What are some good cheap dinners to cook at home?!
What are some good cheap dinners to cook at home?
My girlfriend and I like oriental cooking and also Spanish/Italian cooking, but we have recently hit a rut of cooking the same dishes over and over. Does anybody have any good ideas for dinners to prepare at home which are preferrably quite cheap to make?
My current favourite is spaghetti carbonara, which is extremely cheap and delicious - is there anything else like this?
Many thanks!
Answers: I came across this rural dish in Portugal and its full of flavour and very cheap.
Boil some new potatoes and put into a large dish with chopped spring onions, tuna, black olives and mayonnaise. You could also add anchovies, roasted peppers etc. Lovely with crusty warm rolls. How about rahmen noodles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ramen... chips from ur local chippy!!!!! emmmmm lol Chicken Chow mein is easily prepared and inexpensive. Recenty I used bacon instead of chicken. do a hot tuna pasta meal...grate cheese over the top with a little cumin, grill till the top is brown and you have a nice tuna pasta bake buy some sauages and remove the skin, break them into meatball shapes.
sauce:
cut a pepper, an onion a can of chopped tomatoes, herbs and a chicken stock cube,
put meatballs and sauce in a pot and leave to cook, eat with pasta. lovely! Hamburger helpers or chicken helpers......
lol. chicken breasts w/Cream of mushroom (healthy request) on top. you could add cheese, parsley, veggies, anything you like. serve over rice or pasta. lasagna. make it with sausage and pepperoni. yum. i find anything with pasta is quite cheap cos it will go with most things and asda do a giant bag of pasta for ￡1.48!!! Corned beef pie. Tin of corned beef, some onions, cook together in a pan with a few oxo cubes. Add a bit of gravy powder to thicken up the sauce. Top with mash potatoe and serve with vegetables. Its really nice, and reallly cheap!! get a good crockpot recipe book, you can find italian food, and pretty much everything! Also everythings pretty cheap:-) try chicken spegtti its awesome and theres many diffrent ways to make it i use 3 to four chix brst spegtti perferrably thin,3/4 of a lrg velvetta processed chesse box, can of drained rotell spicy,hot,mild 1 can cream of mushroom soup, boil water add chix brst cook until done about 25 mins rolling boil,dont discard the water use this chix broth to cook spegtti noodles in. cook speggtti chop up chix into bite size piecesand chesse also into bite size pieces t hen u need a baking dish or pan put speggtti and chesse and chick and rotel,soup into casserole and bake for 45 mins in a 350 oven delicious Anything which uses mince as a base will be a cheap option - e.g. spag bol, maybe a shepherd's pie, a pasta bake. To make it really economical make a big batch and then freeze extra portions. It might seem like hard work at the time, but you'll be very grateful during the middle of the week when you can't be bothered to cook! in stead if a white heavy sauce try with your pasta, pesto add garlic basil and olive oil blend and add crushed nuts just at the end. Well mince is cheap and there are lots of things to make with mince such as Spag Bol, Chilli, burgers or shepherd pie etc.
Stew beef is cheap and is delicious if cooked slowly in the oven or a slow cooker. Mixed with veg (frozen or fresh), gravy and herbs you've got a delicious nutritious meal. Experimentation is the key. Leftovers can be chucked into an omelette, add a little chilli. No end to cheap meals. Hot Dog's, hamburger's, breakfast for dinner, mac & cheese, soup,
chicken tender's & fries, ETC,ETC,ETC. A very easy and delicious recipe for pasta with alfredo sauce:
1 bar of cream cheese
1/2 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 cup milk (you can use more or less depending on how thick you want the sauce to be)
Garlic powder, salt & pepper to taste
8 oz. pasta
Cook pasta to desired tenderness by boiling according to directions on package.
In the meantime, cut the cream cheese into cubes, add the butter (or margarine), parmesan and milk to a large skillet. Cook over medium heat until smooth.
Drain the pasta and pour it into the pan with the sauce. Stir until the pasta is evenly coated.
Serve hot with garlic bread and maybe a caesar salad.
You can also add cooked cubed chicken or cooked shrimp if you'd like to add some protein.
If you're feeding more than 3-4 people you will probably want to double the recipe. Sautéed Chicken with Lemon Garlic Sauce
1 T. olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
2 chicken breast halves
salt, pepper
1/2 C. chicken broth
1/2 C. pitted kalamata or other intensely flavored olives
1 T. lemon juice
1 C. cooked rice, optional
Heat oil in medium skillet. Add garlic and saute over medium heat 1 minute. Add chicken, seasoned with salt and pepper to taste, and brown 5 minutes per side.
Remove chicken. Pour in broth and scrape up any browned bits. Return chicken to skillet along with olives. Cover and simmer 30 minutes. Remove chicken and keep warm. Add lemon juice and cook down liquids by a third. Return chicken to pan to heat through.
To serve, spoon chicken and skillet sauce onto each of 2 plates. Serve rice on the side.
Makes 2 servings.
Chicken Oriental
12 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breasts ( or turkey breast)
1/3 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Nonstick spray coating
1 (16 ounce) package frozen Oriental vegetables
1 tablespoon cooking oil
3 cups hot cooked rice
Cut chicken in to bite size strips.
