Stupid questions that I just have to ask!

CAFCGirl

How long would you say to parboil them for?
I havent really fully mastered potatoes yet!

Good god, makes me wonder what I have been eating for the past 3 years!

I appear to have in quantities!
Chopped toms in tins
Tikka masala sauce
Ranch BBQ for sauages
Sweetcorn
Hotdogs
Spaghetti in tomato sauce (Heinz)
Corned beef like you wouldnt believe!
Mushroom pasta sauce
Bhuna sauce
Sweet and sour sauce
Mediterranean tomato pasta sauce
Spanish chicken sauce

As well as pasta (dried) rice (white and brown!), gravy, assorted condiments, silverskin onions, dried herbs and spices, the major ones neway, flour!

Any help on using any of these items would be great xx

the_other_mce

CAFCGirl wrote:

sorry if this isnt the best place, but I've been lurking and mooching and generally see a lot of food related threads on the board!

Right bit of background................
I'm basically flat out broke this month due to sickness, so I'm going to be attempting to use the contents of cupboard and only buy in some veggies (im not a great fruit fan!).

Now heres the stupid part, I have a lot, and i mean A LOT! of store bought jars of sauces, like sweet and sour, korma sauce etc, that my darling family buy me when their own BOGOF's to keep me going. However they obviously dont give me any meat to go with them!

So due to absolute skintness I cant really afford meat!So my first highly stupid question is, could I use say korma jar of sauce with potatoes!?If so, how so? ITMS
And will I regret it? lol

I've also got some frozen sausages, from asda, do I have to defrost them or could I put them in a casserole dish, pour over some sauce and et voila in a few hours?My mum didnt give me the original packaging!

and any other bright ideas for what to do with tinned hotdogs, got 8 tins for £1 (another sweet family purchase), short of putting them in hot dog buns, Im stuck!

Hot dogs are nice on an omelette or with scrambled eggs ... (if you have any eggs that is!!). Sweet and sour stir fry veg is also nice - if you have some noodles, an onion and maybe brocolli and carrot.
Hope this helps..

Gingham_Ribbon

All the cook in sauces will be fine with veg.

Sweet and sour: I'd try onion, red and green pepper, mushrooms, carrot, mange tout or courgette, toss in some bean sprouts at the end.

Korma or other curry sauces: Fry some onion then add some part boiled carrot, potato and cauliflower or potato and turnip or suede with the sauce and simmer slowly or bake as the jar advises.

Pasta sauces: If a white sauce, I'd go for mushrooms and maybe sweetcorn or broccoli, if tomato based, then courgette, peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, mange tout...I wouldn't add root veg to any of these personally.

If you don't like pulses, try some soya mince to bulk things out. It's fine with strong flavours and might make a nice bolognaise.

CAFCGirl

Of all the things I'm yet to get, the 8p noodles have evaded me

Thanks all for the help so far, must sound like a right fool needing to ask!

I've been a great fan of the oven cook from frozen up until now, but again very costly!And only a very small freezer, resulting in many trips to Mr Tesco, resulting in even more food being brought!

I had thought about rice with just the sauce but wanted to bulk it out a bit more.

Gingham_Ribbon

Parboiling: depends on the type and size of veg. I would cut fairly small to cut down on cooking time. They should still be firm but you should be able to get a fork into them, then they shouldn't disintigrate in the rest of the cooking.

CAFCGirl

lurking in the back of my freezer, which I've just been investigating for more goodies is a pack of frozen mince, Im pretty sure the meat content is pretty appaling, but right now as long as its free I dont really mind lol

CAFCGirl

something like one inch pieces, or smaller?

Smashing_Blouse

Spag bog or pasta bog. Dry fry the mince, drain off the fat, bung in some mushrooms,onions, tinned toms, oxo cube. Simmer for 15-20 mins while the pasta is cooking.

pboae

Defrost the mince, chop up an onion and mix it into the mince (if you have an egg beat that and add that too, but it's not essential), you can also add some breadcrumbs (slightly stale/dry if possible) to pad it out if you need to. Squidge the mince/onion mixture into balls, (a bit smaller than a golfball).

Put them in an ovenproof dish, pour over a tin of chopped tomatoes (or two if you have padded out the mince with breadcrumbs). Bake in the oven on Gas 5 for 1/2 hour.

You can vary it by adding any combination of herbs/spices to the meatball mixture or the sauce, or both. You can put chopped onion, or other veg into the sauce (drain the sweetcorn and use that). You could even add extra tomatoes, chop the hotdogs and add them to the sauce, then save the hotdog/sauce for reheating the next day. That way you get the most value out of having the oven on! The meatballs also reheat really well, so you can get a couple of days meals out of them.

Serve them with plain boiled rice or pasta.

halloweenqueen_2

You get lots of veggie curries, so I wouldn't have thought it was a problem. You can make a casserole with corned beef - I think it was on the feed for £1.62 thread.
Try www.cookingbynumbers.com you can put in what ingredients you have and it will come up with recipes or at least some ideas!
Try www.hillbillyhousewife.com it has lots of quick cheap recipes that are easy to do and well explained.