Frugal meals

[Poppins17]

Hi all,

My colleague was telling me today has and electricity could go up as much as £500 a month….. the only place we can cut our spending is our food shopping which is already pretty low.

We meal plan, shop in Aldi, cook from scratch, buy yellow sticker foods where we find them, and have meat free days, but I’m wanting to build a library of the cheapest (but still healthy ish) meals and perhaps rota them every couple of weeks as we head into autumn / winter. I like to try and make enough for DH to take leftovers for work lunch the next day.

Last night I made lasagna and only bought mince and sheets fresh everything else I had in, and that made our tea last night, a portion for DH lunch today, a second portion each in the freezer and I’ve saved the sauce for DH to make himself a pasta lunch for tomorrow.

Tonight we are keeping it super simple with cheese and potato pie. I’ll add a sausage each from the freezer and a spoonful of beans (using the rest for tomorrow‘s meal), and we have some bread we can have with butter if we need to bulk it out.

I have a small air fryer and I’m hoping to upgrade that to a two drawer one for my birthday next month to try and minimise the amount we use our cooker. I’m happy to cook all meals from scratch including pasta / white sauces etc… so please let me know which meals you find most frugal… thank you!

I've just thought of another one, which my mum used to call risotto and we used to call Monday night nice nice chicken and rice.

This makes a lot of nice food out of scraps leftover from chicken, but actually works fine with any other little bits of meat chopped small or no meat at all.

If you have had a roast and there are bits left over that wouldn't make a proper dinner, take these bits and chop small. Everything for this needs to be chopped small, smaller than dice.

In a big saucepan, fry an onion until soft but not brown. Can add garlic as well if you want it. Next add rice (half a mug per portion) to the onion and oil and stir until coated and mixed. Add in veg chopped small eg carrot, peas, sweetcorn (as per that old fashioned mix you get in the freezer) or whatever you have. Stir in and combine it all. Then add chicken stock (real or stock cubes) - use the same mug as the rice and add one mug per portion. Bring to the boil and put the lid on. Cook with the lid on until the liquid is absorbed (you can hear it click on the bottom of the pan, or see that the steam has stopped). Serve with soy sauce. Literally everyone I've ever made this for has loved it, even though I always apologise for the 70s vibe and retro veg. It's really nice.

sometimes i make two or three portions, bung it in fridge and reheat in microwave, just top with fresh egg, know some are funny about reheating rice tho.

Sorry that was for @Sunshineandrainbow

Microwave your potato and, if you like, finish it off with three minutes in an airfryer or five in an oven

or

Save by baking 8 or so potatoes at once and keep in the fridge to heat in the microwave

We love pizza chips. Chips made in the air fryer topped with home made tomato sauce and cheese. Then blasted in the air fryer again to melt the cheese ( though not the kind with the rotating paddle)

Tonight I made coconut dahl - coconut milk is currently 75p in Tesco, red lentils cost pennies. Onions, spices and whatever veg - I had half an aubergine and a cauliflower in the fridge so that's what I put in.

We eat a lot of dahl. Coconut cream is usually about £1-1.20 a block and makes equivalent of 2 tins or if you really need to stretch your money there's Maggi coconut powder.

@bluechameleon @Puffincrossing
Please could you explain how you make the dahl? Have had it out and about but never made it and recipes always seem quite complicated.
I think my daughter would like it and could save leftovers for my lunches if ok to reheat, think someone upthread said it saves well.

Thank you

The Asda "essentials" range seems very good value. I bought 500g of "cooking bacon" - basically gammon offcuts - for 75p! Absolutely fine for sticking in a casserole, pie or pasta dish. Their spagetti is only 23p and tinned beans 25p.

Also consider the cost of the actual cooking process. Making a casserole in the oven uses a lot of energy to heat the oven for 2 hours - can it be cooked more cheaply in a slow cooker or pressure cooker? I hardly ever use my oven now, everything can be done on the hob, slow cooker or air fryer much more economically. If you do use the oven, pop some other things in to cook at the same time such as jacket potatoes or a joint of meat which can be quickly microwave reheated for another meal in the week.

Meals which can use up odds and ends are good too. I made egg fried rice yesterday with carrots, half a pepper, a courgette which was going soft - egg, rice and soy sauce. Cheap and avoids food waste.

> I'm vegetarian quorn is cheaper than meat.
I'm not sure it is especially where sausages are concerned. Also looking at the ingredients list on quorn is somewhat grim.

Mustard chicken is lovely:
Brown thicken thighs in frying pan on both sides
Transfer to an oven dish
Pour on a large pot of creme fraiche mixed with a couple of teaspoons of mustard and garlic
Sprinkle with tarrragon and rosemary
Can also experiment and add a splash of wine or fried leeks
Cook for 40 minutes on 170
(I cook mine for longer in the frying pan then only need about 20 minutes in the oven)