Posts Tagged ‘vegetables’

Healthy lunch for $1.18 per day!

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

500g Bag of Pasta – $1.00

2x Jar Dolmio Chunky Spicy Pepper 580g ( or your choice of sauce ) – $6.36

1x Bag Frozen Mized Vegetables 500g – $2.14

Cost: AUD$9.50 / 8 servings = $1.18 per lunch
Serves: 8 servings. This gives my girlfriend and I lunch for Monday to Thursday.
Preparation Time: 5mins
Cooking Time: 30mins

Method:

1. Cook pasta until it is to your liking

2. Put cooked pasta in a big pot

3. Add jars of pasta sauce

4. Add frozen vegetables

5. Add any other herbs or spices you may want. I like to add a bit of garlic

6. Simmer and stir occasionally until the vegetables are cooked to your liking. About 20 mins should do it.

After this I like to let the batch cool a bit before placing the whole thing in the fridge.

I then take out a few servings to freeze in microwave safe containers ready to take to work. The frozen servings are for the later days in the week so its fresh. The other servings earlier in the week just come out of the main pot. The frozen ones come out the night before work and are ready to be microwaved by lunch.

The good thing about this dish is you can customise it easy. Want to add some mince, or cut up sausages? Go ahead, fry them up and chuck them in. Its a hard thing to mess up, so go ahead and get creative.

Who said eating healthy can’t be cheap!

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Hot-dog Casserole

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

This dish is perfect for cold nights. If you have leftovers it also makes a perfect meal for the next day or lunch.
If you choose to add Chili to this dish, don’t screw it up like I did. I put way too much Chili in it for my girlfriend. However if you do put too much Chili in it, put it in your fridge and eat it the next day. I am not sure why but the Chili has a lot less impact the next day. I assume it gets absorbed a bit by the pasta.

Cost: $10
Serves: 3-4
Preparation Time: 5mins
Cooking Time: 20mins

Ingredients:

  • Approx 2 cups of pasta of your choosing
  • 1 Onion
  • 4 hot-dogs or similar style meat
  • 1 tin of Tomato Soup
  • Approx 200ml water
  • Mix of your preferred Vegetables, frozen or fresh
  • Chili and/or Curry and/or Pepper to taste

Method:

  1. Put pasta on to cook while you prepare the rest of the items
  2. Cut hot-dogs into approx 1-2 cm lengths
  3. Chop onion finely
  4. Chop vegetables to your desired size if they are fresh
  5. Place all items in a Casserole dish, excluding pasta
  6. Add your selection of spices and stir
  7. Place your casserole dish into your microwave for 10-15 mins until the vegetables are cooked
  8. By the time this is finished your pasta should be finished
  9. Check your spices. Add some more if you need at this stage
  10. Add pasta and stir
  11. Return to the microwave for 5 minutes

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Quick Spanish Beef

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

This dish is great for customisation. You only really need a few base ingredients then you are free to add as many vegetables as you want, of many different types. You can add in curry and or chili. There are endless combinations and additions you can make to this dish to make it suit your tastes.

Cost: $10-$15 assuming you have cupboard items
Serves: 2
Preparation Time: 10mins
Cooking Time: 30mins

Ingredients:

  • 500g Mince
  • 1 Onion
  • 1 tin tomato soup
  • 1 cup ( 250mls ) water
  • 4 tablespoons uncooked rice
  • 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
  • Mixed vegetables frozen or fresh
  • Curry Powder and/or Chili Powder to your taste (optional, but recommended)

CBF Method:

  1. Roughly chop Onion

  2. Place a small amount of Olive Oil in your pot along with the raw Rice and Onion.
  3. Fry lightly.

  4. Add Mince to the pan and fry until brown.
  5. Add, Water, Tomato Soup and your selection of vegetables
  6. Mix together well
  7. Simmer for 30 minutes occasionally stirring

Also note, I am incredibly lazy when it comes to cooking so I often, unsafely, leave the pots for an extended period causing it to stick and burn on the bottom. If you are as lazy as me and get it burned on the bottom, don’t worry. When you stir the pot, don’t scrape the bottom. Also when you serve it leave the bit stuck to the bottom until you wash up. The upper layers come up fine and it doesn’t affect the taste.

No fancy presentation here. It tastes better than it looks.

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