Simple foods part 2

 Another simple meal I love to make is lentil bolognese. I make this up, we have it for one dinner and then I adapt it for a few more meals. 

All you need is

1. 1/4 bag of dried green lentils 

2. Several carrots

3. 2 tins toms

4. Dried parsley

I pop it all into the pressure cooker for 20 mins. Let the pressure release naturally then serve with cooked pasta and garlic bread. 

Using some of the left over lentil bolognese I then make lasagne. I add some extra tomatoes to the mix. Then make a simple white sauce. In the pot I put a layer of bolognese, top with lasagne sheets, add white sauce then another layer of lasagne. Repeat until dish is full. Ending with white sauce on top. Then sprinkle with grated cheese. 

Always a little more lentil mix left so I make one more meal the next day. I cook some dried pasta. Then mix the lentil mix with some passata then mix into the cooked pasta. Pop in an oven proof dish. Top with cheese and bake for 20nmins or so. Serve with home made garlic bread. 

I use dairy free milk and cheese to make these dishes so all are vegan. These meals are for two of us, you may not get as many meals out of that first portion of bolognese if you have larger appetites or a larger family eating this. 

I usually have enough left of each variation for a few lunches to take for work. 

Side note: I don't season with salt/pepper so we can do this to personal taste. You may wish to add to your meals when cooking if that is how you prefer to cook. 

Simple meals- version 1. Jacket potato salad

 Following on from my post the other day I thought I would share some of our simple meals that we have. They are low cost, low effort so perfect on busy days, or indeed if like the South of England at the moment you are in the middle of the summer week!who knows when the sun will go again so I send as much time as possible out enjoying it!

Jacket potato and salad with home made coleslaw. 

I love this meal as so low effort. I cook potatoes in microwave for around 7 minutes depending on their size, then it o the oven to crisp for 20 mins. 

The coleslaw is home made, it contains red cabbage, white cabbage, red onion and carrot. All grated. Then mixed with some mayonnaise, white vinegar and apple cider vinegar. Most of what is in this plate is from the reduced section of the supermarket, the vegetables last way longer than the supermarkets say. 

Costings for this obviously depend on how much you pay for the veggies but guesstimate this at 

Potato 10p (from a bag costing 50p)

1 carrot 2p (1kg bag reduced to 23p so prob even less!) 

Salad leaves 20p, cheaper soon when out of my garden! 

Tomatoes 1/4 bag that costs 55p so say 15p

Cucumber a few slices from a 50p cucumber say 5p worth maybe 

Olives from a jar I don't remember cost but from aldi so not a lot! 

The cheese is around £2 a bag, it's free from due to my intolerance so the most expensive part prob around 40p worth on my plate. 

So this meal comes in at around £1. It's very filling and so full of yummy goodness. 

I'll share another tomorrow. 

Batch Cooking

 

I try to find recipes that I like in order to batch cook and freeze. This saves me so much time and money, especially when I am in work full-time. I go back in full-time next week so I am trying to get prepared ready for the onslaught that September brings to teaching. It has also provided me with an opportunity to use up odds and ends in the fridge. I still have plenty to use up but I am determined not to waste the food we have. Some is being used for snacking- for example Teengirl has just came down and asked for the corn on the cob we needed to use, she has sat quite happily munching on that. I had a left over bit of chicken from last night's tea as my lunch with some of the wilting salad. 

My freezer is now stocked with 21 ready meals. I will use these either as quick after work dinners, or lunches. I shall be adding to these as the week progresses. So far I have made;

Lentil curry- there are 9 portions of this leftover in the freezer.

Lentil bolognese- I have 8 pots of this in the freezer.

Veggie chilli- I have 4 portions of this in the freezer.

I also found some mushrooms languishing at the back of the fridge so I made creamy mushroom turnovers- I have eaten 2 of these and have a further 2 in the freezer for a quick lunch at some point.

I love that I have so much prepped already. I have planned out my menu for the week, and will prepare next week's menu over the weekend. 

This was created with the food I needed to use in mind, so the fish fingers and chicken wraps are served with salads to use up the lettuces etc in the fridge.

The pesto will use up the bargain packet of fresh basil I got in the supermarket at the end of the day- recued to 5p! I bought 3, 2 went in the freezer for later in the term as I recently discovered how quick and easy it is to make your own pesto. I had been buying the free-from jars for around £1.50 a pot. I can make it for pennies!

