Author: thriftytastebuds

Posted in recipe

Dinner for 1.14

Posted on by thriftytastebuds

Hi everyone,

Sorry it’s been so long, I had to stop blogging when I became a teacher but I’ve now left my job. It’s a long story.

I wanted to jump on today and tell you about a quick and easy dinner that’s budget-friendly and healthy at less than 500 calories. The meal in question is stuffed tomatoes, if you don’t like tomatoes or don’t have any beef tomatoes at home you can have stuffed peppers instead. It’s really simple to make. (price and calories is based on shopping at aldi)

What you need:

Beef tomatoes – 1 per person (or peppers)

Savory rice- 1 packet serves 2

  • (I used Everyday Essentials Golden Vegetable Savoury Rice 120g)

Couscous- 1 packet of instant couscous serves 4 –

  • (I used Make In Minutes Cous Cous – Sundried Tomato 100g)

Cheese- no more than 40g

Method:

Make up your couscous according to packet instructions.

Cut the top off your tomato or pepper and take out the inside. Add the couscous to the tomato or pepper and bake with the top on for 10 minutes.

At the same time boil your rice according to the packet instructions

After the 10 minutes in the oven, take the tomato or pepper out of the oven take the top off and add cheese to the top of the couscous, put it back in the oven for 5 minutes.

After the 5 minutes serve with the rice.

It’s super easy and extra delicious. Hope these ideas help, Thanks for joining me on this journey and I hope to see you soon.

Hannah x

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Brands are bad for the budget!

Posted on by thriftytastebuds

Hi guys,

I know it’s been a while, I’ve just finished university for the year so I thought I would share some more tips with you!

Glenn and I were chatting the other day about when we first started university and how he was brand obsessed and genuinely believed those products were better than supermarket own or smart price.

The reality of buying branded food is that you are paying for the name and the branding of the product more than the product itself. Some are even the same products as the branded food because they are made in the same place, so next time you go shopping try the cheaper alternative.

Food for thought, thank you for joining me.

Hope to see you soon

Hannah x

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Save as you shop.

Posted on by thriftytastebuds

Today’s tip is really handy when shopping at big supermarkets like Tesco or Asda but I also have an alternative method for shops like Aldi or Lidl.

Have you ever used scan as you shop? Recently its been the main method I use when shopping, it allows you to see exactly how much your spending and lets you remove items if you think its getting too pricey, rather than receiving a big shock at the checkout and checking your receipt to see how you spent that much.

For Tesco all you need is a clubcard and scan it in store to get started .

For Asda there is two methods either you use their in-store touchscreen or register online by setting up an Asda.com and account to add your phone number before you go then simply login when you arrive and grab a handset and start scanning or you can use their scan as you go app and do it all from your phone.

Then when you’ve finished you go to the scan as you go checkout and follow the instructions there, there will always be someone on hand to help you with any query you might have.

The alternative method for shopping at Aldi or Lidl is simple.

You can use the calculator on your phone and add up as you go along, but be mindful of whether or not you need it when your shopping, try to avoid special-buys unless you need them because they can increase your spend quickly.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. Hope to see you soon.

Hannah x

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Lovely lunches

Posted on by thriftytastebuds

With the most recent announcement encouraging people to go back to work, I thought it was appropriate to do a lunch special. Some people might be due back in the morning so here are some quick lunch box ideas from your store-cupboard saviours that are quick to make and stop you from having to buy those money making meal deals.

The first idea is a simple tuna and sweetcorn pasta.

You will need:

-Tinned tuna

-Tinned sweetcorn

-Pasta

-Maybe mayo

-salt and pepper

Method:

  • Boil some pasta with salt and pepper (I recommend you portion it out with the lunch box you intend to use filling it up just under half way)

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  • Whilst your pasta boils you want to mix your tuna and sweetcorn you can also add some mayo if you want it to be a more together mixture (I would usually do this in the lunchbox too, because I don’t like washing up.)

(You can also add more salad food if you have some going spare like tomatoes or cucumber as it just adds some more colour, texture and overall makes it healthy.)

