Mardathas meal planning thread

Butterfly_Brain

Having the same problem stretching the pennies too but I am lucky enough to have a family who will eat most things - DD is a veggie so I just adapt meals that we have and I get her a few bits of quorn from farmfoods which keep her going (Most packs of quorn stuff in there is only £1)

Talking of Farmfoods their milk is currently £1.50 for 2 x 2L and 2 x hovis bread is £1

• Porridge or HM museli for breakfast
• I make my own soups
• I make cakes and biscuits - the cakes are individually wrapped and frozen so I just get out what I need for lunchboxes the night before saves on the kids raiding the cupboards cos they have to wait for it to defrost:)
• Stews in Sc
• Sausage Toad
• Corned Beef Toad
• Mince and tatties
• Mince mixture wrapped in cabbage leaves and braised for an hour in the oven
• meatloaf with HM tomato sauce
• Pancakes - savoury ( filled with ham or veg and covered with either a white sauce or cheese sauce and warmed through in the oven) or sweet
• Egg and chips
• Cowboy Stew (sausages, onions, tin baked beans with a cobbler topping)
• Savoury bread and butter puddings
• steamed suet puddings
• Plate pies (Corned Beef and potato, Cheese and onion etc) My lot love left over roast dinner pie - just put all your left over Sunday Roast - including potatoes, stuffing or whatever you had into a pastry case and bake in the oven for about 45 mins yummy
• HM Fishcakes

Here are a few sites that might help with more ideas

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/Cheap-family

http://shirleygoode.blogspot.com/

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/recipeindex.htm

http://www2.sainsburys.co.uk/food/mealideas/everydaymeals/onabudget/onabudget.htm

mardatha

Thanks for these links ! O how I wish Sainsburys would start delivering here...

meritaten

nearly everything I was going to suggest has already been posted!!! lol
I was running out of housekeeping money at one time too and discovered one of the cheapest, most nutritious meats on the planet - chicken livers! available at Tescos (freezer section) for about 39p per pot one pot feeds a very hungry adult or two kids. so for 80p that was the meat sorted - then a bag of value spuds 80p and I found a lovely spring cabbage in the reduced section 25p. the chicken livers i dredged with flour and quickly fried then i found a bottle of white wine with about an inch or so left in it (unusual - I normally drink it all!!!) and deglazed the pan with that, otherwise i would have used water and an oxo cube to make the sauce, bit of mash and some boiled spring greens with pepper and my OH said it was one of the best meals he had ever had.

Chipps

What about cheese & potato pie? Mashed potato, perhaps with some cheese mixed in, layered with whatever you like: eg sliced tomatoes, onion, baked beans...(maybe all or any of these, or something else??) then finish with a layer of mash then top with grated cheese. In the oven, about 180 degrees until heated right through, about 20- 30 mins

westcoastscot

I wish anyone would deliver here!! we have a co-op locally, but its pretty rubbish now they've modernised it - lots more convenience foods less basics. We have tesco 40 miles away but its 40 miles of bad road, takes around 1 hour 15 to get there.
WCS

Memory_Girl

Ooh! That reminds me - I taught Clootiesmum how to make stovies in the slow cooker over on the "Make Do and Mend" Diary. They were a bit hit with her husband.

This is my families recipe - I think that most families have their own variations becasue I've seen it made with sausages, corned beef, Spam!!!! and mince. Good Luck

"Ok Clooties Mum ................. stand by your bag of tatties :rotfl:

First off I have one of those slow cookers that has Low / High and Warm settings - bargain at £3 from local Debra Charity Shop.

Recipe - Mmmm!!! One of those things your Granny shows you but I'll have a go.

Peel and slice 2 large onions into 5mm slices, then break into rings.

Peel and slice enough potatoes to fill your slow cooker pan.

Find your salt and pepper - you need lots of seasoning.

Find some kind of meat to flavour your stovies with. To 1 pot of stovies I used about 1/2 cup chopped up brisket. I freeze leftover bits just to make stovies with. You can use corned beef too - about 1/2 a can will do chopped up and added at the end (freeze the other half for another day)

Here's the important bit - you really need proper beef dripping to flavour this with. TBH its such a cheap dish and such a favourite with the kids that I always keep a pot of dripping from the local butchers in my fridge. It cost me about 75p and lasts for ages. For 1 pot I used about 1/2 cup of dripping. Sorry that I have got no weights but this is one of those dishes I do by eye.

Put 1/4 of onions in the bottom of the pot - season well and add 1/4 dripping then throw 1/4 potatoes and beef on top. Repeat until the slow-cooker is full. Pour a cup of water over the top - and a little more dripping over the top layer to melt through. Like the Hairy Bikers say "Fat means Flavour"

I cook on high for 1 hour - or until it is good n hot inside the slow-cooker then turn down to low ( left it for about 5 hours I think last night, yup we ate at 6pm). You are aiming for the potatoes to be cooked through and soft at the end of the cooking.

Just before serving I sprinkle over an OXO cube and stir fairly well to mix through and break up the potatoes a bit.

You serve this dolloped on a plate, we like it with a glass of milk and oatcakes - both DS like a squirt of red sauce too.

Be carefull though. Stovies smell and taste so much better than they look - but have a tendency to set like concrete in your stomach after you've eaten (so no puddings or supper snacks are ever needed on "Stovies night")

Cheap, filling and yummy - and Very Scottish.

.............. and easy peasy in a slow cooker cos you can leave it to do its own thing."

Memorygirl

mama67

How about good ole "mince & tatties" but you could add some pearl barley or oats into the mince to make not alot go further.

zarazara

grilled bacn,new potatoes and summer cabbage. With some bacon fat or butter poured on top. yummmmmmmmmmmmmm

sockdrawer

mardatha wrote: »

Stovies is sausages, potatoes, onions, - that sort of thing, sliced thin and cooked slow with gravy powder.

I've also seen corned beef stovies, which I suppose is more like corned beef hash, tin of corned beef, mashed potatoes, an onion, bake in oven for a crisp top.

I tend to make them with "stovie dripping" which we can get in the butchers in Scotland. It's basically (I think) tin drippings from the roast. Don't know the equivilant any where else but it's about half gravy half lard, an onion or two fried up, sliced tatties, then I bake it either in the slow cooker or the oven. A friend's mum used to top hers with cheese, so it came out like shepherd's pie without the mince.
hth.

sockdrawer

The other thing I use very regularly are kidneys. Grilled with mustard, chopped fine and sauteed to have on toast, yum.
Another possibility, (and good in the slow cooker) are lamb's hearts, very cheap and good for iron etc. Cut out all the tubes, and either just slow cook on their own in gravy, or with doughballs, to have with mash, or stuff them with breadcrumbs, chopped veg and herbs (parsley usually) or for something more mediterranean cook in a tomato sauce, having stuffed them with bread crumbs, italian herbs, mushrooms etc. Very very cheap and versatile.