What are your favourite batch cook meals? Bonus points if they are meat-free/ use store cupboard foods. We aren't veggie (see the plan above!) but I am reducing our meat consumption in an effort to save on food costs. Post your favourite meals below.

Camping

Stephanie, Smudge and I are off camping for a week on Sunday. Dylan and his girlfriend are staying home to look after the house and the rabbit. This is a week away on a budget. I have saved for the last couple of months for this, as it has been planned for a while. My sisters and their families are coming with us. We have a stay in the Peak District booked, I can't wait. I planned out the meals and things we will be eating today, based on what is easy to cook on a camping cooker and what we have int he cupboards already.

 This is what I have come up with:

The main items on this list are in my cupboard and just needed packing. The BBQ food will be taken from my freezer and pack in the cool box with ice packs to keep it fresh as will take us 4 hours or so to get there. We then will need to unpack the car, put up the tent etc etc before we eat. BBQs on the first night are always fun, especially when you meet others there as they are fun social meals allowing us time to catch up as we share.

Excuse the dog's nose- food is around so he's not far away! HAHA

I shopped through the cupboards for the meals on the plan. Then headed to the fridge:

This bits are fruit and veg that we can use for either snacks, or to enhance our meals. Not enough for the week, but once we are settled we will head to local shops/farms to buy the bits we need as we go. we won't have a fridge whilst we camp so we will buy fresh bit as needed.

This is how I keep costs down when we go away.What things do you do to keep the costs down?

Leftovers

 Do you find it hard to eat, or even have inspiration to eat when it is hot? I do. I really struggle to eat in this weather. I love the sunshine but I don't want to eat in it. I have a daughter who is the same, I end up having to find fast simple meals that will entice her to eat as much as me!

The other day I cooked a roast chicken and we had some left in the fridge that needed eating so I made today's dinner using it.

I also found this box in the cupboard.I'm not sure where it came from, I don't even remember buying it. It was quite easy to make, you dissolve the powder into a little water, coat your chicken in it and fry until cooked. Nice and easy, just what was needed today.

I coated my chicken and then popped it in the air fryer for ten minutes. I just needed the coating to crisp as the chicken was already cooked. Whilst this happened, I chopped a quick, simple salad and added some tortilla crisps which were open in the cupboard.

Plain, simple and tasty. Just what was needed on this hot day.

There was still a little of the chicken left. I decided to make a treat for the dog with it. A simple pate, if you were making this for humans you could use butter, maybe garlic and little lemon juice to liven it up a little. As it was for Smudge I kept it plain as he has a sensitive tummy and he will stink us out! Haha

Chicken and a little water and into the blender until smooth.

I should have used a little less water maybe as it was a little runny. It will be fine though as I will be spreading it onto his licky mat and freezing it as a cooling treat another day.

There is no chicken left now so I will need to decide on something else quick and simple for tomorrow's dinner. I'm thinking maybe some pesto pasta.

Rubber chicken!

No, my cooking has not got that bad! I am going to see how many meals I can get out of one small chicken. It was one I bought on yellow sticker for £2 last month. I cooked it nice and plain in the slow-cooker yesterday.  Teengirl and I had some with a jacket potato and salad for dinner, we had one breast shared between us. Today I am cooking some potatoes in the airfryer and steaming some veg to go with some more of the cooked chicken. I have saved every scrap of the chicken and plan on doing something with all of it. No waste!

This is what is left after yesterday's dinner. The bigger tub is the chicken, then the bones and then the juices left in the slower cooker after I took the chicken out. I'm determined to use it all- any suggestions on any of these?
What do you do with all of the left over bits from a roast chicken?

I'll fill you in as the week continues to what I do and if I use any of your ideas.

Food.......

My little lady came back from Brownie camp today. Excited, but shattered!

I needed to pop to town to get some cash out and pay for a couple of coach trips we have planned. In a nearby town a lovely youth worker organises trips for families every summer. We are always invited along to join in, all for the princely sum of £5 each. We have one trip which is to an air show and the other to a nearby seaside town. Well actually they are both coastal seaside towns. The first one is an hour and 40 minute drive away the other is 1 hour and 20 minute drive away. Both towns have parking costs over £10 for the day for little car like mine. So these trips work out much better value when you think they don't cost me in petrol or wear and tear on my car etc. Also I like to go out with other grown ups too! LOL

I have also pottered in the garden and collected these;

Stephanie gobbled the peas quickly and had a very sad face when I said that there would not be many more this eyar. Next year I need to plant a variety of pea plants so we get a longer cropping season as they are a favourite here.

