How I cut my food expenses by 50%

BitterAndTwisted

I've been tempted by that ras al hanoui myself although I haven't a clue what it contains. Very possibly a fair amount of cinnamon if it's Moroccan.

The things I often make along those lines are chick-pea curries, lentil pate, mixed-bean salads and hummus. And possibly a few other that I can't think of right now.

I have a spare copy of Rose Ellitt's "Bean Book" of recipes in paperback as I've got all the same ones in a "Complete Vegetarian" recipe book now, if you're interested and would like it

VfM4meplse

Join us on the Eating Out of the Freezer and Cupboards challenge if you want to save even more...

I haven't bought food from the supermarket for over 3 weeks, have got 2 more weeks to go and will easily meet this target. Using up what you've already got is addictive.

MandM90

Slinky_Malinky wrote: »

I am really to keen to eat more meat free meals. I love beans and pulses so I would love to be nosy and ask what sort of meals you are all enjoying. You don`t need to post whole recipes ( I am happy to google for those) but just some starting points of what is good, ( or bad ones to avoid lol), would be really helpful.

At the moment I tend to just throw some beans into my pot of stew or soup, but would love to try out some new meals. Especially the world wide type - I see folk talk of middle eastern cuisine etc and spices like ras el hanout but have not yet been brave enough to try them.

Wraps/burritos/nachos with a lentil/mixed bean chilli, fresh tomato salsa and guacamole. There is a fantastic black/turtle bean chilli recipe on BBC good food.

Chickpea and root veg tagine over cous cous (I'm half Algerian and I nick my dad's home made blend but from googling ras el hanout I think they are quite similar)

Pasta sauce with veg and lentils over wholewheat pasta

Tabbouleh; cous cous/bulgar wheat salad with tomatos, parsley and lemon dressing - often add chickpeas, cucumber, pepper or whatever else I fancy (not authentic, but yum!)

Cottage/shepherds pie type things made with lentils, chopped mushrooms and other veg as the base and sweet potato as the topping.

Quinoa is protein rich and great in soups, stews and other things.

Stir fries with wholewheat noodles and crisp browned tofu.

Hummous/bean dips with crudites and toasted pittas (my daughter loves this! Loads of cannellini or other bean dip recipes can be found online)

Lentil Dhals, chickpea and spinach curry, lentil curry with chapattis or brown rice.

Bean burgers! With a wholemeal roll, plenty of salad and sweet potato wedges; my daughter thinks they are such a treat

Savvy vegetarian is good when I'm running low on inspiration, or I just type whatever type of bean I have into BBC Good Food's search box

pink_princess

What really worked for us was keeping a rolling freezer inventory.

I know exactly what is in the freezers, this means I know we have loads in so I do not feel the need to buy more. It writes my meal plan for me also.

I should in theory now have empty freezers but I don't as as soon as I remove something, something else goes in. (Hope that makes sense)

As an example, I removed a home made Madras sauce today but put in some spare HM bhajis, so 1 out, 1 in.

It also saves electricity as I am no longer spending ages rummaging around in them. I know by the list what I want, which freezer it is in & also which shelf

Penny-Pincher!!

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Join us on the Eating Out of the Freezer and Cupboards challenge if you want to save even more...

I haven't bought food from the supermarket for over 3 weeks, have got 2 more weeks to go and will easily meet this target. Using up what you've already got is addictive.

Ive just joined the challenge. Thanks for reminding me.

If you're able OP, you could try and shop at different times to maybe get a few reduced items. We often get bread for 15p a loaf. I used to be able to get for 5p, but I can't remember the last I got that. Milk we often buy reduced to 10p a pint and freeze.

Do you ever go to Wilkinson? They often have items reduced if you look in the right place, especially milk, bread and cheese/bacon.

PP
xx

lostinrates

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I've been tempted by that ras al hanoui myself although I haven't a clue what it contains. Very possibly a fair amount of cinnamon if it's Moroccan.

The things I often make along those lines are chick-pea curries, lentil pate, mixed-bean salads and hummus. And possibly a few other that I can't think of right now.

I have a spare copy of Rose Ellitt's "Bean Book" of recipes in paperback as I've got all the same ones in a "Complete Vegetarian" recipe book now, if you're interested and would like it

Ras al hanout is lovely, one of the few things i buy premixed. They are all a little different, some containing huge long lists of stuff

Here, found this to save me tyoing it all out, lol,

http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/raselhanout.html

Sometimes i have to stop myself using it for days and days and days on end, its a very complete flavour.