A Healthy Meal from Frozen and Packet Ingredients

A couple of weeks ago Frugal Queen did a post about using frozen vegetables. Well, I've always used frozen veg, especially since I read years ago that as they're flash-frozen so soon after picking they often retain more vitamins than fresh veg that might have been sitting on a shelf for days. Of course, if you're fortunate enough to pick your own home grown veg then that would be even fresher. In addition to the nutrient value, with 5 hungry kids to feed frozen veg was much more convenient; I simply didn't have time to shell my own peas.

Anyway, tonight's dinner was made up almost entirely of frozen and packaged foods but was low in fat and high in goodness and, although most of the ingredents were frozen or from packets, it was virtually free from additives. 

This is a picture of some of what went into my Quorn mince bolognaise sauce:-

The Quorn mince was £1.49 from Aldi, the frozen sliced mushrooms and peppers were from FarmFoods at £1 a bag or 3 bags for £2 (I used 1/2 bag of each), the passata was from Aldi at (I think) 35p, the frozen pureed garlic cubes came from Tesco and, if I remember rightly, they were £1.50 a pack but on offer a few weeks ago at 2 for £1 (I used 2 cubes). I also added a slosh of red wine, some Italian dried herbs, a stock cube, some leftover gravy and some baked beans sauce from the fridge. I did use a fresh red onion, a couple of fresh diced carrots and some tomatoes from the fridge that were going squishy, so those needed a couple of minutes' chopping, but apart from that everything else was ready to just pop into the slow cooker.  

Served with boiled pasta shapes from Approved Foods (part of the enormous stash we're still eating our way through) and a sprinkling of grated cheddar, it served 3 of us with enough leftover for at least other 2 portions. It would probably serve 6 but DH and DS1 have enormous appetites.

It was absolutely delicious and I costed it at approx £4.50 including the extras such as stock cube, wine, herbs, pasta, cheese etc. For 6 servings that's 75p a serving.

DS2's gig went really well. He also did a solo accoustic spot earlier on that we only caught the end of, as an act had pulled out at the last moment. His band all dressed up as Power Rangers - one as the pink ranger complete with fake breasts. They did a heavy metal set, including a version of the Power Rangers theme tune. I managed to record about half of it but my phone acted up for the second half. They are always very well received because they mix fun with the music. 

We didn't get home until midnight. I was tired but still had trouble getting to sleep and ended up taking a Sleepeaze tablet and finally dropping off after 1 am. I always feel a bit out of it the following day when I take something to help me sleep, so today so I've just potterered about doing bits and pieces around the house, plus a couple of quick trips to the local shops; Aldi, FarmFoods and Morrisons are all within a few minutes walk of the house.

DH is now off work for a week so we're hoping to have some days out as well as our trip to Calais on Tuesday. But tomorrow and Sunday we'll be moving DS2's things back home from Canterbury. 

Let's hope the weather is good for the bank holiday weekend.