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Cheap & nasty meals |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
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Cheap & nasty meals
Things like beans on toast are cheap and easy but are there any that you yourself consider cheap and nasty but is a guilty pleasure?
An example for me would be lasagna and chips. I make a decent lasagna myself and there some nice ones available in the Finest/Extra special ranges but for this meal it requires a cheapo one. One that costs less than £1. I think ALDI does one for 89p, possibly even 49p. It doesn't contain much meat at all and is mostly soggy pasta and a lot of thin sauce. I nuke that and serve it with smartprice frying chips and a takeaway salad (shredded iceberg, sliced onions and pickled red cabbage out of a jar). Anything else you would consider cheap & nasty as it's using cheap / value ingredients but makes a nice meal? |
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#2 |
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 76,851
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I used to buy the Sainsbury Basics Lasagne for about 80p
Obviously for 80p it's going to be cheap and nasty but it was really tasty...... ![]() Similarly the Tesco 'Everyday Value' Corned Beef Hash........which wasn't really a corned beef hash, it was a shepherds pie with corned beef instead of mince......lovely with a tin of peas and lots of ketchup |
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#3 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 9,236
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Spam sandwich with thick white processed bread
Vesta beef risotto. Lovely. |
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#4 |
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 9,227
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Quote:
It doesn't contain much meat at all and is mostly soggy pasta and a lot of thin sauce.
Anything else you would consider cheap & nasty as it's using cheap / value ingredients but makes a nice meal? ![]() ![]() Not a meal but a cheap and nasty favourite in the past: Two slices white bread. One pack of Smiths Square Crisps (can you still get them?) Arrange the crisps like overlapping roof tiles on one square of bread. Smother the other with mayo and place it on the other. Flatten it with the palms of your hand. That was often a guilty pleasure after my wife had gone to bed. ![]() Edit: I just googled. They became Walkers Square Crisps - didn't realise that. |
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#5 |
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Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 11,102
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I quite like the £1 Aldi veggie lasagne. Cheap, but tastes quite fresh and healthy.
I guess a fishcake butty, one of my go-to on-the-go snacks, would qualify: a tiny sliver of fish encased in potato, batter and white bread. Plenty of salt, vinegar and ketchup, of course. None of your 5 a day. |
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#6 |
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 4,695
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Tesco every day value cottage pie. I could eat them all day. And they HAVE to be microwaved, not oven baked.....
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#7 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
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Quote:
I quite like the £1 Aldi veggie lasagne. Cheap, but tastes quite fresh and healthy.
I guess a fishcake butty, one of my go-to on-the-go snacks, would qualify: a tiny sliver of fish encased in potato, batter and white bread. Plenty of salt, vinegar and ketchup, of course. None of your 5 a day. I guess the sliver of fish would count as being healthy |
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#8 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 2,618
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Hellman's Mayonnaise sandwiches
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#9 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 6,215
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Heinz cream of tomato soup with lots of white bread
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#10 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 1,209
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It is impossible to have any meal featuring fish fingers without it being cheap. I would never call it "nasty", though
![]() Baked beans go well in a Monday pie or even in my mum;s homemade cottage pie. Neither cheap nor nasty, those dishes! |
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#11 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Mid Wales / Canolbarth Cymru
Posts: 37,555
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Pack of M&S 'wise buys' chipolata sausages (£1)..... i.e. a whole pack
![]() Fry and then grate cheap cheddar on the top ... serve with kingsmill-type sliced bread smothered in marge.... ... and a dollop of mango chutney on the side.... which must be the Co-op own brand one as it is so sweet and not in any way authentically Indian. This is shameful
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#12 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,236
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Quote:
Spam sandwich with thick white processed bread
Vesta beef risotto. Lovely. |
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#13 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 59,758
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Quote:
Lovely! Except I grill the spam after slicing it until it's black around the edges. Bacon Grill is a good alternative!
