50p a day til christmas, healthily?!-Weezl's next challenge (part 2)

ShelBell · 21 September 2008 at 9:25PM

Freezer

Lamb in mint gravy x 1
Hot Chilli Con Carne x 1
Lemon Chicken x 1
Chicken Chasseur x 1
Sausage Casserole & Mash x 3
Cheese & Ham Cottage Pie x 2
Chicken in White Wine x 1
Chicken Rogan Josh x 1
Chilli Con Carne x 1
Cottage Pie x 3
Spaghetti Bolognaise x 1
Cottage Pie Ready Meal x 1
Chicken Lasagne Ready Meal x 1
Minty Lamb Casserole Chunks x 1
4 Terry Sausages x 2
6 Terry Sausages x 2
100g King Prawns
8 Irish Sausages
6 Pork & Ham Hock Sausages
2 Chicken Sausages
8 Pork Sausages
Rump Steak x 2
2 Pork Steaks x 5 (various marinades)
Beef Casserole Steaks (Large pack)
Stuffed Belly Pork x 1
4 x Beef Kebabs
Bacon x 4 rashers
4-5 Chicken Fillet Portions
500g Lean Steak Mince
440g Mince
1 bag Quorn Mince
1 x Small Steak & Kidney Pudding
2 x Lemon Sole Fillets
2 x Rainbow Trout Fillets
2 x Smoked Haddock Fishcakes
2 x Fish Steaks in Butter Sauce
5 Stuffing Balls
Mashed Potato (2 portions)
½ small bag oven chips
Bag Garden Peas
2 x Mozzarella
Assorted muffins/bagels
Box 10 mini Duck Spring Rolls

Quite a lot then! Keep thinking of things in the cupboard and updating that list too lol.

MRSMCAWBER · 21 September 2008 at 9:28PM

CW18
You could have mums version....no swede or parsnips

... I add them as I love em :T ... the only time I will eat marrowfats is in that... hubby loves em mind, and its the only way i will eat cornedbeef too

Mum was on about how much cornedbeef is the other day -when I left the UK a bit over 1 year ago i was paying 79p... here i was moaning as i pay €1.29 about £1.04 ...until mum told me its now more in the UK :eek: ..... if i want it from the NAAFI its €2.35 a tin :eek: ..I can get a whole chicken for about that :rotfl:

Bob.. I love dumplings :T ..in fact i could quite happily just have the dumplings fished out of the stew

.... I need to have a word with my mum as atora -the only boxed suet i can get out here is €1.99 nearly £1.60 a box :eek: .... i like the veggie one -so need to get mum to post me some :rotfl: ... I keep threatening to try the fresh suet from the supermarket -but I can feel it furing up my arteries from here

:rotfl:

Heck shelbell...thats some freezer list lol

ShelBell · 21 September 2008 at 9:30PM

thanks for the suggestions. the corn beef gets used for my teas, i have a lot of 1 egg ommlettes and have corn beef in them sometimes. Hubby won't eat it!

Mrs M with the savoury roll is pastry easy to make my hand (I don't have a mixer)? Wouldn't know where to start and I don't have any in the freezer! My boys do like pies etc so I know they'd like it.

ShelBell · 21 September 2008 at 9:31PM

lol mrs m its bad that the only veg in there is one old bag of peas! Loads of foil dish meals though, which is handy for when I'm working for my boys. Can't beleive how many sausages we have!

cw18 · 21 September 2008 at 9:40PM

Very promising looking lists Shelbell

I've copied them out, and will have a play and see what I'd come up with for my blokes from it -- probably won't post back until tomorrow morning though

I'm normally a night-owl, but having spent 2 hours mowing the front lawns this morning and an hour and a half mowing the back after tea (when it cooled down a bit - we've had a gorgeous day for once) I think it'll be an earlier night than normal for me

Pitlanepiglet · 21 September 2008 at 9:43PM

ShelBell wrote: »

Hubby buys his own lunches and uses his own money

Is there some room for economy here? Could Hubby contribute his lunch money to the budget, I bet you could produce him a better and more cost effective lunch than he buys for much less money. It's difficult for you to deal with the stress of feeding the family on your own, can you share it with him?

Good luck!

MRSMCAWBER · 21 September 2008 at 9:51PM

Hi shelbell

Yep..I make pastry by hand -and i make cracking pastry if i say so myself

:rotfl:

I do this:-

400g plain flour
about 1/2tsp salt
100g lard -cut into small pieces
100g butter/marge -cut into small pieces

Just throw it all in a bowl -do you have one of those silicone spatulas? i use that to cut the fat into the flour (warm hands and pastry don't mix

).. once its like bread crumbs.. add ICE COLD water -I do 2tbs per 100g flour -so you will want 8tbs to start with -you may need to add a drop more today i used 10tbs in total... use a dinner knife to mix it until its all starting to stick together then stick your hand in to bring it all into a ball -as quickly as possible so you don't touch it too much -then stick in a plastic bag and shove in the fridge to rest and chill...
When it comes out it may need a couple of minutes to soften slightly -but that depends on the marge you use -if its soft from the fridge then you should be fine

And if it makes you feel better I usually have about 80+ sausages in the freezer at a time..hubby is panicing as i used the last today -and i can't make anymore until i have made some room in the freezer

:rotfl:

dipstick -forgot the recipe for the savoury meat roll

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=13971839&highlight=savoury+meat+roll+recipe#post13971839

cw18 · 21 September 2008 at 10:31PM

Shelbell - have had a play, and our 'starter for 10' menu plan (based on cooking for 2 instead of 3) would look something like this. I'd need to buy some more veg (normally have frozen bags of peas, sweetcorn and pea/corn/carrot/bean mix in our freezer) though, and potatoes as well. Still another 8 meals to sort, but will have a play to 'find' those later with as few 'need to buy' ingredients as possible.

