Eating Well V's Eating Cheaply??

spugzbunny

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Please come in :beer: but do remember the rule - no mentioning of scrummy food without giving the recipe

Would you mind, please - it sounds delicious :j

Penny. x

Not a problem!! - I'd be honoured!

2 Leeks sliced
1 cooked salmon fillet (I use smoked with dill from Aldi - they come in a blue cardboard sleeve)
1 Large Tin of butter beans
Veg stock
Mixed herbs or herbs of your choice. I like Majoram and/or dill.
Teaspoon of wholegrain mustard
Breadcrumbs to top
Parmesan

Simple as can be really - you cook the leeks in a saucepan with 3 tablespoons of with the lid on for 4 mins. Then add the butterbeans, the mustard, herbs and the salmon (broken up). Add the veg stock by eye so that it is a moist mix but not soggy. Season with Salt and pepper if you wish.

Spoon into an appropriate dish. Top with bread crumbs then sprinkle with parmesan to taste. Bake it in the oven at a medium heat (180 C I use) for 15 - 20 mins until golden on top.

That does me for 3 portions BUT those are small portions beacuse I'm on a diet so you can increase the ingredients to pad it up a bit!

the_cat

Mmmm Spugz - sounds yummy! Thanks

At the risk of being shot down in flames I would like to thank both the OP for starting this thread and ALL the contributers for their comments. Whilst it has at times(!) been a bit too heated for all concerned it is an interesting subject.

Whilst we all have very different ideas of what a healthy diet actually is - and lets face it, even the experts don't all agree, it has been useful to bring the matter to the forefront of my mind and re-evaluate the food I serve my family.

I think that I am probably the type of person who Leila had in mind when she first started this. I am lucky enough to have enough cash in my budget to spend more on food if I choose. I don't set a strict limit but spend around £180 - £200 per month roughly for 4 adults (kids are teens!) For this I feel I provide a healthy diet, with enough treats etc (usually home made) to indulge us a little.

Would I trim this back further if needed? Well I could a little by cutting out a few treats, but I feel this is the lowest comfortable amount for me. I would only cut more if I had absolutely no choice (ie couldn't pay the bills And couldn't get extra income)

Will now duck behind chair to avoid missiles...........
Cat

chris761

I've given up on buying fish fingers lately as they become so thin and yucky and started making my own. I buy fish from a fish van at the local market once a week and meat from a local farm (if you buy in bulk 5lb) bags you pay less so I alternate what I buy so that I always have mince, chicken etc and have just joined a box scheme for veg. But I'm currently thinking of buying a slow cooker (to help out during school runs). Does anyone know if the nutricinal value is lost due to the long cooking as I believe steaming is best especially for veg

Olliebeak

With the Slow Cooker, none of the cooking liquid evaporates so the nutrients are all 'still in there' but in the liquid. So as long as you serve the liquid as part of the meal, you will still be getting them.

Similar happens with a Pressure Cooker (unless you remove the pressure weights before it's finished equalising the pressure - when the steam bursts from the top), but as you use less liquid, they would be far more concentrated.

I also love to steam veg (usually over my potatoes while cooking a meal). Another way to keep the nutrients is to microwave your veggies in a dish with a close fitting lid - I use a pyrex dish. The flavour from microwaved carrots and leeks is so intense :drool:.

chris761

If you microwave veg, how much liquid do you use

seraphina

Olliebeak wrote: »

With the Slow Cooker, none of the cooking liquid evaporates so the nutrients are all 'still in there' but in the liquid. So as long as you serve the liquid as part of the meal, you will still be getting them.

Not quite true, I' afraid. You need to account for the amount of time that the food is cooked for. Cooking can break down essential vitamins and obviously the longer the cooking time, the greater the effect.

I'm not sure of the exact effects (for example, whether a shorter cooking time at a higher temperature results in less degradation than a long, slow cook at a lower temperature) but it's worth bearing in mind, if you'll excuse my pedantry:o

MrsBartolozzi

chris761 wrote: »

If you microwave veg, how much liquid do you use

I think it depends what you are cooking, I dont add any water to frozen peas or any frozen veg which has ice around it. Sweetcorn needs some water, but not much. I use a pudding/cereal bowl full of the veg and put less than an inch of water in the bottom. I dont microwave much veg though, so other people might help there.

MrsB.

MrsBartolozzi

seraphina wrote: »

Not quite true, I' afraid. You need to account for the amount of time that the food is cooked for. Cooking can break down essential vitamins and obviously the longer the cooking time, the greater the effect.

I'm not sure of the exact effects (for example, whether a shorter cooking time at a higher temperature results in less degradation than a long, slow cook at a lower temperature) but it's worth bearing in mind, if you'll excuse my pedantry:o

I tried to find details of what temperature resulted in degredation of vitamins, but all the references talk about boiling. Theslow cooker does not boil food, I think the highest temperature a slow cooker reaches is in the 70's C and so does not boil the food.
This site is american, but from a university and says that vitamins are preserved in slow cookers.

julieq

Just been cackling my way round Tescos this evening on a late evening whoopsie raid with the OH, as we proved it's possible to eat well and cheaply and not have to get involved in arguments with nutritionists.

If we'd paid full price, we worked out that the cost would have been £57. The price we actually paid (and we had some difficulty stifling giggles at the self service checkout as we paid it) was £12.34, and that included a few full price items (£4 worth of vouchers, so the till total was £16.34).

And this was a perfectly good week's shopping. 2 Fresh Cod pieces, a mini rack of lamb, a large pack of casserole pork, three packs of chicken livers (that'll be pate and pan fried livers on bitter salad with vinagrette, chicken livers are one of the world's biggest bargains even at full price). Industrial quantities of pre-packed cauliflower and brocolli (at 11p a pack), greens, pak choi, plantains, bananas, carrots and parsnips, 4 corn on the cobs (will go well with the lamb) apples and seville oranges, radishes, cucumber, caesar dressing, lemons, some mandarins, ugli fruit and pomeloes, couple of pannets of cherries at 20p a time. And then the full price items which were spaghetti, fresh stuffed pasta, milk, passata, custard powder, and frozen seafood, although that I think gave up under the peer pressure of other reductions and seemed to spontaneously reduce its own price from £3.95 to £2.60.

My (long suffering) OH has just announced a moratorium on further visits to Tescos, apparently from concerns over the structural integrity of the fridge freezer. But it is kind of hard to resist going back tomorrow, we'll decide over a glass of try me free Badger cider I guess.