Just cook – what’s available

Who hasn’t been to the shops, list in hand, only to find that some of the things they wanted had sold out?

It’s not a problem really; there’s still plenty of food in the shops. All we need is a bit of imagination and the willingness to experiment.

CAULIFLOWER GREENS

I’ve been using cauliflower greens in soup for years – I usually cut the lot and put it in the freezer to use in batches.

But when I wanted to do a stir-try and couldn’t get any bamboo shoots or water chestnuts, I thought, “I wonder…”

Here’s the result and it was delicious. I threw in some sliced cauli florets too which gave a nice crunch.

Next I tried some cauli greens cooked with tomatoes, cream cheese and cream to go with a cooked chicken drumstick for lunch.

And of course, I made some soup. (Well the weather has cooled off lately.)

So whatever you can buy, you can cook and who knows what great recipes you’ll come up with. Why not share them here?

Pumpkin Soup

Today (31st October) is Halloween – originally Hallows Even, the evening before All Saints Day – and the shops are overflowing with pumpkins. Most people carve them into lanterns then throw them away. That’s a shame because there’s nothing easier to make than tasty pumpkin soup. The hardest part is cutting up your pumpkin so I enlisted the more muscular arm of my husband for that bit.

Ingredients

• 1 x 2½ – 3lb pumpkin (small)
• ¾ pint of stock
• salt, pepper, fresh thyme and parsley
• 1 x tin mixed beans (eg kidney beans, haricot beans)
• 1 x ½ pt tin of coconut milk

Method

1. Chop the pumpkin flesh into cubes, discarding the skin but keeping the seeds. This is a tough job!
2. Put in a large saucepan with the stock and seasoning.
3. Bring to the boil then cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
4. Add the beans and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.
5. Take off heat. Blend. Stir in the coconut milk.

I used a large pumpkin which cost 75p. Add one stock cube 7p, 2x tins of mixed beans £1, a tin of coconut milk £1, a couple of teaspoons of paprika 8p, some thyme (free from the garden but call it 5p), Total £2.95 for about 15 portions (too much to measure easily!)  for around 20p a bowl.

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Serve like to serve it with roasted seeds on top and some cream and cheeses or salami on the side.

 

Seeds

I saved the seeds too. Some I soaked and dried and am eating raw. Others I roasted.  Here’s how.

When you get to step 3, rinse the seeds in a sieve and remove all the stringy bits. You can eat these raw, sprout them, or boil them for 10 minutes in salted water, then roast on a tray with coconut oil and salt for 18 minutes at 165 C, stirring a couple of times.

 

Shopping List for Recipes

People have been snapping up my recipes like hot cakes when I’ve had a stand at events. And with a whole week of delicious main meals for £10.50 a head it’s no wonder  Here’s a list of the 7 and an extra.

1. Pasta with salmon sauce £1.60

2. One pot chicken £1.84

3. Spag bol £1.46

4. Liver and onion £0.81

5. Pork Stroganoff £1.87

6. Pork in mushroom and cream sauce £1.65

7. Leek and mushroom tagliatelle £1.27

Plus a bit of luxury

8. Pea and Chorizo risotto with Sea Bass £2.37

I was asked to put together a shopping list for the week and here it is!

I’ve used a limited palate of flavours to make your shopping complement more than one meal. Start by checking what you already have in your house. You can use things you’ve got instead of the ingredients listed so nothing is wasted. Add things to your shopping list that you need to buy.

If you’re new to cooking, break yourself in gently rather than stocking your cupboards with staple ingredients all in one go. Many of these ingredients keep for ages and will be enough for lots of meals once you have them.

Things to Keep in Stock in Your:

Cupboards

Brown Rice

Pasta

Stock cubes or bouillon powder

Tinned tomatoes (need 1 plus 3 for bolognaise if you make the big batch)

Tomato puree

Cornflour

Dried herbs – parsley, oregano or whatever you prefer

Olive oil

Coconut oil

Vinegar – white wine, balsamic or apple cider

Wholegrain mustard

Pantry

Sadly we tend not to have pantries now but garage or shed works well for long-lasting fresh ingredients that like a cool, dark place.

Onions – why not buy a bag of small wonky ones?

Potatoes – these last for weeks if kept in paper rather than plastic, in a cool dark place. We have a farm nearby that sells a big sack for £6 which we eat from October until March. Find out if you have one near you; it’s much cheaper than the supermarket.

