Recipe Request :)

Qua Sae

Full Member
Some of you might have seen that money has become exceptionally tight for me & my OH so I'm after some yummy recipes that don't need a lot of ingredients & can be frozen.

I've looked through some of the older topics & got a couple of good recipes, but I'd love it if people could send some more :)

I don't have a slow cooker (Although I will start saving up for one), so for recipes that require a slow cooker, can I do them in a normal saucepan? How long will they take? I'm in the house almost all day anyway.. But I'm a little worried about our gas bill - we have gas hobs. Is that a ridiculous concern? Lol.

So at the moment, I have found some bolognese recipes, a curry recipe & I know one for some chilli. Obviously we can't live on 3 meals a month, so I would really love some ideas & ways we can make them cheaper. (Like buying from a butchers, is that cheaper than a supermarket etc?)

I never really had anyone to teach me how to cook properly or how to save money etc so please bear with me :) Thank you! x
 
You can have relatively cheap meals that use few ingredients are are yummy. Here are 3 of my staples for the last week of the pay packets shopping.

Tuna puttenesca : Tinned tuna, pasta, onions, broccoli, passata, chillies and pepper (Really easy- cook pasta as normal &throw a handful or two of frozen broccoli in the pasta water at the end for 5mins , slice up onions- pour the whole lot into a oven dish with the passata & tuna. mix and shove in the oven for 15-20mins at GM5).

Easy pasta: Tinned tomatoes, onions, peppers (any other veg you fancy and have languishing at the bottom of the fridge). Boil pasta, til almost cooked, drain and add veg and tomatoes, boil til veg soft (top up with water if necessary). Experiment with herbs and spices.

Stir fry- Buy the 50p bag os stir fry veggies and some noodles and there ya go. Add soy sauce, ginger & garlic for nom-ness. :)

Don't forget stapes such as: Jacket potaotes & beans, egg and chips, omelettes.

Remember frozen veg is often much cheaper and tastes just as good.
 
The Sainsbury's meal planner is good, I've written down the sausage, butterbean & tomato hotpot dish. It says to use Sainsbury's country vegetable mixture: Here.. Do you know where I might be able to get that? I'm not sure if Tesco would offer something similar but that would be great to bulk up dinners (Is it free?).

Those are great suggestions, Shrimpy! I've written them down :) I'm excited about trying all of these new things. I feel like such a housewife. Lol
 
I know this isn't freezable but Tesco penne value pasta is nice and only 29p a packet. I usually stock up on this, the value long grain rice, I buy value potatoes etc. All good :)

If you both like pasta and tomato based suaces thats a fab filling cheap meal, ie make a sauce with a tin of chopped tomatoes, clove of garlic, small onion, basil that sort of thing. Again I buy value chopped tomatoes, fresh value garlic, value onions!

I shall put my thinking cap on as I shop in Tesco all the time and buy alot of the offers/cheaper things. Pasta bakes?

What sort of food do you and OH love?
 
Hi we are on a tight budget too so dont worry. Frozen and tinned veg is always good. As is making soup which you can freeze, I love making a soicy BNS soup which is delicious, or can be used as like a pasta sauce which makes a nice change from passata, which in itself is a fab alternative to chopped tom. Tesco do a box of passata for 29p which we use, and add lots of herbs and spices too.

Pasta is always fairly cheap so using that as a staple for most meals is always good, and you can swap spices in it all the time to make a variety of dishes.

Oh and I have discovered smash pizza, which is syn free, and a cheap bag of tesco value smash is only about 30p, so it makes a nice meal too, especially if you add some syn free chips or what I do is add BNS wedges which I love.

You can also make a relatively cheap shephards pie if you use value spuds and quorn mince, with frozen peas or broccoli or even tinned peas or carrots etc you get the point.

lol, anyway at the minute thats all i can think of for now, hope any of this helps

XX
 
Hi Gemmy! You've got some good suggestions here already, but you also asked about buying from a butchers. Our local high street Dewhurst (which seems to have been renamed Cherry Tree Butchers while I wasn't looking) has bargain trays of things like chops, chicken thighs, mince, steaks etc., and you can get quite a large amount for around £5 or £10 depending on the size of tray. When I buy a tray of chicken, I take the skins off (a bit messy but stops you being tempted later on!), and then freeze the meat in individual freezer bags. You can divide mince up into portions too, and pat them into burger shapes and freeze. I don't know if other high street butchers do these offers, but it's worth a look. :)
 
Thank you so much for all of the links & recipe ideas! They are brilliant! I'm slowly making my way through each website & writing down recipes to try, then if they're winners, I'll pop them in my cookbook :D

Woodmouse - We have a butchers in the town centre which do deals like that.. I might give them a go. We have to get out of town on a bus though, would the meat be ok for a 30 minute bus journey? Or should I take a cool bag with me or something? I'm planning on doing a bit of shopping in town tomorrow, so I'll make them a quick stop off as well.
 
Hi Gemmy. If it looks like being hot then I think a cool bag might be a good idea. I don't have one, and used to have a 15-20min bus journey (plus waiting time!), but I always put the meat in the fridge as soon as I got home until I had time to deal with it, and it was o.k. Even if you use a cool bag, I think it would still be advisable to chill the meat before freezing it.
 
Hi Gemmy,

I have just joined minimins and been looking around for some thrifty recipe ideas and saw your post, hope you dont mind me jumping in!

I try and be as thrifty as possible when cooking, if I make spag bol or chilli I make extra portions and freeze leftovers for another evening when I'm feeling lazy. Also if I do a roast for sunday like chicken or beef I deliberately make extra to use as 'leftover' dishes like fried rice etc I pften enjoy these more than the original meal. It's also cheaper gas and electric wise to make meals in bulk :)

Do you have a market near to you for veg and fruit? They are often loads cheaper than supermarkets especially if they are in season. I also buy loads of 'value' range fruit and veg from supermarkets, they might be funny shapes but taste just as yummy when chopped up.

We try and have meat free days twice a week usually involving pulses which are really cheap and healthy which also keeps costs down(well I have to force the OH as he is definitely a carnivore at heart but he goes along with it most of the time!)
 
I buy meat now from the meatman that goes round markets/carboots etc. I have been stocking up on loads as I can just freeze it in portion's.

I recently got:

3 packs of bacon & 2 800g packs of extra lean mince for just a £5!!

I get 4/5slices of steak (huge slices that 1 slice is more than enough for 2 in a stirfry etc)
Big bag of chicken thighs
I got a tonn of diced chicken breasts (90 pieces)
10 Pork chops
pack of 12 sausages (far enough these need to be synned)
Then a box of burgers (12 quater pounders) or a big portion of ribs...

all that only costs £20!!

It lasts ages so if you have anything like that nearby then def reccomend.
 
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