Post Furlough/Student Food: Cottage Pie

What does a "budget meal" consist of?  The answer of course depends on where you stand.  "Cheap" is in the eye of the beholder and it is something that causes OH and I to disagree- whilst he likes the bottom line of "cheap" (he is as he would put it "as tight as a duck's a**e in a power dive") as soon as you put something in front of him that does not have meat in it he looks like you have just served him something that smells like it has come out of a dogs bottom.  I went back to a resource which I used to use many years ago now The Money Saving Expert "Old Style" forum board.  Having had nearly two months on unpaid leave due to family problems, will (and spare cash) is running low.  Looking through the suggested recipes on the latest Grocery Challenge thread many of them are now way out of the price range of a lot of the readers.  Not surprising really when you consider that many of them are based on prices from years back when tins of tuna were only 29p (now 59p) and I came across a corned beef one that stated that corned beef was 69p a tin (now £2.30 a tin for 300 g) so I think it is time to rethink what is cheap.  This along side a free Kindle book entitled "Cheap recipes Cookbook" by Thomas Kelly Delicious Cheap Recipes That Can Feed The Family Without Breaking The Bank" where every single recipe was meat based and used 4 chicken breasts chopped up to feed 4 people.  Sometimes we need to be aware that everyone looks at the world through their own lens.

This means that I struggled to think of a recipe that wasn't sausages AGAIN for tea tonight.  The freezer yielded lots of bags unlabelled bags and whilst I don't really want the excitement of "Guess the mystery meal" I have some mince that is calling my name and not wanting pasta or rice again (OH has been doing some of the cooking if you complain it is curry again he always just serves pasta) I think cottage pie is the one for me.  Definitely on the cheap side of a meaty meal although you can do a veggy version and a comfort meal for these horrible dark wet days.  As usual basic version with variations and a reminder that all the variations will freeze well, and the base can be served without the potatoes on pasta or as a pasty filling as well so if it is more than enough to fill the ovenproof dish you are using don't waste the leftovers.

Cottage Pie - serves 4

1 medium onion, chopped

1 pack of beef mince (450-500g)

2 medium carrots, peeled and grated

dash of Worcestershire sauce 

450g potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed

Variations

On the mince front get the one with the lowest fat that your budget will allow (your heart and waistline will thank you for it eg the cheapest mince at Tesco is £1.49 but 20% fat - go for the 5% one instead and it is £2.59)

Use lamb mince instead - makes this shepherds pie rather than cottage pie.

More veg - you can go up to half and half with chopped/grated veg (whatever you have) and mince and it will still be delicious.  Either add to base mixture and reserve half for another meal (freezer!) or only use half the mince.  Easy way to feed 8 from the same pack of mince rather than 4.

Add crushed/chopped garlic at the same time as the mince

Add grated cheese to the top of the mash

Add horseradish sauce to the mash

Use a mixture of sweet potato and potato for the mash

Use soya mince instead - works brilliantly

Add a sprinkle of oats to eak out the mince

Add a sprinkle of red lentils to eak out the mince (Tell OH it is a tomato seed he he)

Sliced mushrooms make a good addition to the base mixture too

Use a spoonful of marmite if you don't have any stock cubes

Tinned tomatoes work instead of passata of course - IMHO they are more watery and about the same price - why not go for 1p more per person but a better flavour?

Substitute cooked lentils (tinned) for half the mince

Ring the changes with the flavour of the mince.  The classic is a splash of Worcestershire sauce (if you want a giggle try watching YouTube where an American tries to pronounce it...), but there are no rules that say the mince cannot be more Italian (add dried mixed herbs instead) , Jamaican (add cumin, chilli and thyme), Tex Mex (add chilli powder, cumin and ginger), Greek (think moussaka oregano and cinnamon), Indian (curry powder or your own blend of spices to make a keema style mince), or even South African (curry powder, mango chutney and dried fruit as in Babotie).

Cost

This one really does depend on where you shop and the standard of mince you want to buy so going for the £2.59 for 500 g from Tesco for the prices below in the sure and certain knowledge that you can do better if you have too!..

