In early November when some BCUK friends were exchanging views on how to eat inexpensively, my thoughts returned back to my student days and my first attempts at cooking. These were by definition on a low budget and thankfully junk food was less well established then. One thing my mother told me how to make was a simple meatloaf. At that time I used beef mince, however when I did my little price survey at the local supermarket I was reminded that lean pork mince is good value for money. This is what I have done more recently

Serves 4-5

500 g pork mince (a good pork sausage meat would work too)
1 egg
1 medium onion
2 slices of old brown bread
1 tsp soya (or a pinch of salt)
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp chilli (more if you like it hot)
2 tbsp tomato ketchup

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to about 180 Celsius
2. Grate the bread into breadcrumbs
3. Either put all ingredients in a food processor and blend for a short period or mix all the ingredients thoroughly in a mixing bowl
4. Put the mixture into a non-stick loaf tin (approx 20 cm x 10 cm)
5. Bake in oven for 50-60 minutes
6. Serve in slices

Accompanying staples and vegetables

Since the oven is on anyway we have often roasted potatoes at the same time; the roasting time is the same. On other occasions we have served the loaf with boiled rice.

The oven can also be used to roast vegetables. In summer we roughly chop aubergine, courgette, pepper and onion, mix with salt pepper and olive oil and roast for 30 minutes. In winter we have tried roasting roughly chopped carrots or leeks (sticks about 5 cm long) and roughly chopped onions.

Economics including potatoes and veg

Let's compare with the proverbial supermarket pizza of £4.00 for 4 people.

Based on recent pricing 
500 g lean pork mince £2.14
1 egg   22p
300 g onion (for loaf and roast veg)  27 p
400 g carrot   25 p

So compared with £4.00 of pizza there is still £1.12 left to spend on herbs, spices and dollops of sauces used.