Hello Dear Reader,
Nothing fantastic about my cooking of late. Our dark drive at either end of our day is tiring and with the poor visibility and constant rain it's miserable too. Food just needs to be simple, quick to cook and come in on budget. Here's an example. Last night, I cut up six Bratwurst sausages, from Lidl, 89% pork and no gluten for £1.99, cooked with leftover boiled potatoes. I served them with plenty of cheap steamed veggies....oh, and a squirt of cheap ketchup. Big bottles of which were 39p in Aldi when I was last in there. I made six sausages stretch to six meals, three for our suppers last night and then three lunches to warm up at work. One sausage looks so much more when it's cut up.
Tonight it was all about making two chicken breasts into five meals. I used also used 200g of a kilo bag of 'bacon bits' or 'cooking bacon'. I rarely buy bacon rashers anymore and like the pot luck of buying these big kilo bags of bacon off cuts as I can get bacon steaks, rashers and random chunks.
I also make as much as I can on the gas stove top as it's so much cheaper than the electric oven, I also try to cook as much as I can in my slow cooker.
Back to my casserole.
1 onion, sliced.
1 green pepper, sliced.
2 chicken breasts
200g of cooking bacon.
1 tin of tomatoes
1 tsp of garlic granules
1/2 tsp of mixed herbs
1 tbsp of gravy granules ( I use gluten free which is expensive but you can buy it much cheaper if you buy regular)
After browning, add the garlic, mixed herbs, plenty of black pepper and the tin of tomatoes, I also rinse out the tin with water and add that too. Simmer for twenty minutes.
I stretch every meal by having mainly veggies. Instead of butter in mashed potato, I add skimmed milk which makes it creamier than you'd think. It also means we only need to buy one 250g pack of butter a week between us all.
So here it is a very stretched meal. The expensive ingredients of two chicken breasts made four and a half meals. My lunch for tomorrow, our supper tonight and tomorrow night. I'm back to university for a short stint so I'll be back very late and will need 'ding cuisine' when I get home.
Here's the top view, mostly veggies with a dollop of creamy mash and a very stretched casserole. Our veg goes a long way too, half a savoy -20p, 1/4 bag of carrots, 10p and half a pack of leeks 50p - 16p per portion for a huge pile of steamed veggies.
So over to you, we're all trying to eat healthily, although none of us a perfect but what do you do to stretch every little bit just that little more?
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxx