6000 meals under 50p in 2010; feeding your family on a low budget

BigMummaF

Money_saving_Diva wrote: »

Hi Mark,

I have been reading this thread for two days on and off and I love what you are trying to achieve. You are very lucky to have the wonderful Weezl on here too, what she doesn't know about healthy budget eating could only be written on the back of a stamp.

Keep up the good work and I think you have been very good natured towards those who have perhaps knocked you a little. I think most of us reading really admire your wry sense of humour, and I for one adore Blackadder so your quote makes me smile every time I read it.

I am not very good at the whole frugal thing but do agree that hearty filling soups can be just the ticket when you are really short of money.

Good luck for the rest of the year!

Diva.x

:doh:that's what I was trying to say yesterday but have to admit the BlackAdder thing is beyond me, other than the 'cunning plan'
Just popping in to say Pup & I had veggie couscous with a tin of pink salmon stirred thru for our dinners last night. Verdict was ok-ish but I think we prefer the stronger taste of sardines. SIZE=1]Obviously Pup can't talk--he's not three till April...& a dawg--but he didn't go straight to chow down mode like he does with sardines in his bowl[/SIZE It is a really quick meal tho, with cooking up some frozen mixed veg--currently MrT value is 70p for 907g--then stir in the plain couscous, let it swell then add the fish/meat/cheese.
I bought a pork shoulder joint in MrT yesterday that I've roasted to slice up for sarnies. On offer at £2:50 a kilo, that's cheaper than the value ham & a good deal tastier--the difficult bit will be keeping the hoardes from eating it in wedges before I can borrow me muvva's slicing machine

shaz_mum_of__2

Hi guys and Mark well done on the 6/6 yesterday and had meat too!!

I had a lovely lunch yesterday consisting of med veg couscous(AF 8.5p) with a little crumbled feta (1/6th of a samatprice pack13p) and a few spoons of tuna(15p) and a few of the olives(again AF barely anything but say 5p max )

lovely and lots of it too, followed by weetabix cake and water from a bottle which i keep refilling at the water fountain at uni!!

dinner was a cottage pie of sorts with corned beef and baked beans mixed together with a bit of bbq sauce topped with mash and grated cheese and served with runner beans and carrots i canned from last years garden , the coned beef had a 48p price label on from 18 months ago (from my bunker..lol).........my how much prices have really shot up

dinner was followed by coconut cake and custard

coconut cake recipe

2 cups dessicated coconut
2 cups sugar
2 cups milk

soak these together for an hour or so then add

2 cups self raising flour and a teaspoon baking powder
stir well pour into 2 lined loaf tins (2lb size) bake at gas 5 for about an hour until golden and a skewer comes out clean . i find the coconut cheaper in the asian food shop or asian aisle at mr t 500g for £1 i think

waiting for an engineer to service the boiler so working on yet another essay and doing some dissertation prep



Mark have you tried weezls Gnochhi yet?

Shonagh

weezl74 wrote: »

morning Mark and all who are following your challenge

I'm sorry if this has been posted before, I haven't had chance to read back yet, but having just placed my first approved foods order, I've come up with quite a few evening meals below the 20p a head bracket. Nut roast 9p a packet and flavoured couscous for 6p a packet were two of the helpful basics to make this possible. Have a lookie at their website maybe? Approved foods.

HTH and good luck with your challenge

Hi, have just read back through this thread and noticed your link to the Approved Foods website - I vaguely remember having heard of tihs before - how can they sell the food so cheap?
Thanks

weezl74

Shonagh wrote: »

Hi, have just read back through this thread and noticed your link to the Approved Foods website - I vaguely remember having heard of tihs before - how can they sell the food so cheap?
Thanks

It's mainly that the supermarkets have rebranded the packaging, or changed the recipe, or it's near to or past it's best before dates. But all approved for human consumption, hence the sites name HTH xxx

Shonagh

weezl74 wrote: »

It's mainly that the supermarkets have rebranded the packaging, or changed the recipe, or it's near to or pat it's best before dates. But all approved for human consumption, hence the sies name HTH xxx

Thats great, thanks, it will soon be payday so i'll place an order and give it a go, thanks again

boredofbeingathome

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

That sounds a good idea. I do Indian inspired meals quite often and one of my favourite veggies at other times is carrot and swede mashed together. Hadn't thought of mashed veg with Indian food, I shall try it next time I do some - filling, cheap and good for me, what more could I ask!

ooh i love carrot and swede/turnip mashed together- and i like turnip chips as well.:D

I would love to see some more of those recipes Lesley.

The approved foods looks quite good and i would need to get my head around the variety and amounts.

We have lots of shops in our area which seem to sell something similar, so i may go and check them out as well. I must admit i bought some malt loaves( out of date) at 5 for a £1 as fillers. They were really nice, nearly as nice as the weetabix cake.:D

Off to have a go at Lesley's recipe for a late tea..nom nom.

weezl74

evening Mark et al,

Popped on to say a big thank you for inspiring me that pasta carbonara can be done cheaply. Made 4 portions for DH at 29p :money:per generous portion and he really liked it .

Thank you Mark, I don't think I'd have tried it, thinking 'nah too pricey' if I hadn't seen your costings...

Off to catch up...

mark55man

hi everyone - will catch up with posts, news and thanks later - just got in and about to go out again on my taxi run (as in Dad the Taxi, not evening employment).

In the next 60 minutes I will be making 7 pick-ups/drop offs for a total of 5 children (not all mine) at 5 locations over 20 miles driving

Lesley_Gaye

How about this one Bob, I posted it on the recipe board a while back. Still one of our favourites, freezes well and reheats in the microwave

Or did you mean the Indian inspired ones?

Vegetable Crumble
crumble topping
100g butter / spread
100g wholemeal flour
75g cheapy porridge oats
100g cheddar
50g finely chopped nuts
2tbsp sesame seeds
2tbsp pumpkin seeds

Base
675g mixed root vegetables, peeled if you want, chopped, anything you have. I usually use potato and carrot
1 large chopped onion
100g prepared mushrooms
tin (or equivalent of fresh) tomatoes


Method
Rub the fat into the flour and oats, add the remaining ingredients for topping and stir around to mix in.

Saute the root veg, mushrooms and onion in a little olive oil (or whatever) until soft.

Add the remaining ingredients and season to your liking. Salt & pepper, mustard maybe, soy sauce, brown sauce, worcestershire sauce, whatever you like.

Put in an ovenproof dish and put topping over the veg. Cook at 190C,M5 for about half an hour until nice and brown and crispy.

You can vary this dependant on what you have. The only essential ingredients in the crumble are the fat and flour (use 75g extra if you don't have any oats), although obviously it will taste nicer if you can add the other bits. The crumble works well on any savoury mix that you fancy putting under it - chicken/turkey in white sauce, sausage and beans, pheasant or rabbit if you're lucky, any combo of pulses and veg that you concoct

Lesley_Gaye

Or there are these Carrot Burgers on BBC Good Food

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/11011/carrot-and-sesame-burgers

The recipe uses 750g carrots to serve 6, but I thought it sounded too much and halved the recipe and still made 6 burgers from it.

They freeze well and are lovely in wraps with some chutney

I have posted these last 2 recipes before, so I will have a look for some newer ones