Get Stuffed

[RedCelt69]

Back in the 90s there was a TV programme broadcast in the wee small hours for students. It was called Get Stuffed and consisted of students (often attempting to be "zany") in their bedsits cooking up various simple low-budget meals. For all I know, it is still being broadcast. The only time I see ITV is by accident or when surfing on my way between channels.

In the spirit of sharing low-budget meal ideas, I thought a thread dedicated to it might be in order. Especially after someone (I forget who) mentioned that, in learning how to live off £2/day, they had developed a taste for porridge.

I'll start the ball rolling...

Red's Chilli Con Carne

The following recipe (if I can use such a grandiose term for a collection of ingredients) was developed after first flying the roost. Living on a tight budget, on a basis of trial and error, I developed the following meal. It was designed to be as cost-effective as possible whilst still being tasty enough to want to keep making it. There's very few "accurate" measurements involved. Mostly, it's done by eye and judgement on past experience.

Ingredients:-
1 bag of frozen mince (beef preferably, lamb if you prefer)
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of red kidney beans
1 tin of baked beans (budget, shop's own brand)
1 tin of condensed lentil soup
2 cloves of garlic (or a generous squeeze of garlic paste)
1 large onion (or 2 medium)
Bisto granules
Chilli powder
Optional:-
1 sachet of Schwarz Chilli Con Carne powder
or
1 jar of Uncle Ben's Chilli sauce

Grab a big pot... the bigger the better. Make sure it has a lid.

Boil the kettle and pour water into a cup with a tablespoon of Bisto granules and similar measure of chilli powder. Stir it up and keep it to hand.

Slice up the onion and brown in a small drizzle of oil (olive oil or vegetable oil - not important) until it goes a nice golden hue. This should be done on a high temperature, stirring often.

Add the frozen mincemeat to the onions. It is very bulky when it first comes out of the packet. Don't be alarmed... it reduces soon enough. To aid this, pour the cup of chilli gravy over the mince. Keep stirring.

The heat should still be high... so make sure you keep stirring or you'll get burnt bits, which isn't so tasty. Keep doing so until the mince turns from a pink colour to a more healthy gray colour. Once you're happy that the mince is browned, turn down the heat.

Add both tins of chopped tomatoes and the tin of condensed lentil soup. Stir it in. Add the chopped garlic (or the squeezed garlic, which I prefer... very handy). At this point you can add the Schwarz sachet or the Uncle Ben's sauce. You can make the Chilli without them (and save a wee bit of money) but the final effect is the better for adding them.

Add chilli powder. How much depends entirely on how hot you like your food... and bear in mind that if you opted to use Schwarz/Uncle Bens you won't need to add so much chilli powder. I also add salt at this point. I used to use unhealthily large amounts of salt, which I've since realised isn't such a good idea. As with the chilli powder, add to taste based on personal preference... but a teaspoon at least. Keep in mind how many servings this will make and multiply that out by the amount of salt you'd normally use on your meal.

Finally, empty the kidney beans and baked beans into a seive and rinse off the sauce under a running tap. Chuck these into the pot, mix in well, add a lid and allow to simmer gently for half an hour on a very low heat. Using expensive brand baked beans is a waste of money, btw. You're paying for the name... and the sauce... which you're rinsing down the plughole. So save your pennies and go for the cheapest on the shelf.

Et voila!

OK, so I know that anyone native of Mexico might be horrified by my recipe... especially the lentil soup... but then again, a traditional chilli con carne is meant to include cocoa. The soup, btw, was added one time in order to bulk-out the ingredients and make it less watery. I've since used it every time. I'd call it my secret ingredient, but I can't exactly call it that now I've shared it with the denizens of TheSinner.

All of the above can be modified to suit your own tastes. For instance, I've used red peppers in the past, but they add little to the texture of the dish and nothing to the taste. The above should provide you with 4-6 very generous-sized portions - even more if you have a smaller appetite. I find it best to serve up one meal when I make it and freeze the rest in appropriately-sized containers for future use.

Serving suggestions... do you need serving suggestions? It's chilli con carne. OK, either serve up with a portion of rice... on it's own in a bowl with some slices of buttered bread... or (as an occasional unhealthy treat) ladle over a plate of chips and grate some cheese on top. Nyum nyum.

[stripedtights]

haha i think the porridge freak may have been me! its amazing how little you can live on if two of your main meals per day involve porridge with a few almonds and UHT milk or water.Yummy:D....(morrisons oats are the cheapest)
soup is very cost effective also
and if you buy bags of dried beans as long as you can be bothered soaking them its much cheaper then even the brand canned versions.
But in order to support my fruit addiction i find being a guinea pig in various psyc experiments helps!

[Admin]

This thread would probably be better as a Sinner's Guide article (just add it to the Wiki, then link to it from this thread).

[Hennessy]

Ugh, porridge. If I want horsefeed I shall buy a nosebag.

Hennessy's Simplified Eggs Benedict:

You will need:
Muffins:
Eggs (three at least)
Spinach
Bacon Medallions
Cream
Lemon Juice
Butter (best to melt this in the microwave as it's the quickest way)

Equipment:
Egg poacher
Frying pan
Small sauce pan & large sauce pan
Small oven tray
Toaster

Instructions:
This dish requires a lot of multi-tasking and so is perhaps not best suited to those who have just got out of bed and neglected a warm revitalising shower and a cup of coffee. I find it works best as brunch, or even lunch.