Stir together, orange juice, soy sauce, cornstarch, brown sugar, and ginger in a bowl and set aside. Spray skillet with nonstick spray, preheat over medium heat. Add vegetables; stir fry 4 to 5 minutes, remove from skillet.
Pour oil into skillet and add the chicken; stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes or until the chicken is tender and no longer pink.
Push chicken away from center of skillet and pour in the sauce.
Cook until thickened and bubbly. Add vegetables back in the skillet, stir to coat all ingredients with sauce.
Cook about 1 minute more or until heated through. Serve over rice.
SERVES 4
Pork and Peach Stir Fry Recipe
1 lb. pork tenderloin, cut into cubes
1 T. vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 each green and red bell pepper, cut into cubes
1 (19 oz.) can peach slices packed in own juice
1/4 C. rice vinegar
2 T. soy sauce
2 T. cornstarch
Sauté pork in hot oil in a large skillet until browned on all sides. Add onion, garlic and peppers; cook and stir until onion is softened.
Drain peach slices, reserving juice. Add cornstarch in peach juice; stir until completely smooth. Stir in rice vinegar and soy sauce. Add to pork mixture in skillet. Cook and stir until mixture comes to a boil and is thickened. Add peach slices to skillet; cook and stir until peaches are heated through.
Serve with freshly cooked rice.
Serves 4. There's so much you can make that's both quick and easy!
This recipe is a favorite of my boyfriend and I because it makes for an awesome lunch the next day.
Chicken Dill Couscous
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup uncooked couscous
2 cups chopped ready-to-eat roasted skinned, boned chicken breasts (about 2 breasts)
1 1/2 cups fresh steamed or frozen corn
1 cup diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh or 2 teaspoons dried dill
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 clove of Garlic per chicken breast mashed up fine with some salt.
Preparation
Saute diced chicken and garlic in a fry pan until cooked. Deglaze the pan with a little white wine or chicken stock.
Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan; gradually stir in couscous. Remove from heat; cover and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Spoon the couscous into a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients; toss well.
PASTA
Orecchiette with sausage and broccoli rabe
This is your classic "A little of this a little of that" recipe. Honestly, you can't botch it.
Orecchiette
Broccoli rabe or a bag of spinach
Hot Italian Turkey sausage
1/4 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup of white wine
1 clove garlic (minced)
1/2 cup onion
extra virgin olive oil
hot pepper flakes to taste
Squeeze of lemon juice
1. Boil up your pasta.
2. remove the casing from the sausage and fry it up in the olive oil with the onion and garlic. When browned up nicely, add in the rabe (or spinach), and add a little chicken stock and lemon juice to steam it up nicely.
4. Add remaining ingredients and add in the pasta.
Toss and serve with some parmigiana cheese.
You can also add up some diced tomatoes and other steamed veg to the dish including asparagus, which is nice.
Enjoy! Pasta peas and ham
1 bag of your favorite tortellini pasta
1 small bag frozen peas
1 lb cubed ham
1 jar of Bertolli Alfredo sauce
Cook pasta according to directions, add frozen peas to the pasta for the last 7 or 8 minutes of cooking time, drain, put back in pot. While pasta and peas are cooking, heat sauce and ham in a sauce pan. Mix together and top with Parmesan cheese. Fast delicious and cheap. You can always change the meat around for a different texture for your spaghetti. Try chicken breasts cooked in olive oil and garlic and cut into pieces, ground chicken, or ground pork.
Also check Kraftfood.com they always have good easy recipes.
Good luck! Spaghetti puttanesca is very cheap and extremely tasty. 'Puttanesca' refers to the fact that apparently, Italian prostitutes used to love this dish. (You may be interested to know that carbonara was apparently invented after WW2 when American GIs demanded that Italian cooks make them something to eat with all the cream and bacon they had in their rations...)
For puttanesca sauce you need an onion, a tin of tomatoes, a clove of garlic, a handful of black olives, a jar of capers, a tin of anchovies, a glass of white wine and some dried chilli peppers, the smaller the better. You also need olive oil.
Chop the onion finely and soften in the olive oil. Chop the garlic finely and add, along with one chopped dried chilli pepper. (Don't be tempted to add more, this is not blow-your-head-off hot, just perky.)
When the onion and garlic are just beginning to go brown, add at least four or five anchovy fillets and let them dissolve into the onion/garlic/chilli mixture, stirring occasionally to help them do so. This is not about fishiness - the anchovies just intensify everything else. Add too many and it will be too salty.
When the anchovies have more or less dissolved, add the white wine and let it bubble up and reduce by half. Then add the tin of tomatoes. Let it come to a boil, then simmer and cook for about half an hour, spooning off any pink froth that may arise (that's the acid from the tomatoes and will give you indigestion).
Finally, cook the spaghetti the way you like it and, just before serving, add a handful of pitted and roughly chopped black olives and a handful of capers. Toss with the spaghetti. I recommend not adding Parmesan to this, as the cheese together with the anchovies and capers and olives will make the whole thing seem too salty. Let it be what it is, fresh-tasting, hearty, intense and sexy all at the same time. A few chopped fresh basil leaves scattered over the top will be a beautiful addition.
It goes without saying that you should absolutely not add salt unless you've already tasted it and you're convinced that it needs it. It shouldn't, if you've done it right. Besides being very tasty, it's extremely healthy.