Breakfast: beans on toast
Lunch: not sure, all depends on where I am. Might be more of the beans on toast, might be scrambled egg on toast, pineapple and yoghurt
Dinner: 2 sausages in a sticky sauce, chips, finish off the beans on toast or maybe roasted tomatoes.
Lots of water
Wednesday, 28 August 2013
Tuesday, 27 August 2013
Cheaper than chips menu: 27-8-13
Despite having it all planned, I keep changing my mind! I was going to have poached egg on a crumpet this morning until I remembered that big bowl of ripe tomatoes on the window ledge, for example. Ah, well, that's half the fun.
Breakfast: bacon and tomato
Lunch (probably in school): soup, roll and butter, yoghurt and pineapple
Dinner: chicken breast in some sort of sauce (the chicken I bought when I was at my parents' home and I can't remember what the sauce was - lemon had something to do with it, I think), courgette fritter, black beans, runner beans, followed by cheats cherry ice cream.
Lots of home made/grown here. That makes it nice and frugal! Even the chicken works because it was a gift!
Now to hunt for a fritter recipe - that really shouldn't take too long, should it? :-)
Breakfast: bacon and tomato
Lunch (probably in school): soup, roll and butter, yoghurt and pineapple
Dinner: chicken breast in some sort of sauce (the chicken I bought when I was at my parents' home and I can't remember what the sauce was - lemon had something to do with it, I think), courgette fritter, black beans, runner beans, followed by cheats cherry ice cream.
Lots of home made/grown here. That makes it nice and frugal! Even the chicken works because it was a gift!
Now to hunt for a fritter recipe - that really shouldn't take too long, should it? :-)
Monday, 26 August 2013
Recipe: Cheese and onion drop scones: cheaper than chips
This is a Jack Monroe recipe and can be found here.
The instructions are very clear so I won't reproduce them.
It's very frugal at under 15p a portion (two drop scones from the ten that the mixture made) - less if you use value strong cheddar instead of value not-parmesan which is what I used.
The parsley was from the garden.
It's dead easy.
Best of all, they are absolutely scrummy, especially when fried in bacon fat. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Well worth a try.
My changes: as mentioned, I used bacon fat instead of oil, not-parmesan and I added a good pinch of mustard powder.
You could make them smaller, bite sized, and they would look lovely!
Here's my breakfast - so delicious and filling too.
The instructions are very clear so I won't reproduce them.
It's very frugal at under 15p a portion (two drop scones from the ten that the mixture made) - less if you use value strong cheddar instead of value not-parmesan which is what I used.
The parsley was from the garden.
It's dead easy.
Best of all, they are absolutely scrummy, especially when fried in bacon fat. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Well worth a try.
My changes: as mentioned, I used bacon fat instead of oil, not-parmesan and I added a good pinch of mustard powder.
You could make them smaller, bite sized, and they would look lovely!
Here's my breakfast - so delicious and filling too.
Cheaper than chips menu: 26-8-13
Breakfast: Bacon. Cheese and onion drop scones (a Jack recipe - I'll let you know).
Lunch: Tuna salad open sandwich with a side salad. Yoghurt and pineapple.
Dinner: Tomato and veg mixture left over from yesterday, plus the remains of the cheese sauce. I think I will pop the mixture into an individual dish, spread over the cheese sauce and then top with either mash (instant, sorry!) or a savoury crumble topping (without cheese) and then heat up/bake in Handy Andy. I am spoilt for choice where vegetables are concerned but will probably have runner beans (yesterday's were divine!) and some broccoli from Beth's garden or allotment (not sure which)
I'm spoilt for choice where veg is concerned. Yesterday Beth brought round some black beans, a big head of broccoli, a cucumber and two courgettes. From my garden I have quite a lot of herbs, salad leaves, radishes, tomatoes and runner beans, all of which are doing well. It does make it a lot easier to be frugal!
I've stopped working out every penny. What I am doing is being very frugal and careful at the point of purchase and making sure that the cost is displayed in some way on the product packaging or storage box. When I make something new or want to know the exact cost, the info is there. And I have worked out all the probable meals for the week, although, as circumstances can change, they are not tablets of stone.
This has worked very well over the summer holiday. Next week it will be both easier and harder. Easier because I will be back at school and ruled by a timetable - impulse cooking and eating will be up the chimney from Monday to Friday. Harder because there is so little time to cook and even less time to be creative. Organisation rather than free-flow becomes the name of the game. This holiday has been good though!