  • Drain your pasta and leave it to cool.
  • Once cool mix your tuna mix into the saucepan and then transfer to your lunch box
Tuna pasta salad

The second quick idea is a crunchy chicken salad. Ideal for leftover roast meat. (Might not be a store-cupboard saviour but definitely good for leftovers)

All you will need is:

-Chicken

-Pesto

-Kale

-Green beans

-Tomatoes

-Wrap.

(You can swap any of the veggies or salad for whatever you may have at the end of the week)

  • Firstly put a wrap in the oven with some salt and pepper, use baking parchment to prevent it sticking. Put this in the oven for 10 min on gas mark 5 / 375 f / 190c
  • In the meantime take some leftover chicken and mix it with some form of marinade I tend to use pesto, but you could use mayo, tomato puree or even just some salt and pepper.
  • Prepare a salad, this can be made up by some of the veggies you think you might be binning soon. I usually use Kale and some green beans (if so boil these for 5 min and then cool) I then add some tomatoes to the cooled veggies (but you could just have some tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, beetroot and grated carrot).
  • add the chicken and toss to mix it together then transfer it into your lunchbox
  • take the wrap out the oven and break into small pieces sprinkling it over your salad for extra crunch.

(you could also add grilled halloumi or even use halloumi instead of meat for a meat free option.)

The third and final idea is Tomato chickpea pasta salad

You will need:

-chickpeas

-chopped tomatoes

-garlic

-basil (dried or fresh)

– onion

-pasta.

For measuring your pasta use the earlier method

  • boil your measured pasta.
  • In a frying pan add chopped onion, and chickpeas season and stir fry for 2 minutes.
  • Add the chopped tomatoes, some garlic and the basil (if dried) and stir.
  • Add the boiled pasta to the sauce and mix together. (if using fresh basil add it here)
  • Allow the dish to cool then transfer it to a lunchbox.

Hope these ideas help, Thanks for joining me on this journey and I hope to see you soon.

Hannah x

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Price it per portion.

Posted on by thriftytastebuds

Hi guys, today I thought I’d talk to you about how much you are paying per meal, the reason for this is because sometimes we worry that we are spending too much money but when we put the price into perspective you can see how much you are truly spending.

Per month we have on average 94 meals, if you are a family of 4 and you spend £100 a week that works out to be £400 a month. To figure out your average spend per person you divide the £400 by the 94 meals which works out to be £4.25 per meal roughly. Following this you divide the number by the amount of people you are cooking for, which in this case you would divide £4.25 by 4 using the example of feeding a family of 4.

From this it means on average you spend £1.06 a meal per person, which doesn’t seem as bad as the original £400. This method seems complicated but so long as you know your monthly spend and divide that by 94, the average number of meals, you know how much you are spending per meal for your whole family.

It definitely changes the way you think about the price of your shop, whether that is you believing its too high, just right or that you can afford a few more treats, it allows you to know your costings.

Thanks for joining me on this journey, Hope to see you soon.

Hannah x

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Cut out the convenience

Posted on by thriftytastebuds

Hi guys,

Today I wanted to pop on and give you some tips on how to cut your weekly food shops price down even if its just a small amount each time.

Often products are more expensive because of the extra time has been put into producing the food before it sells, by this I mean the product has been prepared so you can just pop it in the oven or put it in a pan to boil.

For example you could buy a packet of frozen roast potatoes for £2 or you could buy a bag of white potatoes for 95p and peel and cut them yourself.

Another way of saving extra money by cutting out convenience is make the marinate for yourself. Take chicken drumsticks as an example to buy them ready to eat it costs £3 for 430g or £2 when they are on offer. You can even buy a 900g pre marinated pack for £4 which seems like an okay price until your realise you could have got 1.2kg for £1.67 and then make your own marinate to your own taste.

If you are stretched for time then convenience food is a perfectly good way to make your day easier but it might just be a case of weighing up whether the extra pennies in your pocket is worth the extra time it takes.

Thanks for joining me on this journey! Hope to see you again soon.

