Budget food/living

The worst cook book I owned was one for students. main courses where awful like Marmite pasta which was spaghetti with a spoon of Marmite. It made me sad.

Chicken should be bought as an occasional treat imo

^This. I've tired myself to death, trying to explain this concept.

There is nothing complicated/mysterious about organic food.
Have you considered allotment growing?
You can enlist the whole tribe and they can take their blackberries outdoors. :)

I'm currently growing peppers, shit loads of herbs and vine tomatoes on the little edge of my Kitchen window. It works.

Oh dear....suicidal.

You're not thinking kris.
Instead of the ready meals, you should ask me to come 'round and cook you guys melas from scratch. No joke.
Beginning of the week, Mondays, I can cook you 3 or 4 dishes on 1 afternoon. You separate it into containers.
There's your ready meals. ;)

Elizabeth David

Just a pity she was desserter.

I've tried tomatoes, but failed.
Organic food it the UK is pricey (ok, maybe worth it's price and rather all the supermarket grown GM stuff is ridiculously cheap) and it's all nice when you're a single or a couple with a cat. It's getting very expensive once you cook for the whole family. Not even mentioning that kids always waste a lion share of what you cook anyway.
As a contrast, my parents back home shop daily - from a local market, butcher and a baker. They buy what they need only. The only time my IBS fades away is when I visit them :-/

Sigh ... I understand what you are saying. My kids when (they were kids) wasted a lot of food I'd put a lot of time and effort into producing . What I did grow (potatoes/onions/beans/cabbages /tomatoes etc) was only a supplement to the weekly food budget but it helped.

Instead of the ready meals, you should ask me to come 'round and cook you guys melas from scratch.

I also need someone to be tender with on Friday night.

I making a lamb roast right now, by the way.
The little one already told me "I don't like this chicken".

I also need someone to be tender with on Friday night.

PM Balki.

^This. I've tired myself to death, trying to explain this concept.

^ and this - seems like ckicken is everywhere in everything everyday.

I'm currently growing peppers, shit loads of herbs and vine tomatoes on the little edge of my Kitchen window. It works.

+1

I actually grew a sort of repulse for chicken in the UK.
At my parents I remember eating chicken maybe once, twice in a month...if so.
No joke. And my parents always had chickens at theirs... running 'round.

My parents do loads of soups. I miss soups - our kids don't like them- like it's not a proper dinner.
You make a pot and you can live off it for few days.

Thing about soup is you can make a big pot of it, wrap it in a blanket and go and eat it somewhere with a view.

You can do it with a chicken as well..
In fact people do, judging by the amount of cardboard boxes filled with chicken carcasses in our park.

MaxCrowe was a proud freegan and can probably offer guidance.

I fondly remember sharing a yorkshire hot pot and cous cous with Max outside the Duke's Head freegan style...

it was tasty cos it was free...

then I thought WTF.

Chicken as an occasional treat? I'll eat it maybe a couple of times a week so hardly occasional but will only ever buy the 'happy' chicken it's actually not much more expensive than the cynically farmed to hell chicken, just a quid or so and tastes so much better. I stopped buying the badly reared chicken years ago and find it hard to understand why people still do to save maybe 80p and have a vastly inferior, flavourless, product as a result.

Even with eggs the Morrison's free range eggs are literally just a few pence more than most of the battery farmed eggs. But nothing beats the eggs from my mum's chickens. My once in a blue moon guilty midnight snack is a cheese omelette made with 2 eggs from mum's chickens a splash of soya milk a pinch of sea salt and a sprinkle of ground black pepper enveloping a couple of slices of extra mature cheddar - it's like sex in a pan.

Beginning of the week, Mondays, I can cook you 3 or 4 dishes on 1 afternoon. You separate it into containers.
There's your ready meals. ;)

you should offer this as a service gaffer - ready meals for the week, if you got enough peeps subscribing [which I'm sure you would] you could make big batches of 4 different meals

I'd deffo sign up on the strength of seeing some of the lish meals you post in the food thread

Bread is really expensive- try making your own, it's actually really easy.
Yes Katie! I make my own bread. Still haven't got the perfect loaf yet but what comes out of the oven is always better (and much cheaper) than what I'd buy from the shop.

Also, go to supermarkets in areas with large "ethnic" communities (indian/pakistani/polish...) nearby. In their "world foods" aisle they'll have loads of stuff you'd normally buy but it'll be much cheaper. For example, tinned tomatoes for about 25p, big (5kg) bags of rice for the same price you'd get 1kg in the rice aisle, and bags of spices at much better value than those small glass pots.

Big pot of mutton soup tonight...

1 kg mutton chops £2.99
1 large butternut squash £1.20
3 red onions 20p
3 large carrots 20p
3 potatoes 25p
3 cans beans (butter, beans & pea mix, gungo) £1.40
1 red pepper 15p
1 scotch bonnet pepper 5p
handful of basmati rice 5p
5 cloves of garlic
3 bay leaves
2 sprigs thyme
pimento, salt, pepper

Less than £7 all in and this'll do us for packed lunches and tomorrow's dinner as well... Left the spinner dumplings out tonight... ;]

This is my problem with the Freegan thing, everytime i see photos of people hauls i think it seems to be a load of processed crap i wouldn't want to/probably shouldn't eat....

I fondly remember sharing a yorkshire hot pot and cous cous with Max outside the Duke's Head freegan style...

it was tasty cos it was free...

then I thought WTF.

Yes Katie! I make my own bread. Still haven't got the perfect loaf yet but what comes out of the oven is always better (and much cheaper) than what I'd buy from the shop.

Hi Andy! Saw your bro briefly last night. When you around next?

why, are you planning to eat him..?

With some fava beans and a nice chianti...

kill a vegan - freegan meal

For the past year I've spent a (usually Sunday am ) cooking a variety of meals that would serve 4 people. I then divide into 3 or 4 'disposable' (not necessary) food containers , scribble the description and date on the lid and freeze. Doing this means I dont waste food that I will not be able to use quickly enough before it goes off and I have a good variety of meals to choose from during the week.Saves alot of money not buying food outside at work plus I have the choice and control over what goes in. (these 'street food' stalls charging £3.50 - £4.50 for something that costs me about £1.00 - wtf)
A variety of meals (your creativity is your limit) is important - you don't want to be eating the same thing all week.

you should offer this as a service gaffer - ready meals for the week, if you got enough peeps subscribing [which I'm sure you would] you could make big batches of 4 different meals

I'd deffo sign up on the strength of seeing some of the lish meals you post in the food thread

deffo