Mardathas meal planning thread

zzzLazyDaisy

You can also get a vegetable pasta - it is different colours and you have to be careful not to over cook it cos it goes to mush, but it is really nice and doesn't spike my blood levels like processed white carbs do.

HelenKA_2

I do this

Make mince as if for spaghetti/chilli even savoury would work I think

Make a tomato sauce thing or use a jar of ragu type thing.

Make white sauce or use the other ragu type white sauce thing

Get tortillas when on offer

roll a spoon or two of mince in each wrap. Put in oven proof dish into which you have slopped a little tomato sauce. Do however many you think you need. Cover with rest of tomato sauce (I sometimes do half refried beans and half tomato sauce) then slop on the white sauce. Sprinkle with grated cheese/breadcrumbs as you like. bake 30-40 mins in hottish oven.

rinabean

Don't be too scared of "foreign" foods. After all, a curry is just a stew with some extra spices. Being unafraid of spices is really useful when you have a limited diet for whatever reason - your mince and potatoes could be "Hungarian style" with paprika, "Indian style" with some garam masala (you can get pots of this for only a pound or so!), and so on. If you make it yourself it doesn't need to have a lot of spice in if you don't like strong tastes, and you don't have to tell your husband how "foreign" it is! And you won't get bored so quickly!

mardatha

I want to cut down on food, and I need help! No set budget, just trying to feed two people as cheaply as possible. Breakfasts are porridge, lunches are soup & HM bread -- so I just need cheap ideas for the main meal of the day and suppers. Currently spending £40 and more !! (although some of that is for the stash )

We like meat
Dont eat rice
Dont eat curry or anything weird that I can't spell
Like old-fashioned "proper" food
Like pudding

Nothing that involves fancy cooking!
But surely two people who only need one big meal a day should get by on less than 40 quid! Any help gratefully copied down and used lol

meg72

Come and join the grocery challenge, lots of great ideas on there.

Sambucus_Nigra

What's your top 10 meals that you DO like to eat? Would it be better to source the ingredients more cheaply rather than have a load of suggestions that you aren't going to try in a million years?

For example, if you like potatoes then get a big bag once every few months, rather than one small bag once a week. £10 every few months rather than £2-3 once a week certainly makes a dent.

Also - do you eat pasta? Get a big bag rather than lots of smaller ones each week or two...

midnight_express

Bulk out meals with lots of cheap veg. Buy cheaper cuts of meat.

mardatha

What (I think) I mean is ideas for cheap meat meals, using ingreds that will make several nights meals from one basic item like a pound of mince. I will go and lookat the GC , always forget about that thread. We eat old fashioned plain food which should be dead easy to sort out but for some reason I can't seem to do it!

elona

Mardatha

Have you looked on weezl's thread on cheap meals?

She does things like cheese and onion pie, fish pie, lentil pate and really cheap home made loaves.

A pound of mince can be stretched with onions, grated carrots, tomatoes etc to feed six or more. JackieO turns mince into shepherd's pie, meat loaf, spag bol or lasagne and portions it out in little foil or pottery dishes from pound shop then freezes some so she has a choice of home made ready meals.

Chicken thighs can be really cheap and fall off the bone if you slow cooker them - add to mushrooms and onions with chicken gravy and a pastry or potato topping.

How about a ham hock turned into pea and ham soup and you still have the meat to use in potato, ham and cheese pie - or ham and baked beans with chips.

Sausages and mash when there is an offer on with lots of gravy and cheap veg like cabbage stir fried with onion.

Caterina

Pound of mince (fatty mince is ok if you like the flavour in this recipe)
Two tins of "basics" tomatoes
Two onions
Two carrots
A few sticks of celery
Punnet mushrooms

Chop onions and all the veg quite finely, fry in some oil, or lard, or butter, whatever fat you normally use for cooking. Add mince, let it brown a bit, salt and spice to taste, add tomatoes (chop them first if they are not already chopped). Let it stew for an hour or so until everything is cooked and tender.

This is a basic sauce that you can use to make at least 4 meals for 2:

1 - top up with mashed potatoes for a nice shepherds pie (topped up with a sprinkling of grated cheese)

2 - As a Bolognese sauce on top of macaroni (of any sorts)

3 - As a filling in jacket potatoes

4 - Stretched with some stock, a handful of lentils and some rice as a soup

Next recipe coming up in next post. x