Tip – Onions and potatoes last longer if not kept close together.

Fridge

Butter

Milk

Natural yoghurt

Lemon juice

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Shopping list for the week

Buy for the week’s recipes for 2 people:

Fresh produce – the part of the supermarket to spend most time

1 x lettuce or a cabbage

(Ready chopped salad leaves are very expensive and have been washed in chemicals and packed in an artificial atmosphere. They start to wilt as soon as you open the bag and a couple of days later, whatever is left is getting mushy and smells bad. Whole lettuces last much better. Keep them in the veg drawer at the bottom of the fridge so they don’t get too cold. Cabbage is very versatile. You can shred it finely for salad or steam it for veg. It lasts longer than lettuce, has more nutrients and is cheaper.)

1 x bag of spinach

(Better to buy this later on for recipe 6, then use it as salad leaves or steam briefly as veg.)

4 x carrots

8 x radishes

12 cherry or baby plum tomatoes

1 x bulb of garlic

(Try growing your own. Plant a clove or two from the bulb you buy, between September and December. Harvest in July.)

New potatoes for 2 people

1 x lemon or a bottle of juice

500g mushrooms

1 x large or 2 x small leeks

 

Cold Section – better still to get meat from a good butcher

1 x tub double cream

4 x chicken thighs

2 x pork steaks

1 x pork tenderloin

1500g of beef mince to make the whole 16 portion batch or 200g to make just for 2 people.

300 g of liver

1 pack salami milano

Fresh herbs – parsley, dill (buy them fresh and freeze in bags or containers)

Parmesan (buy it fresh, grate and freeze in containers)

Frozen peas

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Dry / tinned

1 x 213g tin of pink salmon (healthiest with bones – buy in brine, not oil)

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For the luxury recipe of the pea and chorizo risotto with sea bass add:

2 x very small sea bass fillets

2 x blobs of chorizo

Risotto rice

You don’t need to go down the ready meal aisles at all so you save time as well as money when you shop.

Enjoy your cooking, enjoy your food, enjoy better health when you give up processed food!

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Bonus Recipe

I originally did 7 costed recipes, each under £2, so there was a full week. When I last went to buy sea bass, I noticed it was more expensive than when I posted my favourite Pea and Chorizo Risotto with Sea Bass recipe. Perhaps it was on special offer when I did the original post. Anyway, I’ve altered the costs and now it’s over £2 (£2.37 per person). Still fabulous if you can afford to treat yourself and still cheaper than most take-aways and ready meals, but to stick to my original plan I’ve posted a replacement recipe on Learn to Eat Well: Leek and Mushroom Tagliatelle (shown here with pizzoccheri but you can use any pasta or courgetti).

The total for the week is now £10.50.

Next – I’ve been asked for a shopping list for the full set – coming soon!

Low cost weight loss and recipes

The secret to losing weight is to eat real food.  There’s a chapter on slimming in my book Survival Guide for the Skint and I’ve proved in this recipe series that real food is cheaper than junk food. If you want temporary weight loss, followed by regain to heavier than you were before you started, by all means go on a diet. If you want to be slim and healthy, and stay that way, then ignore anything ready-made or that says low-fat or low-cal. These products are full of sugar and chemicals. They won’t help you and can damage your health.  If you want to learn how to eat well, have a look at my Learn to Eat Well website.

You might have noticed from the pictures of my meals that the servings of rice, pasta and potatoes are small compared to the main dish and the salad or veg.  It’s sugar and starchy carbs (called by Dr David Unwin ‘soon to be sugar’) that cause weight gain.  We used to call starchy carbs ‘stodge’.  And we knew that they would make us snoozy and cause weight gain.

(I’ll be posting about the recent confusing carb headlines next month on Learn to Eat Well.)

Here are another two recipes bringing them up to 7 now. That’s a full week’s worth of costed meals coming to a total of only £10.72.

£10.72 for a week of really delicious main meals!!!

Don’t try to tell me junk food costs less than that.

I’ll be doing a shopping list next week and a bonus meal.

Pork stroganoff

Cook long-grain brown rice in boiling water.

