Mooooving Into 2010 - Bovine Adventures In Budgeteering!

mooomin

*Jellie* wrote: »

I rarely tire of mince- so many things you can do with it!

Sounds like you're doing really well with grocery challenge at the moment. It's always inspiring hearing about peoples meal plans etc.

I'm having to be quite good with it as there is so little spare money for us at the moment and I want to be spending anything "spare" on debts not food :rotfl:

I have got broth mix soaking for use later on and have put the leftovers from last night's dinner (Pasta with mince!) into a tub to take to work for my lunch tomorrow.

That won't poison me will it??

Pippilongstocking

Mince on here too - with a handful of soya mince chucked in (well about half to one cup full) turns 500g mince into about um 750g (ish) depending on how much extra onions, neeps, carrots etc i chuck in as well

Starts as mince and dumplings
Morphs into shepherds pie with extra veggies in it
Finally ends up as stovies or a mince, tattie and veg pie


In the 'old' days before MSE, Before the Mbaz (live on 20 for a month) thread - I'd just used the mince for one meal - LOL

Shopping sounds exhuasting - but well done!

MellyB_2

The Mbaz thread was brilliant - had no idea you could eat so much for so little!

x

kissjenn

Veggie curry tonight. So humungous that OH and SB had two jaw dropping portions each plus mine plus there's enough for lunch tomoz. That would easily do you and Mr FF for 3 or 4 hearty meals.

1 squash (75p)
6 tatties (30p)
6 carrots (20p)
3 sweet potatoes (50p)
2 red onions (20p)
1 can chickpeas (45p)
1 jar curry sauce (£1)

So 8 regular or 6 huge portions - £3.40.

Chop up the vegs into big chunks, add chickpeas and curry sauce (Jalfrazi for Aldi...kept the stir fry spices for another day) and jar of water. Pop in over for 1hr 15mins. Some boiled rice and dinner is served.

mooomin

Morning all!!

Well last night we had roast chicken which was om nom nom-arific I have made a [strike]gallon[/strike] pot of chicken broth from the stock and have a good couple of portions of leftover chicken which will go into dinner tonight. This means there will be loads left for lunch tomorrow. I'm taking Saturday's leftovers in with me today for lunch too.

At the start of the month (Well, when I got paid) it felt like the end of the world because I didn't have money from my flatmate. Today it feels like it's just another challenge I have to deal with. Thanks to my shopping trip at the weekend I just have to buy fruit/veg/milk/bread over the month and shouldn't need a lot of other ingredients. I have enough chicken soup to feed us for an age as well, so Mr Fresian can have that during the day and I can take some to work too.

With any luck I will have a few quid left from my groceries/entertainement budgets at the end of the month to fling at the debts, but at least I have enough in my PAD account to pay £1 a day until then :j I think that it was the thought of not PADding that upset me before :rotfl:

Right, need to sort hair, apply makeup, eat breakfast and boil kettle for flasks. And do some dishes if I have time.

*runs*

*Jellie*

I don't like it when I can't PAD either. Sometimes I find it difficult to keep track of making payments every day though. Maybe I should have a PAD account too and make things a bit easier to follow!

mooomin

Another NSD today taking me up to 12/15 - I won't hit my target, but I have done better than I thought I would :j

Today I went to work and had lunch that I brought with me (Saturday leftovers) I met my friend for "lunch" which involved me sneaking her into my work canteen so she could have cut-price subsidised coffee and I could eat my lunch. We had a good chinwag and saved some pennies!

I used the last of the chicken from last night making our dinner which was yummy, and there was even a little left to make chicken mayo sandwiches for Mr Fresian to take to college tomorrow. I have chicken soup to take with me!

Discovery of the day - you can put reduced things through the self-service checkout at Morrisons (reduced bread for sandwiches tomorrow) which means I don't have to wait in the huge post-work queues!

EssexHebridean

LOL - it was mince here tonight too - in the form of lasagne! I usually can't be bothered to make it but decided to buy some fresh lasagne sheets rather than dried and it's SO much easier! Absolutely delicious - as well as the cheese sauce on top I also added some torn up Texco value mozarella - really nice, if I do say so myself!

You've done really well getting to grips with the challenge of doing the month on not-a-lot of cash - funny the way MSE makes us look at something that would otherwise be a disaster as a challenge to be grasped, isn't it!

mooomin

EssexHebridean wrote: »

LOL - it was mince here tonight too - in the form of lasagne! I usually can't be bothered to make it but decided to buy some fresh lasagne sheets rather than dried and it's SO much easier! Absolutely delicious - as well as the cheese sauce on top I also added some torn up Texco value mozarella - really nice, if I do say so myself!

You've done really well getting to grips with the challenge of doing the month on not-a-lot of cash - funny the way MSE makes us look at something that would otherwise be a disaster as a challenge to be grasped, isn't it!

I'm quite enjoying the challenge to be honest, yay for MSE!! I'm trying to get my friends to understand that skint is going to be a way of life for a long time so I don't want them to buy me tea/cake as it will make me feel bad. Best to let me get on with my frugal ways

Any chance of a fool-proof lasagne recipe?

EssexHebridean

flying_fresian wrote: »

Any chance of a fool-proof lasagne recipe?

Errrr - can't really claim it's a recipe but...this is for a largeish lasagne for two people

I use a large onion - finely chopped. Sweat off in a little oil.
Add enough mince for the number of people you're serving - this can be bulked out with, just for example (obviously I don't do this as my OH hates carrots ) some finely grated carrot or soya mince to make it stretch a bit.
I added sliced mushrooms and diced green peppers today because that was what I had in which needed using - I also forgot the finely chopped or crushed garlic which was silly of me! Cook everything until, well, cooked, then chuck in a tin of chopped toms and a squelch of tomato puree.
Also make up a white sauce - now listen carefully because this is technical stuff. Melt a medium sized knob (is it going to let me say that I wonder?!) of butter, then mix in enough flour to turn it into a really thick paste. Add milk and stir in gently - keep adding the milk until you get a smooth (give it a good beating with a wooden spoon to get the lumps out!) sauce. Stir in a bit of cheese, and season with salt & Pepper. The tomato/mince etc can be seasoned with any sort of italian herbs - I also like smoked paprika in it, and if I can be bothered to grind it up a little allspice or nutmeg too.

Grease the lasagne dish well unless you enjoy scraping burnt on lumps off it - then spoon a third of the tomato-ey stuff into the bottom. Top with lasagne sheet(s) and repeat twice more. Top off with white sauce and a really good sprinkling of cheese. Lob it into a medium oven until golden brown and bubbling - I personally like the top-most lasagne sheet of lasagne to be slightly crispy round the edges too. Can's claim it's guaranteed or in any way foolproof but it works for me. Oh - if using dried lasagne sheets you'll need to check the instructions on the packet - I used fresh tonight.

Enjoy!

ps - I don't really "do" measurements, can you tell?!