Bulking out Meals?

thehappybutterfly

hayleymoo wrote: »

I always get the frozen value chicken breasts from Tesco - £3.99 for (usually) 5 large chicken breasts.QUOTE]

OMG! I have to get a grip - I buy these for my cat :rotfl:

He won't eat catfood (the wet stuff but he eats the biscuity ones no problem) so I poach a value chicken breast in water for him. It smells really good and we're all really tempted to eat them ourselves but we need to get past the "catfood" view. Tonight for instance, we had bacon, potato waffles and beans for dinner but my God, our Troy had poached chicken breast!

I'm on this site looking for a green lentils recipe because we've run out of food money and we're trying to empty the cupboards and freezer - there are two bags of value breasts in there which now have our name on them :j

meritaten

my OHs favourite meal is also one of the cheapest to make. I have posted this before, but a while back. and even people who dont like liver will eat this without complaint.

Chicken liver dinner
serves two

One tub of frozen or fresh chicken livers (around 45p from tesco)
handful of flour and some salt and pepper
small wineglass of dry sherry or rice wine or even a dry white wine.
mug of chicken stock.

cut the horrible white bits off the chicken livers (defrost them if frozen). then toss in the flour mixed with a pinch of salt and pepper.
fry in a LITTLE oil until the outsides are nicely browned - test whether done enough by cutting into one - you want them still a bit pink inside but NOT bloody).
put onto a plate and put aside under some foil to keep warm.
now add the sherry/wine to the pan and bring to the boil stirring well to get all the crispy bits off the pan. add the chicken stock and boil rapidly until the sauce has reduced.
then serve.
I like to do this with boiled potatoes and salad - OH likes it with mash and peas.

but its a lovely meal for very little money!

zippychick

there are so many threads on OS which can help you

Start with this one - bulking out meals

We also have batch cooking ideas & cooking for the freezer

Ill merge this later on

Zip

darkrev

this might help

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3552615


:j
free food !

quintwins

thehappybutterfly wrote: »

OMG! I have to get a grip - I buy these for my cat :rotfl:

He won't eat catfood (the wet stuff but he eats the biscuity ones no problem) so I poach a value chicken breast in water for him. It smells really good and we're all really tempted to eat them ourselves but we need to get past the "catfood" view. Tonight for instance, we had bacon, potato waffles and beans for dinner but my God, our Troy had poached chicken breast!

I'm on this site looking for a green lentils recipe because we've run out of food money and we're trying to empty the cupboards and freezer - there are two bags of value breasts in there which now have our name on them :j

this made me lol if your cat will eat dry food why can't you just give it a complete food? we never give our dogs tinned meat all they get is a complete food and leftovers

GoToGal

Any ideas what I can substitute chopped tomatoes for in a curry? I'm trying not to spend a fortune on chopped tin stuff and I want to bulk it out with something less sugary/carby anyway. I was thinking maybe some pur!ed cooked veg? I can get a 1kg bag for about 97pence.

Thanks

Kittenkirst

Not sure if someone has mentioned this but we tried the dried soya mince yesterday. I weighed out 50g of this and then added the water, I then added it to 100g frozen mince and with all other bolognese ingredients (tinned toms etc) I made a big lasagne with it (made enough for 4 servings so two main meals for us) and then a little leftover popped into individual casserole dishes to be topped with something later in the week :money: tasted really good; next time I'll try 50;50 on the dried.

Good way of keeping the protein content up, fat content down and the expense even lower :0) thanks to all the people who've recommended this :T

kiss_me_now9

And not a massive one either!

Bought a nice chicken breast from the butchers today, £1.50 and better quality/size than any other SM equivalent. Cut it up into chunks and made my friends mock paella recipe... But as I put too much rice in, I have come out of it with about 5 meals for less than £1! And it mainly uses store cupboard ingredients, plus lots of veg. :money: Well impressed.

May be it's just me who hadn't cottoned on to the fact that more veg + more carbs make more meals?!

[Deleted User]

This is true I sometimes buy from M&S when its reduced their lamburgers with apricot and couscous.Two are sometimes about £1.20.They are quite chunky so I have one with string beans and mash and carrots so my meat part of the meal costs me 60p plus the veggies.The same with good quality sausages a packet of 8 (reduced to £2.00) will do me for 4 meals at least with lots of veg piled onto the plate 50p per meal meat content. or even further if I cook a couple and use only one with my meal and the second one sliced up with a couple of chopped mushrooms in an ommelette.because of the cost of meat I find it important to streetch it a bit and eating less meat and more veg must be better for me.I also have at least two nights a week where veg it the main part of my meal.I love veggie lasagne as it uses up veg thats a bit past its best.

universalady_2

I've noticed that I've been adding more veg', lentils beans etc to make meal go fyrther, infact, it adds to the taste and livens up a meal aswell