I make soup every week.

Basic soup base:

In a large pan sweat one chopped onion with garlic (I like lots of garlic, but this is optional) and (optional) some chopped bacon in a little olive oil. Add several diced carrots and a sliced-up celery, leaves and all. Add salt and pepper, and some fresh or dried mixed herbs (parsley, oregano, thyme, whatever you like). Cover, turn down the heat and let it all soften for a while.

Add a can of chopped tomatoes and a couple of pints of stock (chicken or vegetable).

That's the basic soup base, and by itself makes a pretty nice vegetable soup.

I jazz it up in various ways, depending on what's cheap/reduced at the supermarket or the greengrocer. In recent weeks I've made soup by adding:

1. Roast tomatoes - I bought a couple of kilos of tomatoes that were on special offer, sliced them in half, sprinkled them with olive oil, chopped garlic and herbs, and roasted them. I added them to the soup base with lots and lots of basil, and whizzed it with a stick blender into a lovely smooth soup.

2. Roast butternut squash. These are normally 99p in Morrisons, but are often reduced to 49p. As with the tomatoes, roast, add to the soup and blend, with a little cinnamon.

3. And again, with roasted peppers - red, yellow and orange are best, the green ones lack flavour for roasting. As before, roast with garlic & herbs, add to soup and pulverise.

I have a bowl of soup every day at about 5pm - it's cheap and filling and means I eat less a couple of hours later at dinner.

I've noticed the price of meat has risen enormously, and I've been eating more vegetarian food, such as this, which I've made a few times and which is absolutely delicious.

I realise I'm very lucky in that I can generally afford to buy what I want, but (having grown up poor) I also have an eye out for prices and won't buy things that are ridiculously expensive. My local supermarket is Waitrose, which is the Rolls Royce of UK food retailers, but which is far too expensive for me to justify using for anything other than the odd item I've run out of.

That said, if I really want something and it's great quality but expensive, I'll buy it. I was in Epping this morning where they had a small farmer's market and I ended up buying some stupidly expensive goats' cheese, but can justify it on the basis that I don't smoke, don't drink and the money I spent on it is a drop in the ocean compared with the money people spent on, say, outfits for their dogs. And it's a treat, it's not something I would spend that amount of money on every week.

I hardly ever eat out. When I do it's a real treat. When I see friends we generally cook for one another rather than drop £25 each at a mediocre restaurant.

I feel sorry for people on a low fixed income, but I also know a lot of people who prioritise their need for a big TV, computer games, designer clothes, cigarettes and nights out over good-quality, fresh food.

Sorry to get a bit preachy, but I really believe that everyone can if they wish eat healthy food, that it doesn't necessarily have to cost more, and if it does cost more than eating junk food, look at what else your money is spent on.

the money I spent on it is a drop in the ocean compared with the money people spent on, say, outfits for their dogs

Hey now, if we don't buy clothes for our dogs, what will they wear?!

The full recipe for the grilled eggplant is as follows:

Slice one eggplant (aubergine) lengthwise into slices. Put the slices in a colander, sprinkle with salt and put a plate on top. Put a weight (a couple of cans of something) on the plate. Leave for 15 minutes or so. This gets rid of all the bitterness in the eggplant.

Rinse any remaining salt off and pat the eggplant dry on a paper towel.

Heat up a ridged skillet or griddle and brush or spray lightly with oil. Grill the aubergine on both sides until it's soft - about 5 minutes per side.

While it's cooking, make the dressing - a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, the juice and grated zest of a lemon, salt and pepper, a crushed clove of garlic and some fresh chopped mint. Mix it all together and put it in a flat-ish dish so you can lay the aubergine slices in it.

When the aubergine is done, lift each slice into the dressing, turn it over so it's coated, and then place on a bed of salad. To the salad you can add olives if you like them, and I also like to add a grilled red pepper, which I cook on the griddle alongside the aubergine until the skin is almost black and the flesh is sweet. Sprinkle with feta cheese.

Eat and enjoy, imagining you're sitting on the terrace of your Greek villa looking out across the Aegean sea ... (Unless, of course, you're taz, in which case you don't have to imagine.)

I haven't actually noticed food prices rising all that much, except for eggs and milk. One thing I've done consciously is to switch to buying more local products if I can - the price may be higher now, but they should be less affected by things like rising fuel prices.

Also, I don't buy anything in bulk, really. There are just two of us, and buying 10 lb bags of rice seems like a recipe for some sort of infestation.

