Please help me make the food in my cupboards last as long as possible.

Readytomakechanges

Hi,
We have been eating takeaways/eating out, but have not been purchasing them with money that we 'have', as we have been overspending massively each month and going into our overdrafts to pay for it. We therefore don't have that money to use for meat as we've reached our overdraft limits and are now trying to pay them back.

Essentially, we've been stupid with money and are paying for it now, but we're actually doing well atm with what we have in.

wannalot

Couscous is a great base for a lunch, and it involve very little mess, as you don't even need to use the cooker.

I love to make couscous, and then add some curry powder or chilli, along with some cut up cherry tomatoes, finely chopped onion, pepper. i can eat a lot of this, and it is even better if you add some chopped chicken or any meat really.

Another low-mess meal is an omelette. It is made in minutes, and uses only one pan. you could add some of your cheese to this, which makes it very filling, and serve with a salad or some nice bread and butter. Yum!

Butterfly_Brain

Plenty of recipes for egg and potato curry online, but I can't be asked with faffing with spices, I just buy curry powder or curry sauces depending on my mood.

My quickie egg and potato curry is as follows

Peel and dice 1lb potatoes, parboil until just tender.

Meanwhile hard boil four eggs and peel and quarter them

Slice a medium onion and fry

Put the potatoes, onion, and the eggs in a pan with a jar of curry sauce of choice and heat gently until bubbling hot try not to stir or you will break up the eggs

serve with boiled rice.

What could be simpler than that

FrugalWorker

Ready to make changes - how are you getting on?

I was thinking, you need 1 pot meals that can be switched up. That slow cooker one you did looks great. other options along those

I do a mince Bolognese sauce - Fry off an onion + garlic, when the onion is translucent, transfer the onion/garlic in to a bowl and put aside. dry fry the mince, you may need to do this in batches. drain off any excess fat. Then I add the onion mixture / a spoon of mixed herbs / minces / tin of passata or tinned tomatos + a bunch of chopped veggies (I chop them small) - I tend to use a bit of what I have - say 2 big carrots / 2 stalks of celery / 1-2 peppers / stalk of broccoli peeled /a pinch of cinamon / a good spoon of tomato paste / maybe a glug of worchester sauce. This is a guideline - don't let the absence of any of these mean you can't make it. Let this simmer slowly for an hour. This could be made up in a huge batch. this is essentially a bolognaise sauce and can be reheated and served with pasta, put on baked potatoes, lasagne.

This tastes best re-heated the next day. I will then mix it up another day, take 1.5 portions and add a tin of kidney beans and some chili powder - now it's a chili and can be served with rice.

I keep this portioned up in the freezer. If I need a quick meal, I take one out of the freezer - put it in a pot with a little water and heat it up slowly. This means mid week, you're not dealing with the cooking - this is done at the weekend or an evening that you get home a bit earlier.

soup is another great stand by - I find a thick soup with a bit of left over meat makes a great supper. Or if you get home, everyone's hungry - heat up soup and it will take the nastiness out of the hunger while you're fininshing off making dinner.

Making soup:
1. fry off onion or mirepoix (see below) + garlic if you want + spices if using till onions are translucent
2. Add stock + main veg + dried herbs.
3. Cook till tender + blend.

Mirepoix is simply a mixture of 50% onion / 25% carrot / 25% celery. In the past when I've been busy I've made up a huge mixture of this. If you lay it out on a tray to freeze - so all the pieces freezer separately if that makes sense then put them all in a big bag or container in the freezer. then when you want to make soup, just put a handful in to be fried off straight from the freezer. While this is frying off then you can get your other veg chopped, while it's cooking - any other tidying up can be done.

Suggested soups - but the only limitation is your imagination. Look at soups in the shops and the flavour combinations they use. In winter time, I make a couple at the weekend and freeze them, so I can have different flavours.
- broccoli + cauliflower
- Sweet potato +rosemary or tamerind
- carrot (carrot + corriander)
- Pea (use a bag of frozen peas) + mint
- Pea + ham (add in ham after soup is blended
- Leek + potato
- celery + apple (1 cooking apple + 1 head of celery)
- roasted root veggies + chili
- Fennel + beetroot
- carrot + Parsnip
- Curried parsnip (use a bit of curry powder when frying off mirepoix/onion)
- Roasted peppers + tinned tomatos/Passata. The peppers don't need to be roasted, but so much nicer for it.
- Chicken chinese 5 spice / sweet corn + another veg like broccoli. Add 5 spice when cooking off mirepoix, add in shredded chicken + sweet corn after soup is blended.

To turn any of these in to a more substantial meal add chopped chicken or a tin of beans like chick pea / butter beans / kidney beans. These are also great for work - a flask if you don't have the ability to heat things up.

It's all about getting the prep done in advance so putting together meals is easy + quick options so you're not hungry waiting for dinner.

NB: you can only re-heat food once, so only re-heat what you're going to eat.