No idea how to get through the next month

DebtFree2012

Can you do this with Tuna sarnies / wraps? Thanks

paulineb_2

Home bargains do the astonish range of cleaning products for around 89p.

You could make mash with spring onion. Buy some eggs and make a fritatta, you can eat that hot or cold and you can also use it for lunches.
Add veg to it like onion, peppers, tomatoes
I would buy some pasta but you could make it wholemeal and have pasta with spinach, pasta with tinned tomatoes and parmesan.

You could make a pasta bake with some of the veg you have. Im sure you could use the puff pastry and make spinach parcels, add some cheese as well.

If you use the site https://www.supercook.com, you can add in ingredients and it will tell you a recipe for what you have in your cupboards.

You can use the sweet potatoes to make fries as well, I microwave mine for about 5 mins, chop them up into fries shapes and then put them in the oven until they go crispy

A few spices could see you use the potatoes to make a potato and spinach curry, I use up potatoes by making curry quite a lot

patchwork_cat

frugal lunch ideas - most of these are homemade - cold pizza, quiche, leftover chicken and sweetcorn, chicken liver pate, cold sausages, lentil pate, frittata- with value new potatoes in it.

EstherH

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2116179

This is the first time I have tried to do a link so not sure if it will work.

It may give some ideas if no one else has already mentioned it. I haven't had time to read yet.

To make a massive amount of basic savoury mince, I chop onion, garlic, carrot, any other veg I have in, so maybe celery, peppers, mushrooms etc. I use the food processor and get them really small.

Fry the mince to brown and put in slowcooker.

Add a handful of oats, handful of lentils and 25g of soya mince. That I have soaked in boiling water while preparing the veg.

Add water, not too much but the oats and lentils will use more than normal in the slowcooker.

Add salt, pepper, splash of Worcester sauce or balsamic vinegar if you have any. Stock cubes, mixed herbs.

Leave to cook for a few hours

1.
When cooked take one scoop per person, put in oven proof dish and mix in a little tomato ketchup. Top with mashed potato and it becomes cottage pie. Serve with frozen veg.

2.
With the rest of the mince mix, add tinned tomatoes and turn it into bolognaise.

3.
If you still have any left, add kidney beans and chilli powder and you have chilli con carne.

Portion control is the key. It is very easy to put out more because you have plenty left or go back for seconds. This mince mix tastes meaty and because of the lentils and soya has added protein but stretches a 500gm pack a lot further for pennies. I wouldn't use soya on a regular basis but it is good for emergencies like this.

Add a cheap pack of garlic bread to the chilli and bolognaise if you like. I find it cheaper to mix some garlic and spread and add it into a ready made French stick but it probably isn't too much more expensive to buy basics garlic bread.

Another variation would be to add a scone 'cobbler' topping. To the basic mince recipe.

I would normally make this mix up and then freeze as the basic mince and then add other things when I was ready to and it is so versatile.

HTH

Esther x

EstherH

I make frittata too. With eggs and potatoes and anything else lying around.

Slice up a few potatoes and boil for five mins.
Lay them in the bottom of a flan dish/oven proof dish
Top with chopped onions, peas, peppers, mushrooms (any or all)
You can add some chopped ham, bacon, gammon or chicken if you like.
You can add some grated cheese if you like.
Beat up six eggs, add a little milk and pour on top.
Season with salt, pepper and herbs.

Cook in oven for about twenty five minutes until set and golden on top.

This is good hot or cold. Can be served with homemade wedges/chips and salad or extra veg for an evening meal. Or cold as part of a packed lunch.

****************

As some one else said, making a pie makes a filling go a long way.

If you have any left over meat, mix it with potatoes, carrots and onion in some stock. Boil until veg is soft. Thicken with flour or bisto and then pour into a pastry case or just top with puff pastry.
Short Crust pastry is easy to make. If it breaks up when you roll it out, just patch it up.

8oz plain flour
4oz margarine,
Pinch of salt

Rub together to resemble fine bread crumbs.
Stir in cold water a little at a time and bring together.
Roll out on a floured surface to prevent sticking.

HTH

Esther x

maidyju

Sounds crazy, but I make my 7yr old's packed lunch sandwiches in a big batch and freeze them. My son likes them and it minimises waste. I'd never heard of freezing sandwiches until last month on another group. I buy a jar of value jam, a block of value cheese and a loaf of brown value bread, then make the sandwiches, wrap them well and freeze. I take one out the night before and it's fine by the time he eats it.

Our home meals are largely vegetarian (I can't afford to buy organic/free range, therefore it's a rare treat)....so quite cheap. If you have a big freezer, you can batch cook and freeze meals into portions. Saves me time and money!

I'll post a couple of cheap, healthy and easy recipes that my family love (son is 7yrs old, stepson is 8yrs old, hubby, me and a 5month old).

maidyju

Here's a recipe for Big-Batch Bolognese. It serves 12(!) and is the recipe I use. Except, I don't use meat and I omit the bacon, I use soya or quorn style mince. I freeze it into portions and it's yum! It doesn't matter if you don't have all the ingredients (like red wine vinegar), just adapt what you do have. If I have other leftover veg (peppers, leeks, stuff like that), I'll throw it in too. Also good as a jacket potato topping

It's on the BBC Good Food website.

