How to survive on what’s in the store cupboard (plus a little money)

Hippeechiq

This is yet another very interesting thread :T

I've been loitering on these type threads for a few weeks now, as I was made redundant 2 months ago so am trying my best to find..well....cheap meals to be quite honest.

I'm new to this, so should you feel this post if off topic, I apologise, but I'm still finding my feet

The thing is, I'm no good at improvising as I'm not, and never have been a very confident cook, so I absolutely have to have an exact recipe - i.e. ingredients and quantities - to follow, otherwise I don't feel brave enough to try it

Is is ok to ask for a recipe if there's something I'd like to try? I ask, because if it is, it may happen quite often, and I don't want to be a pain.

Also, when people say that they "bung in a few lentils to make their meat stretch further"....just how much is that? I'm fairly new to pulses and lentils and have no idea

How, or what, for example, would you do to stretch 500g of Beef Mince?
Cooking for 2, how many meals could be made out of it?

Also, I just cant' find a decent Cottage Pie recipe. I have tried sooo many recipes and they've all been a bit _pale_ The last one was so awful, that I haven't been able to face mince for the past month.

Spag Bol is another one I'd like to have a shot at, but I haven't ever made one (I know, I know...) so could do with a nice recipe for that too if anyone has one?

I'd like to try a few vegetarian meal options, so if anyone has any favourite recipes they'd like to share, Id be very grateful.

donny-gal

Hippieechiq - ask away for recipes, folks always are, and many consider it a great compliment to be asked. DG

attentionseeker1

Thanks Tessie Bear and Grimbal- clearly mince is the way forward and frittata sounds lovely if I can deceive OH by serving something without meat that is...

Mags_cat

Hippiechiq - I think there's a Recipe list on the monthly Grocery Challenge thread - it's always on this month's Challenge. I'll go see if I can do complex linky type things....

Recipes:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=710445

Posts 5 and 6 on the current month's Grocery Challenge have clickable lists of recipes :

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2368371

ALIBOBSY

Loving this thread, although we are better off now than we were a couple of years ago I want to pull the reins in again as baby 4 due end of May and with 4 kids we need a bigger car (got a zafira one on the drive which is kapput so its a choice between fixing-around 2-2.5 k cost gulp, or trading in for a newer vehicle-been offered around 1500 as it stands) and don't want to leave ourselves with no savings after the car is sorted.
As things get paid off it is easy to slip into buying a bit more each week and the odd takeaway-especially when I am heavily pregnant and worn out lol.
But still cook most meals from scratch and want to get back to more baking and cooking again. Got my seedlings in and the "grow your own" is starting off again this year-only my third year but learnt alot and hope to be fairly self sufficient in fruit and veg-certainly in salads, once summer gets going.

I would say padding out mince has always been a god send. Depending on how much cash we had that month a pack of mince might do 1 2 or even 3 different dishes for us all (eldest DS is 12 so almost 3 adults along with the 2 kids meals).

We like lentils and beans (and they are good for hubbies health conditions) so use them in loads of mince dishes, but they can be an aquired taste, I like to throw red lentils in near the start as they break down in the sauce and can help thicken it-useful in a slow cooker where the sauce doesn't thicken the same as in a pan.

Others on here use oats as padding but we don't like the texture and prefer to use our oats for porridge and "twinks".
Added veg is always good as well, kids love peas and most like carrots. This can also be a chance to use up any sad looking veg at the bottom of the fridge-chop or grate finely for kids who aren't keen on veggies-this pads out sauces and gets them to eat their 5 a day.

When padding I don't use measurements just make the mince and sauce then keep adding veggies/lentils till it looks right and there is enough in total for what I need. This means I can adjust it if I have to stretch things further.

ali x

MrsBartolozzi

Robm1955 wrote: »

I once saw a site, where you could type in what you have in your fridge/cupboard, and it would come up with recipe suggestions. Has anyone seen such a site? I can't remember what it was called.

This site is
https://www.cookingby numbers.com

BUT Firefox has warned me that it is hosting malware at the moment and because of this I wouldn't recommend it right now. I've used it in the past with no issues so I imagine it's just a problem with adverts they are hosting. Hopefully it will be ok soon.

Hippeechiq

Thank you very much for the replies. It's nice to know that I wont be doing anyone's head in asking for recipes, and the links are much appreciated Mags_cat....just had a quick look and saw several that tickled my fancy, so thanks for that

ALIBOBSY, I appreciate what you're saying about adding pulses and lentils "until it looks right", and, I think, that's what most people do, but that's what I'm no good at For example, if I was cooking a recipe that usually called for 500g of Mince & I only wanted to use, or only had 250g, I wouldn't have a clue how much extra veg/beans/lentils I'd need to add to make up for the lack of mince, or how much extra liquid/stock I'd need to add (if any)

Although we're new to eating pulses and beans, both my OH and I enjoy everything we've tried so far, so cutting down on meat intake isn't going to be a problem, I just need to practice how to pad things out I guess, I'd just kinda hoped that someone could give me a rough idea of quantities.....I promise not to shoot anyone if it goes awry

It's definitely time to be more adventurous I think, I just don't want the result to be wasted food.

emilyka

Morning everyone :j

Inspired by this thread I decided to see how much I really have in the storecupboards and discovered that although I havent done my £100 tesco shop since the 14th March I still have at least a month worth of food :eek: Can't believe it! I absolutely love online food shopping (saddo I know :rotfl:) because I'm a real foodie, I love cooking and love buying new things (have reigned shopping in other areas too so seem to have swapped one shopping addiction with another!)

