Say 'neigh' to the ready meals

Hello Dear Reader,

Home cooking is not scary and it costs a whole lot less than ready meals and most importantly me for me, I know exactly what's in it! The supermarkets want to make money out of us and I want to give them as little of my hard earned cash as possible! They will skimp on quality, skimp on knowledge of where the food is sourced from and unfortunately, skimp on questioning suppliers. I fully support buying supermarket value vegetables and I buy value supermarket fish. I know cod from haddock or from Pollock, which is my preferred fish. I am happy to buy carrots of varying shapes and sizes and know the straight long carrots go to Waitrose whilst I buy the shorter nobblier ones in Aldi! That's fine, I want to eat them and not enter them in a beauty pageant.

So, here's some recipes for simple suppers with no additives, no Neddy and at much lower prices.

Fish and Chips.

Chips - cut spuds into chips

Par boil until just cooked.

Spray with fry light or toss in olive oil

Place on baking tray and bake on high for 20- 30 minutes

Fish - Pollock fillets - defrosted.

Homemade breadcrumbs

Egg

Plain flour.

Dust fish in flour,

Dip in egg

Dip in breadcrumbs.

Place on lightly oiled baking tray in hot oven for 10 minutes.

Serve with mushy peas, a splash of salt and vinegar. Make bag out of greased proof paper and sit on the back step with the rain coming down, cuddled up to boyfriend  husband and eat.

Beat this Captain Birdseye Fish Pie!

Make mashed potatoes - leave to cool

Cut Pollock into chunks - if feeling flush use posh fish, or not!

Peel skin off smoked mackerel - cut into chunks - if feeling rich, use smoked haddock.

Make cheese sauce.

In plastic jug, ding a tablespoon of butter in the microwave.

Add two tablespoons of corn flour - mix well.

Add 2oz of finely grated mature cheddar.

Add one pint of skimmed milk

Microwave for one minute, stir well with whisk

Keep cooking for one minute at a time until sauce is.............saucy.

Stir cheese sauce into the fish, cover with mashed potatoes

Bake in hot oven for 30 minutes. Serve with veggies.

Beef and potato pie.

 First of all, go to a butchers and see the beef in person!!!! Ask the butcher if it even won the Grand National, if he says no, then you are in luck.

You will need

2 rashers of bacon,

1 large onion,

1 lb of stewing beef

stock cube - no mention of Desert Orchid in Oxo yet, but if I hear anything, I'll let you know.

Two medium cooked potatoes, cut into chunks.

2 medium carrots, cut into chunks and cooked.

Fry the chopped bacon, diced beef and chopped onion - add to slow cooker, pour over one pint of stock. Leave to cook all day. Get home from work and make pastry in the food processor. Tip in 1 lb of plain flour, a pinch of salt, 4oz of lard, 4oz butter and blitz until breadcrumbs, dribble in water from the top of the processor and pulse until lumps become bigger and bigger, until it becomes one lump. Now you have pastry. Leave to cool in fridge for ten minutes. Roll out onto a floured board. Mix beefy stew with cooked potatoes and carrots. Roll out pastry and make pie. Eat with veggies. You can make lots of pies in one go, freeze them and have them ready to cook when you come home from work.

Cottage Pie - go back to aforementioned butchers and buy minced beef. You will need

1 lb of minced beef or lamb,

1 finely chopped onion,

1 finely diced large carrot,

3 stalks of finely diced celery.

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 stock cube

Fry the lot in a pan, add a stock and tin of tomatoes and leave to simmer very slowly for almost an hour. 

Pop into casserole dish and cover with mashed potatoes. Sure signs that you've become a frugal cook is to look in your freezer and there's at least a couple of spare cottage pies lurking for busy days.

Lasagne. I buy minced beef in 4 kilo packs and take it home and re pack it into 300g bags, I work on 100g for me and 200g for Dearly Beloved. I tend to make three or more lasagnes at a time and they freeze well and just need reheating when I get in from work. 

You will need the recipe for cheese sauce and double the amount from the Fish Pie, but you'll need some extra cheese if you're not weight watching.

You will need the cottage pie filling recipe from above with the addition of garlic, oregano and basil, if you live some where warm, you can grow these yourself, I buy them dry and in little tubs from Aldi.

In the bottom of a suitable pie dish, start with the meat sauce, then some cheese sauce, then a sheets of lasagne, then repeat. Cover the second layer of lasagne with a generous layer of cheese sauce. Bake for 30- 45 minutes. When you can push a knife through all the layers and the lasagne is gently soft, then it's cooked. Serve with salad. No photo finish needed for this supper! 

Quiche.

Brilliant for packed lunches or picnics, or just to have for lunch with salad. Make pastry - see above recipe. I don't make it by hand and I make a job lot and freeze it in pie size portions and just defrost it when I need it.

250g of bacon,

100g of strong cheddar,

1 large onion finely diced

1 leek finely sliced

1 yellow pepper - diced.

sprinkle of mixed herbs

6 eggs

optional - sliced tomatoes

Fry everything but the eggs, until soft - our into pastry lined quiche dish. Beat eggs, stir in cheese and herbs and pour over content of quiche. Decorate with sliced tomatoes.  

You can't hurt a quiche and can put anything in it. Any cheese, and veggies. I sometimes make salmon and broccoli quiche and I even use tinned salmon. Cheese and onion alone is just fine. It's so easy, I can't imagine buying it. Smoked haddock and cheddar with sauteed onions is also great in a quiche. Leave off the pastry, tip contents into grease baking dish and you have fritatta.

I make all our food from scratch as I like to know what's in it. I also like to keep the costs down and still eat well. I have no worries about eating adulterated food as I don't buy processed food but who knows what some folk have ingested. The good news is that there is a resurgence of people using their local butchers and grocers and hopefully people will turn their backs of the ready made and turn to the homemade.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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