Lunch: Tuna salad open sandwich with a side salad. Yoghurt and pineapple.
Dinner: Tomato and veg mixture left over from yesterday, plus the remains of the cheese sauce. I think I will pop the mixture into an individual dish, spread over the cheese sauce and then top with either mash (instant, sorry!) or a savoury crumble topping (without cheese) and then heat up/bake in Handy Andy. I am spoilt for choice where vegetables are concerned but will probably have runner beans (yesterday's were divine!) and some broccoli from Beth's garden or allotment (not sure which)
I'm spoilt for choice where veg is concerned. Yesterday Beth brought round some black beans, a big head of broccoli, a cucumber and two courgettes. From my garden I have quite a lot of herbs, salad leaves, radishes, tomatoes and runner beans, all of which are doing well. It does make it a lot easier to be frugal!
I've stopped working out every penny. What I am doing is being very frugal and careful at the point of purchase and making sure that the cost is displayed in some way on the product packaging or storage box. When I make something new or want to know the exact cost, the info is there. And I have worked out all the probable meals for the week, although, as circumstances can change, they are not tablets of stone.
This has worked very well over the summer holiday. Next week it will be both easier and harder. Easier because I will be back at school and ruled by a timetable - impulse cooking and eating will be up the chimney from Monday to Friday. Harder because there is so little time to cook and even less time to be creative. Organisation rather than free-flow becomes the name of the game. This holiday has been good though!
Sunday, 25 August 2013
Recipe: Lasagne: cheaper than chips.
I can't call it 'vegetarian' lasagne because I believe that implicit in that term is that I have would have used specific vegetables, such as aubergines, and I haven't. I used what I had available, which is the glory of a dish like this. So it is 'vegetable lasagne'.
I set myself a challenge. I saw some ready meal value pizzas, single (very small) portions, at 95p and I believe you can get them at Asda for less than that - 70p. Now, I know that whatever I make will be much, much tastier but could it be cheaper? It has to be vegetable based, not meat, because it will be for Beth as well as for me. I could have used some minced beef I got from Aldi at £1.00 for 500g but not for a family meal!
So this is what I did.
The pasta:
100g pasta flour (I could have used ordinary/value but chose not to this time as it's the first time I've made lasagne)
1 egg (more expensive than usual because I won't be picking up my usual eggs until later this morning)
a very small splash of oil
I made the dough, did the usual with the pasta maker and cut the rectangles to suit the dish I was using. There were some trimmings which I re-rolled and cut into short bits for use tomorrow). I layered them with easy leave and left them in the fridge until needed.
The vegetable sauce:
splash of oil
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
half a small red pepper and half a small green pepper (from a value bag of five)
half a carrot, peeled and chopped
a squidge of garlic puree
1 courgette (from Beth's allotment) peeled and chopped
1 chestnut mushroom (quite large as chestnut mushrooms go) chopped
1 chilli (not very hot, but for the flavour), seeded and chopped fine
1 can chopped tomatoes (value)
40g red lentils
1 can kidney beans
Mixed herbs - to own taste - or use other herbs. I could have used fresh but didn't because the dried needs using up
Marigold stock - a tbsp's worth
salt/pepper to taste
some chopped fresh parsley (from the garden)
half a tube of tomato puree (from Lidl, so a lot cheaper than Morrisons)
I heated the oil in a large pan, then added the onion and carrot and sauteed them gently for about six or seven minutes. Then I added the pepper, chilli and courgette and continued cooking them gently. Then in went the mushroom and some garlic puree. After a few minutes, I turned up the heat, added the chopped tomatoes with about half a can of water, the lentils, the herbs, Marigold, salt and pepper. I went easy on the salt but needed some because the Marigold is the low sodium kind. After a good stir I brought it to a simmer, atill stirring, then turned the heat right down, covered it and left the mixture to simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes or so (while I made the cheese sauce). Then I adjusted the seasoning before adding the kidney beans, the parsley and the tomato puree. I gave it all a good stir and that was ready. It didn't need to be all that sloppy because the pasta was fresh, not dried.
The cheese sauce: made in Thermione but it would be fine to do it the conventional way instead.
