Lots of help needed please

filigree_2

As well as tinned tomatoes, I recommend jars of passata, Asda's economy passata costs about 37p for 700g so it is almost as cheap as tinned toms. It has a thicker texture a bit like pasta sauce, so if you're used to using Dolmio type sauces passata could save you quite a bit.

I've learned that buying "real" meat means you don't just get one meal out of what you buy. For instance, instead of buying 4 frozen chicken kievs (one meal for four) for the same money you can buy a whole chicken and get 3-4 meals easily.

When you buy proper joints of meat, you can use the bones to make stock (slow cooker is good for this) and freeze the stock, then when you want to make a casserole you can use the tasty stock which cost nothing instead of a packet mix. If the casserole is too liquid you can thicken it with cornflour. Most packet mixes are nothing but dried herbs mixed into cornflour.

A friend of mine is on a very tight budget, his tip is to buy really cheap food but once a week he "invests" in a new jar of spices, or a bottle of Worcester sauce for instance. With a selection of condiments you can turn a few cheap ingredients into something really good.

There are a couple of threads on cookbooks on the forum, you could try the library or charity shops for some basic cookbooks to help you along.

MrsMW

Just a little tip about Chilli, if you buy chilli powder, buy the hot one and use less than you would if using mild, saves a few pennies.

crana999

Can you do it (the garlic etc) by covering them with vinegar like the ones you can buy? I don't have a freezer.. would you need to sterilise them or something?

silverfoxdude

Hi
I have found this a really useful site, especially as I watch Ready Steady Cook a lot

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/

I also invested in a cd rom of Indian Cooking, it has been great to have proper curries, and the initial outlay wasnt too much, but it goes a long way.

Happy Saving!!

Mrs_Thrift

crana999 wrote:

Can you do it (the garlic etc) by covering them with vinegar like the ones you can buy? I don't have a freezer.. would you need to sterilise them or something?

Hmmm....how about putting them in an old jar with olive oil (or other oil?) and keeping it in the fridge? Would / should keep in the same way that pesto does, which should keep for about 4 weeks........ oops! I've just remembered I was going to post a recipe for pesto on this site somewhere, and completely forgot - must try to remember to look it out and bring it to work with me ASAP.......

Lucie_2

Ms_Thrift wrote:

Hmmm....how about putting them in an old jar with olive oil (or other oil?) and keeping it in the fridge?

Works fine, we do it quite a lot. Buy about 5 cloves of garlic when the veg man has them reduced to 10p each, peel, chop, put in a jar, cover with oil & use as necessary. Not only do you have ready chopped "lazy" garlic, but garlic infused oil too.

Magentasue

When I had a bumper crop of garlic, I crushed it up,put in a jar and covered with olive oil. Didn't keep it in the fridge but it kept fine although I used it up within weeks rather than months. A lot of it was used for garlic bread, scooping up spoonfuls with as little oil as possible and mixing it into soft butter. The oil that you're left with can be drizzled over potato wedges etc.

lucym

keatergreyhound wrote:

Hi there
Also rice pudding. I use pudding rice, but thats really expensive. I tried it with normal rice and it didnt taste right. Does anyone please have a recipe or tips.

You can use Basmati rice. We buy 20kg bags of broken basmati for around £10 from our local Asian store.

kazd

Ok, I don't like to divulge my secret recipe but this is my world famous, always asked for Chilli.

800g Mince (I use minced steak but you can use regular)
1 tin value chopped toms
1 lg tbsp tom puree
1 pint stock with 2 beef oxo
Couple of carrots finely chopped (I put carrots in everything)
1 Large Onion
2 Crushed garlic cloves, or large tsp of lazy garlic
mixed herbs
slosh of red wine if there is any going
approx 2 lg tsp of hot chilli powder (I don't really measure it, I used to add a qtr of a cup but have to adapt for kids now)
Salt and Pepper
Basil

Then if I have any peppers or celery I sometime bung those in, in fact I bung in any veg that I can hide in it.

Literally brown off mince, drain, (sometime I reserve it and take the fat off when it solidifies and chuck the juices back in, then again sometime I don't bother because there isn't much fat with the steak mince. Then I chuck everything else in and leave it to cook on a very low heat for anthing between three and six hours, then about an hour before serving I take the lid off to reduce it (can't stand it really sloppy) and add my secret ingredient, a large dessertspoon of treacle. Gorgeous, its one of the dishes I am almost always asked for, Chilli, Corrie Chicken and Tiramasu.