Tag: food

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

Posted in Uncategorized

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

Posted in Uncategorized

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

Posted in Uncategorized

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

Posted in Uncategorized

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.

undefined

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