I've always had a guilty pleasure for anything containing corned beef (pies, sandwiches, hash - anything) - but these days it doesn't really count as a cheap food any more. Occasionally I will slip a can into my shopping trolley as a treat. Also instant noodles - either Batchelors or supermarket own - but I then pimp them up with whatever leftovers are in the fridge and some chilli sauce |
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#14 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 9,227
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Quote:
Pack of M&S 'wise buys' chipolata sausages (£1)..... i.e. a whole pack
![]() Fry and then grate cheap cheddar on the top ... serve with kingsmill-type sliced bread smothered in marge.... ... and a dollop of mango chutney on the side.... which must be the Co-op own brand one as it is so sweet and not in any way authentically Indian. This is shameful ![]()
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#15 |
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,725
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Just fish fingers for me. They have to be the Birdseye ones in batter though, have them with chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce.
Quite partial to a tuna melt too, not sure if that counts though. White bread buttered on both sides, slices of mature cheddar on each slice and then tuna mayo in the middle. Stick it in the griddle pan until the bread is crispy and the cheese has melted. |
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#16 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Birmingham
Posts: 1,051
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Brown sauce sandwiches. Sometimes I will add a hot cooked chips, but its just as nice alone.
Hot freshly cooked pasta smothered in salad cream. The salad cream changes its taste a little and is very tasty. I sometimes add a few frozen peas,corn green beans to give it a bit more of a health kick. And also a tin of brined/water tuna (hate it in oil) for extra nutrition. Cheese slop - mashed potato with grated cheese mixed in, bit more on top and then cooked again in oven to brown the cheese. Serve with tinned spaghetti/beans. Iceland's cottage pie I don't add anything to their portion as its too much for me to eat. |
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#17 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 136
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Dairylea and Danish Salami sandwiches.
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#18 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 3,646
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Not very often I must admit, but over the last few weeks I've bought the Bombay Badboy Pot Noodle to keep in the cupboard and I've actually fancied a couple over the last few weeks.
![]() I only bought them as B&M were doing 2 King sized ones for £1.50. I sometimes have a nice fish finger or fish portion (on batter) sandwich in nice bread with grated cheese, tomato ketchup and plenty of pepper.
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#19 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 21,738
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I sometimes make myself a lunch of tortilla chips covered in spicy beans and cheese and whacked under the grill for 5 minutes. Lovely.
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#20 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
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Quote:
Cheese slop - mashed potato with grated cheese mixed in, bit more on top and then cooked again in oven to brown the cheese. Serve with tinned spaghetti/beans.
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#21 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 17,127
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A tin of Campbells meatballs heated up and made into a sandwich in a baguette buttered with some sort of cheapo spready cheese.
It's the slatheriest thing you can eat, and I really don't care that the meatballs are made of the sort of stuff that's too poor to be put into anything else or that cheese spread is an insult to man - it's great filthy food. |
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#22 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
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Quote:
Also instant noodles - either Batchelors or supermarket own - but I then pimp them up with whatever leftovers are in the fridge and some chilli sauce
Probably the cheapest and nastiest would be instant noodles with chopped up mini pepperami and a squirt of ketchp. |
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#23 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 1,439
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Beans on Toast.
However, it has to be a supermarket own bean as while Branston and Heinz both have good flavour I find the texture just a bit mushy for my liking. I like a bit of bite to my beans. Drain of almost all of the sauce, fry up some left over bacon / chorizo / salami and stir into the beans. If I'm feeling particularly adventurous I'll put a fried egg on top. Oh, and the beans must be served room temp, can't abide warmed beans, something I got from my grandmother. Alternatively, Sainsbury Essentials Lasagne oven baked so that the top and edges of the pasta go crispy, on toast. |
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#24 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
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Quote:
Beans on Toast.
However, it has to be a supermarket own bean as while Branston and Heinz both have good flavour I find the texture just a bit mushy for my liking. I like a bit of bite to my beans. Drain of almost all of the sauce, fry up some left over bacon / chorizo / salami and stir into the beans. If I'm feeling particularly adventurous I'll put a fried egg on top. Oh, and the beans must be served room temp, can't abide warmed beans, something I got from my grandmother. |
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#25 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 3,869
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Quote:
Also instant noodles - either Batchelors or supermarket own - but I then pimp them up with whatever leftovers are in the fridge and some chilli sauce
When we were teenagers my best friend and I used to make supernoodles together for lunch pretty much every weekend, they are a great nostalgia food for us! |
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