[mumofstig]

it's being poor. Portion sizes change a bit when you are that skint. I was very skinny when I was unemployed

I brought up 2 children on my own so I know a thing or 2 about not having enough money and feeding the family first - but it's strange if you have a bottle of red wine in the fridge to make that recipe but can only afford 50gms of rice

part of recipe ingredients list -
30ml Red Wine, 14p (Table Wine, £3.48/750ml)
50g Mushrooms, 12p (97p/400g)
50g rice, 2p (40p/1kg)

Each to their own, I suppose.....................

[SCassin]

I go to my local Tesco - sorry to use the T word    but it the only supermarket local to me!

Anyway I go around 7pm on a Friday evening.  They reduce huge amounts of veg to silly money on a Friday prior to filling with all the new fresh stuff for the weekend rush.  I often come away with a carrier bag full of veg and I mean a good mix for under a £1.  I have had punnets of mushrooms for 5p, organic beetroot bunches for 10p, cabbage, lettuce, cauli all for 2p each.  Once home I make batches of veg lasagne, soup, curry or chutneys depending on what I have bought.   Couple of weeks ago I got nets of tomatos for 5p a bag so I bought 6 bags, roasted them with 2 peppers I got for 10p and made pasta sauce.  I managed to get a stock of jars, including some kilner ones at a boot sale for £2.50 for a large box so these were used for storing sauce.

[surbie100]

having checked on NHS and BUPA, the recommended daily portion sizes of pasta and rice are 50-75g as uncooked weight for an adult woman. 

So my previous post wasn't correct - sorry!  Though she says in her blog posts that friends gave her an occasional bottle of wine or some beer.

I do remember eating smaller portions when I was skint though. In hindsight it might have helped to stick to those! 

[Auntiemogs]

A recipe for a lovely, easy to make lentil soup which I leave in my slow cooker overnight but which you can make on the hob. 
400g of red lentils
2 onions, roughly chopped
4 carrots, roughly chopped
2 parsnips, roughly chopped (carrots/parsnips can be varied to taste)
2.5L hot stock (veg or chicken)
Cumin powder to taste (I use a tablespoon)
Bung in slow cooker (or in a pan and bring to boil then simmer).
When done (lentils and veg are mushy) pulverise with a hand blender to required consistency (if a little too thick add more stock to make required consistency).
Makes loads and freezes well. 

[dim]

1 pack of black eyed peas (beans) (£1.45)
some celery (80 pence)
1 large carrot (15 pence)
2 large onions (30 pence)
a splash or extra virgin olive oil (25 pence?)
2 small dried red birdseye chillies (10 pence) ... buy these from the asian stores...if you dont like chillie, use 1 or a half

soak the beans overnight in water

next day, chop onions, celery, carrot and chillie and fry in olive oil till the onions is soft/translucent

add the beans and cover with water .... simmer for a few hours till the beans are soft (you may need to add more water but dont add too much at a time as you dont want soup)

add salt and fresh ground pepper .... taste and you may need to add more seasoning

serve hot with crusty fresh buttered bread

this meal costs just over £3 and you will feed 4 people for 3 days... it keeps well in the freezer

[compostqueen]

Buy from the Asian store! We grow chillies ourselves hereabouts    Not to mention celery, onions and carrots 

[mumofstig]

Please note that all  dried should be boiled for 10mins before reducing to a simmer, because they contain varying degrees of toxicity.

The toxic compound phytohaemagglutinin, a lectin, is present in many common bean varieties, but is especially concentrated in red kidney beans. White kidney beans contain about a third as much toxin as the red variety; broad beans (Vicia faba) contain 5 to 10% as much as red kidney beans.[6]

Phytohaemagglutinin can be deactivated by boiling beans for ten minutes; the ten minutes at boiling point (100 °C (212 °F)) are sufficient to degrade the toxin, but not to cook the beans.
If the beans are cooked at a temperature below boiling (without a preliminary boil), as in a slow cooker, the toxic effect of haemagglutinin is increased: beans cooked at 80 °C (176 °F) are reported to be up to five times as toxic as raw beans.[6] Outbreaks of poisoning have been associated with cooking kidney beans in slow cookers.[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaseolus_vulgaris

[JayG]

Chicken isn't as cheap as it used to be, hopefully for reasons which reflect better welfare conditions for them, but you can still get a small chicken for £4 from Tosscos, which reduces to £3.33 if you are able to take advantage of the "3 for £10" deal on selected meat or fish packs.

OK, there's usually only me to feed but it does 5 meals at 80p per portion for the meat (67p if you have been able to take advantage of the offer.)