500 g mince (5% fat) - £2.59

1 onion - 10 p

2 carrots - 8 p

1 heaped tablespoon of flour - 2 p

1 carton value passata - 32p

1 beef stock cube (Tescos own 10 for 50p) -5p

Worcestershire sauce (£2.80)- 2p

 potatoes (99p for 2.5 kg)- 20p

 total cost is £3.38 or 85p a head before you add any sides that you may wish to have with it.  Still well under the £1 a portion that seems to be the most popular benchmark for "cheap" even before stretching it with the cheaper ingredients; but definitely not Jack Monroe standard!

Here is to hoping that whatever your own version of "cheap" is having to be you manage to keep your bellies full.#

 

Post Furlough Food/Student Food: Sausage and Tomato Pasta

It never ceases to amaze me that people need to buy pasta sauce.  You know just the tomato and herb kind. It is the easiest thing in the world to make and you can even freeze it if you need to.  Why is it something that supermarkets sell multiple brands of ?   The answer is of course that it is so versatile, it can be used in countless pasta recipes and can even make the transition to rice dishes (jambalaya and the like) or be used in things like pie fillings.  However for most "with tomato sauce" recipes you just need a tin of tomatoes or in my case for more flavour value passata.  The following is just one idea with variations.

Sausage and Tomato Pasta - Serves 4

vegetable oil
1 Onion chopped
8 sausages
carton of value passata
300 g pasta
Courgette, chopped

Heat oil in pan and fry onion and courgette until soft. Remove the skins from the sausages and add to the pan and cook for 10 minutes breaking them up as they brown. Add the passata and season. Bring to the boil and cover and simmer for 10 minutes until cooked. 
Cook the pasta in boiling salted water once the  passata has been added to the pan. Drain and stir in the sausage mix .

Variations:

Tinned tomatoes can be used instead of passata but you may need two tins or one tin and a squeeze of tomato puree to get the same depth of flavour, a single tin is only 4 p cheaper than the passata but also more watery.

Add crushed garlic when you add the sausages.

Use sausages with herbs in for more flavour

Veggy sausages also work well

Substitute any other veg for the courgette, mixed veg, carrot, sweetcorn, peppers, peas any mix of what is in the bottom of you fridge can be added maybe not potatoes though as you already have the carbs from the pasta.

Add mixed dried herbs at the same time as the passata.

Add chilli instead of herbs

Add grated cheese before serving

Use leftover cooked meat instead of the sausages.

Use cooked pulses in place of sausages.

Turn into pasta bake and sprinkle with breadcrumbs and cheese

For a storecupboard emergency recipe tinned hotdog sausages can be used, sliced rather than "crumbled"

Skip the skin the sausages stage if you can get sausage meat - sometimes this is cheaper for example Tesco sells pork sausagemeat for £1.50 for the same weight as their mid range sausages which cost £1.70

Prices from basic version (Tesco used as "average" supermarket price, with mid range sausages- could be done cheaper if necessary)

Hearty Food Co Spaghetti  (20p for 500g) -12p

1 onion- 10p

8 pack of Lincolnshire sausages - £1.70

Growers Harvest Passata - 32p

courgette- 40p (yep really- seasonality has hit as I write this at the beginning of November!)

that's about 66p per person but you could buy value sausages and swap the courgette for a handful of frozen mixed veg and bring the total cost down by another 70p to give a price of  49p ish per head and of course if you have been clever enough to grow your own veg then that shrinks a little more than that even. A big filling plateful for four for the less than the price of tins of spaghetti hoops in tomato sauce from the brand leader at 68p per tin.  Four tins of hoops or homemade.  No contest.

Crafting Hack - Foiling using a laser printer and a laminator

 This week saw my silver wedding anniversary.  We marked it quietly at home sheltering as much as possible from this unprecedented year.  We also made cards for each other rather than buy them.  Not exactly fair as my husband is about as practical as a blind man wearing boxing gloves but he did his best and found a lovely cat image which he stuck on my card.  Meanwhile I used the occasion to try a hack I noticed on the internet some time back and was curious to see if it worked.  

