I don't want Student food

Hmmm..im looking at your post . Well im thinking it depends on whether you are a great meat lover...or whether you will settle for little meat and lots of everything else. Im deeply into my very large Viners pan..into which i throw some sliced fresh onions..and sweat them...then i add a little sprinkle of sugar to them..and caramellise them...then..i add 3 or 4 crushed garlic cloves..and a few spices..and lastly a small amount of chicken..which i often will take from 2 or 3 thighs...and cut it into stir fry size strips ..the spices depend on the mood of the day!!!..then i add a good helping of sliced mushrooms..and courgette...maybe some weeny strips of carrot for colour...and some canned tomatoes... 30 minutes later..served with a chunk of fresh bread or rice...we wont mention pasta ..as it seems a no no for you....its nutricious..its definately cheap..and above all its very tasty....but obviously wouldnt be everyones cup of tea.

Fresh air sandwiches are always the favorite of those trying to save a quid or two. Not much in the taste department, however. But overall cheap, quick, and 0g of fat. Smile! If that doesn't suit your fancy, how about making up some fried rice, with left over meats?

well i usually buy bulk meat which in the end saves you a fortune .for example bulk mince i will make up rissoles,make a spaghetti bolognase,a meat loaf,have some tacos.i will freeze the rissoles and meatloaves,so i then have a choice of meals.i also do the same sort of thing with chicken and make stir fries,sweet and sour chicken.cheers sue

I can think of quite a few but one I often do that we all enjoy that doesn't work out too expensive is cheeses and potato pie with a tin of plum tomatoes, I also do fish pie using coley instead of more expensive fish with lots of mixed vegetables. A sausage casserole is also another filling wholesome good one and I know you waned to steer clear of pasta dishes but I do a 15 minute one that has chicken, salad onions, (can't say spring these days because of PC brigade) cherry tomatoes and mix up in a honey and wholgrain mustard sauce. Chilli tuna hoptpot is a good one too, just chop some onion, garlic and peppers if you have them fry in a little oil add a can of kidney beans, a can of baked beans a can of chopped tomatoes and a large tin of tuna simmer for about 10 minutes and have with a jacket potato, rice or pasta. What type of food do you enjoy I'll see if I can think of anymore for you. If you had a roast yesterday you can always do cold meat egg and chips with bubble and squeak from leftovers as one meal. Good luck, have fun with it. Enjoy. Ellie :D

You can cook Italian's pasta because it's very cheap. You only boil the pasta, fish out pasta to dish, add tomato and beef ground to pasta and eat it. It took a minute to cook.

God you were a rich student when I was a student I lived off ready brek for 3 months! honestly I cant even look at a box now! Cost effective meals, anything with pasta, mince or chicken really, check what is on offer and in season that way you should grab a bargain.

I've had to live off 'the cheap stuff' some time ago and if I remember rightly, you can get some really decent cheap food from Tesco (maybe Asda or Sainsburys too, but we don't have one of them too locally). 15p for a tin of potatoes, they come in salt water so you have to tip that water out and put normal tap water in to cook them or else they taste too salty, there's also tomatoes for around 19p and there's minced beef too, I think that's about £3 but it should last for a few meals. Also anything tastes good if you pour a sauce all over it, my best buy recomendation is..........tomato sauce, yup or brown sauce if you don't like tomato. Mix it together with some minced beef and spaghetti and voila there you have a lovely spaghetti bolognaise. ;) I've found it tends to work out cheaper making everything from scratch too, ready meals only last once, whereas potatoes and stuff like that can last for lots of meals. I hope this helps, if not, sorry. Oh, have you tried the new Deliah Smith cookery tips? She does cheap and easy food.