We had half these carrot thinnings with our dinner, the others in the fridge for tomorrows lunch.

We had half the green beans with our dinner, the others I have frozen for another time as I get this many almost everytime I go hunting in the bean bed at the moment. I am the only one who really likes them, Stephanie will eat a few and Dylan won't touch them at all.

I also spent a little time crafting with my girl in the garden;

 

Before we both decided it was time to sit with our feet up!

Day 1 of the holidays

Today has been an almost home day. we are off visiting family tomorrow so we decided to take it easy. Especially as Stephanie is still not over her chest infection. I did pop to town as we needed a few bits and pieces, then to the library to return books. We also stopped at a lady up the road who is giving away Pigeon breasts as her hubby got carried away shooting! LOL

There were 400g worth of breasts which she gave me, we haven't had pigeon before so I decided to make an almost familiar meal;

Pigeon has a stronger taste than expected, but I enjoyed it. Dylan devoured most of this himself so I am guessing it wa a hit for him. Stephanie was not so keen but she is not much of a meat eater even when she isn't poorly so I didn't expect her to eat much of it. 

I have finally finished the quilt for my niece just in the nick of time as I get to deliver it this weekend!

I hope she likes it.

Easy food

We are still eating up the food out of the freezer. Life has been very busy so quick and simple meals all round. Plus the warm weather means I don't want to be standing in a hot kitchen anyway. Last night the children ate at their dad's so I was just cooking for me. I made pasta salad with mackerel. The vegtables came from the garden. The mackerel had a reduced label on it for 50p and the pasta was a little froma  30p value bag. So a very cheap meal. It was very tasty. I have some of the pasta salad left so I will have that tonight with a couple of the eggs my sister gave me.

I then followed a recipe given to me by a colleague. We made this with the children in school on our recent celebration of French Day it was delicious so I brought the recipe home. I love how simple it is to make.

It tastes delicious.

Promise of what's to come...

Last night Stephanie joined me to walk the dog. I took her on a route she hasn't seen before, she absolutely loved watching all the little bunnies skipping about as we walked. Very soon she spotted some blackberries- they are almost ripe. Must be due to this gorgeous weather we have been enjoying recently. Stephanie couldn't resist picking a couple- she says she likes the sourness! LOL

This prompted her to remember a local area where hundreds of blackberries grow and she announced she can not wait for the summer holidays so that we can go. 

I have also spotted a damson tree so we will be heading there later in the year as well. 

Do you have a favourite place to go foraging? What do you find there?

Preserving

So the other day I went to the supermarket and look at what I got reduced;

That's write punnets of plums for 4p each!

I chopped up 5 punnets and popped them in a pan with some water and let them cook down. Once they were nice a cooked I strained them.

The 'lumpy bits' were mashed and frozen as they will make a tasty crumble later on.

The liquid had sugar added and made some lovely looking jars of jam.

I now have five of these in the cupboard ready for when the current lot run out. 

So I still have a few plums left. So this is what I do;

prick the plums and place in a jar. 

add a little sugar

Pour in the magic ingredient to cover the fruit.

Lid on and shake, shake, SHAKE!!!

Shake regularly throughout the next couple of days. Then place somewhere cool and dark for as many months as you can handle!

Wonder who can guess what I am making now?!

Run out of ingredients?

It's just me and Dylan home today. He asked if we could have pizza for dinner today. We had popped to Tesco. I knew I already had the ingredients in so I agreed. When I went to make the bases I realised I didn't have any yeast.
So did I run to the coop? No, although the thought raced through my mind. I reached for Google. I searched for yeast free pizza bases, lots popped up using baking powder. Excellent. Off I popped to the kitchen to get some. Would you believe it, I seem to have run out of that as well. I still didn't go to the shop again though. I did a little more searching and found a recipe using plain flour, butter and milk. Hmm odd I thought completely different to any other pizza dough I have made. But I definitely had those ingredients so I gave it a go. Roll it was a doddle- no kneading required!

