breadline britain - cheap fresh healthy food IS possible

[afterdinnerkiss]

cannot see another active thread on this so sorry if there is

following the guardian stories on families in recession and some on the relyted MN threads e.g. here and was thinking that actually is possible to feed a family of 4 decently enough for five pounds without resorting to ready meals.

What I cook:
a tin of tomatoes, an onion and some cheap dried herbs with cheap pasta can feed a family with enough change left over for some cheese to sprinkle over??

a few boiled potatoes and carrots and a dash of milk makes fresh mash. add frozen peas and frozen herbs and you are still under five pounds.

am i being näive or do you do this too?

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

a lovely woman once posted these dahl recipes on my site years ago and i have used them ever since

we had hasselback potatoes tonight, with frozen sweetcorn and butter and some hideous meatloaf from the sale rail of M&S that i found in the back of the freezer (we are working through the freezer, i WILL have that bastard defrosted by Christmas). No-one ate the meatloaf (cos it might have been a barg at £2 but it was farkin' rank) but all were full on tattie and veg anyway.

hasselbacks, btw are just sliced floury tatties with some oil and salt on them. you can faff about with butter but i can't be bothered. The kids like them because they are unusual and crispy etc and I like them because they only take about 45 mins at 200 (longer if less etc) so you can do other things in the oven at the same time.

i am also a big fan of bulking out a can of tuna with white beans and garlic (with parsley if there's some floating around) and doing that with the hasselbacks.

[stressedHEmum]

This is a Thrifty Plan recipe booklet.

This is the website that has a lot of the USDA info on it.

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

but then i should say that i eat these things first and foremost because i LIKE them. so i'd be eating them, anyway, recession or no recession.

i also do a massive italian tomato sauce regularly, a proper italian recipe with just a coupla slices of smoked bacon, some garlic and tomatoes with half a teaspoon of salt and a huuuge glug of olive oil, simmered for an age. meat-wise, i've a free range chicken in the slow cooker at the moment, i'll take the meat off it later and it will do sandwiches, a couple of meals (risotto, venetian pasta) and fling the bones back into the slow cooker with a carrot, bay, onion, celery etc and it'll be stock for soup.

this is just what my mother did, tbh. we ate well on a very small budget back then, and that has informed my taste buds now.

[InNeedOfBrandy]

My grandad used to do the best hassle back potatoes with oranges, I have his recipe book from them somewhere I must dig it out.

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

oh, i also sling the chicken into some of the dahl for a quick curry. sometimes with coconut cream/milk if there's any around.

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

with oranges? ooooh, i can't imagine that at all, what did he do, do you think?

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

re quick food after work etc... i think that is harder. i do batch cook, though. hence the blardy ice monster in the freezer. ooh, another one is ratatouille, so long as the veggies are in season that's pretty cheap and filling, esp with some grated cheese on top. can be tossed through pasta or over rice/baked pots. especially nice with some harissa added if you're sending it a bit middle eastern.

[InNeedOfBrandy]

Ok I have the book now,

roast the scored potatoes for 40/50 minutes just before they begin to turn brown, meanwhile place orange juice (juice of one orange) oorange rind 1 tbsp demera sugar in a sauce pan and heat gently till sugar has dissolved, simmer for 3/4 minutes till glaze is fairly thick then remove from heat. When potatoes are begining to brown brush all over with glaze and continue to roast till a deap golden brow.

Does sound like a bit of faffing around and not a lot to make them orangey but I promise they are delicious and really orangey in a nice way.

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

mmm... i could imagine they would be really nice with waxy potatoes and lemon as well, don't you think? anything else in that book?

[BornToFolk]

Cooking without meat undoubtedly takes far more skill, and time

I disagree. I do think it can take a bit of imagination as we live in such a meat-eating culture that people get a bit at the thought of dishes without meat.

But it takes no more actual cooking skill or time, IME. Dinner tonight for me and 5 year old DS was shepherd's pie made with nut mince and cabbage on the side. Cheap, filling, nutritious and (I think!) tasty. And took no more time or skill to make than a meat-based shepherd's/cottage pie.

I agree with the rest of your post though! I've been vegetarian for half my life now and DS has never eaten meat so this kind of food is totally normal to us. A person brought up on a diet of nuggets and chips is probably not going to prepare nut mince for dinner!

