Ruby's recipe relay

RubySewSew

I want your recipes! I'm looking for quick, easy, cheap, tasty meals that can be batch cooked or produced with minimal preparation on days when I can't be bothered to cook!

I am a single mother with 3 boys aged 10, 8 and 6. I work in school part time but even that is enough to completely exhaust me to the point where some nights I am incapable of producing a meal. DS1 is vegetarian and quite a fussy eater. I would like to increase the amount of vegetarian food we eat and decrease our dependency on meat. Although I will need to disguise obvious vegetables and pulses. I am following Slimming World so am focusing on healthy, balanced meals, low in fat and avoiding bread and other processed carbs.

Our household income is made up of four separate payments throughout the month (wages, maintenance, child benefit and tax credits) so we frequently have periods of time when there is no money for grocery shopping and are reliant on store cupboard ingredients. Needless to say we are on a low income! Can you help? In return I will post any family favourites and let you know how we are getting on...

pinkclouds

Have you seen Weezl's site?

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/index.html

Lots of cheap recipes that the OS MSE'rs have tried and tested.

caeler

I'm a fan of stew on my slow cooker. Stewing Beef (I get the Sainsbury's basic cuts), Onion, Carrots, Potato, Mushrooms and Garlic. Cooked in a beef stock - I like a couple of oxo cubes with some herbs (maybe rosemary) and a splosh of red wine. Tasty and cheap!

gingin_2

I think this might get moved to the oldstyle board but I've just come on here whilst my pans bubble away for half a hour.

I've just put two pans on the go. One with bolognese and one with traditional mince/ gravy. They are basically the same but the bolognese has bacon and tinned tomatoes with the mince and the other has carrots and stock. I am afraid I throw wine in with everything, as we buy cheap cooking wine on our travels to France but it can be left out.

Each pan will be portioned into two. Lasagne for tonight and Shepherds pie for tuesday, that will leave two "free" meals to go in the freezer for next week ( bonus!). I've also taken a chicken out for tomorrow and it's a standard meal of ours to roast it with lots of veggies (new potatoes sweet potatoes, peppers, red onions) and have that with salad and chilli sauce. I do extra roast veggies and use the leftovers of those to make a fritatta ( put the veggies in a pan and add eggs and set in the oven, I add feta and herbs from the garden, too but it's not necessary). The chicken carcass gets frozen until I have enough to make a good stock and then make soup or risotto.

Husband works away some of the week, so we will eat leftovers the nights he is not here. I have a deep freezer and find it is brilliant for putting in offers I find and for keeping leftovers. I keep tins of pulses in the cupboard which are good for bulking out meals and there is nothing wrong with soup, or jacket potatoes or beans on toast if money is tight.

Make sure your kids do some cooking, too, or at least some peeling and chopping.

ciderwithrosie_2

Do you have a burger press? Not essential, but makes the process a lot easier. You could rustle up some veggie burgers or cheese and onion fritters, fish or corned beef for the non veggies, fairly cheaply (the main ingredients being mashed potato or tinned pulses) and freeze between greaseproof layers so you take a stack out in the morning and they can be slid into a frying pan/baking tray in the evening. I know you're trying to avoid too many carbs but that's not easy on a budget when you're trying to cater for a veggie too

Quorn pieces are often on offer - they can be added to pasta and sauce and frozen in portions.

A favourite of mine is potato cubes, carrot slices, onion quarters, frozen peas, cooked together, then mixed into cheese sauce and put back under the grill with a grated cheese and breadcrumb topping.

kingfisherblue

There is a Slimming World recipe thread somewhere on MSE - a search should bring it up for you. We have tried baked bean lasagne from the thread, but I can't remember how to make it, as my daughter does most of the cooking . It is cheap, veggie, tasty and healthy though.

Also try veg soups - SW do a really tasty and nutritious tomato and red pepper soup. There is currently a book of soups for sale at SW - it only costs about £3.95, so might be worth investing in if you think you will use it.

Omelettes are a good protien choice - just add whatever you want to the mix, but if adding cheese, remember to count it as your healthy extra or as syns.

SW allows for carbs in your eating plan - use wholemeal instead of white (pasta, bread, rice, etc) as they are less processed. Your consultant should be able to give you some ideas as well, ot log on to the SW website for more recipes.

