If you are looking for healthy and delicious recipes but don’t have a huge deal of money to spend then don’t despair, it is perfectly possible to make tasty and nutritious meals without spending a fortune on lots of expensive ingredients.



The key is to make sure that you always have the staple ingredients and seasonings in to form the basis of lots of different dishes. If you have the basics in stock, you will need to spend very little in order to create delicious and appetising meals.


A key ingredient that you should always have in the cupboard is pasta. Pasta is cheap and filling and can form the basis of a number of different dishes. Whether fusilli, spaghetti or linguine, make sure you have a good supply in at all times to make dishes such as pasta bakes, Spaghetti Bolognese, pasta salads and lots more.

The same is true of rice; it’s cheap and filling and can make lots of different tasty meals. Rice dishes you can create include risottos, paellas, chilli dishes and cold rice salads. Experiment with rice and your favourite meat, fish or veggie protein to find your favourite dishes.

Potatoes make another great staple ingredient, and can be used to make home-cooked chips, potato wedges, jacket potatoes, toppings for cottage or shepherd’s pies, roast potatoes, mash... the list goes on! Make sure you always have a potato or two in and you should never be stuck for food ideas.

As with potatoes and pasta, bread can form the basis of lots of light meals and snacks. From garlic bread pizzas to cheap and nutritious beans on toast, bread needn’t just be for healthy sandwiches. It can even be used to create delicious desserts when past its best, including bread and butter puddings and fruit crumbles.