Boil some water (I like to add a stock cube rather than salt) 7p

Add 125ml brown rice, turn down to simmer 15p

Put a knob of butter in a large frying pan 10p

Chop 1 x small onion and cook for 3 mins 10p

Remove to a bowl.

Cut one 300g pork tenderloin in to pieces ½” thick 2.25

Add a teaspoon of coconut oil to the pan 5p

Fry off the meat for a couple of minutes until there is no pink left. Depending on the size of your pan, you might need to do this in two batches. Put the first batch in the bowl with the onion while you cook the second.

Put the onion and rest of the meat back in the pan.

Turn down the heat to low.

Add 1/5 tube of tomato puree 10p

Juice of ½ a lemon or good slug from a bottle 12p

1/5 big tub of natural yoghurt 20p

Good pinch of dried oregano 4p

Stir and cover with a lid.

Towards the end, add a good pinch of fresh chopped parsley 7p

Total £3.22 plus salad at 52p

Starting with tenderloin, a luxurious cut of pork, you’d think this would be hugely pricey but no, it comes out at = £1.87 per person.

However, for another recipe with a delicious creamy taste that costs even less, try this one:

Pork in mushroom and cream sauce

In a frying pan, melt a knob of butter 10p

Chop a small onion and cook for 3 mins 10p

Add 2 x sliced pork steaks 1.50

Cook until no pink remains

Chop 5 or 6 closed cup mushrooms 20p

Towards the end, add a couple of handfuls of spinach 30p

Season with salt, pepper and pinch dried parsley 5p

Heaped teaspoon wholegrain mustard 3p

Cream 25p

Meanwhile boil some new potatoes 25p

And make a salad (see above) 52p

Total £3.30 or £1.65 per person

Salads

Salad

Some meals seem to go with salad, others with veg. There are so many ways to make salads and wonderful varied ingredients you can use. Here’s an easy one that I’ve used in this recipe series.

Wash and chop a few lettuce leaves 5p

(buy a whole lettuces, not expensive, chemical-soaked pre-prepped bags)

Slice a carrot very thinly or grate it 8p

Slice some radish 9p

Add some baby plum tomatoes 20p

Drizzle with dressing 10p

Total for salad 52p for 2 or 26p per person

For the sake of your health, make your own dressing with olive oil and some sort of vinegar.  Bought dressings usually contain vegetable oil which you need to avoid – here’s why.

You can make salad that costs even less by slicing savoy, white or red cabbage very finely and adding grated carrots, tomatoes, chives etc.

Savoy cabbage tastes good with olive oil and white wine vinegar.

White cabbage is better with mayonnaise. Here’s an easy way to make your own.

Ultimate Budget Meal 81p

You’ve nearly made it through the school holidays and so here is the ultimate in high-nutrition, budget food.

Some people don’t like liver but it’s worth persevering as it contains so many vitamins and minerals. I didn’t like it until a few years ago but occasionally I’d order it if it was on a pub menu – my body must have told my subconscious that I needed a boost. In France they get kids to eat almost anything by tasting repeatedly – they don’t have to eat the food but must taste it. After a few times, usually they like it.

Liver and Onions – serves 2

Slice one medium onion 20p

Fry in a knob of butter for 3 mins 10p

Put the onion in a bowl

Add a teaspoon of coconut oil to the pan 5p

Fry 400g sliced liver until browned all over 80p

Turn down the heat and leave to cook slowly

Boil 500g potatoes for 15 mins 25p

(I don’t know why you need more when you’re going to mash them than just eating them boiled but you do!)

For the last 2 minutes steam a heap of chopped kale 30p

or cabbage 10p

over your potatoes.

Put the onions back in the pan with the liver

Drain the potatoes and mash with butter and milk 12p

Total for the most nutritious food on the planet £1.82.

That’s 91p per person with kale or 81p with cabbage.

NB If you take warfarin, you’ll need to choose a different dinner as liver and kale are both high in vitamin K.

I’ve eaten it without taking a picture of the finished meal (oops – again). Will add one next time I make it.

Feed the Family – Spag Bol

As I say in Survival Guide for the Skint, children are expensive! This can put extra pressure on finances during school holidays.

I’m continuing my series of great value, fully costed meals with a firm favourite across the country – Spaghetti Bolognaise

This is my Italian grandmother’s recipe so you’re very privileged to see it. Well almost her recipe – she never bought mince but I doubt you’d want to spend time cutting best steak into tiny cubes. Kidney beans are an unconventional ingredient but she put them in and for me the sauce would be lacking without them.

Spaghetti Bolognaise

Melt a big knob of butter 20p

with a good slug of olive oil 20p

in a very big pan.

Chop 2 x large onions and cook gently until transparent 40p

Add 3 crushed cloves of garlic 6p

Add 3lb mince and cook until no pink bits remain £11.50

Can add a few rashers of chopped bacon as well 25p

Add 3 x tins chopped tinned tomatoes £1.05

¾ tube tomato puree 35p

300g chopped mushrooms 85p

You may need a bit of water.

Season with salt and pepper

Desert spoon of dried oregano 10p

Desert spoon of dried parsley 10p

Simmer, stirring occasionally until it’s 3hours since you started.  This allows the flavours to develop.

At the end, stir in 2 x drained and rinsed tins of kidney beans £1.10

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Total £16.16 or 95p per portion (makes 17 portions)

For 2 people, cook some pasta 25p

Top with grated parmesan cheese 25p

(For the best taste, buy a whole piece and grate it all into containers.  Freeze the rest to use straight from the freezer next time.)

Serve with salad 52p

Total for the meal £1.46 per person

You could also add some porcini, soaked in a bowl of boiled water before adding. That’s another £1 or 6p per serving.  They’re expensive so you can miss them out but they do add depth to the flavour – £1.52 per person with porcini.

 

Awesome meal less than £2.50

Putting Meals Together

Every meal should contain three things: plants, protein and fats.

Some meals seem to go with salad, others with veg but every meal should include some fresh plants (white potatoes don’t count), preferably including 2 or more colours and something non-starchy.  When you make real food from fresh ingredients, it’s easy to make sure you always have some.  It’s often the plant part that’s missing or cooked to death in junk food.

Here’s one of my favourite meals! I had it in a pub near Bath and have been making it ever since.

Pea and Chorizo risotto with Sea Bass

Put the kettle on to boil for stock

Put a knob of butter in a large frying pan 10p

Chop 1 x small onion and cook for 3 mins 10p

Add 125 ml risotto rice 30p

Stir around for a minute or two then add a little stock 7p

Simmer gently, adding more stock as it is absorbed.

Slice two ‘blobs’ of chorizo and add to pan 70p

The rice will take about 20 minutes to cook

In a small frying pan heat another knob of butter 10p

Cook two small fillets of sea bass skin side up first £3

Turn fish over after 3 minutes.

5 minutes before the end, add two good handfuls of peas 12p

When everything is ready, add a tbsp of grated Parmesan 25p

to the risotto and stir through.

Total for this awesome meal £4.74. That’s £2.37 per person.

Just reading the recipe makes my mouth water.

Amendment:

I later couldn’t find sea bass at the price originally posted (must have been on offer) so I’ve redone the costings.  This meal is now >£2 but still fabulous if you can afford to treat yourself and still cheaper than most take-aways and ready meals.

To stick to my original plan I’ve taken it out of the week and added a bonus recipe – Leek and Mushroom Tagliatelle for £1.27.

One-Pot Chicken

Cooking doesn’t have to be complicated and it doesn’t have to use loads of equipment and make lots of pans dirty. Here’s a recipe you can make for one in a little pan or for 20 if you have a huge cauldron – but there’s only the one pan to clean. Hurray!

One-pot chicken

To serve 2 people:

In a medium pan, melt a knob of butter 10p

Chop one medium onion and cook for 3 mins 20p

Add a teaspoon of coconut oil 5p

Fry 4 chicken thighs until browned all over £2.64

Bone in and skin on gives the best flavour.

Turn down the heat

Add:

– 1/3 tin chopped tomatoes 12p

– 125ml brown rice 15p

– a dash of lemon juice 12p

– ½ pt stock 7p

– good pinch of dried oregano 4p

Stir, cover with a lid, simmer gently for 20 mins, turning the chicken pieces and stirring the mixture 4 or 5 times.

5 minutes before the end, add two good handfuls of peas 12p

Just before the end, add a good pinch of fresh chopped parsley 7p

Total cost £3.78, that’s £1.84 per person and the chicken price is for free-range. You can cut it to £1.07 per person if you use frozen thighs.

Delicious, satisfying and only one pan to clean!