I see from all the earlier posts that your in the UK so I don't know if you have them over there, but when the money is short at my house I do the dried beans. There are so many varieties so you can do a lot with them from soup to sandwich spread. You can add a variety of vegetables and make patties too. Beans have a lot of protein too. Here's a black bean recipe If you don't have black beans use what ever kind you can get. 1/2 onion, diced and Sauteed 1 can black beans 1/2 cup flour 2 slices bread, crumbled 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp onion powder 1/2 tsp seasoned salt salt and pepper to taste oil for frying. I would cook up my own beans. Mix it all up and fry as regular burgers in the oil. Then there's oatmeal burgers and potatoes and beans. You can look them up on the internet

Well here is one that might be for you. We buy a ham steak which is usually around $2.50 or $3.00 and then two boxes of scalloped potatoes (they are under a dollar each). I cut up the ham and then add it to the potatoes before I bake them. If you want you can also add in a bag of frozen broccoli to make it all in one meal. Doesn't cost much and it will feed five easily. Another meal to consider is having a breakfast for dinner. Eggs and pancakes for example or with sausage. Makes for a nice change as well.

Pike thats a hard one, as all of my meal stretching recipes involve pasta, and soups. stews or the good old stand by beens and cornbread. Then of course there is chili, which is relatively easy to make and cheap, it can be made with chicken or hamburger, and dry pinto beans. I make an impossible pie, with shredded cheese (1 cup)cheese, 1 lb hamburger or ground sausage your choice of frozen veggies, blend together 6 eggs a half cup biscuit mix and what ever spices suit your fancy. Pour that over your ground browned meat and vegetable, cheese mixture, bake in a preheated oven at 350 for one hour... It is very tasty and stretches the food dollar. I make it for dinner and Sunday brunch.

We are trying to live off of 50$ a week in groceries. its pretty hard.. we have to exclude diapers of course. but to eat healthy and live off 50$ is nearly impossible. fresh produce is pretty expensive. Here are SOME idea's though. Whole wheat bread, fry up hamburger, and add cream of mushroom soup, pour over the bread. It's good, cheap, doesn't look like much, but tastes awesome. you can put it over rice or potatoes as well and its jsut as good. like you said stews, they go a long way, and if you make a big bunch at the same time you can always freeze some for another week so you dont get sick of it. lol. if you visite the site kraft.ca maybe kraft.com has it as well i'm not sure they have some idea's that you can make cheap and easy too. good luck to us both p1ke ;)

Hmmm I can see a week of potatoes coming up here sweetheart! lol I'm afraid that I really can't think of any recipes right now - my brain just isn't working at the moment but I do look forward to hearing how you get on! xxx

OK challenges challenges.....hehe....Well buy your meat in bulk what you would like. I get a large piece of beef or lamb. Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes. Rice is good, and a good vegetarian meal is in order too. Don't forget the eggs, however unless you're really into Mercury, avoid the tuna. Ainge

Brown some chicken thighs in a skillet, maybe a package of 6. In another skillet, saute some onions, maybe two or three,depending on the size - add about 2-3 tablespoons of orange marmalade and some fresh orange juice, about 2-3 oranges worth, plus some cinnamon, and some dates (you could soak them overnight in rum) and you could add a dash of nutmeg if you like it, plus of course some salt and pepper. When the onions get cooked, put them, the liquid mixture you've cooked them in, and the chicken into an oven safe covered casserole-type dish and cook at 375 degrees for about an hour. Then uncover the dish and continue to cook it for about 1/2 hour more. Take it out, let it sit for a moment and serve over rice or risotto. It's completely yummy! And it's definitely not student food. Enjoy, darlin.

There are quite a few dishes that are not too expensive to make but some are labour intensive. Cabbage rolls, my mother-in-law used to make a huge pot full and we would freeze some. These are cabbage leaves stuffed with a mixture of sweated onions, rice and some ground beef. Packed tightly in a casserole dish and cooked in the oven after a large can of tomatoes poured over them. Scalloped potatoes with cubed ham Lentil and spinach soup with crusty French bread and butter Chili with red kidney beans, serve it with grated cheddar cheese, sour cream and or pickles You can add a side dish of boiled potatoes or rice or crusty French bread Stir Fry with all sorts of veggies you have on hand and beef strips or chicken sliced thinly or cubed. You need a very small quantity of meat. Spanish Rice, basically rice with tomatoes, red or green peppers, onions and or sliced olives or carrots and whatever leftover meat or fish you have. Potato Soup with cubed wieners and warm bread Boiled Beef with Cabbage. Use inexpensive piece of beef and simmer slowly for a long time. It becomes very tender. Add potatoes, carrots, turnips and cabbage

