What to make for my Tea

leeegglestone

Ok Ive taken some scottish beef mince - 500g out of the Freezer last night for my Tea.

I have some Mushroom & Tomatop Pasta Sauce - 470g x 2
Sausages
Lasagne Sheets
White Sauce Mix ( i know i should make it myself, need 2buy sum flower)
Spaghetti
Various Pasta Shapes

I want to make a Meal that Lasts maybe 2-3 Nights.

What should I make & how do I cook the Mince best?
I have a large Cooking Dish and also two Small ones.
I thought about maybe making Lasagne, but then thought maybe I could half the Mince and make another Dish with it instead, maybe Spag Bol or even a Sausage & Mince Pasta Bake

What do u think?

Queenie

Bolognaise sauce (use the mince and the mush/tom pasta sauce) will make both lasagne & spaghetti bolognaise. The only difference between the two is that a lasagne meat sauce is usually thicker than a bolognaise sauce.

Meal #1 - make bolognaise sauce with the mince and jar of sauce. Use half for a spag bol and reserve half for the lasagne

Meal #2 - use the sausages as the base for your meal (seems you like pasta and have a lot of it - but you could ring the changes for this meal and use potatoes instead? Or make a simply sausage salad, or grab some rolls and have a hot dog meal with a salad? If you have baking potatoes, you could take out the centre of a raw baking potato using an apple corer, push the sausage into the hole, then bake - caution, put a drip try on the shelf underneath to catch any juices which come out of the sausages.

Meal #3 - make up a lasagne with the left over bol. sauce reserved from #1

No need to use the sausages & mince in the same meal - eke out the mince by adding onions, carrots (grated are good as they cook quicker) or maybe mushrooms if you have them. (Tip: I keep a bag of soya mince in my pantry it's about 60p a bag from Sainsbury's - when I brown off my mince, I add some rehydrated soya mince, which absorbs the meaty flavour of the mince and voila! double the amount for a fraction of the cost! In a bol. sauce no one would even notice )

The way I brown off my mince, is to simply put it in a pan over a medium heat and cook until browned all over - ie: no red bits! - draining off any and all fat that. Then it's ready to be used in whichever recipe I have decided on.

HTH

Queenie

Forgot to add - what vegetables will you be having on the side? If you load up the plates with veggies, you'll be amazed how much smaller the "meat" servings need to be.

leeegglestone

maybe a funny question.
when i put the mince in the pan, do i start to break it all up then? as it iwll all be stuck 2 gether after take it out the ??

:S

Queenie

Yes, you break it up, I use a wooden spoon, as it browns off in the pan

leeegglestone

I made myself a Lasagne last night and also a Pasta Bake which I will have tonight

Will look out for the Soya Mince in Sainsburys. Is it ok to use Soya mince with regular, and then Freeze it?

mandy_moo_1

Queenie wrote:

(Tip: I keep a bag of soya mince in my pantry it's about 60p a bag from Sainsbury's - when I brown off my mince, I add some rehydrated soya mince, which absorbs the meaty flavour of the mince and voila! double the amount for a fraction of the cost! In a bol. sauce no one would even notice )

HTH

hi queenie....do you add the soya mince BEFORE you brown the mince or after, when you've drained all the fat off? and how much wud you add to a kg of mince? I''ve been making my mince go further by adding a handful of cooked lentils but the kids spotted em and wudn't eat it, so then i used 2 or 3 slices of bread, made them into breadcrumbs and that bulked it out quite a bit! plus they didn't notice,which is always a good thing

hattie_pea

You could also bulk out the mince using bran from the cereal aisle at the supermarket - or mix it into the raw mince with finely sliced onion and make into meatballs?!

Queenie

leeegglestone wrote:

Is it ok to use Soya mince with regular, and then Freeze it?

Yes

mandy_moo_1 wrote:

hi queenie....do you add the soya mince BEFORE you brown the mince or after, when you've drained all the fat off? and how much wud you add to a kg of mince?

After.

The soya mince has to be rehydrated first (I use some hot stock), then I add it to the browned mince, onion, herbs, stir for a mo, then continue with the recipe. The soya mince has no flavour and absorbs the flavours of the other ingredients.

How much? Well, bear in mind I began doing this with a meat-n-2-veg-won't-touch-owt-else-man ... I only added approx 1/4 of the packet of soya, then gradually added more and more (from memory I think it reconstitutes to approx 800g ) so probably about half the bag to 1kg of fresh mince. I tend to batch make a basic mince recipe for use and freezing, and only need to add things to it to transform into a chilli, spag. bol., mince cobbler etc..

mandy_moo_1

Thanx Queenie x tried to press my thanks button but it's still not working for me!

lapis_lazuli

This may be an insane idea, but has anyone minced leftover corned beef before? I really like it, especially the stuff you boil yourself, but there's only so many corned beef sandwiches or corned beef hash suppers I can eat in a week. Could I mince it raw and turn it into cottage pie or burgers, or mince the cooked leftovers and turn it into a casserole?