Any hope for a non-domestic newbie??

Pauper_Princess

Hi all :hello:

Well, having finally got to grips with my debts, and reduced what I can out of the monthly budget, I need to try and tackle the biggest burden left... the food bill

I've read this Old School thread before and I know it can be quite brutal... be gently with me please

Right. OH and I are both 33, married no kids. We spend an absolutely ridicuolous amount on food each week but I really don't know where to begin .Does anyone fancy a challenge???

The obstacles:

1. I can't cook
2. I'm a veggie and OH isn't
3. We're both trying to lose weight
4. OH hates veg of any sort unless it's peas (he was spoilt as a child :rolleyes: )
5. When I get home from work at 5pm I'm starving! OH works till 7pm so I've time to cook, it's just when I'm in the kitchen, I eat

At the moment we more or less live as two separate people - we live on ready meals and go the supermarket several times each week (separately!)

We alternate between weeks of buying whatever we fancy and weeks of Smartprice pasta at the end of the month!!!!!!

Is there any hope for us? Can anyone point me in a good direction? In the past when I have cooked I've done stuff like shepherd's pie or spag bol with Quorn, but if I do this every night it'll cost a fortune as Quorn isn't cheap!!!

If ANYONE can help I'd be very, very grateful. Please don't yell at me for being such an incompetent wife

kazmeister

Hi,

Try meal planning. If you think about it far enough in advance you can hopefully plan meals that you can both eat. Some of it will depend on how strict a vegetarian you are and whether you are able to handle cooking meat products for your other half. Could you face making something like toad in the hole with veggie sausages in one end and meat ones in the other, this sort of thing worked for friends of mine. By planning meals in advance (and I find 1 week at a time is enough otherwise you can lose track) you can then shop for what you need rather than aimlessly think we'll have that and some of that and ......... With regard to not being able to cook, I'm sure you can. If you can read and follow an instruction then you can cook. Start simple with a kids cook book, or try the easy cook magazine. A friend of mine 6 months ago had nearly all her shopping ready made from M & S. Now she cooks loads and today made lasagne from scratch. She has improved her family meals by loads and reduced her budget in the process. She has had a few disasters (I was there yesterday when she tried making a sponge for the first time :rolleyes: ) we all have, but you learn by the odd mistake, and often the strangest looking stuff tastes the best. As for eating while you're in the kitchen, why not come in from work and have a sit down with a cuppa and a couple of biccies, or small piece of cake to keep the munchies away til dinner.

Good luck, you can do it.

lynzpower

I second the idea of 2 similar meals. A meat chilli and quorn/soya mince chilli is about the same, we do that cos I dont like mince, so we make a vat of the sauce ( chopped toms, chilli, mushrooms, onions, beans) then OHs mince is added to half my soya mince is added to half. then we have 2 portions to freeze too.

Soya mince is cheaper than quorn - i buy the savoury flavour one from holland & barrett its about a pound a bag and lasts me aaaaaaaaaaaaages

Pizzas a good one ( HM if you can) then you can wack the toppings on and chuck in the oven. You dont need meat for a traditional margarita

Bangers & mash with those peas is fine, you can make veggie sausages for you and meat for him?

Id recommend a veggie moroccan casserole with aubergines, courgettes, onions, mushrooms, whatever, passata or chopped toms ( value- perfectly acceptable) and a tin of drained chickpeas, teaspoon cumin, half teaspoon paprika, simmer and on table in 20 mins - freezes well too. ( this is a adapted WW meal- nil points!)

What about noodles- stir frys? then OH can have a grilled bit of meat on the side? you could have a quorn fillet if you were bothered?

Try farmfoods, thier quorn used to be 2 for 3 quid long term deal offer.

Will OH eat "fake meat" - my OH loves linda mccartney pies and they arnt bad as a stand by for lazy days.

Nothing wrong with pasta- make sure you START the month with it as well as end then it wont feel like you are scrimping.

if you are trying to lose weight then obviously some of these ideas wont work, but home cooking should make you lose some wieght anyway, the amount of salt in RMs is scary :eek: and we all know that leads to water retention.

What sort of meals do you usually have when you buy RMs?

Pauper_Princess

Thanks for your replies :T

Kazmeister, I always forget about meal planning :rolleyes: OH isn't home till 10 tonight so I'm gonna try and sit down with him tomorrow night and go through all this!!

The munchies thing I need to get to grips with... it wouldn't be a "couple" of biscuits, believe me!!!! Not sure how to get round that.

lynz,

With regards half-normal-half-veggie... I guess this wouldn't work with something like spag bol where you have to cook the meat with the tomatoes etc???? (Idiot here don't forget) OH doesn't like chilli :rolleyes: along with most other things!!!!!!!

The veggie casserole sounds good - Nil points???? Wow! Thanks

Am off to H & B tomorrow to check out price of soya mince... OH used to complain viciously when I made stuff with Quorn but I'm sure he'll come round if he can see more funds for latest Wii game

And there's nothing wrong with pasta, except I adore it and eat enough for a football team at one sitting :rotfl:

RMs - he buys expensive bits of posh beef - the ones in the brown cardboard boxes - you know, "Naturally good for you" or whatever. I buy stuff like quorn sausages and bulk them out with veg - usually frozen cos I detest chopping them!!!!

