Help...Food budget

Granny_Smith

notatvstar....I am fairly new here....could you please pm me your recipes too please.


Thank you......:)

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi, As Ixia says I think I would try and make a mealplanner of some sort. Think of things that are cheap and filling, potatoes, pasta, rice, pizza base, bread and make these your staples. Value porridge oats would be good for breakfast.

I think I would spread my £50 into weekly amounts and shop once a week, just because I think I would find this easier to manage.

Mince is good, a small amount can go a long way but I think generally you are not going to be able to afford much meat. A veggie curry or chilli can be really nice and you dont need a big selection of veg.

Chop those chicken breasts up really small as they seem to go further!

I would also throw out any ideas of being healthy for this month. Its more important that everyone gets fed and dont feel bad about it, it can happen to any of us.

Good luck with it.

ixia

Keep an eye on aldi super six and Lidl's weekend offers if yoy have them near youthey can be hit and miss but sometimes you get some good deals.

ALIBOBSY

ixia wrote: »

If you've got a Mr T's near you they are doing a 7.5kg bag of potatoes for £2.49- you could use them in loads of ways-

potato and cauliflower curry using up your cauli
baked spuds/beans
topping for a fish pie
soup
bangers and mash

I think as suggested you'd be better making a meal plan so you can use up what you've got first and pick up only what you need. Good luck

Unless you have access to local farm shops-mine do a big sackful of local spuds for about £1.60/1.80 ish, much cheaper than any of the supermarkets, but not everyone has access to farm shops.

aldi do cheap fruit and veg, but given your budget you may not have enough to buy too much fresh stuff, I think morrisons are doing some kind of cheap fruit/veg promotions at the moment.

Ali x

LizzieB

Hi, random - but hopefully helpful - idea, depending on what dried pulses you have, don't forget that you could sprout them. This will give you a valuable source of extra vitamin C (sprouting increases the level of this particular vitamin) and give you a free 'fresh' vegetable. You can then use them in stie fries etc. or to pad other dishes out. You can even add a handful to your bread mix.
Good luck, Lizzie

rosieben

notatvstar wrote: »

I'm semi-oriental and my Mum taught me how to make egg fried rice.
... I'll pm anyone my fried rice recipe btw...

Please would you post the recipe on this thread. I'd love to to try it myself but also would like to list it on our Grocery Challenge recipe list

notatvstar

Hi there

OK - here are my recipes - MODS, - if it's inappropriate for this thread then I'm sorry.

Some of you may recognise these - I've tried to edit out the typos etc

[FONT=&quot]Cheeky, Cheapo, Chinese Recipes. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Chicken bamboo shoots and smokey bacon stir fry (serves 2 – 4 depends on how much rice you’re giving).[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot](Adapted from Ching Hu Huang, Chinese Food in minutes)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Trust me on this - this recipe tastes very authentic!

Groundnut oil (don't worry - vegetable or sunflower will do - BUT NOT olive oil and don't get ripped off using 'oriental cooking' oils either).[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Groundnut oil is mildly flavoured so it’s good for Chinese food. Olive oil will just ruin the taste[/FONT][FONT=&quot].

3 rashers of smokey bacon (or the equivalent in off-cuts) shredded

2 Chicken breasts (I use 4-6 thighs - I never use breast!) shredded

[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]By shredded I mean finely chopped into slivers. This has to cook quickly so you don’t want chunks)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
Xiaoshing rice wine* or dry sherry

a tin of bamboo shoots* (water chestnuts, sliced, also works)

handful of bean sprouts (or as many as you like! – these are useful to pad-out any stir fry as they have little flavor of their own, but carry others well)

light soy sauce* (NOT dark). Dark is way too strong to cook with. Only use dark for marinades and as a condiment

Oyster sauce* (actually optional... Not everyone likes this and to be honest I only use it very sparingly)

toasted sesame seed oil*

1 spring onion - thinly sliced.

Don't worry if you haven't got a wok - my Chinese Gran and my Mum don't use them... I use a large, flat-bottomed cooking pot instead.

Heat your wok/pot on a high heat until you can feel the heat when you put your hand over it. Add the groundnut/veg oil until it STARTS to smoke... you don't have to wait that long if your nerve gives out, but the oil needs to be hot.

Add your bacon (be careful cos it will spit like b*ggery) - fry until it goes crispy (couple of mins) - it will take longer if your oil isn't hot enough. You do want your bacon scraps crispy though.