I'm a beans and grain kind of girl, though if I don't get enough protein from meat or dairy I start to go a little nutty.

What's really cheap still are pinto beans and tortillas, which were a staple for me growing up.

Set one cup of beans to soak in 3 cups of water before going to work. When you get back, drain, wash, and set in a 2 quart pot with 4 cups of fresh water. I put in about 1/4 of an onion, and a half teaspoon salt. I bring the water to a rolling boil, then lower the heat and put the lid on. Simmer for 2 hours. About an hour and a half in, I put in some chicken bullion for flavor.

I like "homemade" tortillas, so I get some masa harina and put it in the bread machine on the dough setting. After about 20 minutes I've got some pliable dough, and I roll them out, cook them, and enjoy with my fresh beans.

Older Boy is allergic to all gourds and squashes, so that's out. He likes beans and cheese, so I'm good there.

For cheap meals for them, I've got hard boiled egg slices (egg chips!), emergency pizza (a flour tortilla with sauce, cheese, and some peperoni's crisped in the oven), and the ever present beans and rice.

Right - rice. I brown a cup of rice (white or brown) in the skillet with oil on high heat. I then add two cups of water, chopped onions, tomatoes, and some chicken bullion. White rice cooks in about 30 minutes, brown rice takes more water (3 cups) and about 40 minutes. Basically cook until the rice can be bitten all the way through.

As for food prices rising, I've been very careful to look for sales, and have trimmed the food budget to the essentials. I buy bigger containers when I know it will be eaten. I used to get individual yogurt dealies for the kids, but now I have little generic containers and fill them with yogurt from a big tub now. I get more servings for less.

I can't bring myself to drink generic soda unless I'm under extreme duress, so I just make darn sure I get my soda on sale and stock up. I also limit my consumption to two glasses a day.

Another staple was tuna noodle casserole, of which there are tons of recipes on the 'net.

We just bought a small chest freezer. Now I can do things like cook a whole gigantic turkey, make a bunch of meals from it and save them for later. I can preserve the vegetables I grow plus buy produce in-season from local farmers and freeze that. I can stock up on things when they're on sale. But mostly, having a freezer full of food cuts down on those "there's nothing to eat, let's order a pizza" nights.

A lasagna is super-easy and always yummy to eat reheated. I don't use meat, so here's my recipe:

Mozzarella, shredded. Use an entire package of un-shredded and shred it yourself. While waiting to use it, cover the shredded cheese with wax paper and store in the fridge.

One of those smaller containers of ricotta and one egg. Mix together, add black pepper, and cover. Store in fridge.

One package of fresh button mushrooms. Clean and chop into pieces. Don't make them too big, as they'll be in your lasagna, but also remember that they shrink while cooking.

Two jars of pasta sauce. I use Barilla baking sauce because its flavors and consistency are the most normal-seeming.

Put the mushrooms and sauce into a medium-big pot, cover, and simmer. Stir occasionally.

Boil lots of water in a bigger pot.

Now, you're going to need exactly 15 lasagna noodles. Or twelve, for fewer layers. But I like to go with 15.

Once the noodles cook (in that giant pot), strain them.

Pyrex baking dish. Put a layer of sauce down. Then a layer of noodles. Then some of the ricotta mixture. More sauce, mixing it up really well to spread the ricotta/sauce mixture all the way across. You should use 1/4 of the ricotta mixture on each layer. After the sauce, add mozzarella -- 1/5 of the mozzarella. Continue this way until you get to the top layer, which is just noodles, sauce and mozzarella.

Cover with foil and cook in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Uncover for five more minutes, then let sit on counter for five more minutes.

This should make for at least six servings of lasagna -- meal-sized. When it all cools down a bit, put it in plastic containers and freeze. To reheat in the microwave, cook five minutes on high with the lid on but not sealed. Then cook four minutes on half power. Let sit for a few minutes so you don't burn off your tongue.

Eat for a week!

I tend to make things like stews / soups in feed-a-friggin-army batch sizes:

An oldie-but-goodie so-bad-for-you but oh-so-tasty comfort food that the mister has taken a real shine to: Cincinnati Chili (tips = get the beef ground on a chili plate, yes it should be that watery, use mild cheddar cheese to top, and grated Valrhona bitter chocolate is the best upgrade I've come up with so far).

Better for you, and can easily be made fat-free and/or vegan: Carrot Fennel Soup.

