Mars Bar Cake

This doesn't really stick with the 'cheap food' theme, but take it as a little added extra for that day when you want a treat.

INGREDIENTS

3 Mars Bars

2 tbsp of syrup

75g of butter

Rice Crispies

300g chocolate

Decorations (optional)

METHOD

1. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. Melt the Mars Bars, syrup and butter in a pan at low heat.
3. Pour mixture and add some rice crispies. Make sure there's enough for each crispie to be lightly coated.
4. Put the mixture into the baking tray, and squish it until it is nicely compact.
5. Melt the chocolate in a bain marie, and pour over the rice crispies.
6. Decorate as wished.
7. Cool in the fridge, and cut into approx. 16 pieces once hardened.

Yellow Split Pea and Ham soup

This recipe uses a ham hough, which isn't the easiest of produce to find. So if all else fails, use ham and ham stock cubes to achieve a similar taste.

INGREDIENTS

1 Ham Hough

250g of yellow split peas. (Lentils also work)

1 onion

2-3 carrots

1 clove of garlic

Seasoning

METHOD

1. The night before cooking, put the lentils in a bowl of water to soak overnight.
2. Boil the Ham Hough in water for 1 hour. At this point I made some Mars Bar Cake to fill in the time.
3. Dice the onion and carrots.
4. Take the Ham Hough out of the pan, and throw in the onion and carrots alongside some seasoning. Remember ham can be quite salty, so salt may not be needed!
5. Remove the fat from the Ham Hough, and then take the meat off of the bone. Chop into dice, and throw it back in the pot.
6. Drain the peas, and put into the soup pan.
7. Boil for a further 1-1 and 1/2 hours.
8. Season and serve.

Bacon and Courgette Tart

This may not look like the cheapest thing here, but the recipe I followed assured me that currently, each slice costs 98p (provided everything is bought from Tesco!). Which pretty good going if I say so myself!

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS

135g ready-rolled shortcrust pastry

(I made my own instead)

1 onion sliced

1 tbsp of olive oil

150g of bacon, cut into thin strips

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 courgette, sliced

2 eggs

100ml single cream

50g of gruyère, grated (or cheddar is preferred)

Seasoning

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to gas 6, 200 degrees Celsius. Use the pastry to line a 23cm fluted tart tin with removable base. Prick the base with a fork and line with greaseproof paper and baking beans. Blind bake for 12 minutes. Remove paper and beans and bake for a further 5 minutes. Turn the oven down to 170 degrees celsius, gas 3.
2. Fry the onion in 1 tbsp of olive oil until softened. Add the bacon and garlic and fry for 5 minutes. Add the courgette and fry for 5 minutes more.
3. Beat the eggs in a bowl, mix in the cream and season. Put the courgette mix into a tart case, then pour over the egg mixture. Finish with the cheese and bake for 20 minutes. Turn the oven up to gas 6, 200 degrees celsius for a final 5 minutes.

As seen here served with kurly kale and mash. This is also bigger than the average portion expected, as there were only 4 of us for tea.