reducing monthly food spend

BrassicWoman

I'm surprised young folk don't just look up basic food prep on youtube - there's loads of helpful how to videos, I suspect books are a bit old school

lessonlearned

I think increasingly peole will look to you tube and the like which is why I suggested doing short "how to demos". That's what my son does.

However, a lot of the ones I've seen are American, so come on Ferral - dont be shy:rotfl:

Re your comment about MH issues. I dont think it's necessarily just down to that though. Like Pollycat says we are now seeing 2nd and even 3rd generations who are useless in the kitchen or at least they think they are useless, so they don't try. Most just lack knowledge and confidence. And, as we all know, knowledge can be acquired and confidence comes with practice

I have never had a cookery lesson in my life, neither did my mother, so it's nothing new that some schools don't teach cooking. But I suppose the difference is that in days gone by there were very few convenience foods around and, other than the fish and chip shop, no fast food outlets either. So you either learnt to cook or went hungry. :rotfl:

Dan has shown willing to learn and is trying to engage his children too. I think that's fantastic.

danlightbulb

Evening everyone.

curiousralphy wrote: »

Put a couple of teaspoons of olive oil on a plate and sprinkle in a TINY amount of salt (sea salt if you have it) - then rub the steak in the mixture making sure to coat it as well as you can on each side. Heat up a non-stick frypan on the hob at top heat and when hot put the steak in the pan and turn it every 15 seconds continuously until ready and then wrap it in aluminum foil and serve after leaving it to sit in the foil for at least 5 minutes.

I followed this approach tonight and it came out much better. The obligatory pic:



I do have some observations though. Firstly, the steak took quite a while to cook. I had the pan on the hottest setting (gas hob), and turned regularly like you said, but it still took longer to cook than I thought it would. Not sure if that says something about the quality? It was ok to eat though (the lean bits anyway).

Second thing is that the steak is a bit fatty for me. I am wasting quite alot of it whilst eating it, trimming off the fatty bits. At the edge and through the middle. Next time I want a substantially leaner cut.


It was about a 400g piece and I ate I reckon 300g after trimming the fat whilst eating. Accompanied by 5 potato croquets (500 cals) and 2 fried eggs (150 cals). So that's a nice 1050 cals or thereabouts.

I'm getting much better at cooking fried eggs now. I was overcooking them before.

dylan2011

Goldiegirl wrote: »

I just wanted to comment on the suggested beef casserole recipe, with 3 Oxo cubes, a tablespoon of Marmite and a tablespoon of ketchup, with gravy granules for thickening. There is a lot of salt in those ingredients, even for an adult, and way too much for children.

I'll suggest again, that you get a cookery book that starts from the basics.

Cookery is a skill that is learnt like any other - you start at the beginning.

If you do that, you'll learn the correct way to cook various cuts of meat, and how to season your cooking with various herbs and spices, and not add unnecessary additional salt.

you'll soon be able to produce simple, attractive meals, that looks appetising and tastes good, rather than trying to cook things that you don't really know what to do with, that don't look good on the plate, and you end up not being able to eat.

Firstly, Thanks for the dig. However, this is a meal as a family we would eat approx once a month. We never add extra salt to any meals, and I calculate the total salt content of this meal at around 2g per adult sized portion. Less than 1g for my childens portion. The recommended daily amount is around 6g for adults, 3g for kids of their age, so this meal is using approx 1 third of our daily intake, so overall not too bad as a once a month meal. I wouldn't usually use this amount of stock cubes in a meal (infact, I hardly ever use them and only really have them in for this meal, as I am a very experienced competent cook myself). But like I said, it is only around a third of a daily allowance of salt anyway. The main thickener in the dish is the flour. I don't use extra gravy granules, as I find it very thick anyway, I guess if you did want to thicken it you could change that to a simple gravy thickening flour, or cornflour or similar.


I would agree with others Dan, that a basic simple cookbook would be a worthy investment, as cooking from scratch is simple once you have nailed the basics.

Goldiegirl

dylan2011 wrote: »

Firstly, Thanks for the dig. .

There was no dig at you.


I was concerned at the amount of salt in the dish, that's all.


One Oxo cube - fine


3 plus the other ingredients, is quite a lot

honeythewitch

Goldiegirl wrote: »

There was no dig at you.


I was concerned at the amount of salt in the dish, that's all.


One Oxo cube - fine


3 plus the other ingredients, is quite a lot

I dont know the actual amount of salt in oxo cubes, but it has changed recently and there is not nearly so much as there once was, which is a good thing.
(not anti-salt, but if we want it we can add it ourselves)

suki1964

danlightbulb wrote: »

I'm getting much better at cooking fried eggs now. I was overcooking them before.

