What have you substituted to save money?

rosie383

I now use much more passata than tinned tomatoes depending on the recipe. Costs just 25p for a carton in Asda compared to the cheapest tins at 31p.

I do the Quorn thing too, family notice sometimes but they don't mind too much.

I also do a thing a bit like a scotch egg which is an egg wrapped up in mashed potato, dipped in gram flour batter and fried. Instead of using a whole egg, I use half a hard-boiled egg, and make up the other half out of mash too! As long as they aren't too bulky, no-one notices. Delicious dipped in mango chutney! Perfect for picnics.

mummyroysof3

i dont use quorn all the time..hubby has the sausages and we use the chicken style peices in a stirfry but we do have chicken when kids are eating same. I also like the quorn mince in lasagne better than beef mince.

scheming_gypsy

chinagirl wrote: »

I was looking to buy some diced chicken to do a curry for 4 people tonight in my local Lidl. The price £2.99. I then picked up a bag of Quorn chickenlike peices, the price £1.19. " Weeeell" I thought to myself, "could I get away with it?"
I went home and cooked up the curry using the Quorn and a jar of Lidl Balti sauce, and the result was delicious. One of my sons asked me what I was cooking and looked in the pan. "Chicken curry!" I said. "Oh goody" he said.
The resulting clean plates told me I HAD got away with it.
Not only had I saved almost a third in money, the Quorn is packed with protein, so I had not compromised on nutrition either. :T

you sound like my mum!! she tried that trick on me years ago so i phoned Childline. (i was probably around 20 at the time though)

Gracie_1827

I tried Quorn on 2 separate occasions and both times hubby was projectile vomiting for hours. apparently some people are allergic...it is manufactured from a fungus.

Riversong

I dont buy pasta sauces, insteas i use chopped tomato with herbs. I find it tastier.x

mmmsnow

I have a soy allergy (first time I tried Quorn, my face swelled up like Will Smith in Hitch) but I have found some non-soy meat substitutes (I think they are cereal based) which we use in bolognese instead of mince. It saves calories and money but the texture isn't quite right. I also tend to buy turkey mince or pork mince instead of beef, which also tends to work out cheaper.

Finally, I have a breadmaker and used to buy half fat butter (£1.24 for 250g ) to use in my loaves but I discovered that light olive or sunflower spread gives great results (500g is £1).

snowleopard61

Yesterday I made bread pudding (the sort that's rather like fruit cake, rather than bread & butter pudding) and substituted: black tea for the 600ml milk - on the basis that it works fine in a tea loaf - sunflower oil for margarine (not necessarily particularly cheaper but it meant I didn't have to buy more margarine at the moment, so it sort of was, and is presumably healthier as it's liquid at room temperature), used caster sugar instead of muscovado and demerara, and used quite a lot less dried fruit than the recipe stated. The bread was all the ends of loaves that I'd left in the freezer after using up the rest. The result was yummy and indistinguishable from any that I'd ever bought (I'd never made it before). Next time I won't bother putting in any fat as I think it will hold together perfectly well with just the egg, and of course will be both cheaper and healthier.

BTW mmmsnow, if you're allergic to Quorn, your allergy may not be to soya - as Gracie1827 says, it's manufactured from a sort of fungus (apparently the technical name is mycoprotein) - so possibly you may be affected by some types of mushroom, and conversely you may be OK with soya.

snowleopard61

PS Most of us in our family don't eat meat anyway, but either meat or vegetarian mince can also be bulked out with grated carrot and/or wholemeal breadcrumbs.

SpikyHedgehog

Gracie_1827 wrote: »

I tried Quorn on 2 separate occasions and both times hubby was projectile vomiting for hours. apparently some people are allergic...it is manufactured from a fungus.

I can't use it when my friend's son is round as he is allergic to egg which is used in the processing.

Gothicfairy

I get Soya mince and chunks dried from my local Indian superstore and although it needs soaking overnight ( I do that in the cooker so he can't see it aint meat..lol) it is half the price of quorn and just as good.
I also use milk powered as I have little space to store milk and find it goes off before I use it so I add milk powder to bread (ie flour, yeast etc) and also use it to make cakes and drop scones ..he has not noticed the difference yet and I have been doing that for about 2 years.

I make my own ketchup with passata sp when it is on offer and also make my own chilli jam that I then tell him is proper Heinz .

A cheap stash of mushrooms became Pate and that again was eaten and loved, he even said it was more meaty then the normal stuff.

I also use sell by date fish like kipper / herring for breakfast kedgeree.

I find lentils are a great filler and it seems that no one notices a lack of meat or other veg as the lentils bulk everything out.

Oh and homemade boston baked beans with dried butter beans or something like that as they are cheaper then Heinz and I swear they taste better.