I usually do one Tesco online shop a month of around £100 and a top up shop each week (bread, fresh fruit veg, milk and sandwich fillings around £10 a week) for myself and OH (with a very healthy appetite!)

I currently have in the freezer:
-Small freezer bag of kidney beans and sweetcorn (left overs)
-Bag of peas
-Bag of roasting vegetables (cheating I know but cheaper than buying everything seperately)
-Bag of sweetcorn
-Freezer bag of chopped red onions (chopped fresh onions when they looked like they were about to sprout and froze them)
-Bag of caserole vegetables (again cheaper!)
-3 chicken kieves
-1kg beef mince
-500g lamb mince
-400g beef stewing steak
-400g fish mix for fish pie
-3 salmon fillet portions
-2 trout fillers
-6 sausages
-6 tortilla wraps
-1 freezer bag chopped peppers (left overs)
-10 cod fishcakes (were £1.50 for 10!)
-2 gammon steaks
-2 chicken breasts

Also in the cupboards I have;
-1kg pasta
-500g arborio rice
-1kg basmati rice
-1kg plain flour
-1kg self raising flour
-1 jar of Mrs Pataks paste
-2 tins sardines
-3 tins tuna
-4 tins chopped tomatoes
-milk powder
-condensed milk

And most herbs and spices, seasonings and sauces known to man (including home grown dried chilli flakes). I can see over 30 meals in that lot, everything from tuna pasta to beef curry to chicken fajitas.

My problem is that some of the stuff that is in the freezer has probably been there for a few months, still okay to eat but whilst my food shopping love continues I find that I'm forgetting about the previous shopping and piling new stuff on top and using it first!

Challenge to myself........ Not to do a Tescos online shop until I have used up EVERYTHING in the freezer.... going cold turkey (pardon the pun!) :rotfl:Does anyone else find they have a problem with hoarding food and adoring Mr Ts/ Mr As/ Mr Os online shopping?!!

Much love x

emilyka

Hippeechiq wrote: »

Thank you very much for the replies. It's nice to know that I wont be doing anyone's head in asking for recipes, and the links are much appreciated Mags_cat....just had a quick look and saw several that tickled my fancy, so thanks for that

ALIBOBSY, I appreciate what you're saying about adding pulses and lentils "until it looks right", and, I think, that's what most people do, but that's what I'm no good at For example, if I was cooking a recipe that usually called for 500g of Mince & I only wanted to use, or only had 250g, I wouldn't have a clue how much extra veg/beans/lentils I'd need to add to make up for the lack of mince, or how much extra liquid/stock I'd need to add (if any)

Although we're new to eating pulses and beans, both my OH and I enjoy everything we've tried so far, so cutting down on meat intake isn't going to be a problem, I just need to practice how to pad things out I guess, I'd just kinda hoped that someone could give me a rough idea of quantities.....I promise not to shoot anyone if it goes awry

It's definitely time to be more adventurous I think, I just don't want the result to be wasted food.

Ooohhh, with regards to amounts of liquids, lentils etc I would really just judge in by eye- I never cook to a recipe because I'm lazy and don't want to have to clean extra items like mesuring jugs and scales! With things like lentils, you can't really go far wrong as adding too many wouldnt make anything inedible. With stock etc, with most dishes you can reduce down the liquid once it's in or just add a little at a time.

If you want amounts I would say add half the amount of lentils as you have beef as a marker, and if you're using dried beans/ pulses and have rehydrated them I wouldnt add any extra stock, just treat the lentils excatly how you would if it were mince- you can always put a few tablespoons of water in if it looks a little dry (it shouldnt need it though!)

Once you've tried it in the quantities above, if you feel you would be happy with a few more or prefer a few less you could adjust accordingly.

Good luck!

ceridwen

I think there are some generic recipes that can be very widely adapted too - to cater for whatever ingredients one has in.

To me - that often means using up bits and pieces in a frittata.

Right now - I have one baking in the oven. The ingredients this time are:

- the 3 eggs I always use (for a 2 person portion) with a dessertspoon or so of flour and bit of salt/pepper (the flour in this case was leftover flour scraped off the worksurface after making bread tonight)

- the other stuff thrown in this time is:
wild garlic
chives
tomatoes
bit of grated cheese
bit of grated stale-ish bread
few olives

This one was baked in a flan dish in the oven at 200C for 40 mins (whilst the bread was baking on another shelf).



Right - must go and see how its turned out....:p

EDIT: just taken it out of the oven - looking good...

So - point being:
I think there are various generic recipes that are capable of wide adaptation according to what one has in - and its probably a good idea to work using them as a basis if funds are tight.

The other generic recipes that come to mind straight off are:
- crumbles (savoury or sweet)
- soups
- pancakes
- jacket potatoes with filling
- pasta with sauce
- curries
- stirfries
- pizzas