Add your chicken and as it's turning white add the rice wine/sherry (you don't need a lot, but adjust to your taste). You want a little bit of liquid but not a soup!

Add the bamboo shoots (or sliced water chestnuts) then bean sprouts and stir fry for a minute.

Season with soy sauce, oyster sauce (optional! - can be strong tasting for those who are not used to it - I rarely use it and when I do no more than a couple of drops). Add your sesame seed oil to taste. Sprinkle over your sliced spring onions...

FIN

This should take you no more than 10 minutes really. Make sure you have everything sliced and all your bottles to hand as this cooks pretty fast.

You can play around with the ingredients all you want as this is the basic stir fry. Try with garlic, ginger, carrots - whatever! If you use garlic - never brown it and slice it into whole slices. Ginger is usually long and thinly sliced.

I usually have this with plain boiled rice (cooked before hand!)

Let me know how it goes



N[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]Egg-Fried Rice[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]First of all cook and dry your rice. Make sure it's not damp and soggy - I have a fail proof method, but everybody else has their own too... You want your rice to be al dente.

Preferably use rice cooked the day before but if not make sure it's started to cool. I cook about 300g (enough for me and the boyf, 5-6 meals)

Groundnut oil (or veg/sunflower)

1-2 eggs (depends on size and personal taste)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot](What my Gran does is she very briefly beats the eggs with a couple of drops of sesame seed oil and dark soy sauce – sometimes I do this, sometimes I don’t).[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
about 4-6 smallish onions (or a load of shallots). Finely diced. Finely… You can do them in a food processor but then they get a bit mushy.

2-3 cloves of garlic - thinly sliced (in whole slices)

4-5 spring onions - sliced

1-2 fresh chillies (optional)

cooked chicken/beef/turkey - whatever! shredded. Left overs are best - you don't need a lot - I have no idea of the weight - but a dinner plateful is fine

Chopped veg of choice (broccoli stalks is a fave!)

Peas (doesn't matter if frozen - in fact my Mum thinks it's better with frozen peas!).

Light soy sauce*

Sesame seed oil*

Xiaoshing rice wine* or dry sherry

(* forgot to mention in previous recipe - you can get this stuff very cheaply in oriental supermarkets).

You need to have a good slug (enough is when you think there's too much - but not half the bottle!) of oil in the pan. Heat the pan on a high heat and break open the egg(s) into it. Stir with a wooden spoon or chopstick (quite violently) so it goes all stringy as it cooks.

When the egg is nearly cooked add the finely chopped onions/shallots. Fry until they're opaque (but not browning).

Then add the chillies (if you have them), spring onions and lastly the slices of garlic - do not over cook the garlic as it will taste very bitter. You don't want any of this going too brown. 1/2 cooked is perfect!

Add your meat (if any) and any hard veg (diced carrots, broccoli stalks, sliced runner beans etc) and stir fry for a bit.

Add some rice wine/dry sherry (to taste).

Now add your rice. Add in stages making sure you’re thoroughly mixing it in as you do. In that way the rice grains won't clump together and they will fry more evenly. (Yep - the heat is still high!). Don’t just wang it all in at once…[/FONT]

Your rice will stick if it’s not dry enough (soggy). If it does just add more oil, but be careful not to add too much as your will with then be greasy. If your rice was cooked too much it may begin to break-up into smaller pieces, but this isn’t too much of a disaster.

When all the rice is mixed in - stir fry until you're happy (people have different tastes to how much they want their rice fried), adding light soy sauce and sesame seed oil to taste.

Lastly add your soft veg (peas (frozen if you want - they'll defrost - trust me) courgettes... whatever) and stir fry for a bit. You can turn the heat down now and this will help to increase the cooking time to make sure that any frozen veg has defrosted and any other veg had cooked through. It's a judgement call depending on what veg you've got in there.

FIN



I hope they work for all who try them. I've tried to give as many 'real' details as possible. There are no 'exact' measures as these are adaptable recipes to whatever you've got going really.

Good luck

N

MissOrganised1972

I found a page where they make 5 meals for 5 (so would go further for you) from a 1kg of mince. Hope it helps.

As a new user I am now allowed to post links and so have written out the link with gaps in. If you remove all the gaps/spaces you should be able to find it.

http : // frugal-cooking .co .uk/ recipe / 193/ batch-bake-minced-beef-recipe