healthy eating too expensive...

mimidaler

pies and jars of sauce are full of sodium and definitely not healthy!

You can buy pastry ready made, then go to poundland and buy 20 foil containers for £1, then next time you have too much chicken/mince etc stick it in a container, put a slice of puff pastry on the top, et voila! a pie!!! much nicer! you could come up with some well interesting combinations for your pies by doing this!

with the big packs of meat, portion it up, wrap then pop in plastic bags and freeze it.

For a REALLY healthy tomato base sauce, go supermarket and get the reduced tomatoes (or iceland for a massive pack for £2) and then blanch them, put them in a saucepan on a low heat with a bit of butter, seasoning a bit of water and any herbs you want and leave them to cook until theyre a sauce. You can freeze this and its a brilliant healthy base for lots of dishes. my mum also puts any tomato vine in there too for the duration of the cooking down, and fishes it out afterwards and she swears it makes it taste better. add creme fraiche or mascarpone or even milk for a creamier sauce.

grow your own basic herbs in a window box. Whatever you use most of, or like. At the moment i have basil, mint and chives. They are just the 50p asda fresh ones in the pots, but if you look after them they will grow and grow. They need a LOT of water.

Add beans and pulses. Kidney beans, lentils, butter beans, country veg mix (the dry one you can buy) it bulks out your meat and provides extra vitamins, fibre and helps you to eat less carbs. Take butter beans, use some of the homemade sauce i wrote about and a bit of chilli and have it on toast, posh beans on toast!

Dont underestimate the jacket potato!!!
:beer: enjoy your dinner

jenniewb

aurongrande wrote: »

That's probably because I wasn't sure what sort of food is actually freezable. I've not been living on my own for all that long, and up until then, it was my parents who did the shopping, so I simply ate what they put on the plate.

Now that I live alone, I'm just trying to find out my best options.

It normally says on the packet if its freezable or not.

If not take it that it is. They normally warn as a precaution. Main things you gotta look out for are meat and fish and then just get fresh and your OK. Just make sure things are piping hot before serving OR cook meat/fish (bought from frozen) separatly from the stuff you had frozen.
You can cook large batches of quorn/bean/chickpea/vegetable curry/chilli/bolognaise etc sauce and that can last for quite some time.

And for reference, I live alone. I have lived alone for almost 10 years now and have been doing this for 10 years. When I moved out I was a student and had no real income so had no option but ti save money. I didn't want to be unhealthy so I took the time to preplan and prepare dishes- it can be done. Yes it takes time but once you get used to it, you don't think twice.

jenniewb

aurongrande wrote: »

it was my parents who did the shopping, so I simply ate what they put on the plate.

Its your turn now

elfen

I use the things of sauce, but usually buy the economy ones and spend a bit extra on the meat so I know it's decent quality. One jar of pasta sauce will do me 4 portions of bolognese, same with curry/chilli and sweet and sour. I have one the day I make it, and freeze the other three. There's currently bolognese and sweet and sour in my freezer, sometimes I will buy reduced meat (sausages and burgers recently - but the expensive ones, so more meat and less additives, then separate and freeze in portion sizes.

I get fresh fruit and veg when I shop, then get frozen veg for when the fresh has run out (currently the remains of a cabbage I froze, carrots, peas and sweetcorn in the freezer, which I add to jars when I cook to stretch it further) Asda or Aldi have pretty good fruit and veg deals (apples and oranges £1 a bag, Aldi's bananas are better, I got 5 for 54p and they're about medium size)

I also get a lot of salad stuff as being gluten and lactose intolerant there's not a lot of wheat or milk containing products I ca neat, so much of it is made up by me (mince is another good one, usually deals or 2 for £3, that sort of thing....can either batch cook or freeze in smaller amounts) I don't eat a lot of junk so it's not in my cupboards, but as I have fruit I find I snack on that more than anything else. I spend between £90-100 a month on food for me, and that includes a LOT of fruit, veg and frozen veg, as well as decent meat for me to cook with. It's not really THAT expensive, you just need to look for things you will eat, or can freeze if you don't use them all (and someone talking about spinach has made me want some, so I'll be buying that when I next go shopping!)

