I was in the supermarket as usual bargain hunting and I stumbled across this reduced mince beef. At £1.69 reduced from £2.50 I just had to have it as it was perfect for a cheap dinner idea. I had no idea what I was going to cook yet. Even if I didn’t use it that night it would be good to portion up and pop in the freezer.

On the drive home inspiration struck as I was doing a mental stock check of the fridge. I fancied making some kebabs, I had some wraps in the cupboards, salad in the fridge, spices in the draw and fresh herbs on the window sill. So I made 2 mini kebabs to eat and 2 mini kebab to freeze for another day.

Mini Kebabs For One

So they don’t look the most attractive looking piece of food but these mini kebabs pack some flavour. Salt pepper, coriander, cumin and garlic. I also added to the mince some grated onion and fresh coriander to give it a little moisture whilst cooking. They took around 10 minutes in a medium heated frying pan.

The Salad For The Mini Kebabs

I just use what I have in the fridge to make a salad most of the time, its surprising how expensive a simple salad can be. However it’s Cheap dinner ideas so we use what we have. I simply chopped up some iceberg lettuce, onion and then some fresh parsley, mint from what’s growing on my window sill.

Next I added some bell pepper, the only reason I had that in as they were going cheap. When the peppers are cheap buy them, slice and then store in the freezer. Perfect for all kind of stir fry’s, also great with sausages and my redcurrant sauce. A little reddish and cucumber.

Yogurt and Mint Dressing

The next part is the dressing, simply take some plain budget yoghurt (around 60p for a large tub). The next step is to add dried mint and lemon juice. Then to give it balance add a teaspoon of sugar and allow the flavours to develop in the fridge for at leas 10 minutes.

The next stage was simple, just wrap up the mini tortillas and mini kebab for one. Then eat with a nice drink of your choice. The mint yogurt sauce is great to go with any Indian dish or curry. Get started making curries with my curry base sauce. Make a batch and freeze the rest

Tuna Salad For One Using Leftovers

So its lunch time and I work freelance from home and I don’t always eat during the day. I always tell myself that I am to busy or I will have something later. Usually later never comes until around 7p most nights. This day was different I was seriously hungry for a changed and needed to eat.

Same story another deadline so what could I have quick. Opened the fridge and I had some of the salad leftover from the other day. I grabbed a tin of tuna, drained then seasoned with vinegar, salt, pepper. The next step was simply use the mint sauce on the tuna salad. Not a great video but here it is

Keema Rice For One

Keema rice is one of my favourite dishes from the Indian kitchen and of course its quick and cheap. Sometimes I use the packet microwave rice as its so much quicker. (I don’t own a microwave at the moment 🙂 ). For this dish check out my cheats keema rice recipe. I can’t help but change recipes so I added a few frozen prawns in there as well.

Of course I used up what was left of my yogurt mint dressing just to cool things down a little.

Samosas For One Using Leftover Keema Mince

So I still had some of the keema rice left over. What to do next, well for me not wanting to waste anything I simply boiled some waxy potatoes. It’s cheap dinner ideas so I used the spuds I had in, waxy or not. I usually have some cheap rolled pastry in the fridge from Aldi.

Using spuds is a great way to pack out any food and save money on ingredients. These were made to be eaten later so they all went in the freezer. Well I say samosa but the actual shape is more along the lines of a slice. It was a time thing, rather than make little parcels I just made big ones.

Brunch For One Using Leftover Potato From The Samosa

So I cooked to many spuds and I wasn’t going to waste them so a fridge raid was in order. I had some Calvo Nero leftover from the weekend (Italian cabbage, quite bitter in taste) One slice of bacon and some mushrooms. So it was a quick stir fry of the bacon, then added the potatoes and mushrooms.

Next was the Italian cabbage, season well with salt and pepper and let the cabbage wilt some. Then I threw in 1 egg and stared vigorously so the egg coated all the ingredients and cooked through. It may not look pretty but it was packed full of flavour and took minutes to make.

All this started with a reduced pack of minced beef. To make cheap dinner ideas you just have to use what you have already and your imagination. It helps if you have a few cooking skills as well.

You may enjoy one of my weekly dinner ideas when I had the time to write them. Another great recipes for leftover potatoes is to crush them and add peas and herbs

Great Cheap dinner ideas are sausage sarnies