Reasonable Food Budget for 1

[Deleted User]

My £100 is an 'all-in' figure and I often eat at my Dds so if I make a lasagne for example I will make one big enough for us all.They rarely eat at my house as its so tiny and with DD son-in-law and four lads we would be eating on the stairs :) but I often can make my food streetch a bit say when I make a vat of veggie soup its always a vat and luckily my tribe are all keen on vegetables as my DD has always tried to put at least a choice of two to three on the table for us all I will this weekend make a trip tomorrow to Aldi's as they have some winter veg on offer and buy as much as I can for us all to share .Today because I seemed to have a bit of a glut on milk I took some spare around to DDs house when I picked to boys up from school as they do go through a fair bit of milk and its better for growing lads to drink than orange squash.She had bought a huge bunch of bananas yesterday on the way home and gave me four to take home last night so we do tend to share our food if we can especially if we buy a bit more than can be used up .Last week she had a BOGOF of a bag of jacket spuds so I didn't need to buy any potatos this week.Its all swings and roundabouts really.I also do a fair bit of cake and cookie making as the boys have hollow legs when it comes to cake

lizzyb1812

Chop and fry a small onion, a garlic clove, and some sliced mushrooms. Set aside. Measure out your rice and wash it twice, then drain and add twice the measure of water and a chicken stock cube. Cook rice in microwave on high for 6 minutes, add frozen peas, cook for another 6 minutes. Add cooked onions, etc, stir, reheat for a few seconds.

You can add any precooked or frozen veg - peas and sweetcorn are good, so are carrots, peppers, mangetout, courgettes but make sure the pieces are small and that the veg are a main ingredient, not a garnish.

Cook sausages and cut into chunks and add, perhaps with a bit of brown sauce, and you've got a whole meal. Add prawns, chicken to make a sort of paella. Onion, garlic, etc can be chopped and frozen to speed up prep, or even cooked and frozen in single portion batches to save even more time.

Add a bit of curry powder or tomato puree or turmeric instead of the stock, add grated parmesan to make a mock risotto. Most combos work as cold rice salad as well.

Repeat all of the above with couscous instead of rice.

Much cheaper than the packet stuff and you can tweak it to exactly your own taste.