Frugal Italian meatballs with a chunky vegetable sauce 63p per portion

 Hello Dear Reader,

Do you ever get a hungry day? I've been munching away today like a very hungry caterpillar!  Dearly Beloved went off today to visit family and I came home on the train and needed something really substantial for supper. 

Meatballs and chunky vegetable sauce.

Chunky Sauce
1 red onion, 11p - Aldi
4 mushrooms, 30p - Aldi
4 sticks of celery, 23p - Aldi
4 cloves of garlic, 3p - Aldi
1 tin of tomatoes,31p -tesco Everyday value
500g container of passata, 29p (Tesco Everyday value - I buy these ten at a time)
1 tablespoon of olive oil - (750ml for £1.99 in Lidl!) - less than 1p!
salt and pepper to taste.

Dice the vegetables - saute in the oil (you can add more but this is the lower calorie version)
Add the tinned tomatoes - chop them about a bit
Add the passata
Allow to simmer gently.

Makes four portions - £1.28 - 32p per portion

Meatballs
300g minced beef - 75p (I buy minced beef for £2.50 a kilo from a wholesale butchers - local beef)
1 egg 16p
3 cloves of garlic - crushed. 3p
50g semolina (I bought three 500g bags for £1 from Approved Food) 3p
60ml of skimmed milk 3.9p - UHT - Aldi
tsp of dried parsley
tsp of dried oregano
salt and pepper.
(You can add 30g of finely grated parmesan to this- but I didn't have any!)

This makes four portions of meatballs. We ate half of it with our supper and the rest are in the fridge for tomorrow's lunch. £1.11 - 28p per portion.

Combine with your hands and work the ingredients together. Form into golf ball sized meatballs.

Drop them into the chunky vegetable sauce and allow them to simmer for 30 - 45 minutes. The meatballs have a very dense texture, almost like tinned meatballs. If I wasn't trying to lose weight, then I might have browned them first in some oil. The choice is yours.

 I thought I would mention pasta and portion sizes. 50g of dried pasta is more than enough for anyone. This is the cooked amount and it was more than enough and actually could have fed three people. I buy Tesco Everyday value spaghetti for 24p for 500g - 2.4 per portion

Here's the results - supper for 63p!! If anyone tells you that you can't eat healthily on a budget then just send them over to me and I'll prove them wrong!

Ready for the close up???

I'm ready for an active weekend of adventure and I'll be sharing it with you!

Watch this space. There will be a picnic, sweeping Cornish vistas, clifftops, muddy boots and sandy ankles.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxxxx