Recipes on a Budget

Fancy food at low cost

[recipesonabudget]

Hello!

Hello and welcome on this blog! I will write down all the recipes I make that are really nice, but they are on a low budget.

I am not a professional, just a food lover, and I truly hope these will be useful to you as well!

Thank you for stopping by.

- Cla.

Background pic by Omiyu

[recipesonabudget]

Easy mini pizzas (margherita base)

Ingredients (dose for 2 people):

6-8 slices of bread

1/2 packet tomato passata

1 packet grated cheese

oregano to taste

salt to taste

Prep:

Place the bread in a shallow baking tray

Pour the tomato passata in a bowl and helping yourself with a tablespoon slather each slice with some sauce

Add your grated cheese on top

Add a pinch of salt and a pinch of oregano

Bake at 180°C or 350° F for about 20 mins or until the cheese has melted.

Serve hot.

Notes:

This is a base version, you can add any toppings you like; my faves are salami/olives and ham/mushrooms, but feel free to go wild.

I used mozzarella cheese, but you can use any cheese you like. I advise grated because it is better for this kind of baked goods.

I absolutely adore oregano, but if that's not your thing feel free to use chili flakes or basil.

Feel free to modify the quantities according to how many people you are.

Is this proper pizza? Eh, arguably, but you are probably looking for something easy and that you can do with limited spoons, or you really want pizza but you can't afford to go to your nearest pizza place. It's okay, we all go through rough times, but keep your chin up and make sure you are eating something, so you have the energy to go through whatever you are going through.

I believe in you.

[recipesonabudget]

Depression meals: can they be good and comforting?

So, this is going to be a bit of a long post and I hope this is helpful to someone.

We know that sometimes we really don't have the energy to go and actually make a proper meal, but regardless we are all worthy of love and of a comforting meal. We are after all battling against a relentless enemy and especially because of this we should be properly nourished.

I am not going to waste time with useless tips, but I am going to delve immediately into the details.

First of all I would say to invest in a good freezer. A lot of shops have pre-made frozen meals that you can store and chuck in the microwave whenever you feel hungry. Not only that, if/when you have enough spoons you can prepare stuff and store it in containers.

I currently have stuff like:

Soup

Pasta

Frozen vegs (the ADHD tax 😓)

Chicken nuggets

Fish fingers

Frozen gyoza (I love them to bits)

Fries/chips

It's ok if you don't prepare from scratch, sometimes we are all very low on spoons/energy and really. Never feel guilty about not doing it from scratch, it's ok. Food is food and if this is what makes you eat there is nothing wrong.

If you have a little bit of money on the side I would invest on an air fryer, really, best gift ever from my MIL, it cooks pretty much anything and consumes less time and energy than an oven, although if you are steaming veggies pouches pls use the microwave, the air fryer makes them a little too dry for my taste.

Anyway, now that I have made this little premise, this is a non-comprehensive list of comforting depression meals that I have made.

SOUP

Grab a bag of instant soup, put its content in a bowl, pour boiling water on it, stir well and add a slice of bread. It literally takes 3 minutes top.

GYOZA NOODLES

You will need frozen gyoza and instant noodles. Prepare the noodles as per package (usually pour some boiling water on them and let them stand for 5 mins. Prepare the gyoza as per package (put them in a bowl, pour cold water over them and microwave for 3-4 mins). Pour the gyoza and the water in the noodles.

TUNA SALADS

No need to prepare much here, they come already prepared with tuna, pasta and veggies. They can be found fairly everywhere, below an example

CHICKEN NUGGETS

Take a frozen package of nuggets, chuck them in the air fryer (or the oven), let them cook and then enjoy. If you want to add some veggies just microwave one of the steam bags, add some salt and you are good to go.

FISH FINGERS

Same preparation as the nuggets.

***

I will add more as I recall them, but hope you have something a bit more comforting and hope this could help you.

[recipesonabudget]

Rice Salad

Ingredients (4 people)

1 can of tuna

320g (1.5 cups) of rice of your choice

Olives (black/green)

100g (3.5 oz) of ham (optional)

1 can of mixed vegetables in water/oil (artichokes, peas, carrots, peppers, mushrooms, cocktail onions)

80g cheese (like mozzarella, parmesan, anything you can dice easily) (optional)

3-4 hard boiled eggs (optional)

Salt

Olive oil

Prep

Cook the rice in your preferred way (rice cooker, pot) as per instructions, then let it cool down.

Put the rice in a large bowl and add all of the ingredients

Comb with 2-4 pinches of salt and 1 tbsp of olive oil

Let it rest for 1 hour before serving.

Notes

It's a salad, so if you don't have the above listed ingredients you can add any ingredients you like

We do not want sticky rice, so add 1 tbsp of olive oil to the rice and mix it before letting it cool down.

[recipesonabudget]

Prosciutto & Melone

Ingredients (4 people):

1 cantaloupe

1 or 2 pack of prosciutto crudo

Prep:

First open the cantaloupe in half, deprive it of the seeds and then slice it

Peel off the skin

Wrap 1-2 slices of prosciutto around each slice of cantaloupe

Plate and serve

Notes:

You can use galla melon or honeydew melon.

If you REALLY hate melons in all its forms you can use pineapple instead, but you don't need to wrap the ham

If you don't have prosciutto you can use regular ham.

You can make it fully vegetarian by using ham substitutes, but I have never tried it so I can't say what it is like.

Consume it the same day, so don't exaggerate on the quantities

Keep it in the fridge before serving so it's extra fresh.

[recipesonabudget]

Peach frappe

Ingredients:

2 cans of peaches in syrup

1 tub of vanilla ice cream

1 pint (500 ml) milk

Prep:

take out a blender and place all of your ingredients inside and then process for 5-10 mins.

The frappe is now ready

Garnish with optional whipped cream

Notes:

Keep the syrup of one (1) of the cans and add it into the mix for more peach flavour

Store in a bottle in the fridge for max 2 days

This works with any kind of fruit

You can use fresh fruit or canned fruit, whatever suits you best

[recipesonabudget]

Beans Salad

Ingredients:

1 can of beans

1 onion

parsley

1-2 cloves of garlic

1 pinch of salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pinch black pepper if you like it

Take your can of beans, open it, devoid it of all the water and chuck the beans in a salad bowl.

Slice the onion, curse it because it made you cry, then chuck it in the bowl with the beans

Chop your parsley and your garlic, then put them in the bowl.

Comb everything with the pinch of salt, the pinch of pepper and the oil, then leave it 5-10 mins so the flavours come out well.

Serve. Bon apétit.

Notes:

You can use any beans. I prefer cannellini, but you can use whatever beans you like.

You can use any onion you have. I prefer the red onion, but the white one works as well. Or even scallions work, if you don’t have onions.

You can use coriander if you don’t like parsley, they are in the same family of plants. You can use also the dried one in the bottles if you don’t have the fresh one.

Garlic and pepper can be optional and if you don’t want them in your beans salad for any reason you can just not use them.