Eating cheaply but well

Very interesting, thanks for the link.

Thanks Boz. An eye opener for me.

Thank you for this. The tomato sauce hint and frying pasta is a very useful thing to know and I will be applying it this week!

Eating cheaply is not difficult, but it does take time and skill to make use of cheaper ingredients. I did a lot 30 yrs ago with 4 sons and a husband to feed, could do it again if needed, so could a lot of grans.

I do a chorizo stew which is loved by my Uni GD and her housemates.

Fry some chorizo (or similar) in large saucepan with onions and garlic (optional). Throw tin of tomatoes on top plus 2/3 tins of water (using can) to top up. Then chuck in your cheap root veg and a stock cube or two and boil to veg cooked. Eat with a chunk on bread; nicer next day.

A slow cooker is also so much help with things that need to be cooked slowly, if people can afford them - and so much cheaper than using the oven or hob.

Unfortunately, given that it is about eating cheaply, the cooking times given in that article put me off straight away.
Cooking onions for "a very long time" and the tomatoes for "1-2 hours, (and that's before you let it cool down then reheat "for extra flavour") is not going to be cheap on energy!

The average electric hob is not very energy-efficient, and given how long a slow cooker is on for, it is debatable whether that is any cheaper to run either.

That's where the slow cooker comes in Oldnproud. If you can afford the initial outlay they save a fortune in fuel bills. They are very cheap to run. If you don't have one, check them out, for instance at Lakeland.

www.frugalfamily.co.uk/is-a-slow-cooker-really-cheaper-than-your-oven/
This does some sums, I use our slow cooker a lot. Thanks for the link Boz.

I have a slow cooker these days, years ago I had a wood fired Rayburn that heated the water as well. All time consuming but cheap, had to fuel it up an hour before you did any baking, LOL.

Jaxjacky

www.frugalfamily.co.uk/is-a-slow-cooker-really-cheaper-than-your-oven/
This does some sums, I use our slow cooker a lot. Thanks for the link Boz.

I think I need a different slow cooker!
The two I have (Cookworks, in different sizes) both use a lot more energy than the article suggests. The label on the smaller one says it's 160 - 190w, and the larger one 320w.

Oldnproud you don't need a different slow cooker!

You're confusing the wattage power of the appliance e.g. 320w with the actual energy used to cook a meal e.g. 0.7kWh

Clever grans on here! ✅

But if the appliance is 320w, doesn't that mean that it actually uses 2.56kw to cook the meal, assuming it's on for 8 hours?

I’ve started making a sauce to use for lasagne etc by frying onions, garlic, celery and grated carrot, then adding tinned tomatoes. I then add a small amount of mince and a larger quantity of green lentils. All the years that I bought sauce in jars and I never thought to just make my own.

Yes, 2.56kWh.

The article presumably refers to a smaller size but you say you have two cookers, that's why I said you don't need to buy a new one!

MayBee70

I’ve started making a sauce to use for lasagne etc by frying onions, garlic, celery and grated carrot, then adding tinned tomatoes. I then add a small amount of mince and a larger quantity of green lentils. All the years that I bought sauce in jars and I never thought to just make my own.

I like the sound of this. Do you have to pre-soak the lentils.
Bottled sauces contain sugar and preservatives, so beware.

Maybee70 I add finely chopped courgettes when there’s a glut and in cottage pie with the orange lentils.

I soak the lentils overnight but I don’t think you have to. I bought so many lentils during lockdown I need to find a way to use them up. I think, if you soak them, they’re less likely to give you wind . I’ve always used red lentils but green ones were new to me.

I’ve usually made my own batches of tomato/mince-based sauce for lasagne, spag Bol, etc. But nowadays it contains a lot more finely chopped veg and red lentils, so semi-veggie.

It was brought home to me last November just how much sugar is in bought tomato sauces/soups, etc. I was making 8 (!) litres of tomato and red pepper soup for Gdcs’ school fair, and until I read the list of ingredients on both a jar of ready-made pasta sauce and a tin of Heinz tomato, I hadn’t realised just how much sugar was in them.

Afraid to say I did add sugar to my soup - no use going to all that trouble if it wasn’t going to taste ‘right’ for outdoor fair-goers on a cold day.

Ok this may be heresy but....I zonk my pasta sauces in the microwave for ten mins to get the flavour perfect. When you get that orange oil on the top of Bolognese you know it's going to be tasty

try a haybox or a thermal cooker,even more frugal.

It never occurred to me to use bought pasta sauce. Yesterday I made pesto with spinach leaves, fresh basil, garlic, sunflower seeds, lemon juice and salt whizzed up in the food processor. Added some tired microwave broccoli and slowly cooked onions and mushrooms. Went down a treat. My son, who went to India with his ex sometimes, advised that the best food was dhal eaten every day. The secret is to cook onions very slowly before the other ingredients are added.

Being wobbly and painful on my legs I use my microwave and slow cooker most of the time. Use frozen chopped veg and onions and frozen mash potato. Can make a minced beef pasta sauce in the microwave.
After the war when my children were small I used a pressure cooker a lot. Although meat was rationed I could get a marrow bone to pressure cook. When cold the result was a tasty jelly and two inches of fat on the top. Used to cook veg in the jelly and use the fat for pastry.
Children never even had a cold.