I cook a fair bit at home. Fifty-fifty between me and my wife. With the occasional meal thrown in by the kids.
My mum was a very traditional Northern housewife type cook. Home-made pies and stews etc. So I've sort of carried this on.
But as a kid I do remember having 'on toast' teas. Eggs, cheese, sardines.
And we do the same. Scrambled or poached egg on toast, is one of my all time favourites.
So what's your cheapest tea that you have at home?

Typhoo

There's a frozen mix of seafood in a tomato and basil sauce that is VERY nice with some spaghetti. (Sold in Iceland)

It's about £3.50 for the sauce which has all sorts of good seafood - and can easily serve 3/4 people.

So about £1 a portion and lovely.

I just made spag bol for three girls, two boys and me, probably approximately £6.36p. I know they're only small girls but they had good portions, just over £1.05p a portion and it was delicious.

Bertiebeehead wrote:Typhoo

I recently moved from PG to Typhoo after I discovered that the monkeys in the ads from the 70's did no removal work whatsoever. It was purely a gimmick for the purpose of advertising.

Something I haven't had for a while tonight...jam butties I just fancied a couple.query to you halfmanhalf biscuit..where's the user name from??

Beans on toast has to be the cheapest but no doubt some student type will give some concoction for 3p a portion.

Quickenthetempo wrote:Beans on toast has to be the cheapest but no doubt some student type will give some concoction for 3p a portion.

I had my girls at home last week and made them beans on toast for dinner.
Nowt wrong with it.

Cooking is nowt to do wi men - it's women's work. Men are for supping ale and doing the thinking.

morpheus2 wrote:I just made spag bol for three girls, two boys and me, probably approximately £6.36p. I know they're only small girls but they had good portions, just over £1.05p a portion and it was delicious.

Not bad going that, just over six quid for six people.

basil6345789 wrote:Cooking is nowt to do wi men - it's women's work. Men are for supping ale and doing the thinking.

Whilst I concur with the supping ale. Are you sure you're not eating dog food pies?

basil6345789 wrote:Cooking is nowt to do wi men - it's women's work. Men are for supping ale and doing the thinking.

Not much thinking but plenty of supping ale I would suggest.

Beans on toast. Can't beat it. Brown sauce on also.

I often make a hearty veg soup from bags of cheap (1p/bag when they’ve reduced them at the end of the day) root veg from the supermarket - with seasoning and a bit of stock comes in at about 5p/ portion - do a bulk cook and freeze portions. Can’t fault it

Come on guys. Let's get this right. Tea is a brewed beverage. What you're all referring to is supper.

Rick_Muller wrote:I often make a hearty veg soup from bags of cheap (1p/bag when they’ve reduced them at the end of the day) root veg from the supermarket - with seasoning and a bit of stock comes in at about 5p/ portion - do a bulk cook and freeze portions. Can’t fault it

Brilliant.
I often cook up all the root veg and put a pie crust on it.
Equal part flour and grated butter 150/200g touch of salt and cold water.
With roast potatoes.

dermotdermot wrote:Come on guys. Let's get this right. Tea is a brewed beverage. What you're all referring to is supper.

Dinner - 12pm
Tea - 5pm
Supper - before bed
Lunch - no idea?

Ramen noodles with 2 hard boiled eggs cut into quarters, discount leafy greens (procured as above) and tons of hot sauce.
Poor man's pho. About 30 cents.

Well i'm skint this week,so tomorrow i will be taking the misses to KFC where we will lick other peoples fingers.

If we have a Sunday roast - then Monday tea is:
Chicken pasta soup - or Lamb pasta soup etc.
It's just all the leftovers from Sunday including gravy, another stock cube, another onion, a chilli and whatever herbs you have - and 300gramms of dried pasta.
About £1 for four.
Absolutely mint in winter!

Quickenthetempo wrote:Beans on toast has to be the cheapest but no doubt some student type will give some concoction for 3p a portion.

Just eaten that! I am a simple chap.

Roast chicken (organic) Sunday lunch feeds me for a good few days and get great value from. Sunday evening strip all the meat off and boil the carcass. Great stock.. Monday chicken sandwiches for lunch. Then a chicken risotto or pasta dish for evening. That will yeild another two more lunches leftover. Might make a curry and rice for a few portions and freeze it for midweek. And a few portions of soup with the left roast veggies.

£10 for 10-12 meals of great variety and barely much effort. But I love cooking, hate waste and can make something from nothing so my £100 monthly food shop gets me some millage

What do two slices of bread and a packet of Beef Space Raiders come in at price wise?

Boil in the bag kippers. Toast optional but nowt with them for me. Always gorgeous.

Sounds like 100 pound will do you for the year never mind the month criminalclaret utc

criminalclaret wrote:Roast chicken (organic) Sunday lunch feeds me for a good few days and get great value from. Sunday evening strip all the meat off and boil the carcass. Great stock.. Monday chicken sandwiches for lunch. Then a chicken risotto or pasta dish for evening. That will yeild another two more lunches leftover. Might make a curry and rice for a few portions and freeze it for midweek. And a few portions of soup with the left roast veggies.

£10 for 10-12 meals of great variety and barely much effort. But I love cooking, hate waste and can make something from nothing so my £100 monthly food shop gets me some millage

Hats off to you.

No one owning up to 2 pints of lager and a packet of crisps?

