Mardathas meal planning thread

Uniscots97

If you are making toad in the hole, cut the sausages up it makes it look like more and add some chopped onion (larger pieces). It keeps cost down.

westcoastscot

Some nice recipes here, will have to take notes. Mar our grocery bill is £400 a month at the mo - mind i'm feeding two grown men, one a fisherman. Hoping to get it back down a bit when my work-hours get back to normal at the end of the month.
Two of our favs are pastie pie (a huge pastie made in a pie dish) and lentil pie - very frugal and filling!
I make chips in the oven - cut chip shapes, bring to boil in water and drain, put on a tray and spray with that spray oil stuff - nice and healthy but tasty chips!
Also we love sliced up potatoes, onion and bacon in layers and done in the oven - nice with baked beans or curried beans.
WCS

mardatha

I boil tatties for 15 mins then fry them sliced -love them like that but I do miss chips. TY for all these ideas :j:j:j

thriftwizard

Here's a recipe for the meat (or some of it) from the ham hock suggested earlier - Pasta Milanese:

Boil plenty of water & add a pinch of salt, a dash of oil & enough pasta for the two of you - though this is good cold too, so I always double it up. (Using the lean meat from one ham hock will feed 7 of us plus two packed lunches next day & usually a fair bit left over to eat cold with salad.)

Heat some oil & add some chopped garlic, a bay leaf (from the hedge is fine) a pinch of oregano/marjoram and another of paprika. Then add & gently fry a suitably-sized chopped onion until translucent. Open a tin of tomatos; if chopped, chuck 'em straight in but whiz them up or chop them a bit if still intact. Stir in a handful of chopped celery (optional) and/or a chopped green pepper (equally optional, but you need one or the other, and both is even better) and a handful of mushrooms; dried are fine. Add cooked ham (or bacon bits, or some Co-op ham mis-shapes) - smoked tastes best but anything'll do - and half a glass of HM wine, or white plonk if nothing else available. Drink other half. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is ready, or better still for 20 mins or so until it's reduced a bit - the flavours blend & develop more as you go.

It's not as fiddly as it looks typed out, and is a huge favourite with everyone here; I don't think they have a clue how inexpensive it is, using ham hock, home-grown herbs, home-made wine & street-market veg!

midnight_express

OP Am I right in thinking that that your husband is a diabetic? If so you need to be going low carb with his food. So go easy with the bread, pasta and spuds.

prepareathome

I to am very pleased you started this mar..........Lyn your meatloaf recipe sounds great, am going to try it tonight as its the one thing I never seem to be able to get right - either not cooked properly or burnt on top and to dry inside ......

I have shameless copied everything as well.

Thanks everyone

mardatha

My mum used to make a lot of meals out of ham hocks for the soup - I will try this ta. Midnight, yes he is - and I give him just a wee portion, just trying to fill up the plate without using a lot of meat, you know? We only eat pasta once a week as I not mad on it but it's a change from shepherds pie and stew etc. I'm really useless at thinking up meals and cooking. Shoudda married a rich man and got Harrods to send me hampers like Eddy in AbFab

Butterfly_Brain

Have a look at the £7 a week thread, there are some good cheap recipes on there
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4084527

Caterina

mardatha wrote: »

Zippy - what I really need is a CHEF!

How about I come to visit (when it stops raining :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:) and stash up yer freezer in exchange for hospitality? I used to do this for a living (but in exchange for a lot of money, not for hospitality!) When I was a Doula for the new mummy barristers, accountants, bankers etc...most of them had hardly ever enter the kitchen, let alone cook, so in between breastfeeding sessions and mummy-hand-holding counselling sessions I used to fill up their freezers with simple, nutritious meals.

So I am Professionally Qualified to do this

mardatha

O cattie, that would be very dangerous... the RV might get used to proper food and then expect me to cook it !! :eek::eek: