...the secret weapon of the frugal housewife!
At the end of December my budget went seriously off the rails. This morning I settled down to review my spending for the first three weeks of January and I'm proud to report that our food/household budget is currently £25 per week. I don't have a useful chest freezer for bulk buys etc. - just the small one below the fridge - so I'm really pleased with this total!
I'm also pleased that darling hubby isn't complaining. He's a committed carnivore so it's been quite a challenge to 'hide' the smaller cuts of meat by adding more veg. Given that he also takes left overs and microwaves them for lunch...you'd think there would have been some kind of whimper!! However, at the moment I seem to be getting away with it.
His favourite, frugal casserole seems to be Chilli Chicken. I can stretch two chicken breasts into five portions with this one. I just cube the chicken; chop up a couple of onions, celery, peppers and carrots; put it all in a large casserole dish with a stock cube, a tin of chick peas and a couple of tins of chopped tomatoes; add garlic, paprika and chilli powder and cook for a couple of hours.
It re-heats brilliantly and works really well with a cheesy breadcrumb topping, rather than rice or potatoes. To be honest, I think it would be equally nice without the chicken at all... but I suspect that might be a step too far for my little meat eater!!
Welcome to my new follower Jan. I'd love to follow your blog too but can't find a link from your name. Please could you pop a quick "Hi" against one of my posts, then I should be able to find you without difficulty in the blogosphere!
I now buy frozen diced veg from the supermarkets, sometimes labelled as soup base. It has celery , carrot and onion all equally diced. I now throw that into most meals which stretches them and also ups our veg intake.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of meat that I saw my parents eat as a child compared to todays portions is tiny. I think we eat fat too much now and I use both puy lentils and chick peas to stretch a meal, a much healthier option to meat.
ReplyDeleteWell done on fooling your hubby, mine is also meat mad, but was complimentary the other day about courgette and other veggies mixed in rice that I served with a slightly smaller piece of chicken. Chick peas are great as they are so meaty, I have a totally veggie chickpea casserole recipe I plan to spring on him soon, can't wait to see if he notices there's no meat!
ReplyDeleteHa, that's brilliant about the chick peas! I really liek them and I do think that they are rather chicken-like!! Good on hubby! I love having a veggie husband who will eat all sorts of pulses!!
ReplyDeleteAnd £25 is brilliant!
ReplyDeleteI've never tried chick peas. Mick's been such a fussy eater all his life that I've ended up missing out on things too because he won't even try them. He's a big meat eater, perhaps I should give your Chilli Chicken recipe a try and see if he notices that there's chick peas in there. I like the sound of the cheesy breadcrumb topping.
ReplyDeleteI love chickpeas and always have a can or two in the cupboard. They are good in casseroles and mashed to make hummus:)
ReplyDeleteIt sounds delicious, 2 breasts between 5 is doing really well xx
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