- 2 small or one large fresh fennel (anise?) bulb, peeled and chopped. Reserve the fronds.
- 6 large carrots, coarsely chopped
- 1 fat leek, cleaned, coarsely chopped
- 2 pints chicken or vegetable stock
(optional) 1/2 cup white wine, if you have it around.
- 1 shallot, minced
- garlic, as much or as little as you like
- fresh thyme, 4-5 sprigs, stripped
- cumin, 1 to 1 1/2 tsp
- salt and finely ground black pepper (to taste)
Drop some olive oil into a heavy pot / dutch oven, and heat to fragrance. Add the shallot and garlic, and soften them - don't burn the garlic. Drop the carrots, leek and fennel in, and saute for a bit until the leek gets a bit transparent. Add the chicken stock, thyme leaves and wine (if using), cover, reduce the heat and simmer on low for about 90 minutes or until the carrots are completely soft. Buzz with a soup blender until well pureed, and serve garnished with fresh green fennel fronds.

I finish this soup with a few ounces of half-and-half or heavy cream, which helps the texture "set up" a bit as you buzz it with the soup blender. You can obviously eliminate this, but the cream is (imo) rather crucial to the texture.

Ragout, or Bolognaise Sauce (pasta sauce) because I never, nevereverever, use jar or canned pasta sauce. It is full of fail and poison:

- 1 lb. sweet or spicy italian sausage, preferably packaged, not link (easier to prep).
- 2 medium yellow onions, diced
- a shitload of garlic, smashed thru a press
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1 can black olives, chopped
- 1 can mushrooms (pieces and stems), chopped
- ~6 of the best medium to large tomatoes you can get your hands on* - skinned** and pureed in a food processor.
- 1 tbsp. dry oregano
- 1 tbsp. dry basil
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
- 1 tsp fennel seed, crushed / ground in a mortar.
- 1/2 to 1 cup red wine. This is where you can use rough, young, tannic wines if you like - cheap cabs, barolos, shiraz, etc... both to cook with and to serve with the meal.
- salt and black pepper to taste

Start with a tablespoon or so of olive oil in the bottom of a big stockpot. Heat it to fragrance and saute the shallot and garlic. Add the sausage, saute and break it up with a fork until it is crumbly and no longer pink. Add the onions, herbs, olives, mushrooms and wine, and stir for 1-2 minutes until the onions soften. Add the tomatoes last, cover and reduce the heat to simmer for at least 45 minutes until the flavours start to "meld".

Pro tip 1: dried herbs seem to work better / infuse more flavour in stews/soups/sauces than fresh. Use fresh herbs in salads, fish, garnishes and "al fresco" dishes that aren't cooked to death.

* Pro tip 2: Preferably fresh, ripe and local tomatoes: farmer's market, your garden, the neighbour's overflow, whatever. Failing that, or in winter use good quality canned whole tomatoes. Buy the kind with no salt/sugar/preservatives added, and DO NOT use "tomato sauce", cos it's loaded with HFCS. And don't even bother with those horrible pasty things lurking in the produce aisle, no matter how "red" they look. Those aren't tomatoes, they're water-infused cardboard. They are not, and never will be, ripe.

** to easily peel tomatoes, drop them in briskly boiling water for no longer than ten seconds. The skins will slide right off.

I regularly make a double batch of ratatouille, then bake half of it in a pie crust with goat cheese (which is probably the most expensive element of the meal), and save the leftovers to eat over rice. Yummy!

Basic ratatouille recipe:
- 1 yellow onion
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 eggplant
- 1 red bell peppper
- 1 zucchini
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- olive oil, salt & pepper, and fresh basil

Saute the chopped onion and garlic in olive oil till soft. Add in the eggplant (chopped into cubes) and a little more olive oil (if necessary) to keep it from sticking. Season with salt and pepper, and let eggplant soften for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in sliced red pepper and zucchini, then stir in tomatoes. Season again as necessary, and toss in a little fresh basil. Simmer away and enjoy!

It's hard to beat good old potato soup for cheap and easy. Sometimes I fancify with mushrooms, leeks, herbs or whatever, but at its most basic (and still delish. maybe more delish.) it's just sautee an assload of sliced onions in olive oil and some butter in the bottom of your soup pot, add water, quarter your potatoes (a bunch, but not quite an assload) and toss 'em in, add salt and pepper, cook 'til everything begins to come apart, add some whole milk, cream, yogurt, or canned milk to make it as creamy as you want. Viola. Yummy and comforting, super cheap.