whats the cheapest youve did it for inspire me!

arkonite_babe

mandy_moo_1 wrote: »

i'm just curious, how do you manage to freeze the lasagne in individual portions? do you mean you cook it in a big dish, THEN cut it up & freeze, cos mine would totally collapse cos of the sauce, or do you mean you make individual lasagnes in seperate dishes and then freeze them? if you do it this way, what sort of dishes do you cook them in?

Make a big lasagne, leave it in the fridge for a day, it needs this to firm up so it can be sliced without going into mush, then slice and pack in containers. I use the ones we've saved from takeaways, but you can use what you have, no need to rush out and buy anything special unless you haven't got any tubs at all. When you need it just grab it from the freezer and tip onto a plate to defrost before whacking n the oven or micro to reheat.

Easy peasy

cupid_s

destiny_star2006 wrote: »

thanks very much for that long post its really helped me and i will try my best to cook the ready meals from scratch to save on cash but i buy 6 ready meals for 4.00 out of asda is it really cheaper to make the 6??? home made ???

What you have to consider is the quality of the ingredients that go into ready meals. When I make spag bol I wouldn't use value mince, but I bet that is what is in the ready meal. I would use value spaghetti and tomatoes though.

If you used smartprice mince, that is 80p. 2 tins of chopped tomatoes would be 42p, garlic maybe 10p, spaghetti about 30p and a handful of herbs (cost virtually nothing).

This makes to total cost £1.62 and I'd feed 6 with that amount.

Or you could use better mince, and put lots of extra veg in and it might cost the same as the ready meals but you'd have a much better quality dinner which would be better for you.

moo2moo

You mean they actually put real mince in the ready meals.... poottles off to do some googling......

other than theres a whopping 4.9g of fat per 100g which implies it does at least contain something dead and the label describes it as a "beef sauce" its rather low in calories at 105 per 100g. Even plain sphagetti contains more calories than that. I'm confused!

destiny_star2006

thanks so much for all your replies your all really learning me something moo can u be my adopted mother please lol x

moo2moo

you can b****er off I'm not THAT old!!!!!!!!!!

Lovely thought though! However I'm only 32. Must come across as positively ancient. Perhaps thats why the youngest keeps asking when I'm going to die and counting my wrinkles and pointing out how much grey hair I have, apparently even more than granny. What a comforting thought!

Slightly off topic.....Did you ever get your chickens?

cookie9

Everyone has had such good ideas not much I can add.

Buy some more sweetcorn as it is good with tuna and mayo for sandwich fillers. Also you have everything needed for a batter mix so you could make sweetcorn fritters.

Try making the stir fry -it is easier than you think. Cut up all your vegetables before you heat the pan. In a bowl mix a couple of spoons of soya sauce with water and cornflour. Pour in the oil into the hot pan. Once oil hot add vegetables and stir for 1-2 minutes then add soya sauce mix and serve.

Passatta and tinned tomatoes are always good for making a quick sauce with pasta. Fry onion and garlic ( with a little chili if liked) add tomatoes and simmer.

Menu plan but look at the reduced section - bread can be frozen, fruit can be stewed and makes great fruit crumble.

moo2moo

So comes the big question ... what did you have for dinner Destiny-Star?

I realised how late it was at 8:30, abandoned all thoughts of toad-in-the-hole and fed the demonic daughters boiled sausages, tipping the water away 90% of the way through reduces the fat content and then I brown 'em by frying (49p for 8). All in the same pan to minimise washing up. Lots of pasta (50p) with a handful of frozen sweetcorn (25p) and grated cheese (50p). Bananas (30p) in milk (20p) for pudding as a treat. Rapidly followed by bathtime. They usually go to bed at 6:30 but its been a bit chaotic here for the last few days. Hubby couldn't face eating but did manage to consume rather a lot of red wine to distract him from his jaw ache.