RubySewSew

I have pinkclouds and it is amazing! It scares me a little though - I just can't see how it can be possible! Perhaps I should just commit to a week or a month and give it a go. I don't really trust myself though to not get bored and go out and blow the budget. It would make such a big difference to our financial planning though. Even if I halved our weekly shop I could pay my debts back twice as quickly...

caeler - your recipe sounds delicious but do you know of any alternatives to a slow cooker? I have looked into buying one but they're quite expensive and I do keep an eye out on freecycle but everybody seems to want one!

gingin - I did look for the most appropriate place to put this post but wasn't entirely sure! I must have missed the old style thrift board although I was keeping it in mind. Your recipes sound delicious especially the herby feta frittata. I wish I could get my kids to eat more colourfully (doesn't help that their fussiness is encouraged by eating rubbish at their dad's house). What herbs do you have success with all year round? I'm working on getting a herb garden to thrive this year and would love some tips. My mint (planted) has died back. My parsley (potted) has gone to seed. My coriander (planted) has died back. My sage and rosemary (potted) look decidedly sickly and my thyme (planted) looks, well a bit mangey!

ciderwithrosie - I don't have a burger press but I do remember my Mum having one! They do come up in the charity shop from time to time so I will keep my eye out for one. I could do with some burger type recipes, sounds yummy. Will give your cheese sauce recipe a try to. Carbs per se aren't a problem - in fact they're quite beneficial I'm just trying to avoid breads and pastries and piles of white pastas and grains.

I can feel the beginning of a plan starting to form! I wonder if I did a month of the feed a family of four for £100 with a few 'emergency' teas built in. I would still be well under budget. I have room for slippage. Hmmm, maybe I should just bite the bullet?

Meanwhile, have you got any ideas for 2 aubergines, some celeriac, carrots and swede, a few onions, a smoked ham (uncooked), an unsmoked ham (cooked and frozen - the kids didn't like it!), roast turkey (frozen), various dried lentils, some tinned beans and a giant sack of potatoes? Oh, and neck of lamb? I wondered if this would work in an hotpot?

kingfisherblue

Slow cookers don't have to be expensive - lots of supermarkets sell them at less than £20 (and the cost of running them means that they soon save you that in fuel bills for cooking). Argos have this one for £5.99:
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4228613/Trail/searchtext%3ESLOW+COOKER.htm

Birdy12

RubySewSew wrote: »

I want your recipes! I'm looking for quick, easy, cheap, tasty meals that can be batch cooked or produced with minimal preparation on days when I can't be bothered to cook!

I am a single mother with 3 boys aged 10, 8 and 6. I work in school part time but even that is enough to completely exhaust me to the point where some nights I am incapable of producing a meal.

Ruby, I hate cooking! (though I don't mind the occasional cake making session). My OH does the majority (and more adventurous) of the cooking but this is more at weekends.

I normally do something fairly decent (and healthy) for the children's tea but there are times when imagination and motivation is severely lacking. At these times, I'm known to serve a bowl of pasta with slices of ham or cheese on the side with some sliced cucumber/carrot/apple etc. Alternatively, as a quick meal if they're going off to do an activity, I'll serve cheese on toast, again, with some sliced fruit/veg on the side. My 2 love these for their dinner.

Another alternative is toad in the hole using meat or quorn sausages. I buy a pack of value batter mix for around 7p. The oven does the majority of the work on this one. My 2 can't get enough of this meal (they're a big fan of yorkshire puddings!)

Hope this helps a little.

gingin_2

RubySewSew wrote: »

gingin - I did look for the most appropriate place to put this post but wasn't entirely sure! I must have missed the old style thrift board although I was keeping it in mind. Your recipes sound delicious especially the herby feta frittata. I wish I could get my kids to eat more colourfully (doesn't help that their fussiness is encouraged by eating rubbish at their dad's house). What herbs do you have success with all year round? I'm working on getting a herb garden to thrive this year and would love some tips. My mint (planted) has died back. My parsley (potted) has gone to seed. My coriander (planted) has died back. My sage and rosemary (potted) look decidedly sickly and my thyme (planted) looks, well a bit mangey!

Oh, and neck of lamb? I wondered if this would work in an hotpot?

Neck of lamb is a bit of a treat here, I would definitely use it in a hotpot.

I use a recipe for lentil and bacon soup all the time, I am having trouble with copy and paste but it's a "good to know" recipe that comes up almost at the top of a google search if you put in "bacon and lentil soup". I make it for my onion and tomato phobic son and he knows no different as it is blended. I would use the ham in place of the bacon and you can leave it out altogether for the veggie. It's definitely a meal in a bowl type soup and doesn't really go wrong.

My kids also think there is something amazing about ham cooked in cola, I think it's just the cola thing, which is a treat in our house, so maybe they might think that is fun.

The fritatta is really tasty, and so cheap if you are using reheated veggies. I grow parsley, mint, rosemary and thyme fairly successfully in pots but am lucky to come back with bags full of other lovely herbs from my parents. Parsley and sometimes mint get used in the fritatta, basil if it's given to me.

Have you tried risotto? you can use a veggie stock cube and add butternut squash.

Don't worry about where it's posted, I think it's quite a good idea to have a food thread somwhere on this board.

What are your recipes?

Gillyx

What about bolognese/chilli etc made with quorn mince? That way everyone could enjoy it. Could also make double and freeze for a day when you have no time at all