Wednesday 7 August 2013

Frugal Eating for Four

As we have tried to cut our spending on food, we have quite quickly, gotten used to eating smaller portions than we used to. I think it also has something to do with getting older and being able to eat the same sized meals as when you are younger and have hollow legs!

After having salads, almost 7 days a week during the hot weather, on a promised cooler day (it was as you can imagine hot and humid!) we decided on curry.

Here is a photograph of the ingredients. The tin of tomatoes is upside down as the can opener will not open this batch the correct way. I think the labels may be upside down.
Anyway, back to business. One can of chickpeas, 1 of chopped tomatoes, 1/2 a can of water, 1 tablespoon of korma curry paste, plus the following all diced or sliced, 1 eating apple, 1/2 an onion, 1 medium or 2 small carrots, 1/2 large courgette, 1 small to medium chicken breast. Then 1/2 a chicken stock cube and 1 full drink mug of rice.

The onion, carrot and courgette were fried in a little oil until soft. Then the chicken was stirred in and lightly fried. All the rest of the ingredients followed except the rice. We use a wok to cook this but a large deep frying pan or pan would do.
The curry was left to simmer gently whilst the rice cooked. Then the rice was drained and four equal portions dished up. Two onto plates - we had too much as it happened!
The rest into a dish to be saved for another day where it will be stirred together and gently heated in the microwave as curried rice.
Total cost per portion excluding cooking, around 45p! Now that is quite good, it is all a matter of portion control, buying the cheapest but nicest ingredients and getting the most out of them. Of course, if you have grown all the above vegetables, it will probably be around 25p - 30p per portion. We get our chicken from Farm Foods and despite their low prices, the chicken breast worked out at 75p (for 4) so was the most expensive part.

11 comments:

  1. That looks really good, and I've got all the ingredients apart from chick peas! Thanks wll try that! x

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    1. You can use any curry paste you have, we just happened to have that one!

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  2. This business of opening cans- you are not alone, I have encountered quite a few of late which have to be opened the wrong way up!! Would it help if I stood on my head in the kitchen, do you think??

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    1. I'm not sure what is going on with the cans at the moment, I also have had several that seem to be upside down.

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  3. That looks really good. I bet it was tasty. I am cutting back portions sizes for both of us and bulking them out with more veg too.Good for the purse and waistline.

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    1. Cutting back seems to be the way to go. We just cannot eat as much as we used to.

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  4. I've just stocked up the freezer on meat and veg from Farmfoods, including packs of chicken breasts, pork steaks, gammon steaks, lamb chump chops, white fish etc. They have some great offers and I made more savings thanks to some coupons that came through the door yesterday. I saved 10% (£7.50) on a £75 shop that will last us for 2-3 months easily combined with other stuff I have in.

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    1. The only things I find wrong with Farmfoods meat is the amount of fluid that comes from then when thawed.

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  5. Perhaps they were canned in Australia! This looks good, I would obviously leave the chicken out but a lovely mid week meal xxx

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    1. I'm sure adding more vegetables would be just as good. We find we are eating less and less meat now. Not just because of the price but we are also enjoying eating more vegetarian meals.xx

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  6. That looks fantastic! We've got some curry spices we bought from Turkey that I've been itching to use. I might try this.

    Jess - www.love-norfolk.co.uk

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