Learn to Cook Frugal Style

-taff

 You don't need to cover the slow cooker ingredients with water, whatever you put in there will leach liquid anyway. You can cook a whole chicken on foil balls with no extra water.

You can substitute SR for plain flour in any recipe except for baking, when if you only have plain, add baking powder.

For enchiladas etc, you can make your own flatbeads or tortillas. For tortillas, buy masa flour and invest in a tortilla press, they are much nicer and easy to cook. For flatbreads, use any old flour, some salt and either water, or plain yoghurt. I usually chuck a wodge of dried oregano in mine. The ratio is equal amounts, so 100 g of flour [sr or plain] to 100g of plain yoghurt, if you use greek, knead it well, it will come together even if it looks like it won't and for normal, use a bit less or it'll be too wet.

Both of the above can be dry fried in a flat pan of some kind.

Pooh_Bear

Invest in a pressure cooker.

Cooks vegetables in minutes - potatoes take 5 mins. Pulses of all sorts can be cooked in 5 (lentils) to 15 minutes (chickpeas & kidney beans) before adding to other ingredients. Really good for making soups from slightly manky vegetables and rendering down bones/carcasses for soup. Quickly cooks and tenderises cheaper cuts of meat.

middlewife

Gravy granules can "save" any watery slow cooker recipe if doing a "meaty" type dish. Less likely to go lumpy than flour. Sr flour should be fine if its cooked in. It has a raising agent that can taste soapy but if cooked should be fine. I've cooked from scratch for decades now but still experiment once a week and try something new to save the boring old favourites. 

Ami13

Oooh great thread, I’ll have a look at the bbc site. 

otb666

i truly just zap big veg in microwave then add to SC for an hour with stock cube Blitz a bit up with the hand blender Thats it. Its nice to sprinkle a bit of cheese on top. I do add odd and bits of leftovers including meats from fridge, I used to add tin of soup or tomatoes or cream But now prefer just veg and stock cube with a bit of cheese on top.

otb666

any herbs to hand eg basil or mixed herbs or sachets of spices you get with curry jars Get added as well, My better ones have had fewer ingredients

Siebrie

Search online for Ingredient substitutes, or Cooking substitutes, or What ingredient can I substitute.

Fionatritton

A roast chicken Sunday lunch can be turned into chicken stock for soup/risotto/whatever using the carcass, onion peels, veggie peelings and offcuts, a handful of herbs if you have some in the garden and seasoning. you can use any Leftover veggies/roast potatoes to make bubble and squeak for Monday night - just chop up the veg and add to some mashed potato then fry and serve with a fried/poached egg. Bubble and Squeak is a great dish to use up any cooked veggies - this week my bubble had spring greens, mangetout and carrots in it. 

If you've managed to suss out when your local supermarket reduces meat you can get a really good value roast dinner plus stock and another dinner for Monday. 

This week my chicken served 5 for £1.75. I had a 4 bags of Maris piper I paid 35p each for - which did the roasties and mash. I got spring greens for 40p reduced and likewise the carrots were about 10p reduced. It did bubble and squeak for 2 plus will be accompanying some bacon for breakfast in the morning.

if you don't want to make stock on the day then just pop the bones in thr freezer for when you have enough veg to make stock.

CJRyder

Pre-prepare what you can. For instance I have a pressure multicooker so I do batches of dried beans each week. I add these to bulk up dishes which may be missing something. These (such as chickpeas) can also be added cold to salads.

If you are cooking just for yourself, cook to the size of your bowl/plate. Don't use a bigger pan unless leftovers are planned for. You may end up eating more than you planned to. It may be a self-control issue (I also generally didn't do breakfast or lunch) but I used to make large servings and then finish the pan when I could have saved some for leftovers.

Finally I would suggest learning to cook by feeling. A recipe is a good base but isn't always quite to everyone's taste. For example I like citrus notes so I usually add a little lemon or lime juice to most things. Most recipes are fairly simple formulas. 

Curry = Spices then hard components (potatoes, onions) then softer components (meat, soft veg) and then liquid (water, stock, tomatoes, yoghurt, etc.)

Risotto = Don't stop stirring. Fry dry rice plus onions/carrot/celery, add wine or stock, add rest of components, keep stirring as stock is added and absorbed. If using wine, final addition is wine followed by cheese.

And so on...

SootySweep1

Hi
I'm a big lover of lentils  & lentil dahls so tasty & cheap. I love vegetarian Indian food in general.
I add pearl barley & lentils to alot of meals I cook in the slow cooker as they absorb alot of the excess moisture & bulk up whatever you're cooking.
If you are eating meat think about the cuts of meat. You mentioned chicken breasts but the legs/thighs are alot cheaper if you're buying portioned chicken.
Think about how you use your freezer. I'm looking at some overripe bananas & so I'll peel & freeze.
You say that you're not good at downscaling a recipe. Why not just freeze the leftovers & you've got a quick tea / lunch in the freezer !
Jen