30 days = 4 weeks and 2 ‘odd’ days.

one of each of the following 'sets' each week......

pork steaks in marinade (5 x 2 from freezer, so that's one of the odd 2 days sorted). Depending on marinade I'd serve with pasta, rice or potatoes and the addition of veg.

fish (lemon sole, rainbow trout, haddock fishcakes, with butter sauce). The only one of these I do is the butter sauce, which I serve with rice. I cook frozen peas and sweetcorn in with the rice (saves on a pan, and makes the rice look more than it is). Possibly use the chips with the fishcakes? Other than that I'd probably be looking at boiled potatoes (with a smidgen of butter/margarine to coat them) and veg.
And for the other 'odd day' I'd do our tuna fish pie. Make a white sauce, then stir in tinned tuna (I use 1.5oz each margaring and plain flour with 3/4 pint milk for the sauce, and add 2 small tins tuna - this serves three easily and will stretch to 4 where 2 of them are older teenagers, so you can probably get away with half). Then top with mashed potato and bake like a cottage pie - or just serve up the mash and spoon the sauce over the top which saves energy - and I serve with veg (and tomato ketchup for those who want)

Mince dish - I work on 125g mince per person, so would use 250g per meal for 2. So your pack of 500g should do 2 meals, and the 440g should do 2 more depending on the meal.
I'd be looking at cottage pie (I cook peas/corn in with the mince, which makes the mince go further) for one meal - but I note you already have some ready made cottage pie in the freezer to cover this one.
I'd also use some to make a Chille Con Carne, but again I see you have two in the freezer which can be used.
Then what we call 'macaroni casserole' and is a family favourite. For this I dry fry mince (I'm down to 110g a head for this, so 220g would easily do yours) with chopped onion, then stir in a tin of baked beans, then stir all this into cooked pasta. Unless really strapped for cash I add a small amount of grated cheese to the top of each portion (and my son and I normally have some tomato ketchup as well)
[FONT=&quot]I'd probably look at making spag bol as the fourth mince dish, but my lot wouldn't complain at having macaroni casserole twice in a month and it's quicker and cheaper

As you have lean mince, then perhaps you could make up some meatballs (something I want to try next month) to serve with pasta and a HM tomato sauce (you mention having the things I’d expect to need to make the sauce – though I plan on ‘whizzing’ a red pepper into mine to hide it from the blokes

)[/FONT]

Sausage meal - starting with 2 of the sausage casseroles you have in the freezer. We have sausage and mash (with veg and gravy), sausage and chips (with veg and gravy), sausage and stuffed pasta with pasta sauce (pasta and sauce normally from whoopsie though), and sausage with batchelors beef savoury rice (something the family as whole refuse to swap for a cheaper alternative).

chicken dish - first thought is whether your menfolk will eat different meals at the same sitting, and which of your ready meals each will eat. With Lemon Chicken, Chicken Chasseur, Chicken in White Wine, Chicken Rogan Josh and Chicken Lasagne Ready Meal I’d be looking at covering two meals with these. Probably White Wine alongside Rogan Josh (with rice for both) and Lemon Chicken alongside Chasseur with the same potatoes/pasta/rice or whatever suits.
As your DH is like mine (likes to see the meat) I’d probably cook up a couple of the fillets for a ‘roast’ type meal (with spuds, veg and gravy – and possibly your stuffing balls?) for a third chicken meal. And that still leaves some fillets to chop up and doing something with for a fourth meal.

[Deleted User] · 21 September 2008 at 10:40PM

Shelbell
Rainbow trout
I use this a lot, makes a dish that gets lots of comments.
Trout Cocktails
Trout
Seafood sauce ( or mayonnaise and tomato sauce mixed together)
Place trout in boiling water for exactly 6 minutes. Remove from the waterr, peel the meat from the bones. Salt to taste.
Chill thoroughly and serve in cocktail glasses with seafood sauce.
Can also serve on a bed of lettuce with quartered tomatoes and lemon slices.
Jennie

ShelBell · 21 September 2008 at 10:58PM

Cheryl thank you for those suggestions! I think I'll definately need to get some more rice, as only have one microwave packet (have never mastered cooking rice from scratch, its always stodgy and yuck). But Lidl do some cheap micro rice.

I think this week I'm going to try and use up some of the foil dish meals, as they take up the most space in the freezer. That way I can make a batch of bolognaise with one of the minces and bulk it out with oats and lentils etc. I have a cheap veg van that parks up at the end of the road 3 times a week so I can pick up fresh veggies really cheaply.

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50p a day til christmas, healthily?!-Weezl's next challenge (part 2)

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