Hannah x

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Ready for Reduced!

Posted on by thriftytastebuds

Reduced food is more available than you think especially in difficult times like this, the photos above are taken in Tesco today whilst I did my essential food shop. Supermarkets often reduce when the stock’s best before date is that same day or sometimes even the next day depending on when you go.

I would always recommend only buying what you need nothing more or less but sometimes reduced produce is freezable so its ideal to have some cheap goodies in the freezer for a later date.

Buying your bread reduced for example can last a week further than its sell by date as long as you keep it in a dark dry place away from any heat and make sure you keep a watchful eye on it. You can also freeze it in portions based on how much you would use in one day and simply defrost it the night before.

However, even though it may be reduced remember to only buy reduced as a tool and not to over shop.

Thanks for joining me on this saving journey, hope to see you again soon!

Hannah x

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37p per portion!

Posted on by thriftytastebuds

Hi all,

Today I’ve been a busy bee doing some cooking so that I could get a recipe to you that you can make for 37p a portion and its super easy to!

All you need is a:-

chopping board

a knife

a fork

a jug

and the ingredients.

This recipe is for a crustless quiche which takes around 40 minutes to cook but and 10 to prepare.

Ingredients:

3 Eggs, Cottage cheese and then whatever you want , I usually have ham, cheese, mushrooms, onion, peppers and tomatoes.

The Ingredients

Prepare all your ingredients, dice the onion, mushrooms, pepper and ham and chop your tomatoes in half.

  1. Whisk the eggs with a fork until its a smooth mixture, then add the cottage cheese and whisk all of that together.
  2. Add all the ingredients and mix.
  3. Transfer it to your dish.
  4. Bake on Gas mark 6/ 400 f / 200 c for 40 minutes

This is such an easy and budget friendly recipe, all the ingredients I used were bought from Aldi and it serves 4 with ease. You can even use reusable cake cases and make snacks that you can keep in the fridge to help keep you healthy in lockdown.

I usually make this at the end of the week to finish off all the little leftover ingredients and bring them back to life in something delicious. My mum used to put them in my lunch box for school near on 10 years ago.

Thank you for joining me on this journey! Hope to see you again soon ❤

Hannah x

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Freezer Friendly!

Posted on by thriftytastebuds

Sunday funday! As I sit here stuffed from my roast dinner I’ve started to plan my food for next week using the lists that I created yesterday. Personally our freezer is packed full of food that we have frozen to prevent it going off because of all those times we have overbought, forgot our list or worst when we couldn’t be bothered to cook.

There are so many different meals you can make from your freezer food; even if they are out of the ordinary. Take this week my partner and I have planned to have bratwursts that we bought for a BBQ but in a pasta sauce, its not something we have done before but knowing that in Germany they have them with curry ketchup we are going to make a curry tomato sauce.

My point is if you can identify traditional flavours for your frozen goods you can make something new and interesting that will tingle your tastebuds. I will post a recipe when its made, the meal itself will probably cost around 68p a portion. I will post a full recipe later this week when I’ve made it with an exact amount of how much it costs depending on where you shop.

Thanks for joining me, hope to see you again!

Hannah x

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Manage your Food to Manage your spend

Posted on by thriftytastebuds

It’s so important that you know what you have in your fridge, freezer and pantry so that you don’t buy more than you need. Most of the time we work off the same shopping list every week, we might alter the recipes or meals we use but the bulk of our food shop stays the same.

My Top Tip:

Make a list for your shopping based off all the meals you have planned and try not to stray off this list if possible but try to include some tasty treats that will cure your cravings when you need them.

Once you’ve done your food shop make a list of the things you have in and how much of each item so that you don’t over buy. If you can’t find the time an easy tip is to always keep your shopping list and use that as a guide; this way you can underline the items you have used so you know whats worth buying again.

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This is a key change my partner and I made, we ran the rule of you don’t use it you lose it! meaning you won’t buy it the following week. We found it to makes us healthier and spend a lot less money because of it.

Thank you for joining me on our saving journey! Hope to see you again.

Hannah x