Take a muffin, slice it in half down the side to make a flat surface and place them in the toaster but don't turn it on just yet. Make the sauce by whisking an egg into a sauce pan, adding about a knob of melted butter, a dollop of cream and a squirt of lemon juice and salt & pepper, put on a low heat on the hob, whisk it up then keep stirring periodically to stop it sticking or turning too gloopy. Put the spinach in the oven tray, season and set to a low heat on the grill, you don't want it going too crispy but equally soggy leaves taste rubbish. Put the frying pan on the hob, turn to a medium heat, and put the kettle on. When it reaches boiling point crack two eggs keeping the yolk into the poacher, and put it into a pan with the boiling water, straight onto the hob. The frying pan should be ready by now, add two bacon medallions. Check the seaweed and turn it down if necessary, it should be just a little crispy on top but not fried. Muffins now go on in the toaster, and when they come out put them on a plate, and when the bacon is ready (not too well done) place them flat down on top of the muffin. Seaweed next, placed on top of the bacon, use a spoon to push in a "bed" for the eggs to rest on. Lastly the eggs come out, poached well, place them into their beds in the seaweed and top off with your sauce. Additionally you can season with a little salt & pepper. I like mine a little peppery myself.

[Cain]

Ugh, porridge. If I want horsefeed I shall buy a nosebag.

There must be cheaper ways to eat than having a whole nosebag. Buying lots of them would become quite expensive very quickly.

[Duggeh]

I'm fairly certain one could live off weetabix if it were necessary.


One does not eat porridge, it clogs up ones bowels.

[LonelyPilgrim]

Porridge doesn't clog up your bowels, it unclogs them after a few days and flushes out your colon. Sheesh. It'll also lower your LDL cholesterol levels and leave you feeling full longer. Great for a diet/getting healthy. Of course, plain porridge is disgustingly bland, which is why I flavour it with vanilla, sometimes honey, and usually some dried dates or raisins.

[RedCelt69]

I used to live downwind of where Weetabix was invented (and still manufactured). I'd have to drive by the factory every day on my way to work. Never quite had the passion for it since.

Not a huge fan of porridge, either. As a child my dad would insist I have it with salt, not sugar. Invoking the "no true Scot" rule, sugar on porridge was strictly a no no. <facial tick>

[Duggeh]

Porridge doesn't clog up your bowels, it unclogs them after a few days and flushes out your colon. Sheesh. It'll also lower your LDL cholesterol levels and leave you feeling full longer. Great for a diet/getting healthy. Of course, plain porridge is disgustingly bland, which is why I flavour it with vanilla, sometimes honey, and usually some dried dates or raisins.

I'm fairly sure that I've eaten porridge and know what it does to me. It turns my stomach into a cement mixer which then pours oaty contrete into my colon eventually leading me to pass stools which feel like felled timber.

Weetabix has the opposite, desired effect of keeping one regular, and they taste better too. Shredded wheat performs the same function as Weetabix but eating Shredded wheat is like eating large bricks of fibreglass and gravel except without the nice taste that gravel has.

In a perfect world, I'd have a bacon roll of course. Maybe theres an opening in the market for a bacon roll cereal.

[LonelyPilgrim]

I'm fairly sure that I've eaten porridge and know what it does to me. It turns my stomach into a cement mixer which then pours oaty contrete into my colon eventually leading me to pass stools which feel like felled timber.

Weetabix has the opposite, desired effect of keeping one regular, and they taste better too. Shredded wheat performs the same function as Weetabix but eating Shredded wheat is like eating large bricks of fibreglass and gravel except without the nice taste that gravel has.

In a perfect world, I'd have a bacon roll of course. Maybe theres an opening in the market for a bacon roll cereal.

Weetabix and porridge should both be whole grain and therefore have a similar effect on your intestines. Either you are eating really dodgy porridge, or you are eating WAY too much of it. You just have to remember that it'll expand in your stomach and not eat until you feel full, so there is room for it. I quite enjoy a bowl of oatmeal in the morning, myself - when it's not yoghurt and granola, anyway.

[munchingfoo]

eating Shredded wheat is like eating large bricks of fibreglass and gravel except without the nice taste that gravel has.

I must be very weird, but I really enjoy shredded wheat. To me, it tastes sweet! I once heard that 50% of the UK public have an enzyme in their siliva that could break down a small amount of starch into sugar in the mouth; hence starch rich foods taste sweet. The same also applies to wholemeal bread.

[eagle]

Shredded Wheat tastes like baskets. Sweet baskets, but baskets nonetheless.

[Duggeh]

eating Shredded wheat is like eating large bricks of fibreglass and gravel except without the nice taste that gravel has.

I must be very weird, but I really enjoy shredded wheat. To me, it tastes sweet! I once heard that 50% of the UK public have an enzyme in their siliva that could break down a small amount of starch into sugar in the mouth; hence starch rich foods taste sweet. The same also applies to wholemeal bread.

It's called Amylase, 100% of people have it, I'm just not prepared to hold the fibreglass in my mouth for a moment in order to let it have a noticable action.

Tou don't drink milk right though foo? Perhaps you pouring whatever you use instead makes a difference.

[munchingfoo]

I'm back on the milk. The allergy just ended for some reason without any reasonable explanation.

[Duggeh]

If I suddenly became allergic to dairy I'd be most displeased. My blood type is stilton.

[the Empress]

I learned the hard way not to eat too much of certain foods . . . bran flakes/sticks (had a huge craving for them for a while), sweetcorn (urgh, who knew?) and clementines (so sweet, so good) - facilitated by their cheapness and bulk buying. However, having very little money at one point I survived quite nicely on noodles with a little oil, black pepper and lemon juice with some steamed peas and sweetcorn.

[Eagon]

Anyone want to suggest a (vegetarian) recipe using smoked garlic I bought in Aldi? or should I just treat it as normal garlic?

[RedCelt69]

The above recipe, only replacing the mince (and the Bisto?) with whatever vegetarians use instead... Chilli Con Quorn?

Or somebody else could post a recipe / food suggestion. There aren't too many on this thread so far.