Good day folks; guess who's back, back again, its Elliott with another quick blog on a few cheap meals you can do for not only you but the flat you live with. This will include pizza; curry and a pasta bolognaise that can comfortably feed 4/6 people depending on serving size.

I shall begin by outlining the things you will need to make my pizza, you will first need to make sure you are at Aldi, this is important for it being a cheap meal. Grab yourself:

• Active yeast
• Plain flour (1 Bag). Use about half the bag
• 50ml Milk
• Three teaspoons of oil
• Salt
• Passata (tomato)
• One ball of mozzarella/per person
• A block of medium cheddar
• Mixed herbs if you want a nicer smelling pizza
• Black pepper.

All this should come to below £5, now you have all these wonderful ingredients the first thing you need to do is slap together a killer dough, for this you need to slightly warm up that milk, and mix in two teaspoons of that yeast with 450ml of ward water give a mix and then mix it in with the flour and salt with the oil of course, add more water if it is too dry meaning it isn't binding or more flour if it is too wet.

With your fine dough ready put it back into the big mixing bowl with a warm damp tea towel over the top, leave this for two hours for the dough to rise, while you wait grate that cheese.

After the two hours is up knead the dough a little more it should be a little smoother and buttery now, after you have kneaded it a little place back in the bowl and re-warm the towel up to place over the top this should be for another 30mins.

After the 30 mins you should now begin to cut into the 4-6 balls of dough you need, then roll out into the pizza shape and prove in the oven for 5 mins before putting toppings on them, to ensure you don't get a damp dough. With the passata, cheddar and mozzarella on you can now cook for 10-20 mins depending on thickness. Now, enjoy that cheap, cheap pizza.

Now who wants to cook a wonderful curry?
If the answer is "me" then listen up cos' this is a recipe I myself used on a regular basis at uni. The list of things you'll need:

• 1 pack of chicken thighs (6-8 thighs)
• 2 jars of tikka sauce (without cap spices)
• 1 onion/two people
• 2 cloves of garlic/person
• 1 stock cube/4 people. (chicken)
• ¼ a tube of tomato puree
• Whatever spiced you agree on, I recommend; smoked paprika, turmeric, medium curry power, salt, pepper, mixed herbs, and Cajun spice
• ½ a tumbler of rive/person

If you would like you can also grab naan breads this will however take you over the £5 limit.

The first step is the cut up the thighs and remove the fats that are around the meat, cutting into fingertip sized bites adding spices with a little oil to help covert he meat. After you have coated the meat let this marinate for 15-20 mins in the fridge; while that lovely chicken having a well organised bath you can cut the onions and garlic finely and then put them in a dish ready to be cooked.

Put all that rice with salt, pepper and turmeric and then mix well after you have washed the rice. Slap some oil in the pan and get that mound of chicken sizzling away, when that is cooked through add the onions and garlic and some more curry powder and the puree and mix well, after this put boiling water in the rice and get that to a rolling boil.

Add the sauce into the chicken, onion and garlic and stir well, once this is boiling add the stock cubes torn up into areas of the sauce and mix these in well. You can now leave the curry itself to cook on a low heat to thicken. Your next worry is the rice; let this go until slightly crunchy then let on a low heat for 5 mins until ready. Serve hot and with those naans if you got them.

The final recipe I have for you is a cheap pasta bolognaise you can put together for you and your flatmates. For this said bolognaise you will need:

• Pasta, any that you need for the amount of people you have, I like to say one 500g bag is for 3 people
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes/ two people
• 1 stock cube in 250ml of water/3 people
• Gravy granules
• Mixed herbs, salt and pepper
• Mince, 500g/ 3 people
• 1 onion/2 people
• 3 garlic cloves/ 2 people
• Worcestershire sauce

With these ingredients you shall blow away your flat with the lovely tastes you shall imbue upon them.

You see those fine onions you have selected out alongside the lil' diddy cloves of garlic? I hope you have not formed any form of attachment to them between Aldi and the chopping board because you need to slice those bod boys up nice and quickly. Once you sent the onions and garlic to their maker you can now put a spot of butter and oil in a pan and begin to cook up that mince, mashing it up and splitting it up I the pan as you do so.

When this mince is browned you can throw in that onion and garlic, with it some mixed hers a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper, cook this through until those onions are looking a lil' brown. Now throw in that chopped tomato and stir that through; when this is boiling throw in the stock and again stir until billing. You can now put the pasta on, with a lot of salt in that water.

When the sauce is boiling put in some gravy granules and do this until it resembles the thickness you require, this is dependant on personal taste so adapt this however you wish. When the pasta is done serve it up with the sauce on top and if you're feeling particularly fancy some grated cheese on top.

I hope these meals serve you well in your flat/house, they definitely went down a treat in my house with my mates.

By Elliott Halford
I am a 3rd year student here at the university of Chester studying physics