I base rolled out, looks similar to my normal base, it feels a bit softer though. I made the pizza like I normally would- frugal style.

basil from the garden got chopped and mixed with;

tomato puree and tomato ketchup (value range of course)

spread over the base. topped with 2/3 of  block of reduced price cheese;

Covered in a favourite topping- I had sweet corn, mushroom and pepperoni. Dylan just had pepperoni. Into the oven for 20 minutes.

One cooked pizza. It was delicious, in fact Dylan and I agree it is much better than our usual recipe for the base. I am a convert!


Oh would you like the recipe so you can try it out? Yeast free pizza dough.

In the recipe tin I got for mothers day. Ready for next time we have pizza!

Frugality continued

I am still keeping up with the frugality, chipping away at building an emergency fund. My emergency fund is currently at £280.12. I will have it full up very soon.

I am still spending as little as possible on food;

Shopping for the yellow stickers. Lot's of delicious fruit and vegetable scored on Bank holiday Monday morning. Bags of apples for 27p. 6 apples in a bag, nothing wrong other than having a best before of that day. Over a week later and they are still in my fridge perfect- well minus the bag and a half that have been eaten! Lettuce and eggs, avocado and clementines all reduce to 20-30p. I had all of this lot for less than £7!

I have spent a little more this week on our shopping because I didn't get there at reduced times, never mind the shop for the week is still under £20 by 38p!

The children's nan is helping out, she likes to cook and often sends me and my sister in law food parcels. This week I had 2 individual portions of sausage casserole, 2 of Bolognese, 2 containers of chicken curry. All lovely homemade food. This has fed us since Sunday. Tomorrow we will have the last of the parcel. It is the chicken curry which we will eat with jacket potatoes. Then we will continue to eat out of the freezer. I have been feeding us out of the freezer since February/ March time. We would have ran out a little sooner but I do get several meals each time Dylan goes to his nan and granddads, we have also had a meal out for Stephanie's birthday and my sister and her husband treated us to a meal out as a thank you for helping with their wedding.

I think I have about another weeks worth of food in the freezer before it will be empty. My plan is to empty it before we go away for half term, then I shall defrost it and replace the freezer. The thermostat is very dodgy and it needs defrosting every 2 weeks really. I want to get a frost free version this time to save on the defrosting hassle.

 

A combination of left overs and food parcels from Nan makes for some very easy dinners after work. I am always grateful for things which make life easier particularly during the working week. Especially so the last week- we have had the big O in work. Always a stressful time as those in the profession will understand, I am pleased they are gone. Whilst I am confident that I didn't put on a show for their visit, you do feel on high alert all day everyday that they are there! lol

 

 

Yummy meals on little cash!

I am still trying to keep the pennies stretching out until payday. I have a big pay-out month coming up what with bus passes due, Stephanie's birthday next month and my sisters wedding all to cater for I need to save wherever I can!

Last night was a cheap dinner, we had chicken and vegetable curries with rice and naan bread. Doesn't sound that cheap? Well it was my mother in law made the curries- she knows I love her curry so always saves a couple of Tupperware's for me when she cooks. So all I had to pay for was the little bit of rice, value range long grain so ridiculously cheap for the tiny bit we used (10p maybe?!), than naan bread was 1 of a 2 pack bought reduced to 30p and frozen so 15p. Dinner for three for 30p, from my purse anyway- result!

Today was equally cheap I used some of this;

this was around £1 I think from approved food, I used a few scoops so probably about 10p worth. The lamb was leftovers from a cheap joint so lets say 50p it was this much;

I added some gravy about 20p worth, some carrots again about 20p worth, 10p worth from a  bag of kale. This is what we ate;

Today it was only me and Dylan home for dinner Stephanie was collected from school by her dad so he fed her today. So dinner for 2 costing around £1.10 in total. Obviously these are rough amounts as I don't weigh absolutely every gram but still very frugal.
I have forgotten to menu plan this week, but its fine whatever we eat will be from the freezer/ store cupboard so won't cost me any money this week and can pretty much guarantee it won't cost much in total either. It will be another just Dylan and me for tea day so I wont need to do a meat/ meat free option.


This is a shout out to Chrissie who won my world book day giveaway- I am going to give you until 8pm Thursday night to email me at littlefamilyof3@hotmail.co.uk so that I can pass your details onto the giveaway providers to get your books sent out or I will have to pass onto the next winner. Thank you :-)