Basic meal planning foods?

lacoste1985_2

Hi

I'm looking to buy my own flat soon and was just wondering if anyone could give me advice on what 'staple' foods to buy when food shopping in order to meal plan and create batch cooked dishes? My mum n dad are on hol at the mo so i popped to asda 2nte to pick up some bits and pieces for my brother and I and was suprised when the bill came to £45!!

If I was to live on my own £40 would be my weekly grocery shopping allowance n i hardly bought anything 2nte - few sandwich fillings, pizzas, juices, sausage rolls, scotch eggs that sort of thing. Basically how do u make this amt stretch - apart from buying asda own branded products which im quite happy to do aslong as they taste okay how do people go about buying fruit, veg, toiletries, meats, sauces and manage to stay within budget??

Id be grateful if anyones got any advice out there. Thanks

x

angchris

hiya, your asda shopping looks like its full of snacky food that you can easily make yourself...although nice to eat they aren`t really ingredients to make a meal from scratch.
what kind of meals do you like eating? once you have a list of your favourite meals have a look around this site for cheap easy recipes and try making them yourself by buying the ingredients you need, slowly as you make different meals you end up creating a storecupboard of herbs and spices and other usefull bits n bobs.
fruit and veg i buy value from the supermarket if i can get to a market i buy it there instead as its cheaper.
my toiletries consist of a tube of pitt rock deodourant(£5 asda) which has lasted me 18 months plus so far and still looks relatively new, i can thoroughly recommend it!! and cheapo shampoo which doubles up as shower gel and cheapo toothpaste.
meat i buy from the local butcher in bulk every 3 months or so and get discounts, i always pad my meat meals out with extra veggies/lentils.
sauces you can easily make yourself or buy value.
always plan what you will be eating the next day and get all the ingredients up together the night before so when you get in after work the next day its easy to throw it all together or invest in a slowcooker it costs pence to run and you can batch cook huge spag bols/chillis etc just turn it on in the morning and come back to a lovely cooked meal at tea time. you can also freeze in meal sized portions ready for other days that you are in a rush or just cant be bothered.

S0litaire

Rice 'n' Pasta should be staple shopping items!

They last forever and you can mix them with anything to have a half decent meal if money get tight.

As for meals.
Don't go for snack items like sausage rolls scotch eggs! they go out of date quickly and are not that good for you

Tins of Soup are good as well as fresh fruit and vegies if you can find them cheep!

You should buy minced meat freeze some and cook up a batch and freeze it also.

You can make home made burgers or pies with the uncooked stuff.

The cooked stuff just needs to be defrosted, have some tomato paste added with a few spices and add some cooked pasta! Hay presto! a nice meal

Olliebeak

When you buy minced beef always portion it up before freezing - a full pound will be way to much for one person. I do half pound portions for freezing but there are two of us.

If you like sauces with a 'tomato' flavour, tins of chopped tomatoes (or even whole ones that you can chop yourself) are invaluable - and the SmartPrice ones are quite suitable. Can always add a crushed clove of garlic/some dried mixed herbs/teaspoon of chilli (or paprika or cayenne pepper) for extra flavour.

Onions never go amiss either. I buy a large bag of fairly small ones (again SmartPrice) and spend about an hour peeling, chopping and freezing them. They do smell very strong and I have to keep them inside two bags in the freezer (those resealable bags). This way, when you need a chopped onion - you only need to take out a handful and the rest doesn't go to waste sitting on the shelf in the fridge!

I also buy the bags of frozen sliced mixed peppers (around £1.09) which works out cheaper than buying individual peppers and again no waste of half-eaten product in the fridge.

[Deleted User]

Olliebeak out of interest when you peel and chop your onions do you open freeze them first before bagging them or just bung them in a bag .I have bought in the past from Mt t's a bag of frozen onions around 49p to stick in my freezer but my local store has stopped stocking them

Olliebeak

I've just bunged them in a bag. When I need them, I just give them a sharp whack on the lid of the freezer to break up any hard clumps. They defrost very quickly so make sure you don't leave the bag out of the freezer for long when taking some out.

tiptoes

Hi lacoste


it may be a good idea to give a list of thing that you like to eat and then that way people can help you. Also what can you cook at the moment as it seems that your asda shop had a lot of processed snacky type foods.

you could also read through the meal planner thread and I'm sure if there is anything that you are intrested in knowing how to cook, people will be more than willing to give advise on how they do it. Y



I'd also consider the Groccery Challenge as this will help keep you on track with your buget.

freyasmum

Olliebeak wrote: »

Onions never go amiss either. I buy a large bag of fairly small ones (again SmartPrice) and spend about an hour peeling, chopping and freezing them. They do smell very strong and I have to keep them inside two bags in the freezer (those resealable bags). This way, when you need a chopped onion - you only need to take out a handful and the rest doesn't go to waste sitting on the shelf in the fridge!

I do that with my onions, too. You can't use them raw after freezing; they do need to be in something that's going to be cooked, but it's great for things like soups...

Which brings me onto my next point, I buy a few bags of SP/Value/Basics carrots and peel and grate them (in a processor :eek:) and freeze them. You can either just portion them into bags and freeze like that or you can free flow freeze them (talk about tongue twisters!) but this way you have to dry them a bit (I put them in a tea towel and squeeze ) and then you can only add a handful or two at a time.

Add a handful of lentils and some stock to the above and you have delicious, quick lentil soup.

As for basic foods, I'd have rice, pasta, potatoes, dried pulses, and some frozen veggies.

Eggs are always handy to have, you can always make something as long as you have an egg or two.

I also second the slow cooker :T:T

*Jellie*

I always keep a few tins of value chopped tomatoes- great for pasta sauces, mexican sauces, tomato soup etc