Gourmet cuisine on a shoestring

I'm lucky enough to be able to eat seemingly endless amounts of the same dish day after day without getting bored, which means I can cook a big pan of something at the beginning of the week and keep it in the fridge (no meat, so it's not as dangerous as it sounds).

I love cooking, but at the end of a long day I'm often not in the mood to spend an hour on something that only I will eat, so I save up most of my more creative culinary experiments for special occasions (like Shabbat). My recipe of the moment is Rice & Lentils, which I got from a friend's student cookbook. The recipe claimed it serves 2, but it's more like 6+!

cooking oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 small red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (any kind of spicy substance would do for this - chilli sauce, chilli powder, tabasco - take your pick)
250g (8oz) rice
180g (6oz) red lentils
2 tomatoes, skinned and chopped (I often use canned to save the hassle)
900ml (1.5pt) veg stock (marmite in water also works - my mum taught me that one!)
Seasoning

Heat the oil in a large pan and cook the onion, garlic and chilli for 5mins until softened. Add the rice and cook for a further 1 minute.

Stir in the lentils, tomatoes and stock. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 15-20mins until the rice and lentils are tender, stirring frequently so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Add more water if necessary to stop from boiling dry.

I throw in any vegetables I have handy - carrots, peppers, courgettes, parsnip, mushrooms, broccoli (ok, haven't actually tried that one yet) - and live off it for pretty much the whole week, with possibly a jacket potato or two for variety.

The university Students' Union has a fruit and veg market every week, with a surprising variety of good quality stuff, usually much cheaper than the supermarket or greengrocer. Today I stocked up on veg for the week and fruit to snack on. The grand total? £5.19. That will last me well into next week, with the Rice & Lentils lasting at least until the weekend (when I'm going home anyway, so will freeze any that's left over). Take out the fruit and veg bought today that will be eaten next week and add on the basic rice and lentils picked up for a pittance in any supermarket, and I have fed myself for a week for approximately £5. I drink tea, instant coffee or water, so no money spent on fizzy drinks...I don't go out regularly and blow £20 in a night (one or two drinks once or twice a fortnight)... suddenly I feel better about splashing out on a £2.86 bottle of wine and a salmon steak on the few Friday nights when I'm neither at J-Soc nor at home! The next thing to work on is packed lunch rather than spending £2 on sandwiches from the cafe a couple of times a week, but I don't feel too guilty about that!

Right, I'm off to cook.