OK - help me reduce our food budget!

Ms_Piggy_2

There's two of us: me and a large (6'4") DH. I don't think we are awful with spending on food etc, but as always there's room for improvement!

DH is veggie. I eat very little meat in the house. However, he's not keen on the usual veggie staples like lentils and beans . He loves pizza though!
I am far from being the world's best cook, so whilst I don't rely hugely on prepared food what I do cook is very simple/easy/quick. TBH cooking is a chore to both of us and we don't want to spend ages cooking when we get in from work.

'Convenience' foods I tend to avoid, although I do buy pesto, pasta sauces (when on offer or reduced or otherwise plain ones from Aldi that I jazz up with extras), pizza on occasion (again reduced or from Aldi), oven chips (value!), various 'veggie' sausages/burgers etc.

Popular meals include: omelette, pasta and pasta bakes, jacket potatoes, something & chips etc.

I generally don't buy branded products (except Fairy liquid!) - washing powder is value etc....

Any tops tips on being more in control/disciplined?

Any easy and yummy veggie meals?

Any easy and yummy packed lunch ideas?

TIA

*niptuckfan*

Hey MS Piggy Im quite new into all of this but something that helped me was not going into the big stores like tesco and morrisons which have loads of extras like housey stuff,mags, clothes etc, more basic shops like lidl dont have the temptation for me so that has reduced my bill, also sitting down and planning the meals for a week look in your cupboards then just buy what you need

My packed lunch favs at the moment which are veggie are packet of cous couse (49p morrisons) with rosted veg on top - peppers onions mushrooms that kind of thing, really tasty hot or cold

lightisfading

Packed Lunches: Wraps (whatever filling you fancy), cold pasta (with pesto, or a pasta salad with mayo, etc), pitta breads are nice, I sometimes quickly fry some quorn pieces in mexican/bbq seasoning the night before and have that in a pitta with salad... cold pizza (you can make easy/cheap/healthier homemade one with pitta bread, tomato puree, veggies and a bit of cheese under the grill for 5 mins)... salad with a couple of cold hardboiled eggs... french bread or pitta + veggies + hummous.. and if youve got access to a microwave any leftovers really

I also usually have a couple packets of instant soup (you can get nice chunky ones with pasta now) or noodles (nice ones from chinese supermarket) that just need boiling water, handy for when you roll out of bed late and have no time to make anything.


Easy Meals:

Mexican stuff is pretty easy, stirfry some veggies + quorn if you want it with some fajita seasoning, roll up in a wrap with some salsa/sour cream/cheese/lettuce/whatever. Quesadillas are also nice - basically make a sandwich out of two tortillas with filling in between (refried or normal beans, corn, peppers, tomatoes, onions, courgette etc with some cheese) and dry-fried to melt the cheese. Serve cut in wedges with some salad.

Chilli: fry an onion and a bit of quorn or soya (cheaper) mince, add a couple tins tomatoes, sweetcorn, kidney/other beans, teaspoon of chilli powder, teaspoon of cocoa (sounds weird but its nice), water if it needs it, leave for 30mins+, serve with rice, or potato wedges, or baked potatoes + cheese on top. Dead easy and great for leftovers for the freezer.

Lasagne is pretty easy - mix some quorn/soya mince with cheap bottled sauce, layer with pasta sheets + white sauce (i cheat and use the instant just add water type) and sprinkle cheese on top, bung in oven for 40 mins, easy peasy.

Toad in the hole with veggie sausages - lovely on a cold day. Or the quicker cooking option - yorkshire puds (from scratch or frozen), sausages, peas, potatoes, green beans etc all drowned in gravy

Much nicer option to value over chips: cut up some spuds (wedges, chips, slices, whatever, leave the skins on), mix in a splash of oil and some seasoning (cajun, salt and pepper etc), nuke for 5 mins then bung in the oven for half an hour. Hardly takes any more time than oven chips and tastes wayyyy better.

Quick pitta pizzas as mentioned above, with some chips/wedges and salad should please your hubby? Healthier too as the base is low fat and you can use loads of veggies etc and only a bit of cheese.

SuzanneB_2

What we do is most of our shopping from ALDI and fruit and veg bought from local markets rather than the supermarkets is so much cheaper and the quality is excellent.

I too cook from fresh rather than a lot of ready prepaired foods.

My families fave meals ate plain tomato and veg sauce usually onions, toms, mushrooms and basically any veg that is handy ie carrots, beans.

We bought a Pizza maker (reduced from £60 to £30 at Collectables, hint hint). Fantastic, kids love it and a lot healthier than you think. We make a batch of dough up they roll out the circle and they can put any topping on they like onions, veg, tom sauce, cheese, mushrooms, meat etc anything and
everything goes on. So they end up eating a lot of veg.

Egg fried rice. Rice is cheap and so are eggs. The trick is boil and cool the rice then in a pan fry some onions and again any veg you have handy but chop them up small. Then crack a load of eggs and start to scramble them when they're half cooked put in the rice. That way the rice gets a coating of eggs but you also get lovely chinks of eggs. (Be generous with the amount of eggs you use).

Fritata. Again same as before (I do vary my recipies LOL). Fry the onlions you can use the standard mushrooms, peppers, etc but again any veg thats handy or what my family really like is Tinned new potates. When everything is softened and browned put in bottom of dish and then completely cover with beaten and salted eggs. Yummy hot and cold.

The only other tip is to make sure you have plenty of spices and flavourings because these can make a difference to a simple meal.

moanymoany

We have just had the economical meal - so easy and delish.

Make a stiff batter with plain flour and water - really thick.

Slice potatoes into 1/8" slices and put them onto the batter.

Slice onions into rings - we like them unseparated. Put them into the batter.

Get cheap oil and heat it in a large pan.

When hot - put the pots and onions in a layer at a time.

make sure they are brown on both sides.

Put in a tin with crumpled aluminium foil in the bottom in the oven - hot - and cook the next lot.

On their own or with a fried egg and whatever veg you have. Not something for every day but now and then as a treat this is a fab meal.:D

nell2

I would recommend the Cranks cookbook for vegetarian cooking. I've recently discovered my old copy and have been using it loads. There are lots of recipes for yummy things (including some lentils it has to be said, but they do taste good) and they don't need a huge amount of ingredients once you've got the basics in. I'm working my way through the soup chapter at the moment, and there are some really tasty ideas there.