One of the advantages of the schools being shutdown earlier in the year was that I was pushed to (finally) get a new laser printer after our old one died after about a decade.  Laser printers (and photocopiers) use ink that is a powder that it set by heat rather than liquid ink like an ink jet and this is exactly what you need for this technique.

1) produce your image or sentiment that you want to foil and print in black and white only (the card you print on may be coloured but the image should be black ink only)

2)Lay the heat reactive foil over the top of the image  (foil side up) and then top with a sheet of paper to protect the foil

3)Put through the laminator

It really was that simple.  

I used the Minc silver reactive foil from Amazon UK (the price has gone up a little since I bought mine - I paid about £5.50)

Other colours are available and since the roll is 5 feet long I should get lots of use.  Thermoweb is another brand that you could also use which has even more colours, but not as long.

Microwave Flapjacks

 If you are a fan of chewy and soft flapjacks then this is the recipe for you.  Using the microwave has the advantage of only using 10 minutes cooking time - thus saving fuel; but also means that there are less crunchy corners to break your teeth on.  Flapjacks also have the advantage that they are cheap, don't require flour which makes them both gluten free and something we can get hold of the ingredients for (2020 being a year when the whole country seemingly stockpiled flour and kept it next to the toilet roll mountain), and they are easy to vary.  This recipe won't save you money on ingredients versus the supermarkets but will stop the trip to the shop where you can be tempted into spending money.

Microwave Flapjacks - makes 9-16 depending on size.

100g butter (not spreadable)

75 g sugar (preferably light brown but use what you have)

2 tbsp golden syrup (or if you have scales that measure in ml then 30 ml)

200g porridge oats

For this you need a square microwavable dish, it should be able to fit on the turntable comfortably and still allow it to turn.  Lightly grease the tin as flapjacks are notorious for sticking to the tin.

We now all you need to do melt the butter then add it to all the other ingredients.  Choose your own method, saucepan, double boiler or microwave.  Stir it all together until everything is well coated.

Tip into the tin and press down with the back of a spoon.

Cook on high for about 5 minutes (more powerful microwaves may take slightly less).  The flapjack will still be soft but will harden up when left to cool.

Once cold slice into squares and serve.

Variations:

Variations can be with the filling or go to town on the decoration.

First the fillings...

Add dried fruit (up to about 50 g) this could be cranberries, apricots, sultanas, dried mixed peel, apples, mango etc. anything except banana chips (too crunchy), for the bigger fruit chop small first.  Could be a combo or your favourite flavour.

Add chopped nuts - again choose you favourite or use a mixture, even coconut can be used

Add seeds- OK so a slight nod towards energy bars (not that flapjacks could ever be healthy!) but seeds such as sesame, linseed, pumpkin, sunflower all add a nice flavour

Add chocolate- use chips or use a cheap bar chopped into chunks as a more budget friendly version. (Yep that's me folks)

Add smarties to the mixture (if they work in smartie cookies why not here)

Add crystallised ginger chopped up.

Add orange zest

Use honey instead of golden syrup

Toppings:

Add chocolate, any flavour and drizzle over the top or dunk

Add sprinkles or other cake decoration on top of the melted chocolate

Add a sprinkle of seeds or coconut or nuts.  Press into the surface of the flapjack whilst warm and soft.

Add caramel and then chocolate millionaires shortbread style.

Cost for one basic batch 

oats = 16p

butter= 60p

sugar=20p

Syrup=8p 

total = £1.04 per batch (prices from Tesco online website)

Although I think that I should declare that if you can still get to the supermarket then the Miss Molly's flapjack is also sold by Tesco for 80p for a similar weight.  There is no law that says that you couldn't use this as a base and have fun decorating that with the kids either...Hopefully you do not find yourselves in the position where that 24p matters...

