It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

joedenise

@freyasmum - could you reduce the amount of beef you use and add some mushrooms to reduce the cost per portion?   Or even make more of a stew with carrots, onions, peppers, mushrooms etc.  In fact it might be worth actually making a stew for a meal and then using the LOs for a pie!

ladyholly

Stew in our house is beef, a small amount of oniion , an even smaller amount of pearl barley, mushrooms & stock. DH wont believe that stew should have veg in it other than the aforementioned and if I put it in he would refuse to eat it .  He is  really fussy and very hard to find economical recipes that he will eat. Pasta is a no no, rice is only for risotto. no stir fry, curry etc. Every meal has to have meat in it. I wont go on as it gets monotonous.

freyasmum

joedenise said:

@freyasmum - could you reduce the amount of beef you use and add some mushrooms to reduce the cost per portion?   Or even make more of a stew with carrots, onions, peppers, mushrooms etc.  In fact it might be worth actually making a stew for a meal and then using the LOs for a pie!

Luckily, although like ladyholly's OH he has a need for meat at every meal, he also loves lots of vegetables and I do make a beef stew with lots of veggies and plenty of pearl barley (my favourite!). I'll try it with a pastry lid!  

I was, however, thinking of making a steak and kidney pie for him. 

But it was just out of interest that I thought I'd see how much it would cost to buy everything at today prices. And it turns out that aldi have shrunk the size of the 800g beef packs to 700g and the 400g have gone to 350g. It was such a stark reminder of just how much everything has gone up (except in size!) recently. 

Pollycat

ladyholly said:

Stew in our house is beef, a small amount of oniion , an even smaller amount of pearl barley, mushrooms & stock. DH wont believe that stew should have veg in it other than the aforementioned and if I put it in he would refuse to eat it .  He is  really fussy and very hard to find economical recipes that he will eat. Pasta is a no no, rice is only for risotto. no stir fry, curry etc. Every meal has to have meat in it. I wont go on as it gets monotonous.

That must be really difficult.
Me and OH both like most of the same things:
mash with sausages or braising steak

pasta, rice, pulses, most veg (I'm not too keen on spring or winter greens), beef, pork, lamb, chicken, lamb's liver, pies, Greek, Italian, Indian, Chinese.
I won't eat pearl barley and anything with processed coconut.

Auntycaz

We always had meat and potato pie when we were growing up. Sometimes we played hunt the meat, but as long as it had lovely gravy we loved it and it kept out the cold on a winters day. Stew was always padded out with lots of veg and always served with dumpling.to fill us up.My mam did a lot of cooking with her pressure cooker but they've always made me nervous

joedenise

I'd be lost without my pressure cooker!  I've got a slow cooker but apart from whole chicken, pulled pork in BBQ sauce or braised red cabbage DH doesn't like the texture of any of the meat cooked in it.

JIL

For the stew makers, it might be worth buying a joint of meat and cutting it up yourself. 
Asda do a roasting beef joint that is £8 per kilo, the already cut is £11 per kilo.

My mother in law had a big family, she made an irish stew regularly and she put balls of mince (not fried first) into her stew as well as sausages.

Toonie

When I buy pork shoulder for a roast I will often cut a chunk of first and cut it up for a stew at another time. I do the same with beef on the rare occasions we find it cheap or reduced. Likewise with the chicken thighs, I don't buy skinless and boneless as it's quite easy to remove the skin and I find keeping the bones in gives it extra flavour.

We'll be doing an Aldi shop tomorrow as we are starting to run low on lunchbox items for DP (dried fruit, nuts) and the storecupboard needs topping up a few essentials. Usually we do a shop in November for essentials to last us through to January as it's all shelf stable stuff, but it will very much depend on what's on the shelves and if there are any purchase limits (last time our Aldi was limiting flour to two bags per person). Today I'll have a proper look through the cupboards and then write my list.

in_my_wellies

ladyholly said:

Stew in our house is beef, a small amount of oniion , an even smaller amount of pearl barley, mushrooms & stock. DH wont believe that stew should have veg in it other than the aforementioned and if I put it in he would refuse to eat it .  He is  really fussy and very hard to find economical recipes that he will eat. Pasta is a no no, rice is only for risotto. no stir fry, curry etc. Every meal has to have meat in it. I wont go on as it gets monotonous.

This sounds just like my late husband. He would tell anyone who listened, 'I'm not a fussy eater.'

He refused to eat pasta, cooked cheese, any 'fancy' cheese, any salad, rice only with curry (mild curry), pizza, brown bread, crusty bread, margarine or spreads, breakfast cereal other than K Cornflakes or Weetabix, any pulses except H Beans & Sausage, raw apples (thinking about it I rarely saw him eat fruit except a banana) 

He would basically only enjoy meat and three veg and apple pie with custard for pud. He'd have seconds and thirds of meat from the joint, usually lamb or beef. Never balanced out with veg. And bacon or sausage sandwich at lunchtime 

He sadly died from bowel cancer at 65 ...... I do wonder...........

elsien

I do like a homemade meat and potato pie.  Remains of the Sunday joint (if I can find a yellow sticker one) splosh of red wine also left over from Sunday lunch, peas, carrots cooked in, homemade pastry.  Lots of home-made gravy. Lovely.