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joeyboy

funtime.franki wrote: »

If you would normally buy a bag of peppers to chop up, buy a bag of frozen sliced peppers instead.

Frozen Diced Chicken is a godsend - you dont need to bash the bag in order to separate fillets. Also it does away with the need to buy pre-packed fillets in a big pack and then separate/package/freeze separately.

Plan your meals. Some things I eat very often is sweet and sour chicken, chicken curry, and spag bol. And I do buy the sauces in jars. Jars of sauces will typically keep for three days after opening. Have Sweet and Sour CK on Monday, CK Curry on Tuesday, the sweet and sour again on Wednesday.... and so on.

Also, I'm sorry but there's really no way of making mashed potato for one person without it being a COMPLETE disaster (my experience), and I personally HATE reheated potato. You best off doing baked potatos (the filling of these can be scooped out and mashed in a bowl if you fancied something like a shepherd's pie - just put the mince in and top with the pretend mashed potato).

If you have plenty of time/freezer space it may be worth you investing in some single-serve oven safe dishes and bulk buying fresh meat to make into pies/cottage pies etc and then freeze.

Get to grips with your portion sizes. A 100g serving of dried pasta will feed one generously! One large potato is enough for one etc.

Freezing bread is also something I do - it also helps you to stop nibbling!!!! Typically, however, I use my freezer space for food I wouldn't normally buy fresh and then buy the "Fresh for Longer/a Week" Wholemeal Loaves.


Hope that's helped a bit.

How are frozen sliced peppers? I saw bag in my local Iceland and veg is veg so sainsburys frozen peppers would be the same I'm sure, I usually get frozen veg from Iceland. But I just have this thought that frozen peppers would go really mushy once thawed..

Oh and yeah diced chicken is great. Again Iceland for me, 850g for £4 so cheaper then fresh, and it's 98% chicken, 1% water and then some sort of chemical, just the one, think a preservative. But it tastes really good, actually I prefer it to fresh, no fat in it and I find it's never chewy like chicken fillets can be occasionally.

Also for mash. I get that Aunt bessys frozen stuff, makes really nice mash, you just use as many discs as you feel you need, the packages has a suggested amount, think it's like 6 for one person.

chelms38

split_second wrote: »

i have a family size freezer and its permanantly jam packed

I didn't know you could freeze jam. :cool:

funtime.franki_2

joeyboy wrote: »

How are frozen sliced peppers? .

They're not mushy at all IMO. I tend to have them in a stir-fry microwaved though so they dont get cooked long enough to go mushy. They certainly don't go that spongey frozen carrot consistency. Although I would say that the finished cooking result is more watery than cooking with fresh (the freezing will damage the cellulose structure inside the pepper sending water molecules flying everywhere!)

I can guarentee anyone alive in the 90s will have had frozen peppers - in that mized vegetable rice stuff that had sweetcorn in aswell. If you're someone who likes peppers as a salad vegetable (I don't!) you might want to give them a miss.

joeyboy wrote: »

Oh and yeah diced chicken is great. Again Iceland for me, 850g for £4 so cheaper then fresh, and it's 98% chicken, 1% water and then some sort of chemical, just the one, think a preservative..

That's a slightly better deal than what I'm getting! I currently pay £2 for 400g ASDA diced frozen chicken. Never thought to get my meat from Iceland! Although, I do get cheese and milk

joeyboy wrote: »

Also for mash. I get that Aunt bessys frozen stuff, ..

I object to paying so much for something which I could rustle up with a 5p spud, some butter, and milk! I also didn't find it very fluffy?? Mash is a real "treat" food for me so I generally save it for "special occaisions" when I can eat a whole pan full.... how sad am i?

fairtrade

Tesco do bags of value frozen stir-fry veg for £1 and I have had good results anytime I have used them.

Maysie

Stale old fresh bread makes excellent garlic bread. I chop it into chunks, mince some garlic mix with butter and spread on bread and freeze in portions till needed. I even add some parsley if i have not killed it all from the garden. Tiger bread makes the best garlic bread.

Also grate or use a food processor to make breadcrumbs perfect for coating fish or chicken. I sometimes use a little lemon juice or stuffing mix to give it some wellly. Any old spices in the cupboard can be good to. My kids love home-made breadcrumb on fish. ( i freeze portions of breadcrumbs too).


A good way to use up leftover chicken, bacon and vegetables going over is to make some soup. I love chicken, ginger and garlic soup with carrots and whatever.

joerugby

If you are shopping in supermarkets buy from the deli, butcher or fish counter. You can ask for as little as you want and pay accordingly. If there is an offer e.g. half price you get it too.

Tonight I bought eight thin slices of Bellota Chorizo and a piece of quiche lorraine - a superb gourmet dinner together with some fresh tomatoes from the greenhouse - at Waitrose deli for approx £1.60. Very tasty it was too.

PasturesNew

I didn't have a freezer... what I did instead was:
- buy long-life loaves. They last at least 10 days (get them when they're knocked down to half price and there's still a week left on them).
- only buy what you absolutely know you can eat. Check your trolley and work out if you can really eat everything in there before it's out of date
- expect to eat a lot of stuff 3-4x in a row, just to use it up
- accept that there's simply a LOT of stuff that you can never, ever buy, ever again. Simply because you won't get through it all.

fairtrade

You could get a copy of Goode for One by Shirley Goode published in the late 80s - full of tips,recipes and money saving ideas for the single person.

joeyboy

PasturesNew wrote: »

I didn't have a freezer... what I did instead was:
- buy long-life loaves. They last at least 10 days (get them when they're knocked down to half price and there's still a week left on them).
- only buy what you absolutely know you can eat. Check your trolley and work out if you can really eat everything in there before it's out of date
- expect to eat a lot of stuff 3-4x in a row, just to use it up
- accept that there's simply a LOT of stuff that you can never, ever buy, ever again. Simply because you won't get through it all.

aww most stuff can be frozen and used later, I be there isn't that much you can't ever have ever again because you're buying for one! Unless it's a 16 portion giant gateau! But then I'm sure there are smaller alternatives.

flutterbyuk25

As all the others have said, the freezer is your friend. And being imaginative with leftovers helps too. I always batch cook, so have easy meals ready in the freezer. This is partly because I love cooking and partly cos I'm useless with portion sizes so have no idea how much to use!

Re bread - I use a small bread maker and make my own. It makes a small loaf (half 'normal' sized ones in shops), and takes all of 3 minutes to bung the ingredients in, and 2-3hrs to bake. I put it on timer overnight or when I'm at work. I don't eat a lot of bread, so I use a few slices and freeze the rest. Takes up less space in freezer than a big loaf. Alternatively look inthe reduced aisle for bread, Asda always have cheap bread at end of day.

Fresh fruit/veg - Buy what you need for a week. I eat salad every day so have lots in normally. But I check it every day and anything that is looking a bit sorry for itself is used for that day's meal or frozen. Most veg can be frozen, although salady bits like lettuce and cucumber not so. Fruit, I buy apples and pears that last a long time and keep in fridge. I adore bananas but canot eat them one they get too yellow so I buy 2 at a time from the local market stall. Fruit on the turn can be used in cakes, pies, crumbles etc. Aldi and Lidl tend to be the best places for fruit and veg, check their websites for their offers. Morrisons can have good offers too.

funtime.franki wrote: »

Mash is a real "treat" food for me so I generally save it for "special occaisions" when I can eat a whole pan full.... how sad am i?

I so agree with you that mash is a bu88er for a single person! I tend to make 2 portions and have it 2 days runnign! I hate peeling spuds so tend to have lots of jacket spuds :rotfl:

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