Learning to be frugal in the kitchen

Brambling

MartagonLilies wrote: »

:)Does anyone mind sharing any good recipes please? Or maybe some cookbook suggestions?

I find the bbc food website is good for ideas, but I usually just use google. You can search asking for a quick or easy version of the dish. A good recipe is the hairy bikers sausage and bean casserole it feeds six and freezes well.

midnightraven3

On days you do feel well enough to cook, you could make burritos and pizzas from pita breads and freeze them for snacks. Having had 3 hungry teens, the burritos were great, 2-3 mins in the microwave from frozen, a cheap, filling and easy snack, and very easy to customise to everyones tastes

[Deleted User]

MartagonLilies wrote: »

:)Does anyone mind sharing any good recipes please? Or maybe some cookbook suggestions?

For packed lunch ideas have a look at the 'bento boxes' on this website:

https://www.pickuplimes.com/single-post/2018/03/10/BENTO-BOX-%C2%BB-a-collection-of-all-our-recipes

Her recipes are vegan, but you could adapt them by adding meat. She has some really nice recepies and I have tried a few to great success. In fact I made this dip this week, but ate it in wraps with salad and it was really nice: https://www.pickuplimes.com/single-post/2017/04/25/Sun-dried-Tomato-White-Bean-Dip

Pollycat

Brambling wrote: »

I find the bbc food website is good for ideas, but I usually just use google. You can search asking for a quick or easy version of the dish. A good recipe is the hairy bikers sausage and bean casserole it feeds six and freezes well.

I do a sausage & bean casserole and freeze a couple of portions.
I serve it with mashed potatoes - the OP could do a big pan full and freeze it in portions, then she'd have a ready-made meal for when she's not feeling well.

MartagonLilies

Thank you. This is all helpful. I'm going to sit down later with a cold drink and a notepad, and take a bit of time to go through it all.

We actually have just a tiny budget to last the rest of the week, until pay day, and it's quite stressful, so all advice here is fab.

[Deleted User]

When I've been very cash poor in the past I've made it a habit to use up all the little ends of things in jars, the fridge, the freezer etc. and be imaginative. We often had savoury rice which only needs a tablespoon or so of most things in it to be acceptable as long as you start it off with a softened onion, minestrone soup is another extendable thing and as long as you start that off with a tin of tomatoes and a tin of beans of some kind (even the cheapest baked beans are ok) along with your softened onion you can pretty well just chuck in some frozen veg and Italian flavours and it tastes fine. A really nice pasta sauce is that softened onion again with tomatoes, garlic and any other veg you happen to have that's gone 'bendy' in the fridge all cooked together and then blitzed, I defy any picky eater to actually tell what's in just a tomato sauce! Potatoes make good things be it jacket potatoes with a topping, potato wedges cut from big spuds and oven cooked and then topped with baked beans and cheese, some of that crafty tomato sauce and cheese, tuna mayo whatever you've got in, you can make leftover mash into potato gnocchi with some flour and some of the tomato sauce and cheese again makes it into a meal, you can make potato flat breads by adding flour to mash and rolling them thin and cooking them in a dry hot pan until they go speckly brown on both sides, fill 'em up with anything you've got, including the leftovers from the savoury rice. Leftover rice makes fab egg fried rice too many cheap and cheerfuls in our house!

LameWolf

Tink_04 wrote: »

Keep posting - if you have health issues we have a great thread on the OS board - OS ways and poor health - lots of advice and support on there too.

Yes, do please come and join us there, MartagonLilies.

Brambling

MartagonLilies wrote: »

Thank you. This is all helpful. I'm going to sit down later with a cold drink and a notepad, and take a bit of time to go through it all.

We actually have just a tiny budget to last the rest of the week, until pay day, and it's quite stressful, so all advice here is fab.

Pasta is always a good standby if money's a little tight and the Value pastas are as good as the branded ones. Mrs LWs tomato sauce idea is a good idea and if you have to have meat chopping up bacon or sausages means you can get away with using less than if left whole

whiteguineapig

As an easy pasta sauce , I use campbells condensed soup which is 45p from home bargains. I have used it for years and we like the mushroom and the tomato ones. (you can tell by this that I am not a great cook lol)

Molillie

I love Pick Up Limes, too. Another Canadian is Liv B, who is also nutritionally qualified, but only just, (very young) and her recipes might appeal more to the teenager especially, and include many treats and snacks.
Clutterbug has a channel which includes videos onhow to meal plan, and she has three children, so there might be some good ideas there.

I also like the BBC site, as it is one where you can type in what you have and get suggestions, and also look at simple or complicated versions.