Theres enough pasta left over from last night for me to slap some mayo (10p) on, chop up some fresh veg (50p), add a few chives (from the garden if the chickens haven't eaten them) and turn into pasta salad for lunch. Possibly with a bit of tuna (35p) if I'm feeling generous.

destiny_star2006

no we dont have chickens anymore we gave them back to the farm we got them from as they werent producing the egg quantity in which we required and to be honest i diddnt like the mess they made my garden go into i no i no terrible but my op.
We had for tea on tuesday night kiev chips and noodles daughter had frozen spag bol bro had curry and chips
last nite we had tatie hash although i diddnt as i cant stand the consistency of it sooo boring so i had salad cream sarnies yummy....
tonight were avn turkey stir fry gona re read through this thread on how to do it the best as havent got any cornflour what is it lol?????
i dont really like stir fry will have a pick at it but dont like it so i think i will have some rice turned into egg fried rice like someone on the thread suggested earlier and dd certainly wont eat either of them too so she can have waffles and spagetti!
Got a tad annoyed last nite after id made a huge amount of tatie hash granted all 3 of them ate it but within 2 hours daughter was hungry so had before bed bowl of cereal 2 biscuits lots of fruit and a yoghurt brother had around 4 biscuits 1 steak pie bunch of grapes 4 slices of toast then god knows what afterwards...partner had 1 steak pie 1 biscuit 2 slices of toast!!!!
arrrggghhh is this normal to eat this much i always shout at them for constantly eating but i cant exactly stop them can i?????
my brother is the worsed he will come down from his room every 30 mins to get a drink of pop and sumit to shove in his gob thats why i stoped buying crisps as he was eating up to 7 packs per day....
i get wrong of mil for shouting at oh for eating all the time and she sed if hes hungry he got to eat but for gods sake we supposed to eat to live not live to eat its sooooo annoying is it like this in anyone elses house????????????
sorry for long post rant over lmfao

moo2moo

Are they very active people? I eat twice as much as my husband and I struggle to stay at a sensible weight, I loose it far too easily. He on the other hand piles on the pounds. With my first pregnancy I started at 10 stone, breastfed and ended up at a pathetically waif like 7 stone. He on the other hand started at 13 stone and ended up at 15! I ate constantly. With bump number 2 he crept up to 16 1/2 stone.

The men in your life really don't need to go to bed on pies. Try 'em on cereals or porridge. Biscuits aren't really much good if they are hungry. They'd be better off with bananas. Kids eat a lot more when they are going through growth spurts. Thats just the way it is.

and finally.... you're pregnant! Not a chef. You shouldn't be cooking 4 different meals every night. Put your foot down if your OH and your brother want to eat differently then allow them to take turns at cooking. It won't kill them and it may make them reconsider what they are eating. If you were feeling really mean you could give them £3.00 and send them to the shops to buy the ingredients and cook dinner for 4. It might make them realise just how hard it is.

If your DD likes sphagetti you may well find she likes noodles. Give her a teeny bit of everything to try on a separate plate. You may be surprised! My 2 love egg fried rice and stir fry as long as I'm seen washing the sauce off their portions. They do like sweet and sour sauce as a dip though.

destiny_star2006

they eat and eat and dont put anythn on where as i dont eat alot toast salad cream sarnies and cereal is about all i eat at the moment and im way overweight maybe too much bread who knows but i love salads and fruit also so am not a salad dodger by any means...
i dont mind making diff meals cos if i diddnt then they would eat my other stuff that ive got planned for meals on a diff day we do normally always have the same meals but on the chick kiev night there was only 2 so bro had to have curry and dd spag bol....
my oh knows he eats bad but isnt a one for cereal and the likes ... bro is just a slob wont go to school but thats a diff story he stays in bed till at least 2 pm comes downstairs straight into kitchen eats lots of stuff thats not filling which we always argue about expecially the crisps i say to him why eat them it wont fill you make something proper to eat but he refuses and im certainly not running up his backside i only ever make tea in the house during week and if he went to school he would have a flaming meal he really annoyes me hes a low life hahahhahhahaahah god am i !!!!! today or wot..
i know for a fact tonight i will have the stir fry ready fo 430 ish and then oh and bro is out for kick boxing do this once a week
then they will come in and be hungry again so i think this is why i spent more than my wishfull 40 pw food budget because if i diddnt theyre would be nothing at all in for them to eat
i dont mind my daughter eating at all shes only 4 and needs lots of fruit and veg and this is what she tends to eat its the brother and oh that get to me tbh