Weezl's phase 1- recipe testing and frugalisation- come one, come all!

FrankieM

I'm trying this recipe tomorrow. I have some sweet potatoes from Aldi's Super 6. Not sure how much they cost normally, but I got them for 39p, a bag of 3. Maybe you could use something else that's cheaper if they are a normally expensive ingredient.
I also imagine the white sauce would be a bit on the expensive side, though you could just serve the 'filling' with pasta? (just noticed its cheese sauce....wouldn't use that, just put cheese on the top!)


Sweet Potato & Mushroom Lasagne
Ingredients
For the mushroom and sweet potato filling
3 tbsp olive oil
1 large white onion, peeled, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled, finely sliced
200g/7¼oz fresh mushrooms such as field mushrooms
400g/14oz canned kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled, chopped
2 x 400g/14oz cans chopped tomatoes
For the cheese sauce
75g/2½oz unsalted butter
75g/2½oz plain flour
350ml/12¼fl oz full-fat milk
300g/10½oz vegetarian cheese, grated
250g/9oz lasagne sheets

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. For the mushroom and sweet potato filling, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and fry for 8-10 minutes, or until softened.
3. Blend the mushrooms, kidney beans and sweet potatoes in a food processor until the mixture is well combined but still has a rough texture.
4. Add the mushroom and sweet potato mixture to the onions and garlic and continue to fry for 3-4 minutes, or until softened and warmed through.
5. Add the chopped tomatoes and bring the mixture to the boil. Reduce the heat until the mixture is simmering and continue to cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the mixture has broken down to a pulp. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
6. For the cheese sauce, heat the butter in a separate pan over a medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the flour and stir for 2-3 minutes, or until smooth and well combined.
7. Gradually add the milk, whisking continuously until all of the milk has been incorporated into the butter and flour mixture and the sauce has thickened. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in 200g/7oz of the grated cheese until melted. Set aside and keep warm.
8. Spoon a layer of cheese sauce into the bottom of a large ovenproof dish. Add a layer of lasagne sheets, then spoon over a layer of the mushroom and sweet potato mixture.
9. Repeat the process until all of the ingredients have been used up, finishing with a layer of cheese sauce. Sprinkle over the remaining grated cheese.
10. Transfer the lasagne to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the pasta is tender, the filling is bubbling and the top layer of cheese is golden-brown. (If the cheese becomes too browned, cover the dish with aluminium foil.)
11. To serve, spoon the lasagne into the centre of four serving plates. Serve with chunky chips.

wyrdsister

Almost forgot, here is the Chickpea Curry recipe that I have. I've just taken this straight from my reference pile, it has a few different spices but I guess it can be easily frugalised with just the ingredients from the shopping list.

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
2 onions finely sliced
4 garlic cloves crushed
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2x 400g tins chickpeas, drained and rinsed
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 teaspoon garam masala

Heat the oil in a saucepan. Sautee the onion and garlic over medium heat for 5 mins or until onion has softened.
Add the chilli powder, salt, cumin, coriander and cook stirring for 1 minute.
Stir in the chickpeas and tomato then cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Stir in the garam masala. Cover and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Going to try this tomorrow night minus the spices not on our list, will up the garam masala and see how it turns out

sistercas

weezl74 wrote: »

Yes it really does. It's made me feel quite perked up about the challenge actually! What a frugal meal .

Thanks for taking part. How old are your children? I'm just trying to get a feel for how they might compare to say Bob and Shirley's mythical ravenous teenagers :rotfl:

DD1 is 16 and DD2 is 14 they are constantly ravenous ( so they tell me)
and will snack if they spot anything remotely edible. sometimes its hard to keep a track of whats in the cupboards as both DD's can go through the kitchen like locusts :eek:
( incidently they havent snacked tonight!)- result :T

FrankieM

sistercas What did you serve the fritters with?

sistercas

FrankieM wrote: »

sistercas What did you serve the fritters with?