Bin Ont Turf wrote:What do two slices of bread and a packet of Beef Space Raiders come in at price wise?

One pack of space raiders makes a measly crisp butty, splash out you tight sod and bang another packet on.

Breakfast - Kippers or Kedgeree
Lunch - Souffle or Omellette
Tea - Light scones/pastries and sandwiches (no crust obviously)
Dinner - only if wearing Black/White Tie and always 8 for 8.30 otherwise it's called Supper

halfmanhalfbiscuit wrote:Dinner - 12pm
Tea - 5pm
Supper - before bed
Lunch - no idea?

Exactly. That’s why they are called dinnerladies, and not lunchladies

Cheapest one that I enjoy making is probably Spaghetti with garlic and olive oil.

400g spaghetti
3 cloves of garlic minced
75ml of Olive Oil
Pinch of Chilli flakes
Parsley
Parmesan or Grana Padano.
Salt/Pepper

1. Boil pasta in well salted water.
2. Gently fry the garlic in the oil with the chilli flakes,
3. Drain pasta and reserve about 50ml of the cooking water.
4. Add pasta to the oil and then add the water, make sure to coat the pasta well in the oil
5. Add the parsley at the end with a generous amount of seasoning and dish up.
6. Finish with grated cheese.

You'll smell of garlic for days but it's delicious and probably costs about 60p a portion.

Cheese and beans on toast. I'm posh, I am.

Meals from growing up in the 60s:-

Chips with oxtail soup poured over the top. Best chip butties you will ever have.
Tinned tomatoes and bacon
Sausage and beans.
Toast and beans with crumbly lancashire cheese over the top and grilled.
Grilled cheese.
Corned beef hash.

2 Holland's puds, from a multipack, smothered in mushy peas. £1.20.

Mrs Broke says Tuna pasta bake comes cheap for four.
Tin of tuna, tin of toms, peppers, onions, pasta twists, herbs, chilli flakes cheese sauce to top.

Plenty of healthy meals for less than a pound, when you use rice, eggs, cabbage, onion, carrots, garlic, and swede.

Cant stand tea if its not made in one of these.

People who make tea in the mug don't know how to make a decent cuppa. Don't care if its milk first or second as long as you can stand a spoon in it!

The best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth. If we were lucky.

eggy bread

bartons baggage wrote:Well i'm skint this week,so tomorrow i will be taking the misses to KFC where we will lick other peoples fingers.

If there is one thing I hate it is food waste. Can't beat leftover meals though. Soups, stews and curries are great.

Some of the best dishes in the world were invented this way. Pizza and bubble & Squeek 2 for starters!

ants_g wrote:Cheese and beans on toast. I'm posh, I am.

Nothing beats this. Nothing.

Quickenthetempo wrote:Beans on toast has to be the cheapest but no doubt some student type will give some concoction for 3p a portion.

Beans or toast is cheaper .

ZizkovClaret wrote:eggy bread

Egg on Toast = Pro

Egg Toast = most awful foul smelling sickly concoction ever made!

claretabroad wrote:The best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth. If we were lucky.

You were lucky.
We used to dream of a damp cloth.

cricketfieldclarets wrote:If there is one thing I hate it is food waste. Can't beat leftover meals though. Soups, stews and curries are great.

Some of the best dishes in the world were invented this way. Pizza and bubble & Squeek 2 for starters!

Me too.
A mate of mine spends a fortune of food and then throws so much of it away it's disgusting.

Broth. Get a bag of broth mix from Cartmells in Padiham other shops sell it but theirs is the best. Home made dumplings and a cheap cut of beef from the butcher. Recipe dead simple cooking dead simple works out about fifty pence per head. Packed with flavour and goodness. Anyone who says my kids have to eat frozen processed food because they are in poverty is just lazy.

bfcjg wrote:Broth. Get a bag of broth mix from Cartmells in Padiham other shops sell it but theirs is the best. Home made dumplings and a cheap cut of beef from the butcher. Recipe dead simple cooking dead simple works out about fifty pence per head. Packed with flavour and goodness. Anyone who says my kids have to eat frozen processed food because they are in poverty is just lazy.

I agree, however I think people sometimes have an issue with time. That said, I'm busy and I still find the time.
You probably can't carry a tenners worth of root veg out of the shop.

halfmanhalfbiscuit wrote:I agree, however I think people sometimes have an issue with time. That said, I'm busy and I still find the time.
You probably can't carry a tenners worth of root veg out of the shop.

My mum worked full time and often our teas were prepared in the morning and cooked slowly over a slow heat stews soups puddings joints etc and when you came in from school the house was full of the most wonderful aromas and I still think of mum when I smell a stew or a broth. Food should envoke happy memories.

bfcjg wrote:My mum worked full time and often our teas were prepared in the morning and cooked slowly over a slow heat stews soups puddings joints etc and when you came in from school the house was full of the most wonderful aromas and I still think of mum when I smell a stew or a broth. Food should envoke happy memories.

I also remember baking day at our house.

Tin of chopped tomatoes - 25p

2 cloves of garlic - 10p?

1 chilli - 10p?

1/3 of a good quality chorizo ring - 80p

enough pasta for 3 - 50p

£1.75÷3=0.58333

So that's 58p a portion of restaurant quality food.

I once did a runner with a couple of mates from Lancashire Tandoori in Nelson back in the late 80s so that curry was free. *

Do I win?

*I know it wasn't clever and was 30 years ago.