Store cupboard challenge

lynzpower

Okie dokes you ahve got loads there so hopefully we'll all be able to give you a bit of inspirations.

What are you doing with the chicken?

With the leftovers, Id make a chicken spicy spaghetti sauce with the plum toms, mushrooms, spinach onions? ( just jiggle a knife in the tin tio chop them up I always do this is whizz with the blender. You wont need much chicken in this so you can just get away with the scraps!

With a couple of the small chicken breasts, whiy not make those into the stirfry with the brown rice, mange tout, water chestnuts stirfry frozen veg.

Bacon,toast, beans, mushrooms and egg- fry up tea?

The small peice of cod you can make into a pie, maybe with a little of the tuna fillets? Using cream/white sauce/ the leeks, and with mash or scalloped pots on top?

The beef mince you can make into a lasagne, or of course spag bol.

The burgers, if they are premade are likely to just be mince shaped into burgers? So you can always tear them up to make mince again.

You might want to tihnk about using up some of those 22 eggs! What about a frittata or spanish omelette (few mushrooms potato, onion , spinach) Or use eggs in the rice for with the stirfry for egg freid rice ( bit more filling)

Maybe consider freezing a couple pf the eggs inmini tupperwares then youll always have them for egg rice or omelettes later?

You can have the beef steaks with a jacket potato ( youll need more pots I reckon) and roasted veg? Carrots, peppers onions courgettes?



Youve got loads of salads there that need to be eaten up pronto as they dont last what about making tortilla chicken salad bowls? Basically the bowls you just oil a pyrex bowl put it uopside down in the oven and form the wrap around it, and then it makes it really crispy. i had this once and im not a huge salad fan but was fab with hot chicken, lettuce, sour cream, shaved carrots, cheese, etc. Its a m3exican thing, but its GORGEOUS. you could of course use tuna.

Youve more than enough veg there to make a veggie lasagne

Sausages & mash with cabbvage and some of your other veg & gravy ( mix them together if theres not enough its OK, or add extra stock cube and a teaspoon of flour )

Paulie'sGirl

Hey,

Don't panic - you've got LOADS there to feed the family on.

I'll go away and have a think and post back, as will the others on here I'm sure.

Big hugs

PGxx

leiela

lynzpower wrote: »

The burgers, if they are premade are likely to just be mince shaped into burgers? So you can always tear them up to make mince again.

The burgers are 100% lean Steak mince, about 150g each fresh from the butchers yesterday. Only problem is that only 2 are plain.. 3 are minted and 3 are peppered, but yeah they could easily be broken down to make something with.

Tbh i could go and get more out of the budget, they are my fav item 10, 150g burgers for £3.50 from my local butcher, we eat quite alot of them tbh cause they are good quality meat and very reasonably priced.

The butcher also does 2lb of lean steak mince for £4 and i find it go's quite far because it's good quality, i always make 1lb into a spag bol on saturday with loads of lentils, then the next day i get the leftovers add a tin of kidney beans and spices and make a chilli. So 2 meals out of £2 worth of meat isn't bad and i often get abit extra leftover for my lunch on monday

lynzpower

Oh yeah if they are minted I dont think they will go well in the spag bol!

I was just really thinking thats a good idea as you dont seem to have any bread, and would save you buying any.

I would say thoguh for hubby, you just need to take the card off him and chop it up. You can never get out of debt while you are still getting in. Its not fair you be lumbered with all this.

Does he ever do the meal planning I always find when my oh is wasting money its HIS job to tell me how we are going to manage, NOT the other way around!

Does he do cooking? Cant you get him to make cakes/ banana bread or something for with his lunches? I have a OH with a ridiculous appetite, this morning packed him off to wortk with a tin of soup, half a loaf of bread, biuscuits, crips, yohurt. He will def come home with something, probably the crisps. Bareing in mind today, Ive had a large bowel of muesli and thats it so far.

wyebird

Look for working dog dried food as it is VAT free. Asda had 18kg sacks of wag for £7. It lasts my 2 quite a while albeit they are smaller dogs.

