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

otb666

doctors kitchen recipes is good as well He used a lot of beans and lentils and used wizzed up oats as flour.  Also showed how to chop vegetables. And how to make granola with oats seeds and egg whites in oven. He used silken tofu which i was going to try as better for you than cream.  But then read that its no good if you have an under active thyroid So will have to keep using cream in my soups. I have switched to vegan and feeling a lot better But to be honest its still expensive.  Jamie Oliver was suggesting to go diary free some days to save money which i thought was quite interesting.

elsien

I think the pound a portion thing only works if there’s four of you. I was watching one of his chicken ones on something the other night I’m thinking there’s no way I’d get that lot for a quid. It’s quite hard to scale down for single people.

YoungBlueEyes

Not to take away from his efforts (I like him and his style), but I think part of getting it in for £1 is cos the portions are small....

Longwalker

YoungBlueEyes said:

Not to take away from his efforts (I like him and his style), but I think part of getting it in for £1 is cos the portions are small....

But his menus are covering all food groups and meet nutritional needs. Perhaps we are just too used to huge portions?

Last night a packet of pork mince went to 8 portions, he upped the protein with using pulses in the sides 

When I worked as a cook, the chef always said we are here to feed them, not fatten them

Siebrie

elsien said:

Morrisons had some lamb hearts today reduced to 28p which I used to like. But since my grandmother gave me a biology lesson on arteries using the heart as a demonstration, I’m not quite been able to bring myself to cook them again.

I'm the same for mussles; we had to disect one in biology class when I was 13.

Brambling

elsien said:

I think the pound a portion thing only works if there’s four of you. I was watching one of his chicken ones on something the other night I’m thinking there’s no way I’d get that lot for a quid. It’s quite hard to scale down for single people.

I agree I think if you're cooking for one you have to have some idea on menu planning so you don't waste the rest of the tin of tomatoes, lentils etc  but don't have to have the same food every night.  I currently have a drawer in my freezer full with LO's because as you say it isn't always easy to scale down.  This week I've  planned to eat out from my freezer most of the week, soups for lunch and for dinner i'll just need to cook some veg.  

I cooked 5 meals with 300g of mince recently by adding veg etc to sketch the mince. 3 portions was used to stuffed aubergine & courgette and 2 portions of shepherd pie, 3 portions ended up in the freezer.  

KxMx

elsien said:

I think the pound a portion thing only works if there’s four of you. I was watching one of his chicken ones on something the other night I’m thinking there’s no way I’d get that lot for a quid. It’s quite hard to scale down for single people.

It's just as easy to cook for 4, then freeze the other portions. 
When I make a big bolognese sauce I end up with 5-6 portions (700g jar of passata, 500g mince, generous pour of frozen sweetcorn and a couple of diced salad tomatoes). 
I eat one meal fresh then freeze the rest in freezer bags, stored flat to save space.

Pollycat

Brambling said:

elsien said:

I think the pound a portion thing only works if there’s four of you. I was watching one of his chicken ones on something the other night I’m thinking there’s no way I’d get that lot for a quid. It’s quite hard to scale down for single people.

I agree I think if you're cooking for one you have to have some idea on menu planning so you don't waste the rest of the tin of tomatoes, lentils etc  but don't have to have the same food every night.  I currently have a drawer in my freezer full with LO's because as you say it isn't always easy to scale down.  This week I've  planned to eat out from my freezer most of the week, soups for lunch and for dinner i'll just need to cook some veg.  

I cooked 5 meals with 300g of mince recently by adding veg etc to sketch the mince. 3 portions was used to stuffed aubergine & courgette and 2 portions of shepherd pie, 3 portions ended up in the freezer.  

I cook lots of different meat shepherds pie bases (gobble pie with turkey, oink pie with pork, cluck pie with chicken, moo pie with beef).
I did a batch last week with 750 gm turkey mince which did 4 bases to each serve 2 so less that 100gm meat person.
Bulked it out with canned tomatoes, carrot, onions and mushrooms.

I sometimes add pulses - red kidney beans, cannellini bens etc.KxMx said:

elsien said:

I think the pound a portion thing only works if there’s four of you. I was watching one of his chicken ones on something the other night I’m thinking there’s no way I’d get that lot for a quid. It’s quite hard to scale down for single people.

It's just as easy to cook for 4, then freeze the other portions. 
When I make a big bolognese sauce I end up with 5-6 portions (700g jar of passata, 500g mince, generous pour of frozen sweetcorn and a couple of diced salad tomatoes). 
I eat one meal fresh then freeze the rest in freezer bags, stored flat to save space.

I think if I was on my own, I'd still cook in the same way - I have a freezer that is taller than me - but freeze in individual portions.
I have a long list of meals that I do my meal plan from and we rarely eat the same thing within a 3 week period.

At least, I hope I'd continue to cook in the same way - I do enjoy planning and cooking.

YoungBlueEyes

Agree about about modern portion sizes @Longwalker. Himself could eat 2 of Jamie’s meals and I’d need more than 1 I think. 

They’re always served on smaller plates and never have cutlery next to them so you don’t spot they’re not full sized dinner plates…. 

elsien

KxMx said:

elsien said:

I think the pound a portion thing only works if there’s four of you. I was watching one of his chicken ones on something the other night I’m thinking there’s no way I’d get that lot for a quid. It’s quite hard to scale down for single people.

It's just as easy to cook for 4, then freeze the other portions. 
When I make a big bolognese sauce I end up with 5-6 portions (700g jar of passata, 500g mince, generous pour of frozen sweetcorn and a couple of diced salad tomatoes). 
I eat one meal fresh then freeze the rest in freezer bags, stored flat to save space.

I don't have the freezer space for that.  And there are some meals I have fresh that I don't like to eat from frozen - veggie curry for example where the veggies go soggy. I might cook a portion and freeze a portion but that's about it.