really easy to cook home made ready meals

System

Struggling to think here.

How about cooking rice/pasta with some frozen veg? Add Bolognese sauce/tin soups or whatever. Then you have to think of the protein part of the meal. Maybe slices of corned beef or something similar? Not sure how it would stand up nutrition wise but surely it's got to be better than supermarket ready meals.

Ladyluck1

iammumtoone wrote: »

I like this idea, I might try it myself, can you go into a bit more detail how you do it please. For the bolognese would you just freeze raw mince, onion, herbs, carrot, peppers, mushrooms, tin tomatoes etc then just thaw and put in the slowcooker. Can you freeze raw vegetables I thought they had to be par boiled?

Thanks again I had never heard of this idea before.

For bolognese I;
Get a gallon (or you could use the quarter size) ziploc freezer bag, put it in a bowl so it stands up and stays open.
I usually prep at least 2 things in one go so a spaghetti Bol and chilli.
Then I chop the veg (onions, grated carrot, peppers) split between bags.
Add beans if applicable.
Add the wet ingredients passata or tinned toms.
Then the mince.
Then add spices.
Squeeze all the air out, so it's flat and seal. Pop in freezer.
Then I either take it out the night before to thaw, not that I ever remember with 2 under 3!
Or I leave it to thaw for an hr on the side or if it fits in the slow cooker as is it goes straight in.
Never had any problems and always been really tasty. Cook on low about 6hrs
Eta; I don't add mushrooms as DH hates them but if I did I would add them half way through cooking.

madnotstupid

what about making a slow cooker-full of soup, would you be able to ladle it into boxes or bags to freeze in portions? We eat lentil soup at least twice a week all winter, I always feel that then if the rest of our diet is a bit rubbish-y, (as it can be when I'm not up to cooking) then at least we've had a couple of portions of veg in the soup.

It's very easy to make - pre-chopped root veggies for example; carrots, onions, neep, leek, squash. 100g - 150g red lentils depending on whether you like thick or thin soup, a couple of stock cubes made up with twice the amount of water. salt and pepper. cook until the lentils are all broken down and it looks soup-y.

Corn chowder and minestrone are favourites in this household too.

hardpressed

Unless you have a small appetite those meals that SS are recommending are fairly small portions and not IMO very nice.

Ellidee

You might be interested in this thread suse https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1931321 especially this post http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=64124493&postcount=88

Link to book on am**on http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-feed-your-whole-family/dp/1905862156/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387549636&sr=1-1&keywords=gill+holcombe

suse*

Thanks for so many suggestions I am going to have a good read through of the links tonight. I really like the idea of the dump bag meals though as I have some chopped frozen veg already but can never think what to make with it. So just bagging some of that up in different combitations could work really well and stop me from thinking I have no food. I remember I saw once in america you could buy these posh gift jars which were mixes for cookies and things where you just added eggs or whatever, so I guess that is the real food version

I have tried making soup in the slow cooker before but I think I have just got out of the habbit a bit, as well as the prep side always seems so daunting at times, so hopefully your suggestions will be a big help.

The pictures for the ss meals and even the from the private place have put me off trying them a bit, and to find another way to do things just as they don't even look as good as value meals in the pictures, but I guess you can't always judge from a picture.

RAS

There is a one step pasta bake in How to feed your family a balanced diet".

Bascally it is a "sloppy" bake using uncooked pasta and tomato juice or passata with cream cheese etc.

You could portion that up in a similar way as "dump meals" with different flavourings (sliced chorizo, peppers, chicken and ham etc).

Will try and post over the next few days.

Floozie

I agree with Midnightraven3 about making a batch of Bolognese sauce ( I have a batch of 3 containers in the freezer at the moment for when I get sick of turkey and Christmas food). You can buy ready chopped onion but it is not a disaster if you don't have onion in the recipe. The tinned chopped tomatoes in the recipe have already done the hard work for you. With the Bolognese sauce you can use it with pasta on its own and a bit of grated parmesan cheese if you want a quick meal or you can make it into a proper lasagne with the cheese sauce. I also use the Bolognese sauce to make a beef risotto using frozen mixed vegetables, rice and the Bolognese sauce and a little extra liquid such as any leftover red wine if the mixture keeps sticking to the pan. You could also flavour the Bolognese sauce with chilli powder and add some extra kidney beans to do a chili con carne and serve with rice mixed in with frozen mixed vegetables and a little butter stirred through the rice/vegetable mixture.

A.Penny.Saved

You cannot beat soup stock for it's health benefits. It might also help your hands if you eat enough of it. Tinned soup is entirely different to real soup stock, bones are important and so are ligaments and cartilage, the stuff that butchers throw away or give away for free. Just add a small amount of tougher meat to go along with it and cook for as long as you can to break down the ingredients. I am not a fan of slow cookers because I doubt their cost effectiveness and I prefer pressure cookers but you might have some difficulty with all but the better types.

FrugalinShropshire

I used to do this a lot when I was a single mum. I got the idea from The Tightwad gazette. We called it leftovers casserole. Everything went in an old ice cream tub, including rinsing outs of marmite jars, etc, gravy. You name it. Then when the tub was full we cooked it up and boy were those meals tasty.