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Food recipes for Singles/Couples Thread
Aye Up
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I am going out on a limb here, but after watching Jamie Oliver I keep thinking I want to bat him one. The food is so uneconomical if you are cooking for just yourself or your partner.
Anyway anyone got good cheap ways to cook for a single or couple?
Mine:
Baby Spinach £1 (in most supermarkets)
Soft cheese 50p (the value brand is fine!)
Mushrooms £1 (obviously they vary in size and type)
Pasta 50p (again the value brand is ok)
Cook the pasta how you would normally (8-10 mins boiling water left to simmer adding a smidgeon of salt so it doesn't stick to the pan).
Dice the mushrooms to how you want large or small.
Assuming you have a frying pan or wok fine if you dont as any pan will suffice, whack in a bit of oil or just a dollop of butter whatever takes your fancy.
Throw in the mushrooms and wait for them to reduce, once they are near to being cooked, get the spinach either tear it up or as I do just throw it in. Keep stirring the mushrooms and spinach together so it doesn't stick, it will take a while but the spinach along with the mushrooms will reduce further and leave a slight liquid.
Then this is where you have the option of deciding how much soft cheese you want to put in but I usually go for half a pack so it thickens up the sauce and has flavour. The sauce needs to thicken, sometimes it may require a lot of cheese you should be able to guage the consistency to know if its thick enough (you may like it runny?).
Once you have your pasta whack on a plate, then with your pasta topping....voila! a meal for 2 for less than 3 quid!
You can add pine nuts which I think adds to it and gives it a bit of crunch but they aren't cheap. A bit of cheap 33p garlic bread goes nice with it if you want a side.
I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't like it, unless you hate mushrooms lol.
Anyway does anyone else have suggestions cos we are keeping to a budget paying for a wedding and all
Anyway anyone got good cheap ways to cook for a single or couple?
Mine:
Baby Spinach £1 (in most supermarkets)
Soft cheese 50p (the value brand is fine!)
Mushrooms £1 (obviously they vary in size and type)
Pasta 50p (again the value brand is ok)
Cook the pasta how you would normally (8-10 mins boiling water left to simmer adding a smidgeon of salt so it doesn't stick to the pan).
Dice the mushrooms to how you want large or small.
Assuming you have a frying pan or wok fine if you dont as any pan will suffice, whack in a bit of oil or just a dollop of butter whatever takes your fancy.
Throw in the mushrooms and wait for them to reduce, once they are near to being cooked, get the spinach either tear it up or as I do just throw it in. Keep stirring the mushrooms and spinach together so it doesn't stick, it will take a while but the spinach along with the mushrooms will reduce further and leave a slight liquid.
Then this is where you have the option of deciding how much soft cheese you want to put in but I usually go for half a pack so it thickens up the sauce and has flavour. The sauce needs to thicken, sometimes it may require a lot of cheese you should be able to guage the consistency to know if its thick enough (you may like it runny?).
Once you have your pasta whack on a plate, then with your pasta topping....voila! a meal for 2 for less than 3 quid!
You can add pine nuts which I think adds to it and gives it a bit of crunch but they aren't cheap. A bit of cheap 33p garlic bread goes nice with it if you want a side.
I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't like it, unless you hate mushrooms lol.
Anyway does anyone else have suggestions cos we are keeping to a budget paying for a wedding and all
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Comments
...I just Love pasta and creamy mushrooms and spinache
I invented this meal yesterday
and was glad I was able to recreated it again today
Cabbage veg oriental satay Yummy combo
add to Hot wok.....ideally in this order
1 Tblspn Soy sauce
half a 'heart shaped ' savoy cabbage /shredded
a sliced up white onion
8 cut up cherry tomatoes
2 snipped up rashers of bacon/ or chicken / or quorn
5 Tblspns red wine vinegar
:- 1 Tsp of each of these
oregano- fennel seeds -garlic powder
tumeric- powdered ginger -Thai five spice
1 packet of dried mushroom soup~[Batchelor's]
6 Tblspns water
10" of sliced cucumber-[coin shapes]
lastly
...2 heaped Tsps Crunchy peanut butter
and 1 very heaped Tspn of fudgey honey~
Makes 2 big bowls..:)
and would be nice with fluffed up rice / noodles / spaghetti
I would add the whole cabbage
you could add umpteen extra ingredients
such as
baby carrots spinache red cabbage
peas corn runner beans butter beans~
Broccoli mushrooms
It is thick soupy tasty sauce that makes this type of wokky meal lovely
Simple, quick, cheap meals that serve 2
Two slices of bread - place in toaster.
Whilst the bread is toasting, slice up some cheese
Place sliced cheese on toast - pop under a pre-heated grill for 3-4 minutes or until bubbling.