Post Furlough Food/Student Food:Sausage Cassoulet

This is a quick, throw everything in the slow cooker/oven type of meal for when the nights are cold. It can be varied to add more ingredients and can be ready in the time it takes to bring to the boil if you are using leftover sausages. Easy peasy lemon squeasy which is what I wanted as homeschooling continues here with my youngest son not being at school due to worries about a "bubble" which is over 240 with teachers that move from bubble to bubble to teach during the day. This is barely supported with work from the school. Since furlough ended I have been on unpaid leave- which is brilliant of my employer as they recognise that they still need my skills when I am able to return to work but means effectively I am worse off than if I was on benefits! Nothing like the government forcing people like me with chronic illness to choose between health with poverty or risking your life but getting a wage. Never mind, rant over - back to the recipe which is a student favourite from years ago.  Never mind sliced bread, the baked bean was the best invention ever from the cheap instant nutritious food front and this is my favourite way of serving them in a recipe.  

Sausage Cassoulet Serves 4

Sausages - at least one each and can be any quality to suit your pocket, veggy sausages also work here.
Generic tin of baked beans in tomato sauce
Tin chopped tomatoes
onion, chopped
oil


Cook the onion in a little oil until soft. Grill the sausages if raw, then cut into chunks and add to the pan with all the remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil and cook for 5 minutes until everything is hot through.
Serve with rice, baked potatoes, noodles, homemade bread, toast, mashed potatoes or pasta as your fancy takes you.


Variations

Needless to say adding bulk will mean that the recipe can stretch to feed more than four.
On the sausage front use leftover cooked sausages to save using more fuel to cook these! At a pinch tinned hotdog sausages will do. (It makes a great camping recipe if you use all tins).  Frozen sausages that have been cooked also work - this can be cheaper per sausage than mid-range fresh ones.
leftover meat from roast
Crushed garlic
a sprinkle of herbs such as oregano or dried mixed herbs
a spoonful of marmite (trust me it works!)
mustard to taste
chilli powder or chopped fresh chilli to taste
Chopped fried bacon (cooking bacon is the cheapest option here)
if you don't have generic baked beans (which is the cheapest option) then any cooked pulses will do- but they must be cooked, drain any water first and add a squirt of tomato puree to the cassoulet to make up for lack of ready made tomato sauce.  Adding another tin of beans is the best way to instantly bulk out the portion size and if you add a different type of bean it instantly adds more variety
Cooked leftover veggies/tinned veggies of any variety/frozen veggies but leave to simmer until these are cooked

Cost for the basic ingredients works out less than £2 for four people (i.e. 50p a portion) if you use pasta as your carb of choice (27p for 500g use 75 g per person) and mid range sausages (£1.40 for 8), of course if you have to you can do better than that cost wise!

Saving on milk

 "Desperate times call for desperate measures" as the saying goes.  This week I found myself out of milk and with a debit card which was frozen by the bank after I bought something on behalf of my daughter at uni and the bank decided to freeze my card since it was an "uncharacteristic purchase".  With very little cash in my purse (now everywhere is contactless) and no way of knowing whether the bank would unfreeze my card immediately or whether I would have to wait for a replacement I was forced to resort to a method that my mum used to use as a single parent in the 1970's.  I bought blue milk and then added water to it to make it go further.

In our house we get through about 8 pints a week of semi-skimmed (green top) milk at the cost of about £2.18 per week.  But if you buy blue top (full fat) milk at the same price then you can water it down by about a third with no detectable taste difference.  I can attest to this as I decanted the milk into a washed green top container and NO-ONE spotted the difference.  This despite my husbands assertion that he can tell when I go all "cheapskate".  Since most of the milk I use is in cooking (sauces/pancakes/Yorkshire puds) anyway there isn't going to be much of a chance to spot the difference.

So much for milk that I want to use immediately but what about extras "just in case".  It is tempting to have some dried milk in the cupboard given the COVID situation at the moment but look at the calculations. One tub of this cost £2 and makes 4 1/2 pints of reconstituted milk which makes it 44p per pint. Doing the maths it becomes £3.53 for 8 pints. (Prices from Tesco website) If you feel you must have some stock for emergencies then buy the fresh milk and freeze.  It defrosts with no change in taste at all.

So assuming that I did this on a daily basis how much could I save - approx. 73p per week or £37.79 per year.  One to remember for WTSHTF.