Hi, I'm new, and I would like your opinion on this please

overlykeensaver

Hello! One thing I noticed in your recipe is that you use passata. A couple of tins of tomatoes are much cheaper than a big jar of passata. Passata is just tomatoes in the liquidizer so you could even do that to the tin if you like to texture.

Hawthorn

The passatta I use is Lidls own.....it's 29p for I think it's 500g? So not hugely expensive, but you are probably right

overlykeensaver

that is a pretty good price! Lidl's tinned tomatoes are 19p for a 400g (ish!) tin.

Ask your butcher if he has any lamb for stewing/slow cooking. This will be tougher than the steaks but if you cook your curry nice and slowly for a long time, the meat will be meltingly tender mmmmm. There may be a little fat on it but you can always cut it off.

Also, why not use up your sauces before buying any more? a little bit of meat with added beans and some veg with the sauce can make a tasty meal?
hope this helps!

floss2

The thing about long gentle cooking for cuts like neck end is that the slow gentle heat tenderises the meat & dissolves any fat into the tasty gravy. There shouldn't be much gristle, but lots of flavour for not a lot of money.

Neck end of lamb is good for lancashire hotpot, with lots of potato slices & onions, oxtail is gorgeous and makes a wonderful stew, belly pork makes a lovely casserole dish with onions, chopped tomatoes or tomato soup & sage.

Nigella does a great lentils & sausage dish which can be as cheap or costly as your ingredients, agains it's better cooked really genlty & slowly.

Magentasue

Just remembered where my last post was going! Like I said, we don't eat meat whereas most of your meals seem to contain meat. Could you have one or two meat-free days a week? Your pasta bake doesn't need meat if it has cheese, for example and our curry is just veg! As is our chilli, stew etc. etc. I do put some pulses in stews but not a lot. Same with quiche and pizza - cheese and onion with a bit of whatever's available.

Not suggesting you give up meat but just a meal or two a week would help cut the meat bill.

Hawthorn

Overkeensaver, I don't use the sauces LOL. They have been there for AGES. I did used to use them, but these days I prefer to cook from scratch totally, if I can. I find jars always have a 'synthetic' taste to them. It's strange. I do occasionally use them on lazy days though, and no doubt they'll be running out of date soon, so I may have some 'lazy days'

I will have a word with Butcher, when I've reduced what I've already got *blushes*

I invested in a couple of cookbooks. My weaknesses - chinese food and indian food. I was never satisfied with my curries, so I invested in a curry book from Amazon for a fiver. It tells you how to make restaurant style curry, and it's FAB. They really do taste like restaurant curry.
You start by making a base, which you use for all curries, and can be frozen. When you have this base, you precook the meat in some of this base, spices and oil. Simmer it for a long time. Then, with base and ingredients added according to the curry, you use various spices and voila! Restaurant curry.

This is the one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Curry-Secret-Indian-Restaurant-Meals/dp/0716021919/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213107113&sr=8-1

I have the older version. Same book, but reprinted. Its very basic. My copy doesn't have pictures, but hey, you don't need them. What I spent on the book was made back with the first ever curry I made compared to takeaway prices And, my Husband preferred it. Said it was actually tastier than the takeaway stuff. Bonus!

I got a chinese version of the same thing, but unfortunately all it tells you to do is use jars for the majority of it. That was a bit of a waste of money, truth be told.

Floss, have you got the recipe for the lentils and sausages please?

Hawthorn

Magentasue, yes, you're probably right. The pasta bake can do without meat. I mainly do meat for my husband. He's a proper carnivore, and he works hard. He'd eat a big steak every night if we could afford it LOL.
However, these days he works a lot of late shifts and isn't often here which opens up my scope a bit for meat free meals. The kids love mac & cheese (he hates it)
I've never attempted to make pizza strangely enough. Is it better than takeaway pizza? Nobody really likes that. It's not something we really eat.
Quiche, I can do, not a problem.
Also, that old family favourite that was my staple meal as a kid. Egg, chips and peas LMAO.
I did buy (I'm a sucker for cookbooks) a while back, just for interest value, a world war two cookbook. I wonder if there are frugal meals in there too?

floss2

There you go...... http://www.channel4.com/food/recipes/chefs/nigella-lawson/italian-sausages-with-lentils-recipe_p_1.html

we use puy lentils & good sausages from our butcher

Hawthorn

Ah brill, thanks for that. Do you use the red wine? I'll probably omit that because we're really cutting down at the moment and it will be a case of 100ml for the food, 200ml for me LOL.

floss2

We do, but we have a box on the go (good for the heart, don't you know :rolleyes:)

Why not buy a small bottle from Lidl, if they do the diddy ones?

P.s. I've just posted on your pack-ups thread too, it's been tagged onto the end of another packed lunches one....