More exciting mince recipes

Pooky

500gms goes a long way in this house.

I always add loads of extras though to pad it out, normally, onions, carrots, courgettes, leeks, peppers, tomatoes,celery, mixed beans (dried ones pre soaked and cooked and frozen in batches) or baked beans, garlic, hand full of breadcrumbs or oats.

I'll brown the meat and stick it in the SC with all the other ingedients, herbs and seasoning of choice and a couple of packs of passatta, a glug of wine and leave to cook down and then divide into meal sizes.

From this I can make a really large lasagne that will feed 4 (my 2 girls have adult sized portions) and there'll be left overs for 2 lunch boxes for the next day, there will be a big portion frozen down for going with pasta in a bake, again enough for 4, then 2 smaller portions frozen down, 1 for chilli for DH and I, the other for pie filling to feed all 4 of us again.

So that's 16 portions - I normally pay around £1.70 for 500gms of fresh mince, although asda's is currently on offer at £1 for 500gms so I've stocked up.

It's all question of how far you need it to stretch I suppose.

Littlemiss-lotsofdebt

I always thought I did quite well until I saw this thread! :rolleyes:

If I do chilli, I add tinned toms and beans and this will make 4 meals with rice and garlic bread, and possibly a couple of toppings for baked spuds

Cottage Pie - OH refuses to eat after being force fed this at school dinners :rotfl:

Lasagne - 5 portions if served with salad and garlic bread, 7 if serving with jacket spud & salad

Spag Bol - padded out with onions and mushrooms (may try adding other veg), usually makes around 4 big portions served with pasta and garlic bread

Must try adding more veg though in the future.

bibbly

Does anybody add porridge oats to mince when making spag bol or chili etc?

I do it all the time and it does help - I once added too many though and it was mushy and chewy!! Fine if you don't go overboard though.

Bibbly
x

Cruiksl

Does the porridge affect the taste ?

morwenna

Cruiksl wrote: »

Does the porridge affect the taste ?

Nope - been doing it for years... Just don't tell the kids :rotfl:

Penny-Pincher!!

We tend to use minced lamb to beef but can make 500g stretch to:

Large 5 portion Shepherds Pie with baked beans, onion and peas.

4-5 portion Chilli made with tinned toms, onion, garlic, kidney beans and sweetcorn.

Mince is great to stretch meals.

PP
xx

kazwookie

500g mince, I break into 3 then freeze, then make cottage pie, chilli, spag bol over the course of a week to feed 2 adults so 6 meals.

Some lovely idea from you all, off to try out some this week.

weezl74

Cruiksl wrote: »

I've been a bit of a whizz in the kitchen today and decided to see how far I could pad out 500g of mince which cost me £2.39.

Well so far, I've made 3 meals for a family of 4:

• a scrummy cottage pie, with onions, carrots, peas topped with mashed potato and cheese
• Bolognese which was split into 2 with onions, chopped tomatoes, and mushrooms. One family meal with pasta
• Lasagne - using the other half of the bolognese, making a cheese sauce and dried pasta.

I'm really chuffed - have been able to do this so the challenge is - how far can you make it go ?

Hey, well done you :T. I'm v. impressed.

I've got a kg bag, can I still play and then half my score? I got 11 man sized (half a dinner plate) cornish pasties out of it for DH. He is one of those tall thin chaps that if you don't feed hin the sort of stuff that'd make Gillian McKieth's blood pressure go through the roof, then he goes all skinny looking!

Har har Lil_me:rotfl:

Weezl x

moneysavingmumofone

OMg im sooo embarassed, a 1.75g bag only does 3 or 4 dinners for 2 adults and a toddler!:o

Skint_Catt

Can I add a can of chickpeas to either chilli or lasagne or do they stand out too much?
I guess frozen mixed veg (peas, sweetcorn, green beans, broccoli etc) can also be added as padding?