Practising What I Preach

I'm feeling rather 'spaced out' today after waiting up until 1.30 am (without a Nanna-nap) for the all important 'I've arrived safely' message from DS2. By the time I actually dropped off to sleep I'd been awake for 21 hours straight. And then I was up again by 7.15 this morning.

DH advised I take it easy today to avoid getting a migraine. I'm trying, but I can't sit still when I know there's things to be done. So, I've done 2 loads of laundry and hung it to dry (and so far the threatened rain has kept away). I've also been to Aldi for a few bits and walked to and from town, needing the walk to clear my head. I'm now sitting down with the TV on and writing this and trying not to drop off because if I nap I'll feel even grottier and won't sleep well tonight.

Luckily I don't have to cook tonight as there's still enough left from the dinner DH made last night. Following on from yesterday's rant about the definition of thrifty meals I thought I'd give an example of practising what I preach. So, although DH did the cooking I sourced and bought the ingredients and acted as 'advisor'.

This is the recipe he made (with some alterations). It's from a Slimming World book I picked up for £1.25 from a charity shop. Forgive the stains on the pages; DH is a messy chef.

The substitutions were sunflower oil instead of Frylight (I find Frylight leaves a horrible sticky film on my pans that's hard to clean off), a pinch of chilli flakes instead of the green chilli, and he added 2 diced sweet potatoes, 2 chopped peppers and 1/2 can of leftover sweetcorn.

Here's the list of ingredients with pricing:-

450g Best Beef Mince - £2 (from a 5 lbs for £10 pack from our local butcher)

2 Onions - 15p (1kg/6 onions for 45p from Aldi)

2 Carrots - 10p (1 kg for 45p from Aldi)

2 Garlic Cloves - 10p (from a 35p bulb Aldi)

2 Sweet Potatoes - 28p (6 pack for 82p from Morrisons)

1/2 can Sweetcorn - 20p (Aldi 39p)

2 Baking Potatoes - 30p (4 pack from Aldi for 59p)

2 Peppers - 25p (8 pack of Everday Peppers Aldi £1)

Tin of Chopped Tomatoes - 25p (Approved Foods 4 for £1)

Oil/Stock Cube/Herbs/Spices etc. Approx 20p

Total Cost of Recipe = £3.83

By adding in the extra veg it made 6 large portions at 64p each

Served yesterday with 1/2 a 59p bag of Aldi salad leaves (30p/10p each) and a tomato each (59p for 6 or 10p each) which made each meal 84p per person

And today with 1/2 a 500g bag of Tesco couscous (79p or 40p for 3 at approx 12p each) making each meal 76p per person.

Lovely inexpensive grub and well below my cook book's Extra Thrifty £2 a serving budget.

So, I probably sound a little smug but I do practice what I preach...well, most of the time. Of, course there are times when I'll splash out and maybe buy the best sausages but even then I go for the local butcher's 3 lb for the price of 2 at £2.59 a pound essentially making them £1.73 a pound). I'll either freeze half of them or I cook them all and make 2 main meals plus a couple left for lunchtime sandwiches. They are lovely sausages in a variety of flavours and when cooked they shrink hardly at all. Even when splashing out a bit I still like to get value for money. 

Enough preaching to the converted for today.

Have a good day. Love, Helen xx