Oh if you were here in the Philippines I could teach you some nice meals. Vegetables and a few cubed pork or chicken bits.Just boil the pork or chicken in a few water then saute onions and garlic then saute the pork or chicken putting the broth aside then saute the vegetable..any vegetable would do..Then put the broth, put a bit of salt then soy sauce and pepper. Soy sauce can be replaced by fish sauce..It really taste good.. Or cook egg with either onions, tomatoes or beans..Cook it with the egg. My mom does that and it taste real good especially the one with the sweet beans.If you have pork and beans that would be nice.Hope it helps.

One time I was helping a friend take care of her four boys. She was working and paid me four hundred dollars a month plus room and board. One time she came home with this big thing of ground beef. I do not remember how many pounds it was. She left it in the refrigerator and was planning to barbeque hamburgers. She never got around to it and the meat was going bad. This is what I did, since I could not barbeque. I made some spagetti, chilli with beans, Sloppy Joe, and I believe some meatloaf. Then I froze it all. I do not know how that went because I quit that same night. I could not deal with her allowing her children to go hungry any more. It was just too much. I said all of that to say this, I do not know what you have to work with, but if you have an imagination, you can make miracles.

Here is my recipe from allrecipes.com- yes I'm published but not paid. Anyway, I don't know if you have the ingredients over there but this is nice and easy, cheap too. You can also use pizza sauce and mozzerella cheese instead of sloppy joe... Hope it helps! INGREDIENTS 2 (10 ounce) cans refrigerated biscuit dough 1 pound ground beef 1 (15 ounce) can sloppy joe sauce 1 small onion, chopped (optional) 1 small green bell pepper, seeded and chopped (optional) 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese DIRECTIONS Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Cut the biscuit dough into quarters and press to cover the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Place the ground beef into a skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring to crumble, until no longer pink. Add the onion and bell pepper about halfway through, cooking and stirring until tender. Drain off excess grease and stir in the sloppy Joe sauce. Season with garlic salt and pepper. Pour the mixture over the biscuits and spread to cover evenly. Bake in the preheated oven until the biscuits are cooked through, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the cheese on top. Return to the oven until the cheese has melted, about 10 more minutes.

Here is what I have to offer as cheap meals for the week #1 Roasted Chicken w/mashed tatos and corn on cob #2 Chicken ala king Sautee diced green bell pepper and diced onion in butter or margarine, and then add cream of mushroom soup and 3/4 cup of milk stir until blended, then add leftover chicken (shredded) and 3/4 cup shredded cheddar, warm thru and serve over rice or baked tato. #3 Pinto beans and Cornbread Soak beans overnight, drain and cook in water w/ ham or salt pork or sliced bacon for a couple hours until tender. Serve over cornbread. #4 Cream tuna on toast Make a sauce by melting butter or margarine ( 1 stick ) add flour to make rue then add milk to make a gravy like sauce when thickened add a tin or two of tuna in oil(drained). Heat thru and serve over toast. #5 Veggie soup w/ oven grilled cheese Make a vegetable soup from scratch or from tin. Then spread mayo on slice of bread, add a couple slices of tomato and a slice of cheese or two on top of that. Heat until slightly browned in oven. Then serve w/ hot bowl of soup. #6 Pork-n-Beans w/ fried tatos 1 large can of pork-n-beans heated w/ sliced hot dogs. Peel and cut up tatos and onion. Fry until tender in vegetable oil when there are some brown tatos in the mix along w/ some browned onions they are done. Add pepper everytime you turn them even though it seems alot. Serve up in a nice size bowl with bread or biscuits. These are all cost effective meals with their own special places in my heart. I hope you will try and enjoy them as I have for years...Mamablaze!!

what i like most is vegetables, but i also eat meat. but vegetable is good for our health. we can use some recipies that makes vegetables more delicious. just try to searh. good day.