Living out of my store cupboard & freezer, how little can I spend to feed my family?

missymoo81

ok first week is like this:


friday - burgers for littlies, left over bolognaise turned into chilli wth rice for me.
saturday - veggie egg fried rice
sunday - cocktail sausages in yorkshires, with veg and hopefully potatoes
monday - veggie pasta bake
tuesday - veggie/butternut curry
wednesday -butternut & spinach cannelloni in tomato sauce (jamie recipe)
Thursday - Spinach and tomato omelettes
friday - Butternut, spinach and mushroom risotto
Saturday - HM veggie pizza

So that should pretty much use up all of the fresh stuff in the fridge

RAS

Given how quickly spinach goes off you might want to bring the recipes with that in forward?

Soworried

Subscribing to read soon

missymoo81

Thinking out loud about a few things, if you'll indulge me:

thinking of what I will NEED, for the week, the earliest I can get to the shop is Tuesday anyway, so will have to eek all fresh stuff out until then. The following week i won't be able to go until Thursday after work, so I need to plan ahead. So on Tuesday I will need to get 9 days worth of fresh food, so over the weekend I will meal plan up until Thursday week, if that makes sense.

I can make a list as I know how much fruit and milk we get through. Will do that shortly...

Tomorrow, in pre planning and non wasting preparation, I'm going to cut up the strawberries, blueberries and mango and as per wanttobese's suggestion I will open freeze them. I will put some eggs out the front and see if they sell, any extra money can go towards chicken food.

I will dig up the veg patch, and see if there are any potatoes underneath, there should be I think, hopefully....

Make scrummy soup, need to practice my soup making skills, its usually bland and it all tastes the same!

I need to make some bread and rolls for the week, freeze a cauliflower or two. make some cakes and biscuits. I might make some hummus too, the kids love it and I've got lots of cucumber to make into veg sticks for them, and its something to dip, and I have chickpeas....

Its so hard to get out of the habit of thinking, 'oh I need to buy that to go with that, and oh I can't make this without that' It's a completely different way of thinking!

missymoo81

RAS wrote: »

Given how quickly spinach goes off you might want to bring the recipes with that in forward?

good thinking, thank you will have a wiggle around of the recipes, I try and work easy things on work days, as I don't get home until late.

the courgette is more than past its best, think i may roast that with sundays roast, in that case and move the spinach things forward

missymoo81

friday - burgers for littlies, left over bolognaise turned into chilli wth rice for me.
saturday - veggie egg fried rice
sunday - cocktail sausages in yorkshires, with veg and hopefully potatoes
monday - Spinach and tomato omelettes
tuesday - butternut, spinach and mushroom risotto
wednesday -butternut & spinach cannelloni in tomato sauce (jamie recipe)
Thursday - veggie pasta bake, using courgette, tomato, onion
friday - veggie/spinach and butternut curry with hm chapati
Saturday - HM veggie pizza

Thats all I can do really, if I don't think I'll use all the spinach, I will freeze it.

Nargleblast

Soup suggestion....tomato and bean or tomato and lentil.

Fry chopped onions, bits of pepper and some chopped up bits of bacon in oil. Add 1-2 tins tomatoes (tomatoes all mushed up) and appropriate seasoning (ideally basil, oregano, salt, black pepper, garlic and a little sugar to soften the acidity of the tomatoes, but work with what you have in stock - it's a Mediterranean vibe you're aiming for).
Add tin of beans (baked or haricot or cannelloni or kidney, whatever you have) or use a handful of lentils instead. Add two stock cubes and water. Bring to boil then simmer half an hour with lid off, so it thickens. Taste as you go along, correcting seasoning as needed. When ready to serve, stir in a lump of butter to enrich the soup. Good served with bread, grated cheese maybe.

milasavesmoney

As to the courgettes, or zucchini as we call them here in the US, I have just made zucchini bread loaves (sweet) out of two suspicious looking ones found yesterday in my veg drawer. I kept one for us and froze one.
For dinner, I roasted sale asparagus with olive oil and chopped garlic. I bought too much and had the best intentions of using it before tonight... It was wonderful with the chicken though, and I'm feeling good about not wasting it!

missymoo81

Nargleblast, thanks so much for the recipe! sounds delish. And hi milasavesmoney, I'm going to look into courgette cake and avacado cake to use them up, as I can freeze cakes, to make For easy snacks...

My brain is working so hard I can almost hear it!

I have some half eaten fruit where DD and DS known affectionately as May and Roo have taken a few bites and then not wanted the rest, they're still getting over being poorly I think, as they are usually devoured within seconds. I will use them in a smoothie for my breakfast with some of the almond milk and almond butter and spinach. Think the littlies will have porridge with almond milk and blueberries...

big5

You've got all the ingredients there for chocolate avocado mousse too (another way to use up ripe avocados). I made some last week, it was lovely.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Chocolate-avocado-mousse/