DH had some bread and butter and the kids had ketchup ( there was a bowl of salad on the table too which i think we all had)

and DH and DD2 had a yoghurt for pud

FrankieM

sistercas wrote: »

DH had some bread and butter and the kids had ketchup ( there was a bowl of salad on the table too which i think we all had)

and DH and DD2 had a yoghurt for pud

And how many fritters each...I can't imagine mine going for just fritters and ketchup!

zarazara

HI weezl, I might be on the wrong thread here but could you post your HM baked bean recipe again please? they are DELICIOUS but I've lost the recipe.

shanks77

boredofbeingathome wrote: »

Just a thought to add into the pot as it were.

The Asda's and Tesco in our locale- run free buses. Is it the same elsewhere?

Plus we have markets, farm shops, Aldi, Netto, Morrisons, Farm foods..cheap shops like B&M bargains, Home bargains as well.

The mythical family may well have a bit of a choice.

Apologies if it has been said before. Bob

I would love to shop in B&M or Wilkinsons or Netto but there are none up here was in one in Carlisle recently and it was fantastic i could cut my shopping bills by quite a bit if we had some here. Sorry i know this isnt on topic just jealous of people who have these shops

Sian_the_Green

Hey all,
Was having a read earlier but didn't want to make a few random posts throughout so thought I would wait until later on...
I made the onion tart earlier; pastry was very frustrating, wasn't sure what the texture was meant to be like as I have only made it once before, it took so long to get it to roll out as I had to add water after chilling it as it kept sticking then cracking... I knew I was on a tight timescale with housemates coming in so didn't have time to blind bake it in the end. It turned out okay in the end, I didn't put the cheese in the pastry and just sprinkled it on the top, was really nice. We each had 1/4 of the pie with a healthy dollop of the red cabbage chutney/relish I made yesterday, the sweet and sharp really cut through the more bland tart and 1/2 a slice of bread and butter and some salad on the side. Would make it again, though would take longer on the pastry!

For the challenge, I am really aware that this is getting more and more complicated for you, which doesn't seem fair. The challenge was for £100, it should really maintain your original aims to start with at least. If you get all the recipes tested in line with your principles then any optional extras, like doing a veggie set up, using free range eggs, having more meat... can be added later on as options. Until you have your original set of recipes tested I think we may all need to keep schtum on complications, for the sake of poor weezl's sanity!

For me, I don't have a family, have no mortgage or debts (aside from student loan!) and live in a rented, shared house so I am never going to get 100% on board with following the plan to spend £100 for 4 people a month. However, the reason I joined this thread was to help test recipes which could help people cut their outgoings significantly, and to teach me some more frugal recipes. I will be pick and mixing the bits I can transfer to my life and think it is a great idea! I look forward to the next recipe!

(for the record I always buy free range eggs, fair trade chocolate, tea, coffee and sugar where possible and I am fairly low meat by choice!)

On a totally unrelated note, have you considered mussels weezl? They always seem really cheap and are great with pasta and just a smidge of a tomatoey sauce, mmmm...

nicki_2

sistercas wrote: »

DD1 is 16 and DD2 is 14 they are constantly ravenous ( so they tell me)
and will snack if they spot anything remotely edible. sometimes its hard to keep a track of whats in the cupboards as both DD's can go through the kitchen like locusts :eek:
( incidently they havent snacked tonight!)- result :T

Please tell me this hasn't gotten worse as they've got older.... my DD is almost 9 and can eat more than me if I let her! :eek: I'm sick of hearing "I'm hungry" when she's just eaten :mad: Tonight she ate an apple, a pear, a "soft citrus" from Asda, 100g "Good Stuff" wholemeal pasta, with red pesto (She refused to have any of the roast peppers/sundried tomatoes/garlic I had put in mine), a double serving of chocolate/vanilla angel delight stuff and then said she was still hungry! :eek: This was after she'd had a roast school dinner, fruit at break time & a double portion of rice pops/choco pops (I mix them up in a container ) and a mug of tea for breakfast. More annoyingly though she's only just in the healthy weight BMI range :rotfl::rotfl:

Oh and thats just what I know of what she's eaten today. Knowing her there's more!