Here’s the thing that no one tells you when you start adulting – food is bloomin’ expensive. Sometimes my eyes bulge out of my head when I get to the checkout. So in recent weeks I’ve been trying to cut back a bit and do a more mindful food shop with meal plans and budgets galore – I think Mark is secretly breathing a sigh of relief. Here are my top five recipes that I whip up on the reg that won’t cause you to faint when you see the food bill…
1. Deliciously Ella’s Cannellini Bean Stew. I’d say that this works out as one of the cheapest recipes to put together out of the five. It’s filling and makes plenty of portions so I package them up into containers and pop ’em in the freezer for a quickie dinner option another night. Personally I don’t bother with the sun-dried tomatoes and either skip that step completely or use a scoop of sun-dried tomato paste instead.
2. Minimalist Baker’s Quinoa Beet Veggie Burgers. I love making these! Mainly because the process of scooping out the mixture and making the patties in a peanut butter jar lid is extremely fun to do. I don’t add the mushrooms here because I don’t like them and the texture still makes a really tasty burger. Quinoa is a bit of a faff to find sometimes, but it’s not too pricey and makes a great cupboard staple because it can be used like rice (I like it with the recipe above!).
3. My Creamy Sweet Potato Risotto. Aside from cashews, everything here is a cheap as chips. It’s quick and easy to make as well so I tend to rustle it up when I’m a little short on time because I can do the whole thing in about 20 minutes if I get my head down and stop watching repeats of The Office. A fab winter warmer that packs some serious flavour.
4. Hemsley & Hemsley Flower Power Pizza. This is Mark’s favourite of the five and I can see why because it’s seriously filling and though it’s not as good as Domino’s it comes pretty close and the thing is made out of vegetables – bizarre. To keep the cost down I use Butter or Coconut Oil instead of Ghee and Plain Flour instead of Buckwheat, but other ingredients you’ve probably got in your cupboard already. My tip here would be to make the whole base in the food processor – it saves a lot of time and a lot of washing up.
5. Oh She Glows 15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta. This is by far the quickest one to make. It’s as easy as whipping up the sauce in a food processor, boiling up some spaghetti or pasta and then mixing the two together. I tend to go a little crazy with the garlic on this one as I love it and I like to keep a bit of basil in the freezer so there’s always some good to go. Got an avocado in the fridge that needs using up? Make this one tonight. You won’t be disappointed.
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