80g grated strong cheddar (I used some from Aldi that was 6p per 10g)
30g grated not-parmesan (i.e. supermarket value hard Italian cheese)
40g butter (value)
30g cornflour
250 mls milk (more or less - use however much you need)
salt/pepper to taste
pinch mustard powder
I used about 20g of the not-parmesan and 50g of the cheddar for the sauce and the rest went over the top.
This made a jolly good thick sauce and, as it was made in Thermione, it was beautifully smooth for no effort!
Then I layered it all up - two layers of vegetables, two of pasta, then topped with the cheese sauce with the rest of the grated cheese sprinkled over the top. Then into the oven at 180 it went until the whole thing was bubbling and the cheese was browning on top. Because the pasta was fresh, it didn't take as long.
It smells delicious.
Now for the maths. All of the above made a dishful that will serve four very generously, more like six or seven if you are thinking supermarket portions which can be meagre, especially the value versions. As well as that I have the left over pasta plus a good portion of sauce and a good portion of cheese sauce for tomorrow, so that's Monday's dinner sorted out!
The costing is rounded up rather than down, when necessary and, assuming five portions in total, comes to around 64p a portion. If you count the lasagne as serving six, each portion will be around 46p (allowing for the extra for tomorrow). It's all a bit imprecise but you get the general idea.
I could have made this a lot cheaper. I could have been more frugal with the pasta, I could have used value frozen mixed veg, frozen peppers, less cheese, etc. But I chose not to!
It's win-win! The only thing it loses on is time. It takes time to make from scratch. Time and, I suppose, I bit of knowledge. Time is a very valuable commodity in today's world. So one could get some of those foil dishes (which are reuseable) and make individual portions to freeze when one has the time to do so. Very satisfying!
I set myself a challenge. I saw some ready meal value pizzas, single (very small) portions, at 95p and I believe you can get them at Asda for less than that - 70p. Now, I know that whatever I make will be much, much tastier but could it be cheaper? It has to be vegetable based, not meat, because it will be for Beth as well as for me. I could have used some minced beef I got from Aldi at £1.00 for 500g but not for a family meal!
So this is what I did.
The pasta:
100g pasta flour (I could have used ordinary/value but chose not to this time as it's the first time I've made lasagne)
1 egg (more expensive than usual because I won't be picking up my usual eggs until later this morning)
a very small splash of oil
I made the dough, did the usual with the pasta maker and cut the rectangles to suit the dish I was using. There were some trimmings which I re-rolled and cut into short bits for use tomorrow). I layered them with easy leave and left them in the fridge until needed.
The vegetable sauce:
splash of oil
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
half a small red pepper and half a small green pepper (from a value bag of five)
half a carrot, peeled and chopped
a squidge of garlic puree
1 courgette (from Beth's allotment) peeled and chopped
1 chestnut mushroom (quite large as chestnut mushrooms go) chopped
1 chilli (not very hot, but for the flavour), seeded and chopped fine
1 can chopped tomatoes (value)
40g red lentils
1 can kidney beans
Mixed herbs - to own taste - or use other herbs. I could have used fresh but didn't because the dried needs using up
Marigold stock - a tbsp's worth
salt/pepper to taste
some chopped fresh parsley (from the garden)
half a tube of tomato puree (from Lidl, so a lot cheaper than Morrisons)
I heated the oil in a large pan, then added the onion and carrot and sauteed them gently for about six or seven minutes. Then I added the pepper, chilli and courgette and continued cooking them gently. Then in went the mushroom and some garlic puree. After a few minutes, I turned up the heat, added the chopped tomatoes with about half a can of water, the lentils, the herbs, Marigold, salt and pepper. I went easy on the salt but needed some because the Marigold is the low sodium kind. After a good stir I brought it to a simmer, atill stirring, then turned the heat right down, covered it and left the mixture to simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes or so (while I made the cheese sauce). Then I adjusted the seasoning before adding the kidney beans, the parsley and the tomato puree. I gave it all a good stir and that was ready. It didn't need to be all that sloppy because the pasta was fresh, not dried.
The cheese sauce: made in Thermione but it would be fine to do it the conventional way instead.
80g grated strong cheddar (I used some from Aldi that was 6p per 10g)
30g grated not-parmesan (i.e. supermarket value hard Italian cheese)
40g butter (value)
30g cornflour
250 mls milk (more or less - use however much you need)
salt/pepper to taste
pinch mustard powder
I used about 20g of the not-parmesan and 50g of the cheddar for the sauce and the rest went over the top.
