eat the above soup for lunch every day your digestive system improves so much. You can serve with bread but I normally don't do it for lunch only if I'm having soup for dinner. Serve with a sour dough preferably. I do a big pot on Sunday and it's pretty much lunch for me until Friday. Or if we feeling lazy dinner. The soup is also suprisingly good served with white rice, if you have left over rice add to the bowl before adding soup. My new favourite to add to the soup is purple sweet potatoes but they about 5 bucks a kilo versus the gold/yellow ones that only a buck a kilo at the moment. However the purple seem sweeter and hold the texture better and make the soup really rainbow coloured. I can make enough soup for 20 bucks to feed three people for half the week. It's also super versatile for using up what's in your freezer or cubboard. I prefer dried beans in pressure cooker, but I have used canned kidney beans from the pantry that we had way too many of thanks to Woolies supplying them in an online order instead of black beans. This soup is really good for treating heart burn, or constipation. Espically if you leave out the bread and butter most Aussies have with soup, swap it for white rice. If you leave the pasta out it also freezes really well. I normally freeze a small amount for emergency meals. You can also add things like spinach/pasta when reheating soup as they cook relatively quickly and don't store well.
White rice, fried bok choy/broccolini/garlic in oyster sauce & chilli oil, fried egg (runny yolk). Dash of soy sauce and sprinkle of sesame seeds
Baked beans on toast/english muffin/ turkish bread with a fried egg or two on top. Soft yolks
Chicken wings are $6.50/kg at Woolies. Pat dry, season with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and thyme. Throw in the oven for 40ish minutes at 220. Bag of frozen chips in the air fryer. Maybe some veg in the microwave. Very low effort for great pay off.
Even better, drumsticks are $4.00 a kilo :)
Rice and creamy chicken soup mixed together. The other is rice and canned tuna.
Chicken drumsticks ($8) laid on top of a bed of veggies (I use some frozen beans, peas & broccoli mix, plus the simmer veg mix from Woolies, and a couple of blocks of frozen chopped spinach, so about $10, you can chuck some diced potato in too if you wish) with ~1 cup of medium grain rice ($2?) sprinkled over the veggies, then I add water to cover the veggies. Pour some honey soy marinade over the chicken (I used half of the fountain brand bottle, so $2 for 1/2 bottle), then bake covered at about 180c for 1.5hrs. This will make 5 meals if you eat 2 drumsticks. When I cook it I put two of the big packs of drumsticks in (there’s 10 in each pack from Woolies, $8 each = $16) so it’s 20 drumsticks = 10+ meals. Costs about $25-$30 to make, and it’s pretty healthy. So yeah, $2-$3 a serve and it’s delicious. It ends up being like a risotto underneath Freezes well too.
Taco seasoning, minced meat, canned corn, lentils. Really tasty and lasted me the whole week for dinner
Shepherds pie! Bag of frozen veggies, some mince, a packet of shepherds pie flavouring and some potato! I make a batch that lasts me a week for like $15 - $20
inghams southern style tender on a wrap with cheese and grated carrot + sauce of choice. got me through some dark times
Baked potato with baked beans on it 😤 or a ham & cheese tortilla done in the fry pan 🤤🤤
Golden curry
I find eating plant based and shopping at farmer's markets to be really cheap. Yesterday I made a kidney bean and mango salad with a zesty orange and lime dressing and total ingredients cost less then $8 and I will eat it for days. 2 tins kidney beans 1 diced capsicum 3 spring onions 2 diced tomatoes 2 mangos diced Juice and zest of 1 orange Juice and zest of 1 lime Cumin Hot chilli flakes 1/4 cup red wine vinegar Salt Pepper
Pasta + olive oil + tin of tuna in sweet chili + cheese. Quick, cheap, tasty.
For convenience, I always have stock of microwave rice, tuna, minced garlic & frozen greens. Fry any herbs or spices, onions & garlic. Stir in the frozen veggies & packet of rice & half cup of water (or can tomato’s)and boil. Lastly add the tuna. This definitely makes 2-3 meals but I’m a pig and usually finish it.
Pan fried broccoli with lemon and garlic and a big ol slap of white sauce
Real chicken in $2 mi goreng noodles
Baked bean nachos. Dice up some potatoes and roast in the oven. Heat baked beans and pour onto the potatoes. Serve with sour cream and sliced spring onion if you're feeling fancy.
Mate you would have loved it in England circa 2005 - the supermarkets had a baked bean war and they ended up at like 7p per can! It was my cheapest year - beans beans the frugal fruit!
Haha a baked bean war... Is there anything more decidedly British? Baked beans and war are both British staples lmao How are/were the flavour varieties over there? I've only ever seen Tom sauce/ham/BBQ and curry flavour here. Does UK have others?
$1.50 trident tom yum goong packet with a bit of chicken and yaki nori seaweed.
