[GrannieAnnie]

With all the talk lately about us eating too much meat, and indeed, too much of everything and our soceity being to wasteful, I've been thinking a lot about eating cheaper etc.

So I've started looking around and found this site which I thought was a good start!

http://www.allthatwomenwant.com/wartimerecipes.htm

Anyone want to add favourite frugal recipes on here, or ideas of what they do with their leftovers?

Most of my leftovers now are being made into the next day's lunchtime soup!!!!!

[Selkie]

That looks interesting, but I am glad that the carrot fudge isn't vegetarian

[Fenland Girl]

I am always trying to get my OH to let me feed the family on wartime rations for a week! He has resisted so far   . I always try to make meat go further by sort of 'adding value' i.e. if we have sausages I make them into a casserole with lots of veg or toad in the hole. Makes a few sausages go a lot further! I am also blessed with a little boy who will gobble leftover anything for his lunch the next day (makes up for the other one who survives on apples and biscuits!) .

[GrannieAnnie]

I try to be as frugal as I can, but our shopping bill is anything from £30 a week to £50 for us 2 and the dog and cat.  And that includes all loo rolls, cleaning stuff etc.

As I now make my own sausages, the other day we popped into the local Co-op for some milk and they had big bits of boned pork shoulder half price at £1.93 a KILO!  So I bought the biggest one and added it to a bit I'd bought in Tesco a few days earlier, so I've now got 12lbs of sausages in the freezer for an outlay of about £8.  Pork and black pepper, pork and leek and pork and chilli!!!!

And yes, like you FG I make toad in the hole, sausage casserole, etc with loads of veg

[mashauk]

We add a handful of lentils (man) to lots of things, to bulk them up, such as shepherd's pie, spag bol, soups, stews. Also think a lovely hot thick dahl has got to be one of the cheapest meals going

[mushroom]

We add a handful of lentils (man) to lots of things, to bulk them up, such as shepherd's pie, spag bol, soups, stews. Also think a lovely hot thick dahl has got to be one of the cheapest meals going

I'm with you on the dhall. For bulking up an otherwise thin soup, I use pearl barley. I notice this method isn't used a lot now.

[mashauk]

I use it when I'm on my own, OH won't eat pearl barley.  My mum makes the most amazing vegetable soup, that we call her knife and fork soup, using dried green peas, pearl barley (think it's the soup mix), butterbeans, lentils, lord know what else but it's lovely, she gave me the recipe but I can't make it the same as her.

[GrannieAnnie]

Oooh, talking about lentils and pearl barley, reminds me.....

You know when you buy things like kidney beans etc you soak them and/orboil them before you cook them properly?  But some pulses like lentils you don't have to?  What do you do if you have a mixed packet?  I've got one for country stews and its got evrything in it, as a stew takes ages to cook, is it okay to just add them to it?

[gobs]

I find those a bit useless, Grannie, as things in there have different cooking time. If you got dried beans in you gotta soak, etc. as you wouldn't want to poison yourself (even different beans have diff cooking time), so the rest gets overdone. :roll:

Leftovers? Which ones don't you already use?

I flavour and season cooking water of vegies and put in fridge to use as stock.
Dry bread: pudding, breadcrumbs, burger kind of things.
Boiled or jacket pots: into pasta and bread dough, or pot cake things, croquettes.

Vegies: paella, risotto like things

Rice: rice pudding kinds, risotto, layer in vegie bake(just as mash in a pie), into soups instead pasta.

[WG.]

You can make great tasting stock from all the vegetable peelings too - even onion skins.

[wildeone]

I've got a rice pudding in the oven it the moment I just had a craving for it and raided the cupboards and found everything i needed (nothing short of a miracle) Rice is 3 months out of date but who cares rice is rice!!!

[chrissie B]

i found a site a while ago called cheapcooking .com, got some interesting stuff on there .
chrissie b

[gobs]

This makes a lovely cheap soup:

Use cooking water of peeled main crop potatoes and thin or other small pasta for soup (or make your own, traditionally it's made with a vermicelli like cut).

Thereabouts: 2-3 l of potato stock to one large or two smallish onions, seasoning, paprika powder.

Sweat off finely chopped onions in some fat, season, add a bit of paprika to make it quite orangy colour (careful, paprika burns very easily), add stock, bring to the boil and add pasta ( a good handful per person is usually enough around here) when pasta is cooked, adjust seasoning if needed and serve. This will serve about 3-4 people. Can't be stored too well, as pasta will soak up the liquid.