I think Saint Hugh of RiverCottage is going to save me £120 this month!

[deaconblue]

Last week we had 4 veggie meals, 2 fish and a braising steak stew on Sunday, I made 2 soups from his veg book too. The week's shop was £94 (previous weeks had been £130 and £140, we average £130). This week I've planned 5 veggie meals, 1 fish and sausages on Sunday and another 2 soups and the week's shop comes to £93ish! I've also decided to cut out buying processed snacks so haven't bought mini cheddars or biscuits and have made home made cheese and ham muffins, and pitta with hummus for kids' snacks instead. At this rate we will be £120 better off at the end of this month.

Dh is finding he is more farty than usual though

I made the magic bread dough last night. Fab. It provided a pizza base for ds1, two garlic pizza breads for tea and a stack of flat breads for ds2. I'll use a flat bread to do another pizza for ds1's tea tonight as he loved it. Threw it all in the kitchen aid and let it get on with the mixing and kneading.

Did the ratatouille, not exactly original, but great one tray cooking and came out very tasty indeed....

Very keen to do the swede pasties, my DC will absolutely love those I know, so that could be on the menu for this week I think.

And the magic dough, hmm, I wasn't sure to start with but several people have raved about it on here so clearly something going right with that one!

Crikey, just got the book (at last) and it's massive!

So far we have tried mushroom stoup with dumplings
winter stir-fry with Chinese five-spice powder but I refused to add brussel sprouts
Mushroom and kale lasagne is on the menu tonight.

We had the sweet potato and peanut gratin at the weekend, it was lush but I dread to think what the calorie count is. Looking forward to the leftovers tonight...

I got the book after reading this thread and are input third week of using it. We didn't like the sweet potato gratin at all (far too sweet) but everything else has been great. So far we've had the squash and chick pea stew, the swede and potato pasties (yum!), chachouka (v glad I had fresh bread in breadmaker or we'd have been starving!), carrot humus, patatas bravas, veg Britain and dhal. All lovely and dh has liked them all too. DD (8) loved pasties and the dhal so far.

celticpromise - crikey, don't think on the calories, think on the pleasure! Sounds lovely, even DS (7) is now browsing. I have stopped even putting the book back on the shelf, it just lives next to the hob as we dip into it so often and I love to just look through and plan what else to try. Nearly every page DS says "oo, mummy, that looks great" so we have only got to the first Comfort Eating chapter so far and he wants to try about 5 things!

I know DS will go wild for the pasties, I really need to check the ingredients and get on with those later this week.....

Saves a flippin fortune, OP you are so right. Huzzar!

I've posted a review in the recipe books section on here. It will hopefully appear soon - let's vote up HFW!!! Will post when link appears.

we had the herby/noodle/green bean salad last night - was delicious

am very pleased with the book so far - everything we have tried has been lovely (we have toned down the spice a bit when sharing with the children, as one is a spice hater, and the other has some food issues (ASD related) so don't want to put them off!) and I have found a new, easy recipe to put in dd1's lunchbox - the cauliflower pakora (she took leftovers today, and has asked for the same tomorrow).

dd2 asked if we could have the 'crunchy cauliflower' for tea tomorrow - dd2 does not usually voluntarily eat vegetables!

oh, meant to say, we had the noodle salad warm not cold. just felt more 'right' as a winter dinner to have it warm. was fab.

I made the vegetable biryani and dahl on Saturday and it was great - left out the chilli for the kids and upped the rest of the spices. Kids loved it. I made the dahl too - well I cooked the lentils but forgot to finish it off with the hot oil so thats in the freezer for another day. We've had it before thought and the kids just loved it (the dahl). Going to embark on the pearled barley/spelt recipes later this week.

Macaroni peas disaster tonight. Put too much water in the sauce and created pea soup. Added extra peas to make sauce right. Served up. Cue kids sobbing 'please don't make me eat that etc etc'. I ate theirs and made them sandwiches. Dh ate his but admitted it was 'minging' . Don't think we will be repeating.

Recipe, thanks - yes, I made the swede pasties before and they were yummy.

I also found a lentil & squash shepherd's pie recipe in River Cottage Every Day so I might make that.

Quick Question

WHat are the main protein sources for HFW's veg recipes? Also how many can be made dairy/soya free?

I have a huge amount of cookbooks (including the RC cookbook) but never get around to using them due to DD's food intolerances! But want to cut costs and get some iron into DD (green veg etc)

a lot of them use eggs, and quite a few use cheese/dairy.

I have made the sweet potato gratin using oatly instead of double cream. dh is dairy intolerant, but can have small amounts of goats cheese, so we will use that for those.

I am quite egg averse (like omelettes, and fritatta-type dishes, but not boiled eggs/poached eggs) and there seem to me to be quite a lot of those (boiled/poached) which I shall approach with caution

it's a bit of a mix - quite a few cheese, a few egg, a lot beans and lentils. He doesn't use tofu. There are symbols to tell you which ones are already vegan and he reckons about a third are already vegan and another third could be done dairy free with the appropriate substitutes. You'd get value for money from it, I think.

I made the curried bubble and squeak today. It was very nice,though I used flowersprouts,and would probably use kale or cabbage next time because they have a stronger taste.
I put chopped boiled eggs through it,rather than a poached egg on top as he suggests.

Aw shoppingbags, don't give up, you've got to try making it again. I have been raving about that recipe since I made it at the weekend - just loved it and I'm not a big fan of peas.

Thanks to all who recommended this book btw, it's fantastic.

I have just made (and had) the curried sweet potato soup. It was lovely, quite spicy though.

eggs are ok, i seem to be able to eat a little milk (still BFing) and i cook for dd with oatly (which btw, makes blooming awesome porridge!) but cheese is an absolute no go. I just want to quit our reliance on meat s i used to be vege before getting married and I do miss colurful lighter meals - though too many lentils have an unfortunate effect on me!

thanks for answering my q - i have a £30 Amazon voucher from Christmas :)

Anyone made the squash & fennel lasagne? It says to use goat's cheese and I didn't know what type of goats' cheese to get. There was a hard cheddar-style one and soft, squishy ones.

Yes, I think I used a hard one, but honestly, it will be fine whichever you use, because the hard one would melt when it cooked anyway.

We did the stuffed peppers last night and used soft goats cheese instead of feta and it was lovely.

Great - thanks. :) I've never used the stuff before.

The only difference with the goat's cheese for a cooked dish is hat the hard stuff is easier to crumble, you'd need to use a knife to cut the soft into little pieces.

I'm slowly getting back on my feet so have picked dishes to make each evening from the book, and just done the online shop.

I'll report back letting you know what we tried and how it went.