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

i've never even heard of nut mince. [embarrassed]

[InNeedOfBrandy]

Aitch it's called the complete Christmas cookbook edited by Sarah Ainley my grandad left it to me along with his Leith cookery bible and techniques bible. All the recipes look delish and the truffles are amazing

[stressedHEmum]

I don't think that it takes any more skill or knowledge to cook veggie, either, tbh. Perhaps a little more imagination or acceptance of different ingredients or combinations but you soon adapt.

it definitely doesn't take more time. Most of the stuff I cook takes well under an hour to make, some of it as little as 15 or 20minutes. I'm just not fit to stand or chop/mix/stir for very long nowadays.

Like Born, though, I have been a vegetarian for a very long time (over 30 years), and I have been low income for all of my adult life, so perha[s I am just used to it.

[nailak]

One thing that makes it harder for me is lack of a decent oven/grill so where before I would oven bake or grill stuff, now I fry it.

Also at mums we would by veg, slice and keep in freezer, now I don't have freezer space so cannot do that.

[HappyTurquoise]

Tonight's meal:
optional pack cheap pancetta (£1.50/lidl) cooked to crunchy to go on top
super saver pack of pasta (30p in Asda)
A little oil, 5p
1 onion (from a huge bag costing £1, so about 5p)
4 'lumps' per person of spinach from frozen bag (large saver pack/on offer, so 10p)
Cheese, 30p (I shop around and only buy cheese for less than £5 per kg. Found some in Asda which had an additional offer of 3 for 2)
some thyme from garden (free)
1 Jar pasta sauce £1 or less.
pudding: yesterday's leftover Apple Charlotte (free!)

• less than £4
  

cooked up extra pasta, after serving dinner, added finely chopped wafer thin ham and some extra grated cheese for tomorrow's packed lunches. (extra £1 for 2 - 3 lunch mains.)
I drive around for my job, and stop at supermarkets on my way home instead of making special trips.

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

that does sound like a huge pita, nailak.
(your grandpa sounds like he would have been a handy feller to have around, Brandy).

[HappyTurquoise]

nailek, it is worth getting a steel pan, and a steamer to fit in/on it so you can steam veggies and fish etc.

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

Happy, can i ask, though, what the point of the pasta sauce was in that meal? hadn't you already made a pasta sauce, but for the addition of a thirty pence can (or two) of toms?

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

or was it just that you had it in anyway? (as per my boaksome meatloaf )

[puffylovett]

(Not read whole thread but marking place for some great food ideas)

[expatinscotland]

What I like about cooking veggie is that the leftovers can be kept for longer.

And honestly, you can use pulses and veg in the Old El Paso recipe kits, it even tells you how, or with jars of Patak's pastes, it tells you how to sub in pulses and veg for meat.

It takes about as long as it takes to ring and wait for a takeaway delivery.

I just don't get how it's cheaper to eat junk. I don't. I had to live on crap for nearly 8 months as had only a kettle and a microwave to use and fridge didn't allow for fresh meat or eggs.

I lost 2.5 st and it cost a bloody king's ransom! And that was just for me.

We have takeaways for birthdays and birthdays only. It's about £12 for pizza suppers and one fish single for 4 of us. For one meal?! How on Earth can that be cheaper than something you cook and have leftovers for?

I'm not talking about people who need to have special diets or who have SN, but those who don't, which is whom this article concerns.

'Oh, then DH won't eat it.' Bet he will if he gets hungry enough.

Because believe me, on the bones of your arse, that's where we live, you eat what's there because there is literally nothing else.

[HappyTurquoise]

I had it anyway, and kids prefer that make of sauce (it hides the spinach). But yes, I'm going to be using jars a lot less, as they're going up in price so fast.

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

EVERYTHING is, isn't it? and apparently it's all set to rise more, cos harvests have been so crap.

[TobyLerone]

Honestly, I never use jars of sauce. Or packet mixes. Or much pre-packed stuff at all. My recycling bin is always practically empty, where most peoples' are filled with jars and cans. I wouldn't even know how much a jar of sauce cost, but I bet it's more than the sum of its ingredients.

[TobyLerone]

I don't mean that to sound unbearably smug, honestly I don't

It just really doesn't cross my mind to buy a casserole/fajita mix or a jar of pasta/curry sauce.