Vaila

looking back on this thread you remind me of my brother he eats value range instant noodles and hot dogs so i dont think any of his main meals ever cost more than £1. im giving this suggestion because even though you have recieved a wealth of healthy cheap meal ideas you arent really accepting them "yuck i hate soups" etc, so i guess a better option for you would be to just stock up on value range tins, long life noodles and if all else fails, beans on toast

the biggest saving ive made when i compare my grocery cost to others is to stock up on value tins of kidney beans and tomatoes but i guess you would actually have to think of making them into something

joeyboy

tbh most things are freezable, I probably freeze things which don't even recommend it, ah well I haven't died yet eh?

I'm still living at home, if you want to see how well I eat on a budget then 18th-25th is going to be my £10 for the week challenge. I would extend it to two weeks as I believe that's more fair on me and more realistic but the second week I can't realistically stick it(going places and such).

Obviously I'll have more carbs and less protein, but I'll be hunting for bargains! I might buy a big bag of pasta, consider how many portions it would serve, and only include the cost of those to make it more representative. Let's say it's 75p for 500g of pasta and I use 100, obviously that's 15p of pasta per meal, but I won't use it all in a week, but I would if the budget was long term, so I'll price up individual meals. If it goes well, I'll try £5 after.

CupOfChai

I too disagree that healthy eating is expensive, but the thread has reminded me of something related but slightly different I was grumbling about the other day. Why is it that the cheaper versions of some products also happen to be less healthy versions? For example, looking at the most basic brand of a can of sweetcorn, it was labelled that it was packaged with added sugar and salt. To get it packaged in just water with no added sugar or salt, which is a better option health-wise, you had to get the next brand level up. Canned fruit packaged in plain fruit juice was more expensive than the same brand level of the same fruit packaged in syrup, which is a less healthy option.

I'm not saying all products are like this as I'm aware there are likely to be some for which the opposite is true, but it's irritating to seemingly be penalised for preferring to eat the healthier version. Or indeed, it's irritating that if a person can only afford the cheaper option, they have to have a less healthy one.

northerner999

aurongrande wrote: »

Because I can never find any decent ones. I look high an low, and even some of the store assistants don't understand why they don't have any of the smaller ones in Tescos. So until my local Tescos sells the smaller single pies, then it's Fray Bentos.

Frozen pies are as good as the ones you're getting out a Fray Bentos tin.

You can also get individual Tesco pies - look at the same place you find sausage rolls, pork pies etc.

Even if you have a large Fray Bentos pie there is nothing stopping you only cooking half take half out before cooking) or simply having the second-half later.

eleanor73

You guys have given this OP some great ideas and with responses like "yuck I'm not keen on soups or stews" !!! I just wouldn't bother - that sounds like a response an 8 year old would say!! I have taken some of your good ideas though - thanks!!

sjp1966

Rather than buying a tinned or jar sauce why don’t you make the sauce yourself, you could make a batch of tomato sauce, freezes some and then defrost it when you need it, that way you could add other things to the sauce when your re-heating it up to make each one a bit different.

You mention healthy eating but then talk about Fray Bentos pies which are by no means healthy, I think you may need to look it from another angle.

on another point you may find this site useful - http://www.cannedfood.co.uk/recipes.php?starter&view=meat - this allows you to mix stuff up and stop the food becoming boring, or look at the bbc.co.uk/food site you can find recipes for sauces on there, or maybe purchase a cheap sauce book online or at a local book store, there is bound to be tons of ideas in there and there is so much you can freeze.

OK some cannot be frozen but on those meals just have it again next day, not ideal but at least you wont waste 50% of what you buy.