Ingredients

4 tbsp olive oil
6 smoked bacon rashers, chopped
4 onions, finely chopped
3 carrots, finely chopped
4 celery sticks, finely chopped
8 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp dried mixed herbs
2 bay leaves
500g mushrooms, sliced
1½ kg lean minced beef (or use half beef, half pork mince)
6 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
6 tbsp tomato pur!e
large glass red wine (optional)
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
parmesan, to serve.

Rosetta92

crispycreme wrote: »

Have to buy a new car as ours was written off a few months ago. We have made do without 1, just cant anymore as we need it for dps business and cant do without one any longer, have lost hundreds not having it. So once we get that (just a cheap runaround) and paid insurance etc, then all bills and debt payments, I have no idea how we are going to eat in March.

First of all well done facing up to your debt :T you can get through this. I've read the thread and people here are giving great advice on the food front.

I have a slightly different take on this. You say the car is for business. That is a business expense, as are the related insurance costs etc. have you taken advice on how the business funds this rather than your household? Eg: you could get a car through a business lease, which would mean getting a new car/ van, covers servicing etc and is replaced every three or four years. Suggest you speak to your accountant or look at the free business advice service at your local council. Some of the costs you've incurred while without a car may also be chargeable to the business ie: tax deductible.

Hope this helps

R

Butterfly_Brain

crispycreme wrote: »

Ok, my list of food we have in

Fresh
2 huge sweet potatoes
Bag of onions
Garlic
Large bag of potatoes
Salad bits; spring onion, tomatoes, lettuce cucumber

CUPBOARD
SR flor
Plain flour
Strong bread flour
Dried yeast
Light brown & dark brownsugar
Cocoa
Gelatine sheets
Dried yeast extract
Bicarbonate of soda
Almond & vanilla extract
Molasses sugar
Castor sugar
Icing sugar

Ready to roll icing
Basics sponge mix
Porridge Oats
Fruit/seed flapjack kit
Basics mix fruit bag ( currents etc)
Trifle kit
Hundreds thousands etc

3 tins tuna
3 tins chopped tomatoes
Baked beans
2 tins kidney beans
2 tins mushy peas
Large tin pineapple slices

Jar mince meat from Xmas
Usual condiments ( ketchups, range of mustards, horseradish, cranberry etc)
Honey
Lemon juice
Couple of stock pots ( beef, veg and fish)
Rendang paste
Hoi sin pouch
Lots of sage stuffing mix
Oyster sauce
Chicken bisto
Fish sauce
Packet white sauce mix
Bag n Season biryani mix
Steakhouse seasoning
Beef granules
Red wine
Mix of herbs,spices and leaves etc

Pearl barley
Red & green lentils
Egg noodles
Tonnes of lasagne sheets
Arborio rice
Litle amount of long grain
Couscous

FRIDGE
Pickles ( beetroot, onion, gherkin, olives)
White wine
Fresh parmesan
Apricot jam

FREEZER
Frozen veg ( broccoli, cabbage, spinach, corn on cob)
Mixed berries
Apple slices
Yorkshire puddings
Puff pasrty
Large rump steak
Leftover grill pack ;
( 2small loin lamb chops, tiny bit of lamb kidney and pig liver,2 gammon steaks)
2 sirloin steaks
Tuna steaks

It seems a lot actually, writing it all down. Just dont seem to have any idea what to do with it all or how to add to it sensibly etc.

1.Chop the sirloin steaks into cubes add plenty of veggies and 2oz lentils for a tasty casserole serve with broccoli and either boiled, roast or mashed potatoes.

2. Tuna in hoisin sauce . Chop the tuna steaks into cubes add sweetcorn, onions and hoisin sauce with egg noodles serve with HM egg fried rice.

3.Tins of Tuna can be made into fish cakes with mashed potato, tuna pasta, tuna pasties or how about Tuna lasagne.

4.Cut the meat off of the lamb chops and core and dice the lambs kidneys bulk out with a tin of tomatoes and some veg and make into a pie serve with sweet potato mash and spinach

5.Cut up the gammon and add to pasta with veg and pasta sauce for a tasty meal or make a gammon and pea risotto

6. Slice the rump steak add kidney beans a tin of tomatoes, bulk out with veggies and make a lasagne

7. Have a soup and pudding night a big batch of HM Minestrone soup followed by berry crumble and custard, apple sponge and custard, self saucing chocolate sponge or a sponge pudding using the apricot jam.

Use the porridge oats to make twinks hob nobs, flapjacks etc

Use the mincemeat and make a mincemeat slice so that you have a treat in the house or make lots of fairy cakes or a swiss roll.

That is a whole week's worth of meals before you have to spend anything.

Butterfly_Brain

Have a look at the £7 a week thread, I know that the recipes are for two but there are plenty of cheap ideas
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4084527