SunnyGirl

wyebird wrote: »

Look for working dog dried food as it is VAT free. Asda had 18kg sacks of wag for £7. It lasts my 2 quite a while albeit they are smaller dogs.

They were £9 a couple of weeks ago but I too can heartily reccommend it. I have a 14yo Labrador & a 4yo VERY active Beagle (10 miles walking a day is not unusual for him :eek: ) and they love this food. It lasts us about a month to 6 weeks. OP if your dog doesn't like dried food pour boiling water over dried, leave it for a few minutes then drain off & mash up the now soggy biscuits. I'd also add leftover veggies, rice, pasta & potatoes to dog food it won't hurt for a few weeks.

leiela

SunnyGirl wrote: »

They were £9 a couple of weeks ago but I too can heartily reccommend it. I have a 14yo Labrador & a 4yo VERY active Beagle (10 miles walking a day is not unusual for him :eek: ) and they love this food. It lasts us about a month to 6 weeks. OP if your dog doesn't like dried food pour boiling water over dried, leave it for a few minutes then drain off & mash up the now soggy biscuits. I'd also add leftover veggies, rice, pasta & potatoes to dog food it won't hurt for a few weeks.

dog will eat anything, dry food isn't a problem and i can always throw some scraps of veggys etc in with it for a treat, so i'll pop to asda and see if i can find some wagg or something similar i'd imagine a big sack would easy last the month. The dog also loves a bowl of warm cooked oatmeal in the morning and thats cheap and chearful so not a problem she won't starve

leiela

lynzpower wrote: »

Oh yeah if they are minted I dont think they will go well in the spag bol!

I was just really thinking thats a good idea as you dont seem to have any bread, and would save you buying any.

I would say thoguh for hubby, you just need to take the card off him and chop it up. You can never get out of debt while you are still getting in. Its not fair you be lumbered with all this.

Does he ever do the meal planning I always find when my oh is wasting money its HIS job to tell me how we are going to manage, NOT the other way around!

Does he do cooking? Cant you get him to make cakes/ banana bread or something for with his lunches? I have a OH with a ridiculous appetite, this morning packed him off to wortk with a tin of soup, half a loaf of bread, biuscuits, crips, yohurt. He will def come home with something, probably the crisps. Bareing in mind today, Ive had a large bowel of muesli and thats it so far.

None of use really eat bread i have to admit, i used to buy a loaf every week but it was just habit, i always ended up throwing 99% of it away.. we where lucky to use 2 slices most weeks. I also tried buying it for the kids packed lunches to make sandwiches, i froze a load but they prefer pita bread or wraps which is why there are still butty's in the freezer.

Hubby won't cook at ALL ... his idea of cooking involves the nearest chinese takeaway. I know that sounds awful but we have a system where he does the dishes and i cook cause he hates it, but it works for us, which of course means i deal with the "food shopping" as i know what i need, again it's not a problem unless he's hungry haha (which is most of the time)

Leftovers are made for seconds as far as he's concerned, saving food till the next day is alien, i work around it though .. i hide the leftovers till it's cool enough to freeze haha.

I just need to make sure he's had decent meals otherwise he'll raid the cuboards and last thing i need is him using up half the ingredients cause he was peckish.

v8monkeyboy

Do you have a butcher's nearby?

If so, could you go and ask them for beef bones for the dog? They're perfectly safe for them to eat raw (my dogs do, and also raw chicken, so maybe ask to see if they have chicken carcasses too), and if your dog doesn't like them, you can always use the unslobbered ones to make soup with!

They should be free (well, they are at my local butcher's), and will make a huge difference to your outgoings.

T x

MissB_2

Explain to him - if your situation allows - that this month is tight and that he just has to not nibble at stuff inbetween meals or buy ANY food this month. If you can, ask him to put hte credit card away as you cannot afford to use it.
Tell him that if he doesnt stop nibbling, he'll have eaten tomorrow's dinner and so he wont get fed at all because he'll have already eaten it.

I know that might not work with all people, but if it would with him, say it. You're in everything together, after all.

Loads of great food ideas above - and you have got loads of good quality lovely food anyway, so if you can tell him the above then you should easily last the month.
Hugs
B
x x x