I'm eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge

Welsh_Poppy

Yum yum yum they look super delic:-)

I have picked 3 strawberries so far

I am not doing well batch cooked my veggie shephards pie 8 portions for freezer!!
The thing is I menu planned for all of July and needed to make dishes as OH bored(he has given up smoking 30days so far).
Will try harder

Today
OUT
Fish pie and sweetcorn bake

IN
NOWT

joedenise

Welsh_Poppy wrote: »

The thing is I menu planned for all of July and needed to make dishes as OH bored(he has given up smoking 30days so far).
Will try harder

Just because you've batch cooked something doesn't mean you need to eat it all that month! My monthly menus are very varied and only generally repeat things a couple of times over the month. I try to do my menus by varying what carb we're going to have throughout the week so that we don't end up with a glut of pasta or rice!

Congratulations to your OH for giving up smoking - he's probably over the worst now:j. I gave up just over a year ago after smoking for nearly 50 years - and it really wasn't easy but glad that I have stopped.

Denise

Jelly_Biactol

Spent £16 on food today, but virtually everything was for some batch-cooking I'm planning to do over the weekend, so, what with stuff I've already got in the cupboard (see, I'm using up store-cupboard stuff so I'm sticking to the thread ethos:)), there should be about 20-odd meals to go in the fridge or freezer.

I've already got some pasta sauce in the slow cooker, about 1/5 litres of the stuff, or about six portions I would say (with pasta, but got plenty of that in the store cupboard - 3 x 500g bags for £1 at my local shop). I was going to cook my basic pasta sauce recipe, which works out at £0.70 in total, but decided to treat myself with the deluxe version, at £1.10 (so, say £0.20/portion).

It's a friend's 65th birthday today, so a few of us will be going out for a couple of dirty lemonades later :T

Florenceem

In - nothing.
Out - Garlic bread + HM TITH + sausage rolls + HM Yorkshire puddings + stuffing balls.
For dinner we had Sprats with HM coleslaw and garlic bread.

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Welsh_Poppy

Florenceen

I finally made your egg and bacon pie for OH he gave it 12 out of 10:-)I alsways rate his meals so I can gauged how he likes them .Tis difficult being veggie and cooking for a meat eater:-).

Jelly

What recipe do you use for pasta sauce?

Nothing OUT

In 5 portions of bacon pie:-(

Jelly_Biactol

Welsh_Poppy wrote: »

Jelly, What recipe do you use for pasta sauce?

Two variations; the first is the simplest and cheapest (well, both are simple to make, really), the second is a bit more luxurious as it were. Both very tasty, though. I made the second one yesterday. The first one costs out at £0.70 in total, the second one £1.10. You would get 5 or 6 decent-sized portions from each, if eating with pasta; or 2-3 as a meal on its own.


Pasta Sauce no1

Ingredients:
1 x red onion, peeled and diced very finely
2 cloves garlic, peeled
pinch of salt
2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes (the cheapest you can find)
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp stock granules or 1 stock cube (veg or chicken, according to taste)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried basil (or fresh basil, if you are growing it for free)
pinch of cayene pepper

Instructions:
- put a high-sided frying pan on a low heat, add the olive oil and onion, and cook very gently for 10 mins until softened.
- with the flat side of a knife squash the garlic cloves, add a pinch of salt and crush and work together to create a paste; or just chop the garlic really finely
- add the garlic paste to the onions, cook for another minute or two, then add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and cayenne pepper, and add the stock granules or crumble in the stock cubes
- mix everything together really well, and either:
- simmer on a very low heat for 20 minutes
- or, if you have a slow cooker, set on Low and put everything in for an hour or so



Pasta Sauce no2

Ingredients:
3 x red onions, peeled and diced very finely (or two ordinary onions, or about a dozen shallots, as you prefer)
1 x carrot, peeled and diced very finely
2 x sticks celery, washed and diced very finely
2 cloves garlic, peeled
pinch of salt
2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes (the cheapest you can find)
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 tsp veg/chicken stock granules or 2 x stock cubes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried basil (or fresh basil, if you are growing it for free)
pinch of cayene pepper

Instructions:
- put a high-sided frying pan on a low heat, add the olive oil and all the veg, and cook very gently for 10 mins until softened.
- with the flat side of a knife squash the garlic cloves, add a pinch of salt and crush and work together to create a paste; or just chop the garlic really finely
- add the garlic paste to the onions, cook for another minute or two, then add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree, sugar and cayenne pepper, and add the stock powder or crumble in the stock cubes
- mix everything together really well, and either:
- simmer on a very low heat for 20 minutes
- or, if you have a slow cooker, set on Low and put everything in for an hour or so

Variations, which you could add as you portion up for the fridge/freezer, (these would also work with both sauces):
Arrabiata - add 1 tsp of chilli flakes (or 1/2 tsp chilli powder, or a splash of chilli sauce, depending on what you have in the store cupboard) and 1 tsp dried oregano, and stir in 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
Moroccan - leave out the basil, add 1 tsp honey and 1/2 tsp ground cinammon and 1/2 tsp ground coriander, serve with couscous instead of pasta (this works well with chickpeas, for the veggies; or lamb meatballs for the carnivores)
Creamy - at the end of the cooking/reheating time, stir in 1 tbsp marscapone (works well with tortellini, and topped off with cheese and baked until the cheese starts bubbling).

Florenceem

In - nothing.
Out - pack of mince.
For dinner we had sausage roll with potato croquettes and baked beans.

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Jelly_Biactol

Nothing out of the freezer today.
Going in, later when it cools down, is another batch of HM pizza sauce.:)

I've got a surfeit of celery ... any recipe suggestions? All I can think of is soup.

Kirri

^ Celery goes really well in a satay sauce - but not really cost effective unless you have the ingredients in for the sauce... I do a hm one from a VegSoc book which is lovely though and serve it with tofu, celery and pepper only (as a copy of a dish I used to get from the takeaway).

Or stir fried generally or in a bolognaise/cottage pie.

Used a bean pasta sauce from the freezer tonight as was out and too tired to cook. Been out and about a lot so not done much cooking the last few days or have eaten out.

Good to see the photos back, Florenceem

Picked another HUGE box of strawberries today and a bunch of carrots.

Florenceem

No freezer movements.
We had roasted beetroot, onions + tomatoes with HM TITH + stuffing ball + HM Yorkshire pudding for dinner.

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