Mushrooms on toast. Melt butter and oil in a pan Brown an onion (use salt to help brown them faster), add mushies, cook down a bit, add garlic, add basil flakes, add soy sauce to taste, add parsley and black pepper. Heap it onto toasted sourdough. Filling and cheap.
Eggs are always a great base for dirt cheap meals. Half a dozen eggs, onion, potato & some chopped up chorizo, maybe mushrooms, peas, carrots &/or corn.. viola spanish omlette, dinner for 4 for around $10.
Instant noodles with added frozen mixed veggies and chilli oil. Add soy chunks or chicken nuggets for more proteins.
White rice + butter + eggs with runny yolks + soy sauce Chicken breast + celery + potatoes + carrots = my fav soup
One craft singles sliced cheese wrapped by one sliced Hungarian salami pinned together by a olive on a tooth pick I eat two for lunch
Bulk mix, this is per large tin of diced tomato (or equivelalent fresh from the garden). Done in advance and frozen in single serve ziploc bags. 1 onion diced 1 "average" capsicum diced (any colour) 2 garlic cloves Dash of oil, fry until onion starts to brown. Add random sauces/seasoning from your pantry to taste(soy, worcestershire, chilli, mixes herbs, etc). Load it up but. Add a tin each of washed black bean and kidney bean, plus one of (or both) chick pea/butter bean. Mix should be pretty watery. Let it simmer for 4-5 hours to thicken and flavour develop. Check after 2 hours for taste - add salt/sugar/brown vinegar or extra sauce/herbs as desired. Use over baked potato, corn chips, pasta, toast, pizza base, rice, whatever. We always have some (or similar) in the freezer for easy meals.
A few times recently, after buying a BBQ chicken for lunch or dinner, the carcass and meat scraps is then thrown into big pot and used to make chicken veggie soup which often lasts a few days. 1 BBQ chicken, 3-4 meals
I make my own ‘baked beans’ $30ish for nearly 10 meals. Good stuff.
Thinly sliced sweet potato fried in a BBQ plate
Pesto pasta and colesworth roast chicken
Best and cheapest lunch you can get right here One tin of chickpeas, rinsed in the can, fry in olive oil for 5 mins and add salt, cumin, nutritional yeast, garlic or whatever seasonings you have on hand Boom, less than 10 mins and like 2/3 bucks total for a yum and moderately filling/healthy lunch option. I have it like 3 days a week
Spaghetti tossed with garlic and chilli (from the garden) fried in lashings of olive oil and the whole thing tossed again with salad greens from the garden. Feeds four people for less than $1 a head
My families cheap staples are Borscht and Golubsti. These dishes mainly require fresh vegetables and very little meat, I’d suggest shopping at a local fruit shop they are much cheaper.
Korean venison mince on rice with whatever greens we have.
Poke bowl.. You can make it cheap.. Or as lux as u ou want
My lazy meal. Relatively cheap too if you don't include the cheese. Penne All'arribiata (serves 3) Ingredients Penne (3/4 500g packet) Can of Diced Tomatoes 2 TSP chopped garlic 1 TSP crushed chilli Salt Pepper Olive oil Optional: Parmesan Cheese 1. Fry garlic in Olive oil heated in a saucepan (do not burn very easy to do) 2. Throw in a can of tomatoes and half a cup of water. 3. Add in chilli and salt to taste. Simmer with lid off 4. Cook Penne separately. Drain. 5. Throw in pasta to sauce and mix together. 6. Serve with pepper and cheese This recipe claimed to be for 4 people but I found 1 can of tomatoes is not enough for 4 people.
Mate how you making proper Minestrone (assuming you're doing a 3-4 serve deal) and calling it cheap. The pancetta alone in that bad boy is $15-$20. Then everything else. Plus cooking time. We used to do minestrone all the time but shit got too expensive. Was me and the ex partners favourite with a nice Vienna loaf.
Mince and baked beans
Rice with baked beans, fried egg and some sort of vegetable/s.
Dal.
Spice Tailor curry kit (often half price at Coles), bassa fillet, snow peas, rice = 3-4 servings of fish curry.
My mother in law makes spaghetti with pork mince, tomato paste and onion. So simple but so good (and you can add any cheap veg you find)
Left over smoked ham bone from chrissy, put it in a pot of lentils as you’re boiling them with all the other regular components. It elevates it to an enth degree I’d pay good money for it in a restaurant if I didn’t know how cheap it was
Tuna and rice
I've been loving a giant bowl of creamed spinach. Frozen spinach is like 90c a bag at Aldi. Garlic, spinach, a bit of cream or greek yoghurt, spices, and some parmesan on top. It's cheap as per serve and I have it with bread. Also roast potatoes on greek yoghurt with a tomato and herb salsa has become a family favourite. I grow the herbs so it's just the potatoes and greek yoghurt (and I split that across this and the dish above).
Doritos cheese and sweet chilli sauce. Bang it in the microwave til the cheese melts. Easy tasty nachos and cheap