One food that's really easy to make at home, but costs quite a bit in the shops and takeaways, is garlic bread.  And it really is SO easy to make that you'll wonder why you didn't always make it yourself.

If you're cutting back and trying to find food on a budget, trying to replace takeaway food with home made food, then one way you can do this is to make the side dishes yourself.  Next time you're about to order pizza with garlic bread, look at the cost of the garlic bread, think about how little you'll get for that money, then make your own garlic bread while you're waiting for your food to be delivered!

If you've cooked a chilli con carne, then garlic bread is a great accompaniment - if you're trying to make the chilli go further then you can add grated carrots to the mix and make up a huge batch of garlic bread to serve with it.  Fill them up with hot, tasty garlic bread and they won't notice there is a bit less chilli.

So, how do you actually make easy garlic bread - and on a budget?

Well, you really only need these basic ingredients:

• A part-baked baguette, or bread rolls - any bread will do really, you could use thickly sliced bread if that's all you've got
• Butter, even margarine will do if you don't have butter.
• 2 small/medium garlic cloves (or 1 large one)*. Actually, if you don't have these you can substitute in the garlic that comes prepared in small bottles, or even just garlic salt or garlic powder.
• Black pepper and salt to taste.

The results you get will depend upon the ingredients you start with. From the list above, you're probably going to have a better result using a baguette, butter and real garlic cloves ... but if you're on a budget and only have sliced bread, margarine and garlic powder then why not give it a go!

Extra Ingredients If You Have Them

Now, above I've listed the absolute minimum. But if you're in a position to push the boat out a little, or want to "do this properly", then you could also add:

• Chopped basil (fresh if possible) - 2 tablespoons

* Remember: a garlic clove is just one of the wedge shaped things inside a whole round garlic bulb.  When you buy a garlic bulb, peel off the outside and inside it will be made up of many segments, like an orange is.  A garlic clove is one of these segments.

OK, there's nothing hard here ... so keep reading:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 200°C/375°F/Gas Mark 6.
2. Mix together the butter, garlic, salt, pepper - and the basil if you're using that. What you're doing here is mixing all the ingredients into the butter so they're blended together.
3. Take your part-baked baguette and cut into it, cutting almost all the way through, but leaving the base still attached... so it's still a whole baguette but has deep cuts along it every ½" or so. If you've used bread rolls you can slice these any way you want. If you're using sliced bread then leave this instruction out.
4. Take the butter mix and spread some of it into each slice of the baguette. If you've used bread rolls then just butter them how you can, depending how you sliced them. If you're using sliced bread then just spread the butter on one side.
5. Wrap the baguette, rolls, sliced bread in tin foil and place in the oven - on a baking tray if you've got one. If you've used a baguette or bread rolls this will be quite easy, but if you've used sliced bread then give a thought to the next step here because you might choose to wrap all your slices up like one loaf, or you might wrap them individually - it's all personal preference.
6. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. After the first 15 minutes you might like to undo the foil from around your bread, giving it a chance to brown for 5 minutes or so (I sometimes leave it exposed for 10 minutes).
7. Serve immediately, while hot.

Garlic Bread On Its Own

Sometimes I just make this bread and eat it on its own! It's a great snack, a lovely comfort food.

Cheesy Garlic Bread

When you're cooking your garlic bread, you can sprinkle some cheese over the top of it when you open the foil to cook it for the last 5 minutes. This works better in my opinion if you've made garlic bread from sliced bread - especially if the slices are really thick ones.... my favourite is to have 3/4" thick slices of garlic bread topped with cheese!

Use the Garlic Bread as a Pizza Base

You can literally top your garlic bread with pizza toppings and serve these as great snacks if you've got friends round. Use the sliced bread method, but bake them for just 10 minutes, open up the foil and brown the bread for 5 minutes, then take it out of the oven and quickly top it with some quick and easy pizza toppings. I sometimes use a mixture of Tomato/Jalapeno chutney as my base and then top that with chopped peppers, cheese and herbs. Scrummy!

Serve Garlic Bread with Chilli Con Carne

I love garlic bread with Chilli Con Carne - it can really fill you up though! Garlic bread is a great way to really make a meal stretch as far as possible.

Here's a chilli con carne recipe: http://hubpages.com/Chilli Con Carne

Photos by:

Garlic, FotoosVanRobin