Top with condiment of your choice.
Seriously though, as I've posted before, for cheap quick food for one or two you're best off buying a student cookbook.
The recipes above do sound nice though.:)
There are 3 of us at home but sometimes only 2 around at dinner time.
I just cook the normal recipe for 4 and the extra portions get put in takeaway containers.
I let them cool down then label them up and freeze them.
Then you've for ready made meals to be used later in the week or month, especially handy if something comes up and you've got less time for cooking at times.
Suitable for freezing.
Very small meat joints tend to dry out. The roast potatoes, veg, trimmings are all easy enough. The meat is the problem.
A common way to roast a larger joint is on a bed of chopped carrot, onion and celery, so you end up with a wonderful mix in the pan to deglaze with wine/stock to make really tasty gravy, which seems the key component of a roast.
I've been experimenting with simulating this.
1. Put some chopped carrots, celery, onions in a small baking tray. Bake c. 15min.
2. Lay 2 thin or 1 thick pork chop on the top of the veg and roast for another 15mins.
3. Remove chops, rest with cooking foil over them. Pour wine/stock into tray on the hob and gently simmer, scraping up the bits stuck to the bottom. Taste it. If necessary stir in some gravy granules, a teaspoonful at a time. Strain it, to give you lovely gravy and veg.
4. Gammon steaks, turkey escalopes are fine;. Other meats are trickier. Beef - it would work with steak, but too expensive. Can't think of another cut of beef that would be tender enough for this method, but maybe you can?
Lamb? I've tried chops and steaks but they seem to dry out too much.
Best way I've found for chicken is buy a small roasting chicken, roast half and either freeze half of it, or roast the whole thing if you don't mind making fajitas, casserole etc with it for the next couple of days.
Any other ways of simulating a "Sunday Roast"?
New Potatoes
Chicken thighs
Chorizo.
Red Onion
Red Pepper
Tomato.
Just put everything on a baking tray, sprinkle oregano and paprika over the chicken and roast for 40 mins. I love this dish because the more people there are, the more of everything you use. Just make sure to roast for a bit longer
1 onion, diced (11p)
1 large aubergine, diced (53p)
1 tsp cumin (5p)
1 small red chilli (or ½ tsp dried chilli), finely chopped (8p)
1 vegetable or chicken stock cube, crumbled (2p)
400g tinned chickpeas (69p)
400g tinned chopped tomatoes (35p)
200g natural yoghurt (18p)
Few sprigs of chopped coriander or parsley to serve (8p)
Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the aubergine and onion. Shake over the cumin, add the chilli and stock cube, and cook on a medium heat for a few minutes to soften. Stir to coat the aubergine and onions in the spicy oil until the former are golden.
Drain and thoroughly rinse the chickpeas, and tip into the pan. Pour over the chopped tomatoes and turn the heat up high. Bring to the boil, boil rapidly for five minutes, adding half a cup of water if the sauce thickens too much. When the aubergine is tender, stir through the coriander, and serve with rice and a dollop of natural yoghurt, and a squeeze of lemon, if you like.
Soft cheese
Milk
Pasta.
Cook the pasta as per instruction s
Meanwhile soften half the pack of cheese with the milk, don't make it too wet though.
Wash and drain the mussels
Drain pasta, put in large bowl, add mussels, stir through milk/cheese mixture and serve.
Jamie Oliver's recipes are very often 'serves 10' or more!
And he uses some cuts that don't translate down to small portions.
And they are usually not particularly economical.
This thread is a good idea.
This. There's two of us and I nearly always cook meals for four and then have half one day and half the next. I don't generally freeze stuff but you could if you wanted.
cheese and beans on toast
cheese ,marmite and beans on toast
cheese, beans and worcester sauce on toast
Yes, if you have a skillet pan.
For one person, par boil one or two quartered or halved red-skinned* potatoes for 8 mins. Meanwhile, heat oil in the skillet pan and brown a chicken breast with skin on, skin side down. When nicely browned add the drained potatoes and drizzle on olive oil and juice of half a lemon. Whack into a hot oven (gas 7/8) for 15 minutes, then remove and add green veg of choice (beans or broccoli). Season and give everything a good toss around and put back in the oven for 10 minutes or until veg is cooked to your liking.
If you have herbs you can add these too when first putting in the oven. Very quick and tasty 'Sunday roast' for one or two.
*Of course, brown skins would be fine too. This is just my preference colour-wise.
I also make home-made pizzas using wholemeal pitta bread, or if feeling extravagant the wonderful Warburton's Square Wraps. I spread on BBQ sauce, then whatever I have in the way of meat or veg, top with cheese and stick in the oven for 10 minutes.
Stir-fries also get a lot of love when cooking for one or two.