This made a jolly good thick sauce and, as it was made in Thermione, it was beautifully smooth for no effort!
Then I layered it all up - two layers of vegetables, two of pasta, then topped with the cheese sauce with the rest of the grated cheese sprinkled over the top. Then into the oven at 180 it went until the whole thing was bubbling and the cheese was browning on top. Because the pasta was fresh, it didn't take as long.
It smells delicious.
Now for the maths. All of the above made a dishful that will serve four very generously, more like six or seven if you are thinking supermarket portions which can be meagre, especially the value versions. As well as that I have the left over pasta plus a good portion of sauce and a good portion of cheese sauce for tomorrow, so that's Monday's dinner sorted out!
The costing is rounded up rather than down, when necessary and, assuming five portions in total, comes to around 64p a portion. If you count the lasagne as serving six, each portion will be around 46p (allowing for the extra for tomorrow). It's all a bit imprecise but you get the general idea.
I could have made this a lot cheaper. I could have been more frugal with the pasta, I could have used value frozen mixed veg, frozen peppers, less cheese, etc. But I chose not to!
It's win-win! The only thing it loses on is time. It takes time to make from scratch. Time and, I suppose, I bit of knowledge. Time is a very valuable commodity in today's world. So one could get some of those foil dishes (which are reuseable) and make individual portions to freeze when one has the time to do so. Very satisfying!
 |
| I baked some bread this morning too. |
Cheaper than chips menu: 25-8-13
Yesterday was a weird old day food wise. Contrary to my planning, I decided to finish off the Chinese through the day and did, with the result that I wanted very little else all day. Now, it wasn't a huge amount so I can only think I'm still feeling the effects of a week's self indulgence. it wasn't until late evening that I fancied something to eat so I opened a small can of mandarins in juice and polished that all off in next to no time.
I'm hungry now but it's a good hungry!
Breakfast: beans on toast
Dinner: vegetable lasagna with runner beans. Fresh fruit.
Tea: Probably a salad of some kind. I have to start eating the salad leaves from the garden and the radishes also need pulling.
More water! Lots more water.
I'll post the lasagna recipe later, if it's OK. It won't be anything special though!
I'm hungry now but it's a good hungry!
Breakfast: beans on toast
Dinner: vegetable lasagna with runner beans. Fresh fruit.
Tea: Probably a salad of some kind. I have to start eating the salad leaves from the garden and the radishes also need pulling.
More water! Lots more water.
I'll post the lasagna recipe later, if it's OK. It won't be anything special though!
Saturday, 24 August 2013
Cheaper than chips: 24-8-13
At last it's back to normal, more or less. I do have the remains of a take away Chinese to polish off but I'm going to freeze that. I need to get back to basics.
Breakfast: porridge with pineapple and yoghurt (if it's OK after the week away - I shall make some more today anyway)
Lunch: I have some leftover from a lovely veg mix Beth made on Thursday evening from onion, mushroom and tomato with some white wine and a few other bits and bobs. I shall make some pasta and have a bit of that with the sauce and make a little side salad with leaves, radishes and tomatoes, all from the garden. Apple.
Dinner: I have runner beans to eat so I will have them with a casserole of some kind from the freezer, perhaps some of the moroccan pork mince thing I made a few months ago. I also need to use up a courgette so I will fry it in just a titchy bit of spray olive oil. Dessert will be an apple or a nactarine, both holiday left-overs.
Loads and loads of water. I've been bad at drinking enough water recently. Holiday wine is NOT a proper substitute.
Breakfast: porridge with pineapple and yoghurt (if it's OK after the week away - I shall make some more today anyway)
Lunch: I have some leftover from a lovely veg mix Beth made on Thursday evening from onion, mushroom and tomato with some white wine and a few other bits and bobs. I shall make some pasta and have a bit of that with the sauce and make a little side salad with leaves, radishes and tomatoes, all from the garden. Apple.
Dinner: I have runner beans to eat so I will have them with a casserole of some kind from the freezer, perhaps some of the moroccan pork mince thing I made a few months ago. I also need to use up a courgette so I will fry it in just a titchy bit of spray olive oil. Dessert will be an apple or a nactarine, both holiday left-overs.
Loads and loads of water. I've been bad at drinking enough water recently. Holiday wine is NOT a proper substitute.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)