£7 per week meal plans and grocery shopping without a freezer or oven...

Miss_Mulberry

Hi all! Hoping you experienced folk can help a girl in need!

I've just moved into a self contained flat. The only problem is that there's no oven - only a small slow cooker - and no freezer. I'm completely new to being frugal with food, and everything I've read so far talks about batch cooking and freezing, which I'd love to do but can't right now. I'd also loved to make a big cake every week or two and snack on that, but again, not an option. (Unless cakes can be made in the microwave?)

I'm hoping you can all help with a few meal plans, snacky recipes and a basic grocery shop that won't involve ovens or freezers! My weekly budget would be no more than £7-8.

Local shops:

Sainsbury's
Greengrocer (pricey)
Iceland
Co-op
Tesco Express petrol station
M&S

Equipment:

Two-ring ceramic hob
Microwave with possibly non-working grill function
Toaster
Fridge

Thanks one and all!

honeythewitch

Cakes are fine in the microwave if you make them slightly wetter than usual, and they only take a few minutes.
If possible, you might want to eventually replace the microwave with a model that is an oven as well, to give you more options for meals.
I hope you will be very happy in your new home.

anotheruser

Pasta, rice, noodles.

Although you cannot live off of these alone, they are good for stove top cooking. Be careful you don't eat too much else you'll pile weight on.

With the above three, you can mix loads of stuff with them. But it does look like you might be looking at shopping frequently and little so buying large minces is out of the question.

Possible though but I have had no experience without an oven or freezer.

Miss_Mulberry

honeythewitch wrote: »

Cakes are fine in the microwave if you make them slightly wetter than usual, and they only take a few minutes.
If possible, you might want to eventually replace the microwave with a model that is an oven as well, to give you more options for meals.
I hope you will be very happy in your new home.

Oooh, I didn't know this. So I follow a basic recipe and add more liquid? I'll have to try and get hold of the user manual from the landlady.

I will be getting a new one, but having paid out a lot for rent and deposit it's not likely to happen for a good six months!

Miss_Mulberry

anotheruser wrote: »

Pasta, rice, noodles.

Although you cannot live off of these alone, they are good for stove top cooking. Be careful you don't eat too much else you'll pile weight on.

With the above three, you can mix loads of stuff with them. But it does look like you might be looking at shopping frequently and little so buying large minces is out of the question.

Possible though but I have had no experience without an oven or freezer.

That's my worry, with every recipe I've thought of it involves a lot of pasta and rice. I work from home at laptop so unless I'm disciplined to go our for a walk at lunch, I'm going to pile on the pounds. SIGH

crumblepie

Reminds me of when I was a student many moons ago. I had two ring stove and grill combo, a toaster and a microwave.

Google 'meals in a mug' - these are normally small one portion meals that can be cooked in a microwave. There's bound to be a thread on here somewhere about cooking without a cooker.

Batch cooking maybe out of the question so it's using ingredients wisely. The last thing you want to do is buy things that are going to go off or sit in the fridge unused.

If you buy some basic chilli powder and curry powder you could make some one pot meals. It would mean eating the same thing for a couple of days though.

Bean pot = fry onion + tin of beans + tin of kidney beans + chilli powder. You could add some mince into this. Put cheese on top.

mushy pea curry = fry onion + mushrooms + peppers + mushy peas + curry powder

sausage casserole = onion + chopped peppers + tin sausage chopped + tin beans + herbs or chilli or curry

A few off the top of my head, there's bound to be more.

ditsykitchen

I did some costings a while ago for my blog of meals I cook when I'm trying to be really frugal. The costings are based on Tesco, but you can probably get similar priced stuff elsewhere. Here's the ones I think would work in your kitchen:

Meat-free chilli and boiled rice (single serving)
1/2 onion – 4p
1 garlic clove – 2p
1/2 tin of kidney beans – 11p
1/2 carton of passata – 15p
1/2 stock cube – 7p
1 chilli – 9p
75g rice – 3p
Seasonings – 5p
total – 56p

Carrot Soup (4 servings, can be kept sealed in fridge, you'll need a blender)
7 carrots – 56p
4 garlic cloves – 8p
30ml olive oil – 11p
2 onions – 14p
2 stock cubes – 26p
Seasonings – 10p
total – £1.25 (or <68p per portion)

Carrot Dhal & Rice (single servings)
1/2 onion – 4p
1 garlic clove – 2p
1 carrot – 8p
50g red lentils – 11p
1/4 carton of passata – 8p
1/2 stock cube – 7p
Herbs, spices & salt – 10p
75g rice - 5p
total – 55p

Gardeners Pie (a mushroom & lentil shepherd’s pie) (single serving, can be made without an oven if you're not bothered about browning the mash)
200g potatoes – 14p
50g red lentils – 11p
1/2 onion – 4p
1/2 carrot – 4p
50g mushrooms – 18p
1/2 stock cube – 7p
30ml value brown sauce – 1p
Seasonings – 3p
total – 62p

Vegetable Hotpot (single serving)
1 onions – 7p
1 garlic clove – 2p
1 carrots – 8p
1 parsnip – 22p
125g potatoes – 9p
1/2 stock cube – 7p
1/2 leek – 31p
Seasonings – 5p
total – 89p

If you'd like some instructions on how I make any of them, do ask but tbh they're quite self explanatory. I cook without oil, but if you want to use it I'd add a few pence to the price of each item.

Miss_Mulberry

Oh thank you both, that's amazing! I must admit my heart did sink when I saw the kitchen as I love baking. But when circumstances change you get what you're given, no point getting down over things.

It'll be a challenge but this will certainly help.

crumblepie

You can make a sponge cake quite easily in the microwave. The only real difference is that it doesn't brown.

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipes/microwave-recipes.aspx

just found this which seems to have lots of sweet recipes but there are a few savoury ones too.


A recipe people are raving about at the moment is a girl called jack's pasta. . I haven't tried it yet though.

Miss_Mulberry

crumblepie wrote: »

You can make a sponge cake quite easily in the microwave. The only real difference is that it doesn't brown.

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipes/microwave-recipes.aspx

just found this which seems to have lots of sweet recipes but there are a few savoury ones too.

Perfect, the snacks are the main thing so sweet recipes are definitely needed. I've been famished today not having a punnet of grapes or strawberries to hand.

meg72

Personally I dont think I would be able to use up chicken fillets and 599g mince in time without a freezer. Whats the use before date on them?