8 meals from 1 kilo mince?

alicemary

Hi everyone, I've been searching the OS forum but I can't find a really useful post/link to a way to stretch 1 kilo of mince to 8 meals for 5 people.
Can anyone help?

kitschkitty

40 portions??? :eek: That's only 1oz of meat per person. Whatever you decide to cook you'd end up with the meat content just giving the overall dish(es) a hint of flavour if you are lucky, and would basically be making a vegetarian recipe that little bit less vegetarian (well obviously not vegetarian at all anymore, but you know what I mean)!

hex2

I know the one you mean it is on the front page of the grocery challenge under external links:

http://frugal-cooking.co.uk/recipe/193/batch-bake-minced-beef-recipe

The thread itself is:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2039939


Kischkitty, it is padded out with lentils, porridge oats and a lot of toms to really stretch it. Not a huge fan myself but other people swear by it.

Pink.

Hi alicemary,

Stretching a kilo of mince to 40 meals sounds a bit optimistic to me but this thread may help:

Mince quantity question (stretching and portion sizes)?

I'll add your thread to that one later to keep the suggestions together.

Pink

alicemary

Thankyou both!
Kitschkitty, you are quite right - I am trying to cut down on meat for expense reasons, as well as doing my bit for the environment.
Personally I'd be prepared to go totally veggie but the husband won't eat it if it isn't something's flesh!
I'm hoping to wean him gradually towards meat twice a week instead of twice a day
I'm planning on adapting the 40 meal recipe to a 16 meal recipe with 500g of mince. We'll see how that goes down!

kitschkitty

Personally I love veg chili and cottage pie etc, but can see where you are coming from with the OH!

My OH was once very upset as I didn't tell him till after he'd eaten his meal that it was made with textured soya protein instead of mince meat - but he said it was nice and hadn't even noticed till I told him!

I bought it from Sainsburys (not seen it anywhere else) - very cheap it comes dried, found along with the lentils, and dried beans etc. and if cooked with oxo and onions and veg/sauce etc, a very good substitute to mince or alternatively great for bulking it out.

I actually love lentils in chili or mince, so no problems there either!

kitschkitty

Oh and I always try to include carrot (sliced, cubed, thinly sliced with a potato peeler or even grated) as it adds great flavour/sweetness to most dishes you can make with mince!

rosieben

I like the batch bake minced beef recipe and use it often. I never add porridge, but I add lentils and whatever veg are lurking around and it stretches well

Bear in mind that the 40 portions mentioned is for 2 adults and 3 small children, so not 40 adult portions

flippin36

What about padding it out with veggie mince? Both morrisons and tescos are really good value. A bag is around £1.70. If your OH likes meaty things you can do half mince and half veggie stuff, he probably won't taste the difference and will definitely work out cheaper.

Buttonmoons

I managed to make 12 meals with a 400g pack of mince. 10 portions of lasagne and 2 portions of the base bol sauce frozen. Added quite a bit of oats, peppers, onions. Tasted fine!

charliee_3

i used to divide one pack of mince (300g) into 8 pieces and using lots of veg (peppers, onions, celery, carrots, courgette, tomatoes, etc) an oxo cube, worcester, herbs, garlic, tom puree and 2 tins of chopped tomatoes i could make a whole saucepan of very passable chilli or bolognaise.. enough for 4 generous portions at least so that is 32 portions out of 300 g... no probelm!! lol