Thanks for all your help guys

lynzpower

The munchies thing I need to get to grips with... it wouldn't be a "couple" of biscuits, believe me!!!! Not sure how to get round that.

Are you doing WWs or just generally trying to slim?

Only bags of raisins arnt bad, or a few breadsticks & cottage cheese ( my personal fave) or a round of toast when you get in isnt going to blow you off the scales. even a small bowl of cereals a good idea.

No, we do the spag bol the same as how we do the chilli TBH, very lightly dry fry the mince ( OH has cholestrol probs) to release some of the fat out, and then tip it in the sauce and simmer for a while. (? 20mins or so)

nothing wrong again with having a lazy tea now and then, I will have potato waffles ( or potato cakes I make if I have left over mash) with beans, bacon or sausage, fried or poached egg mushrooms, grilled tomato etc mug of tea

Excelletn about your weight loss hun, how are you doing that?

Lydia.42

Hi
With regard to the weight loss, have you thought about following slimming world? Their green day plan is great for veggies as you can pig out and binge on pasta, rice, spuds, noodles, and all fruit and veg. Also as the others have suggested, you can then add meat for your OH.

There are recipes and stuff on this site for slimming world (sorry, can't work out how to post links).

I am currently in the same boat as you, trying to sort debts and cut back on food bills, but lose weight at the same time. Especially as i am on maternity leave and have blubber to shift. I'm gonna watch this thread for much needed help and advice myself. Good luck and thanks for posting exactly what i was thinking!!!

Pauper_Princess

I'm following WW at home - can't afford the classes! - so I was just keeping a food diary - bought the Points calculator last year so I could record everything. Gone completely off the rails in the past few weeks - comfort eating from stress at work :mad:

Also started going running a few months ago when I cancelled the gym, which helped loads - used to go with OH - but again fallen by the wayside cos I've been bringing work home!!!! Need to get back on track, quickly!!!

Thing that worries me is that I've no self control - when I start eating I literally can't stop! So one bowl of cereal would lead to two, and then whatever else I can find! That's why my usual method works - home from work, RM in microwave, no time to snack before it's done! But we can't carry on spending this way

Edit - Lydia hi, thanks for your comments!! Tried following SW last year but I didn't lose any weight... unlimited potatoes and pasta every night (not together obviously!) soon put paid to that!!! I'm not normal, I can't cook just a normal person's size pasta portion :rolleyes:

Lydia.42

Hi PP
I know exactly how you feel. When i am in one of those moods (triggered by stress, boredom, you name it) then i will literally raid the fridge and cupboard and cram everything in my face. I found that SW was good as i could keep eating. (Just finished my second big bowl of cous cous - mans portion sizes).

So far i have lost 4.5 stone, got about 2.5 to go. Finding it hard now, as i have less time to plan food, and exercise, due to little'un. I think you have done so well judging by your sig. We all have blips. If WW has been working, stick with it. Have you got much more to lose?

The WW plan has point free soup's and casserole's. Do you have a slow cooker? Maybe you could start this going in the morning before work so it is ready when you get home. It would help stop you eating fatty foods, and your OH could put bacon, sausages, or whatever he fancy's in it when he gets home for his portion. It's also cheap, and could be bulked out with beans/lentils/pasta.

Sunny_Angel

Also once you get started, say fro eg you cook a veggie spag bol for yourself, cook double and freeze the uneaten half. (Put in freezer container before you sit to eat yours if you think you will come back for seconds) Then once you have your menu plan up and running will know to take out the frozen portion the night before, leave in fridge to defrost overnight, and hey ho you have a homemade ready meal ready to pop in the microwave as soon as you get in the door!! Other ideas could be veggie curry, (ww have some low point recipies) veggie chilli, chunky soups, etc etc.
You may find a day set aside to do some batch cooking will help you to get started.
Oh and well done for the weight loss so far!

Nicki

For the snack thing, why don't you earmark say 250 cals for a coming home snack to fill you up until your OH comes back, and stop you going off the rails. Then pick something self contained and filling - a small can of baked beans and one slice of toast, a small bowl of porridge, etc - that actually takes a little effort to make, so that you have to think twice before getting up for seconds?

I've never done WW but my most successful weight loss experience (2.5 stone which I've kept off for a year) was achieved by eating more calories than I had previously been doing on diets (1400 a day rather than 1000). Bizarrely I actually lost the weight quicker than on the 1000 a day diets, and because it gave me the flexibility to add in some more filling snacks when they were needed, I didn't very often go off the rails.

moanymoany

Lynzpower, have you tried dried soya mince with bovril cubes to 'meat' it up. This is good as there is no fat. At first I mixed it wilth beef mince, but now I put in lots of onions and carrots + anything else I fancy.