budgeting for food

[mumtoblaire]

just wondered how you learn to meal plan and how you stay within budget. I just spent £16 in asda on not a lot if i am honest.

£1 for two corn on the cob
£1 for milk
£1 marshmallows
£1 hasselback potatoes - throw in the oven
half cucumber, some beetroot, rice, jar sweet and sour sauce, pizza for DD1,sausages for DD2 - and she never ate them.

Would love to meal plan and stick to it. I generally think about dinner 30mins before everyone needs to eat. I work full time, DH works full time, DD1 is 9yrs and DD2 is 2yrs.

Advice greatly received.

Thanks mrsPnut, I also love sweet and sour but don't like buying the jars because of all the nasties in them. That recipe looks fab, thanks for posting it. Best of all is that I have all the ingredients!

Mumtoblaire - I only started cooking in the last few years! I recommend starting out with one-pot dishes on the hob, like chili, blognese, risotto, curry, jambalaya etc. More margin for error, you can taste and adjust all through the cooking process, most mistakes are correctable and less worry about under/over cooking than with bigger cuts of meat in the oven, plus the fact that its all in one pot means less faff and its easy to make big quantities.

That said, roast chicken is dead easy - find a Jamie Oliver recipe and you're away!

Oh Sweet and Sour chicken on sunday it is, Roast chicken on sat with mash potato and home made yorkshire pudding.

Any good gluten free yorkshire pudding receipes?

This thread is great and many thanks for all the replies.

I have the perfect Yorkshire pud recipe after many failed attempts- hang on and I will post it.

My fool proof yorkshire pudding recipe is

half a pint of milk, and add 3 eggs - whisk them together and then add enough flour to make it like a double cream consistency.
I do this by adding 2 big spoonfuls and whisking, then adding a bit more and so on.
I use a muffin tin to cook mine and make sure the oil is really hot before adding the mixture.
I haven't used gluten free flour to make them but using 3 eggs should give plenty of rise to them anyway. Mine regularly hit the top of the oven.

GF Yorkshire puds

50g cornflour
50g GF flour mix
Pinch salt
3 medium eggs, beaten
1/4 pint milk
2 tbsp veg oil

Preheat oven to 220 centigrade
Place oil in muffin tray, heat for 5 mins
Mix dry ingredients in bowl, add eggs to make a thick batter.
Add milk and whisk again until smooth.
Pour into hot muffin tray, cook for 20-25 mins.

By the way, I have tried using GF flour as a substitute in a normal recipe- it doesn't quite work and they turn out very bizarre indeed. Try the one with cornflour, honest

What about getting a gluton free cookbook.

I went to a charity shop yesterday and managed to get Delia Smith - How to cook part 1 & 2, Nigella Lawson - Kitchen and a Gluten free cook book.

I was way to excited and nice lady gave me all three for £10.

I am all set for dinner tonight and tomorrow but sadly have not got round to weekly meal planning yet

Thanks to everyone we have just had a lovely roast chicken dinner with roast potatoes, yorkshire puddings and peas & carrots. All made from scratch and the gluten free yorkies were brilliant and everybody loved them.

DH has picked chicken and we have enough for at least two more meals.

Well done you! What will you make with the leftover chicken?

Was going to be sweet and sour but forgot to get some of the ingredients and really don't want to go to a supermarket tomorrow.

So not sure - DH fancied some sort of carbonara. DD1 will have some with spaghetti and garlic with soy sauce.

Have plenty eggs, milk, flour and such

I like the lovefoodhatewaste website for leftover recipes too, here is the results of a search for recipes using leftover chicken!
here you go

They also have loads of tips on meal planning etc and there is even a sample two week menu with recipes and shopping lists.
here

forgot about this, not been on the website for ages! IIRC they have a very nice sweet and sour recipe on there which I have tried successfully so maybe have a look and see if it is any different, ie might you have the right ingredients for that?

Thanks will have a look at those.

Well done! Do you feel a bit more confident now? I love roast chicken, I bought one yesterday after this thread!

Couldn't believe how easy and how tasty it was. Will be making a roast at least once a fortnight.

Seen loads of stuff i want to make - cottage pies, chilli and risottos.

Brilliant!
My latest trick with cottage/shepherds pies is making two smaller ones. I bulk out meat with lentils and extra veg like grated mushrooms and divide it into two oven dishes, but only bake one. This crucially means DP doesn't devour the leftovers I had planned for another meal, which sometimes happened! I then freeze one and bake straight from frozen.

I do that too terry! It helps to break the monotany up, when I make a big one I get slightly sick of it by day 3!

We had the fish today, it was lovely, so thanks for that, it is going in the rotation! Roast chicken tomorrow, then broth! Can't wait.

Munto, I make my mince for cottage pie, and chilli in the slow cooker, I find this the easiest and quickest way. (Lots of hours to cook, but the prep is quick, I do it while I'm making breakfast, then that's it untill I'm ready for it).

I don't have a slow cooker but I may borrow my mums before i decide if i want my own. I live onsite at work so would be able to pop home to check and turn off.

Going to make two shepherds pies and freeze one as I would eat it.

Just need to plan 14 days of meals/write list and be ready for monday when i get paid.

Can you do one for me please MTB- am poorly this week and reduced to lying on sofa and DP away so he cant look after me . May have to break out frozen shepherds pie stash tonight!

What about doubling your mince and make 2 lasagne/spag bog at the same time then you would have 4 + days dinner.

Wheredidi- I know lots of people suggest this but surely bolognese sauce and cottage pie mix are made so differently that the only common bit would be the mince?

I mean fry the mince and onion together then add in spag bog bits to half the mixture and make and cottage pie bits into the other half.

Mind you I keep just cooked mince and onion in portions in the freezer as a base to make other dishes.

mumtoblaire I got my slow cooker from Tesco for about £10, it was worth every penny. You can buy all the cheapest cuts of meat and it tastes just as good as the expensive stuff. I got a cheap slow cooker cookbook from The Works and I use it loads. I've just started Octobers meal planner and I've got about 5 slow cooker recipes in there already.

EnglishGirlApproximately

Do you menu plan for whole month at time. Do you shop for everything as well.