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

got-it-spend-it

I also highly recommend this recipe http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/recipe-oniontart.html?opt=rdinner from Weezl's site. It is delicious.

Primrose

Rose Elliott's book "Not just a load of old lentils" contains a lot of interesting and inexpensive vegetarian recipes if you can find it in your local library. She has also written a number of other very good vegetarian cook books. We are by no means vegetarian in this house but find a lot of vegetarian recipes using pulses & beans of various kinds mean that you simply don't miss eating meat, and meals can be a lot cheaper too.

EstherH

got-it-spend-it wrote: »

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.

Do you mean a 300gm pack of quorn mince or are there bigger ones somewhere? It always seems so expensive to me compared to mince, does it go much further then?

lightisfading

got-it-spend-it wrote: »

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.

The asda dry burger mix is actually really nice, I much prefer it to other frozen veggie 'beef' burgers, and it's 80p a pack

The quorn southern style ones are yummy though... I like them sliced up in a wrap with lettuce and mayo too

seasalt_2

As well as pasta bakes, I make quite a lot of cheap "bakes" based on potatoes - usually to use up left overs. Dry fry cumin seeds over medium heat until fragrant (could omit this if family not keen - it's quite subtle though - just don't burn them), add a little oil and gently fry eg leeks, onions, left over cabbage, grated courgettes, carrot, parsnip etc, whatever needs using up (think some onion or leek is essential though!) then add roughly sliced or broken up cooked potatoes, mix it all together, add milk if it seems too dry (have also used yoghurt, creme fraiche, cream cheese, whatever needs using up again) and then either grate a bit of cheese on the top and eat, or shove under the grill or bake in shallow ovenproof dish if oven is on, until cheese is melted and golden. Can also sprinkle breadcrumbs or sesame seeds if you've got them on the top before baking for more crunch. Bacon bits are nice too - fry them at the beginning - you only need a little. And a sliced tomato on the top is lovely too - good way of using up any that have started to go a bit soft.

Cheeselady

lightisfading wrote: »

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?

Oh thanks for such great info, am definitely going to try the pasties, just have a couple of questions on the recipe if that's OK? When you add a bit of water and gravy powder, do you just sprinkle the gravy granules on, or do you make it up with water first? Also how much do I need to use? Not sure I understand 'water to bind' or double the recipe, sorry have not made pastry since I was in school, lol, does that mean if I don't add water I need to double the ingredients? Oh and how many does that recipe make? Thanks!

Cheeselady

lightisfading wrote: »

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

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.

Wow, wow, wow, and another one! :T Love that recipe too, gosh, I'm going to need a huge notebook at this rate! Oh and thanks for the supermarket tip too! :T

Cheeselady

jackieglasgow wrote: »

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.

Oh sounds intriguing, lol, not sure what the kids would think of haggis though, but will go and have a look, thanks!

wssla00 wrote: »

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!

Oh thanks so much, will pop over and have a look! :T

EstherH

Hi Cheeselady, if it was me making the mince for pasty I would just sprinkle the bisto onto the mince and add a little water.
For pastry, it is half fat to flour. So 200gms flour, 100gms fat. The doubling up is these ingredients, i.e. I would normally use 800 gms flour and 400 gms fat when making a large pie.
The water to bind is just enough to make the pastry come together, so pour a small amount in and use a knife to gather it together, add more if needed. When it starts to come together if it is too sticky just add more flour. I know this knocks out the balance of the half fat to flour but it always works for me.
Hope this is of some help.

Cheeselady

got-it-spend-it wrote: »

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.

Oh that sounds a good idea with the burgers, haven't a clue how to make home made wedges though, could you talk me through it please?