Day1: "Stuffed" with lemon slices and herbs, then roasted with roast veg and whatever green veg are available. One leg and some breast meat, plenty of gravy. 
Day2: Other leg and more breast meat with veg, mash and remainder of gravy.
Day3: Chicken, chips and salad, with appropriate pickles/dressing.
Day4/5: Remainder boiled up in pressure cooker for 10 minutes - carcase stripped and meat and stock used to make chicken and vegetable pie (cheesy pastry topping.)

Obviously it's not compulsory to eat chicken 5 days on the trot  , and pie is only one away of using up the leftovers, but using whole chicken can still be a good economical source of animal protein and varied tasty meals with all the goodness and flavour extracted and absolutely nothing going to waste.

[New shoot]

This is one of my favourite dried pulses recipe from Madhur Jaffrey and may help those with a cucumber glut as well 

185g chana dal (or other lentil)
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
2 cloves garlic
2 slices fresh ginger
6" long piece of cucumber
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garam masala
Pinch chilli powder or to taste
1 tbs vegetable oil
1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
2 tbs butter

Wash dal, put in pan with water and bring to the boil.  Skim any scum, turn heat to very low, add tumeric, garlic and ginger and cook with the pan lid slightly ajar for 1 1/2 hours.  Stir a bit towards the end.

Peel the cucumber, cut in half and scoop out the seeds.  Cut into 1 inch sections.

Add the cucumber, salt, garam masala and chilli powder to the dal.  Cover and cook on low heat for 5-10 minutes.  If you want to make lots and freeze it, leave the cucumber out of this stage and add it as you reheat the dal.

Last bit is optional.  Heat butter in a small frying pan and when hot, put in the cumin seeds.  They will sizzle and go a shade darker.  Pour over the dal and cover the pot.  Mix in the butter before serving.

Big bags of chana dal are very cheap if you have a local indian grocers and it has a lovely warm, sweet taste 

[arugula]

That sounds like my kind of recipe New Shoot. Thanks.

[Madame Cholet]

going to give th

This is one of my favourite dried pulses recipe from Madhur Jaffrey and may help those with a cucumber glut as well 

185g chana dal (or other lentil)
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
2 cloves garlic
2 slices fresh ginger
6" long piece of cucumber
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garam masala
Pinch chilli powder or to taste
1 tbs vegetable oil
1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
2 tbs butter

Wash dal, put in pan with water and bring to the boil.  Skim any scum, turn heat to very low, add tumeric, garlic and ginger and cook with the pan lid slightly ajar for 1 1/2 hours.  Stir a bit towards the end.

Peel the cucumber, cut in half and scoop out the seeds.  Cut into 1 inch sections.

Add the cucumber, salt, garam masala and chilli powder to the dal.  Cover and cook on low heat for 5-10 minutes.  If you want to make lots and freeze it, leave the cucumber out of this stage and add it as you reheat the dal.

Last bit is optional.  Heat butter in a small frying pan and when hot, put in the cumin seeds.  They will sizzle and go a shade darker.  Pour over the dal and cover the pot.  Mix in the butter before serving.

Big bags of chana dal are very cheap if you have a local indian grocers and it has a lovely warm, sweet taste 

sound yummy

[Lardman]

Big bags of chana dal are very cheap if you have a local indian grocers and it has a lovely warm, sweet taste 

Unless Im cooking it, when it tastes like dirty washing up water 

[compostqueen]

You needed a good recipe then Lardman

I make one and it's really authentic as it was given to me by a lady from Bengal.  Lentils are good value and make such good meals. They take on flavours so readily and are a good meat substitute or to eke out a small amount of meat.  I like chick peas too for the same reason 

Building up a core stash of spices isn't dear if you get them from the Asian shop or Mak*o 

[J_B]

Picked up some cheap shoulder pork chops on a special for 90p and made pulled pork with mediterranean tatties

Pulled pork
spash of wooster sauce,
sprinkle of italian herbs ( i bought a huge plastic bottle for £2 from costco that lasts for years)
pinch of paprika....splash of olive oil...
marinate for 30 mins...
 lightly fry the pork chops till it just starts browning then take out

cut up 3 red onions,4 cloves garlic (from my lottie) and fry till it gets soft...put in a pint of beef stock (or any stock u fancy), put the pork back in and slow cook for 1 hour, the liquid reduces and ou cook it till u can seperate the chop with a fork

for med. potatoes....
take a bunch of tatties (grown on the lottie), wash and wuarted it....drizzle it with oil, splash on some herbs and bung it in the over for 45 mins till cooked.

once done tke out the pork shoulder chop and tear it up a bit with a fork so it gets seperates...server this pulled pork with tatties...its superb...made it this saturday