Meal on a Budget – Lasagne

Money can be a bit tight and especially in these tough times, and just in case you didn’t know how to do a lasagne on the cheap I thought I’d share.

Brown the mince (I usually cook with onions at this point but we’d run out)

Bulk out with some carrots – I boil these separately to speed things up and then add them to the meat.

Add tinned chopped tomatoes – thicken with tomato puree at the end.

Bulk up with other things. Frozen peppers are cheaper than fresh ones. You can add a variety of things –  courgette, baby sweetcorn, sweetcorn, mushrooms – just have a look what’s leftover in the fridge.

Give it extra flavour by adding some herbs.

Add some garlic and black pepper.

Now make the white sauce with butter, flour, cheese and milk.

Melt about 2 wooden spoonfuls of butter. Take off the heat and add enough plain flour until you get a thick paste.

Gradually mix in some milk (about half a pint) until you have a slightly runny sauce.

Return back to the heat and keep stirring. If it becomes lumpy take off the heat and stir.

Add about a handful of grated cheese and when it has melted you should have a thickish sauce.

Put your meat in a tray and place lasagne sheets over and cover with the white sauce. Do this again on top of this layer and repeat until you either cannot fit anymore in your container or run out of meat/sauce. On the top layer sprinkle with cheese.

Put in the oven and cook until the top turns golden.

As you may tell from this picture we also used some leftover pasta tubes from the night before as well as the sheets.

This meal can be frozen for another day too – make sure you defrost it and heat thoroughly first though.

Serve

Credit for the white sauce goes to Jessica Holbrook