Practice makes perfect

What else do you think you would like to try to cook? I'm sure between us on here we could coach you

I had to learn to cook at a very young age when mum walked out on us. It was a steep learning curve. The daft thing was, I could do a Sunday roast to perfection and aged 14 I done Christmas dinner for 10 , but didn't know how to make an omelette I'd never seen one being made so didn't have a clue. Was a lady who's daughter I babysat for one evening who showed me and I still use her way 40 years on

curiousralphy

danlightbulb wrote: »

Evening everyone.



I followed this approach tonight and it came out much better. The obligatory pic:

I do have some observations though. Firstly, the steak took quite a while to cook. I had the pan on the hottest setting (gas hob), and turned regularly like you said, but it still took longer to cook than I thought it would. Not sure if that says something about the quality? It was ok to eat though (the lean bits anyway).

Second thing is that the steak is a bit fatty for me. I am wasting quite alot of it whilst eating it, trimming off the fatty bits. At the edge and through the middle. Next time I want a substantially leaner cut.


It was about a 400g piece and I ate I reckon 300g after trimming the fat whilst eating. Accompanied by 5 potato croquets (500 cals) and 2 fried eggs (150 cals). So that's a nice 1050 cals or thereabouts.

I'm getting much better at cooking fried eggs now. I was overcooking them before.

Glad it worked for you. My OH also doesn't like the fatty bits so I tend to buy sirloin and even then I turn into one of those embarressing OCD shoppers going through the whole pile of steaks looking for a really lean one. But hey, the price of sirloin it's worth the shame. Fillet steak is even leaner and nicer cooked this way but again, quite a price hike.

The time it takes to cook is really down to the thickness of the steak and how well done you like it as opposed to the quality of the meat.

For an easy salad with calories you could try some baby spinach and some sweet tomatoes cut into chunks (good quality is worth paying for with tomatoes) , then drizzle over half a teaspoon of olive oil mixed with half a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar as a dressing (I find this one good : http://groceries.asda.com/product/speciality-vinegars/ponti-balsamic-vinegar-of-modena/910000266971 ). It's a good way to get veg and the oil will help meet your calorie goals.

For a second side dish which is cheap and easy with decent calories. Take some baby new potatoes in their skins and stab them with fork once or twice. Put them on an oven tray or dish which has been covered in foil (to save from having to scrub later). Then put 1 teaspon of olive oil and a small pinch of seasalt in the palm of your hand. Rub your hands together and then pick up the potatoes and just rub the oil over them until they look like they've all had a shiny coating. Bake them in the oven at about 180 or 200 degrees. Check at around 15 minutes, if they are soft when you squeeze the sides of the largest potato they are ready, if not, close the oven door and check in 5 minutes time. Keep doing this until they are ready. A little butter over the top when you serve them will increase the calories and give a good flavour.

maman

curiousralphy wrote: »

For an easy salad with calories you could try some baby spinach and some sweet tomatoes cut into chunks (good quality is worth paying for with tomatoes) , then drizzle over half a teaspoon of olive oil mixed with half a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar as a dressing (I find this one good : http://groceries.asda.com/product/speciality-vinegars/ponti-balsamic-vinegar-of-modena/910000266971 ). It's a good way to get veg and the oil will help meet your calorie goals.

Another good thing about baby spinach is that if you don't use it up in a salad you can always stir it into casseroles or curries so less likely than lettuce to be wasted.:money:

Skint_yet_Again

If you are finding it takes a long time to cook and is a bit tough you could try tenderising the steak


I find this works best using my wooden chopping board. I cover it with a piece of cling film twice the length of the board - cover the board leaving half the length of cling film overhanging the bottom of the board - then put the steak in the middle of the covered board and fold the overhanging piece of cling film back over the steak so it is completely covered but has room to expand inside the cling film.


Then I whack the steak with my rolling pin until it is thinner. You can buy meat tenderisers, but if you don't have a rolling pin you could probably use anything you have in the house/kitchen which would suit the job as it wont be coming into contact with the meat (unless you hit it too hard and burst through the cling film ! The cling film should stop any unwanted spatter from the meat


I get the oil really hot then put steak in and leave for a few minutes then turn the meat over and do other side for a few minutes - I read somewhere that you are not supposed to keep turning it but everyone has their own preferred method - then I leave it to stand for 5-10 minutes.


I find most cooking is trial and error and finding a method that suits you