My food budget has halved! Need lots of help please, including veggie recipes!

9217niall

Cheeselady wrote: »

I promise not to shoot you, lol, and yes we will look into EMA, and will be seeing if/how much he gets and will go from there, he is also trying to find some part-time work, but no luck as yet, but once he get's his GCSE results next week, fingers crossed he gets good grades and that might help him find something.

I'm in the same boat...dreading the GCSE results haha! I too am looking for a job so I know how hard it is.
Good luck with the food budget by the way. :money:

JOANNESAPHINE

Don't know how you feel about a veggie curry with perhaps potatoes, cauliflower, onions or mushrooms. Can serve with value rice or naans. Hope your OH soon finds another job. X

MrsBartolozzi

If you use a lot of tortilla wraps have a go at this recipe here:http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=13240567&postcount=223

Lots of us here on OS have used this recipe and it really is a doddle. The wraps can be frozen too - pre-cooked or as I prefer, just as dough. Really tasty and it's not the first time I've gone to make sandwiches before bed to find the boys have left me a slice and the heel - these take less than 30 mins from start to finish (8 or more wraps) and if I can manage them half asleep at 11.00pm then anyone can in the day!!

Cheeselady

Penny-Pincher!! wrote: »

couscous
soya products
eggs/quiche/boiled/fried/scrambled/omelette/fritatta
cheese and potatoe pie
roasted veg
mac cheese
veggie pizza using pitta breads
veggie lasagna
bean lasagna
chilli
veggie spagbol
salads with cottage cheese/cheddar/eggs/quiche etc
veggie roast
pasta bake could add tuna for kids
baked spuds + cottage cheese/cheese/beans
something on toast
soup and a sarnie
hm soup
potatoe and spinach curry and nan (delish)
rice and peas (high protein if using split peas)

off top of head.

Add pulses, nuts etc for needed protein.

HTH

PP
xx

Wow, thanks for so many great ideas! :T

9217niall wrote: »

I'm in the same boat...dreading the GCSE results haha! I too am looking for a job so I know how hard it is.
Good luck with the food budget by the way. :money:

Hope it all works out for you, roll on Tuesday!

Cheeselady

JOANNESAPHINE wrote: »

Don't know how you feel about a veggie curry with perhaps potatoes, cauliflower, onions or mushrooms. Can serve with value rice or naans. Hope your OH soon finds another job. X

MrsBartolozzi wrote: »

If you use a lot of tortilla wraps have a go at this recipe here:http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=13240567&postcount=223

Lots of us here on OS have used this recipe and it really is a doddle. The wraps can be frozen too - pre-cooked or as I prefer, just as dough. Really tasty and it's not the first time I've gone to make sandwiches before bed to find the boys have left me a slice and the heel - these take less than 30 mins from start to finish (8 or more wraps) and if I can manage them half asleep at 11.00pm then anyone can in the day!!

Thanks to both of you for the recipes! :T Would love to make some tortillas, but the only frying pan I have is really old and everything sticks to it, other than that I have a Teflon Wok which is great but too small in the base width, I will have to try and budget in a frying pan at some point I think.

lightisfading

Beanfeast does still exist - though we usually use Asda's own brand one (not in the same package design as the sausage mix, its's a lighter green pack). 'Pasta goo' as we call it we have at least once a week - that stuff, pasta and a silly amount of cheese all stirred up together. Not gourmet by any stretch of the imagination but we like it

We like Asda's own veggie frozen mince. I think it's Soya based? It works out about 1/4 of the price. For a pot of bolognese I use 1/4 of a pack - 50p worth, where I would use a whole pack of quorn. The asda stuff needs a little water to rehydrate though (i just put a bit extra in the recipe, i don't rehydrate first or anything).

Lidl have started selling quorn mince, pieces and fillets - they seem to have at least one of them on a £1 a pack deal each time we go

Sainsburys seem to have deals on veggie/meat replacers way more often than asda (asda being... never! :mad:). We stock up on linda mccartney sausages and quorn chicken burgers when they have them half price

Morrisons/Asda veggie sausages are nice (way nicer than quorn ones). When I get them cheap, we like them sliced up and fried off with paprika and a bit of chilli powder, then simmered in a basic pasta (tomato) sauce for spicy sausage pasta

Oh ... homemade veggie pasties are easy too if you like 'traditional' grub. I fry off some of the aformentioned asda mince with onions, add a bit of water and gravy powder - just enough to make it 'damp' not wet! (the bisto in the red tub is veggie, and tastes a lot 'meatier' than vegetable gravy granules). Then I slice up a potato and a carrot as thin as possible - pieces about the size of a thumbnail! Make up some pastry (100g veg fat, 200g flour, water to bind - or double the recipe), roll out and cut circles round a small plate. Bit of mince, potato, carrot and maybe some peas, pinch the sides together, brush with beaten egg or milk and bake. Very cheap, tasty, good for packed lunches too or a nice tummy-filling meal with veggies and gravy You really don't need much mince at all, 1/8 of a pack?

lightisfading

Cottage pie: fry onions, add mince, then add some already-mixed up gravy (red bisto!), just enough so it looks right, you don't want soup If you have it, we add in (veggie) worcester sauce, herbs etc, though those aren't necessary. Add finely diced carrots and frozen peas (it all adds cheap bulk and vitamins!) and simmer for a while til it's nice and thick. Meanwhile cook and mash some potatoes. Put the mince in a heatproof dish, cover with the potatoes a spoon at a time and spread out to cover all the mince, then drag a fork all over the top to roughen it up. The normal way is to bake it in the oven til the top is crisp, but we usually grill it, as our oven is expensive to run and really, it does the same thing grilling it Serve with gravy and if you're my OH about half a bottle of brown sauce

the thought of 'having to put something back' at the checkout terrifys me!

Take just the amount you want to spend, in cash. If it's over at the checkout you can always just wave your £20 note (or whatever) and use 'i only brought a twenty' as an excuse! They don't have to know you only brought that because you only have that, it helps save embarassment

[edit] - ooh, I just remembered something else. I have a recipe for a 'lentil loaf' which is cheap and actually pretty nice - nice as the 'meat' part of a sunday dinner! I will go hunt out the recipe for you.

jackieglasgow

There is a fantastic veggie haggis recipe in the index and in the grocery challenge list. I made it again the other day, and made a load of it into pasties for OH to take to work. Its a lovely Sunday Dinner type meal too and goes well as a stuffing for chicken. If you serve it with a whisky cream sauce it has various Scottish names, (usually using meat haggis mind!) such as Chicken Robroy, Chicken a laBurns, and umerous many more.

wssla00

Jamie Oliver does hundreds of great recipes for veggies- I LOVE his arriabiata and it costs about £2.50 for four portions. Very yummy and I couldn't believe I made it myself!

got-it-spend-it

I bulk my veggie shepherd's pie out with a tin of beans- means you need less meat. I also add lentils to bolognese type dishes, and a tin each of baked beans and kidney beans to chilli plus grated carrot to everything. I can generally get three meals (each of four portions) out of one bag of quorn mince.

Home made pizzas are cheap and easy, especially if you make a batch of dough and keep the extra in the freezer.

We generally have a 'burger' night each week. One burger each (whichever veggie burgers that are on offer, often Quorn Southern style), one roll, fried onions and home made wedges and salad. Cheap but yummy and a good alternative to a takeaway.