Can anyone help?

Lolth

I don't know if I'm even posting this in the right place, but here goes.
I've just moved house and in amongst the hustle and bustle of all that madness I didn't realise that a payment I made to a catalogue online had gone through twice (First time rejected, second time accepted, but the money was put into the 'void' for processing as I understand it).
I have been left right up to my overdraft limit, the bank can't do anything for me and I have very little food in for 6 people to last me until it gets sorted out.Which may not be until next week!!:eek:
I have £4 to get some electric (it's on a meter unfortunately) and that's it!!

I desperately need some ideas on what I can make from the bits of food I have in to keep us going until then, so any ideas you can give me would be great!!

Here goes:
I need to feed 2 adults, 3 children (1 is in school with meals paid for this week, two at home with the baby)( the baby is still on formula)

Green Lentils
Red Lentils
Cornmeal
Self-raising Flour
Yeast
Curry powder and some other seasonings?
A small amount of rice
Packet of Instant mash
16 sausages
1 Whole chicken
Bag of Frozen Sweetcorn
bag of frozen mixed veg
1/2 pack of butter
Small block of cheese
Approx 5 pints of milk
Some sauce packets (i.e parley, cheese, sausage casserole)
A couple of pieces of fresh fruit
Last of a veggie pack (turnip, couple of carrots and an onion)
Butternut Squash
Half a bag of porridge oats
2 tins of beans
2 tins beans and sausage
sugar!!

Anybody got any ideas?

I was thinking a little sausage casserole with half the sausages, the packet of mash and some frozen veggies for tea tonight

Thursday:
Make a loaf with the flour and yeast and then the kids can have cheese on toast for lunch
Butternut Squash curry and veggie rice for tea

Friday:
sausage sanwhiches w/ fruit for Lunch
Tea time???Maybe a soup???
Ack!! Help!!

Trinny

HI There

Do you cook with electricity? if so - how much electric do you have? I see you have a whole chicken, but if roasting it will use up all your electric we might need to think again.

If cooking is no problem

Roast the chicken - will make a few meals, strip the meat from the bones and make curry, add to rice with veges, add instant mash to make roast dinner with rest of stewpot veges, boil the bones and scraps to make chicken soup

Sausages - could be served with mash and onion gravy, with the rest made into casserole.

porridge oats - with milk will feed everyone for breakie

you dont mention any bread or potatoes - if you have bread then meals on toast - tinned sausages, tinned beans,

Butternut squash will make a soup if you have veges and stock

otherwise you could bake with butter sugar and flour you have the basis for sponge cake, you just need egg and milk.

Is there anyone who can help - get you a few things before you get paid

Trin

Janey3

Cheese & Onion quiche or cheese and onion pasties - they could cook in the oven with the chicken and then frozen.

Caterina

Thursday:

Breakfast: porridge with milk and chopped fruit

Lunch: lentil and rice soup with leftover veg from the pack and spices (Curry etc.)

Dinner: Polenta (cornmeal mash) with sausages (using some of your sausages, together with sausages and beans for sauce purposes) accompanied by sauteed mix vegs.

Friday:

Breakfast: Make quick pancakes using self raising flour and milk, no need for eggs, add baked beans and grated cheese and roll up.

Lunch: Sausages and mash, sweetcorn.

Dinner: stewed chicken with dumplings (using leftover self raising flour, butter and spices), chop onion and cook wiht chicken cut in pieces (save some for other uses, such as wings for soup etc...), use any more spices to make it more flavoursome, add some water and seasoning and when almost cooked put the dumplings on top. Roast butternut squash as accompaniment.

Just some ideas, hope it helps.

Forgot to add - I know this sounds crazy but if you cannot afford to buy any veg, it seems to me you have very low amounts of veg so if you live anywhere near the countryside you could get some nettles to add to soups and stews, it is good and nutritious and tastes like spinach, only better - and it is free!

greenbee

Trinny wrote: »

If cooking is no problem

Roast the chicken - will make a few meals, strip the meat from the bones and make curry, add to rice with veges, add instant mash to make roast dinner with rest of stewpot veges, boil the bones and scraps to make chicken soup If you boil the chicken, then you'll get stock from it twice, plus it leaves the meat nice and moist. Ideally you should chuck an onion, some peppercorns, a bayleaf and a carrot (or the top, tail and peel from a carrot) in with it.

Sausages - could be served with mash and onion gravy, with the rest made into casserole.

porridge oats - with milk will feed everyone for breakie or even made with water and served with a splash of milk if you want the milk to go further. Have it with the fruit chopped up on it.

you dont mention any bread or potatoes - if you have bread then meals on toast - tinned sausages, tinned beans,

Butternut squash will make a soup if you have veges and stock use a stock cube/powder or some of the stock from boiling the chicken

otherwise you could bake with butter sugar and flour you have the basis for sponge cake, you just need egg and milk.

Is there anyone who can help - get you a few things before you get paid

Trin

If you can get someone to let you have a few bits, I suggest a couple of onions, green veg, fruit, a tin of tomatoes and a loaf of bread

With your boiled chicken, strip the meat off and portion it up to make sure you don't eat it all at once. Use the rice, some onion and frozen veggies to make a risotto with a bit of cheese grated over it. (Butternut squash is good in risotto too, and will bulk it out if you're short on rice)

Save the rest of the chicken for later - have a look at the rubber chicken thread.

Have a beans on toast/sausage & beans on toast meal as trin suggested.

Use the green split peas and chicken stock to make a thick filling soup

Sausage casserole with the root veg and red lentils to bulk it out

You don't have much butter for baking. Do you have any oil? If so, you can look for recipes that use oil to make some treats to disguise the fact that you're working within limits. I'm not sure whether bread would work well with SR flour...

Oh... and batch cook to save on electricity

Good luck!

jackieglasgow

Use the last of the veggies, the butternut squash and a cup of lentils and make a soup. You could have a soup and bread dinner, and as a snack or starter to andothe lunch. Hearty, wholesome, and nutritious.

The tinned sausages and beans, could you spice up with some cury powder and serve with rice for the wee ones, the other half of the butternut squash with some lentils turned into a curry dish for you and OH at the same meal? Or if you do the chicken, rubber it and add some to the curry dish, and you can casserole the rest with some veg and mash.

Slice the sausages in half lengthways and make toad in the hole to bulk out that meal a bit?

Make pancakes for breakfast/lunch one day?

jackieglasgow

Just remembered on the first episode of the new hairy bikers, one of the mums made cheese pie, which was basicallt layers of mash and cheese topped with cheese and baked in the oven. You could do this at the same time as the chicken in in the oven, and reheat in the microwave.

Lolth

Thank you!
Those are some GREAT ideas!
Definitely cooking with electric, but my cooker is very good energy wise!
Porridge will have to be made with water
Have a small slow cooker, if that helps?
Hubby just found a big bottle of vegetable oil in a box, not used it before for baking, so not sure if it will work ok?
Does anyone know if SR flour is ok for baking bread?

jackieglasgow

There are plenty of muffin recipes using oil. Why not make scones and pancakes instead of bread. Cheese scones are delicious with soup.

Lolth

Jackie, that's a GREAT idea!
Never thought of, or tried that before!!