A meal for less than £1

Here are a couple of examples of the meals I prepare for myself, as I mentioned before, I aim to make a meal for less than £1. Most of my dinners consist of steamed vegetables, with something added. I very rarely fry anything because it makes a mess of the cooker, and greasy food is not good for you, I prefer to grill things. I don't use the oven very often because it uses a lot more gas than cooking on the top. I can't see the point of putting a casserole in for a couple of hours when you can cook a perfectly good stew in a pan on the top in 30 minutes. One of the advantages of not eating meat.

I have a two tier steamer but I only use one tier, this is great for putting everything in, and eating the meal ten minutes later. People say they haven't time to cook meals from scratch, but preparing vegetables only takes a few minutes, and once in the steamer you can forget about them while you prepare the rest of the meal.

I also have one of those metal colander type things that folds like an umbrella, you put it in a pan with an inch of water and steam your veg in there, or I sometimes steam in the microwave.

This was a meal I had in the summer. All the veg came from my garden, potatoes, yellow and green courgettes, broccoli, carrots, runner beans, and broad beans. The two veggie sausages cost about 33p, I only buy them when they are on special offer.

This is the meal I have eaten tonight, 3 shop bought carrots @ 39p a big bag, cabbage, reduced to 25p, 2 onions @ 50p a big bag. Tin of mushy peas 15p, and a veggie burger special offer 80p a box of four. A meal for less than £1.


Daily spend - £1.20 six local free range eggs