Making the meat go further

[Paul]

This by Paul's wife.

Like everyone, our £ does not go as far today as it did a year ago, and one of our savings has been a reduction in the amount of meat we eat.

Taking advantage of the 3 for £10 offers in the supermarket, we would buy a tray of 4 or 5 chicken breasts, a tray of 8 pork loin chops (all these frozen at home in 2s) and one other, which could be sausages, gammon steaks or a duplicate of our original choice.

That, plus 2 X 750g trays of minced beef (each divided into 3) would be sufficient to fill our freezer with 'meat meals' for the 2 of us for the month. Not so today.

Chicken breasts are now in packs of 2, perhaps 3, and chops 6. I already use only one chicken breast for a curry, but the biggest change has been our minced beef, which is what I shall concentrate on.

As said, we would divide each 750g pack into 3 parcels, so from each £3.50 pack, that worked out at just over £1 a meal.

In recent months though, I have taken to adding 2 tins of tomatoes and 2 large onions to the meat when cooking, then dividing this mix in 2, one for spaghetti bolognese and the other for lasagne (or if I added a large tin of red kidney beans as well, 2 chilli meals) so in theory, making the meat go twice as far.

Not a bad thing when you're watching your weight and cholesterol.

Then came the price hike and we bought the 500g packs of minced beef, but adopted the same principal, so again 3 parcels for the freezer, and then 2 meals per parcel.

Stocking up with meat last week, our budget could only stretch to the 400g packs and these were £4.68 per pack. We divided each pack into 4, but even with the biggest imagination, I cannot make each pack stretch to 2 meals now.

So in summary, our minced beef was originally 250g per meal for 2 (125g each), followed by 125g (62.5g each) with my first stretch, then 3 parcels out of 500g meant 166g-ish per pack and 83g per meal (41.5g each), and now we've managed to go up a bit to 100g per meal and 50g each.

I think I will try next time to get 5 parcels out of our 400g pack and so go back to around 80g (40g each) per meal, then chuck in a handful of peppers or chopped carrots as well as the onions and tomatoes to make it go further.

Soon however, I envisage us not buying minced beef at all.

[Hrusai]

nice article paul's wife

some great ways to make the meat go further (is it just my teenage mind or does that sound dodgy xD)

another good way to make meat go further is to either add in the cheaper cuts of meat to "dilute" it, or simply use nothing but the cheaper cuts

this article also shows the benefits of being able to go out and shoot some rabbits! with meat prices rising having the ability to bag yourself free meat is not only fun but can be very useful!

[Paul]

From the wife.
Been there done that, my rabbit pie is always well received.
Paul did the shooting, gutting etc, me the hard bit i.e. making the pie.

From Paul
Luckily I've got someone who will experiment and doesn't believe that all food comes in little plastic trays.
Most of our non prepping friends wouldn't even try the pie as the thought of a cute bunny sat beneath the pastry was "Ohhh nasty".

[Hrusai]

(8 September 2012, 14:47)Paul Wrote: From the wife.
Been there done that, my rabbit pie is always well received.
Paul did the shooting, gutting etc, me the hard bit i.e. making the pie.

From Paul
Luckily I've got someone who will experiment and doesn't believe that all food comes in little plastic trays.
Most of our non prepping friends wouldn't even try the pie as the thought of a cute bunny sat beneath the pastry was "Ohhh nasty".

To the wife.
oooh rabbit pie sounds delish good that you can make things like that, i think nowadays knowing how to cook properly with fresh ingredients like a rabbit caught in the last few hours is something of a lost art

To Paul.
your a lucky guy paul far too many peoples are too squeamish to even think about going and shooting a rabbit to make a meal from, hope im so lucky in the future ^^

[bigpaul]

one way to make the meat go further is to have smaller portions! you can cut down the portion size without really noticing it.

[Hrusai]

(8 September 2012, 15:04)bigpaul Wrote: one way to make the meat go further is to have smaller portions! you can cut down the portion size without really noticing it.

that and we dont really need to eat very much, go for a hunter gatherer style diet, nuts berries, some fruits n veg and the odd bit of meat, you'll feel better, eat for less money and get into better shape

[Prepaday]

800 grams mince £2.70 from Tesco, Does 2 meals, i have started plating my meals on smaller plates, When you have a large plate, you feel the need to fill it. I buy 2 chickens from Tesco at aprox £3.00 each, ok, it's not the best of meat but add plenty of herbs and it passes for just about edible.
Also, cheap frozen fish from Tesco, £1.75 a bag, aprox 4 bits in it, makes ok, fish pie, I buy plenty of potatoes at 99p a bag from you know where
You can buy cheap lasagna pasta from yes, you got it Tesco, I also take advantage of the boxes of cereal for £1, this does breakfasts and suppers. So I can feed the family for aprox £40 a week including milk. beans and cheese etc. Gotta love beans and toast, Although I won't scrimp on the bread, cheap bread is rubbish for toast. If you don't have a Tesco or big super market near you or a pound shop, I really do sympathize, it must be hard

[Hrusai]

(8 September 2012, 16:27)Prepaday Wrote: 800 grams mince £2.70 from Tesco, Does 2 meals, i have started plating my meals on smaller plates, When you have a large plate, you feel the need to fill it. I buy 2 chickens from Tesco at aprox £3.00 each, ok, it's not the best of meat but add plenty of herbs and it passes for just about edible.
Also, cheap frozen fish from Tesco, £1.75 a bag, aprox 4 bits in it, makes ok, fish pie, I buy plenty of potatoes at 99p a bag from you know where
You can buy cheap lasagna pasta from yes, you got it Tesco, I also take advantage of the boxes of cereal for £1, this does breakfasts and suppers. So I can feed the family for aprox £40 a week including milk. beans and cheese etc. Gotta love beans and toast, Although I won't scrimp on the bread, cheap bread is rubbish for toast. If you don't have a Tesco or big super market near you or a pound shop, I really do sympathize, it must be hard

wow for a reasonably large family thats really good!

good tips prepaday

[Prepaday]

I use bags of frozen veg, It's a bit bland but I put plenty of gravy on everything, Also, We drink a big glass of water with our meals, this helps fill us up, As a snack, crackers with marg/butter on does the trick,

[Paul]

We do OK thanks Prepaday.
We already use tiny plates.
(Total intentional weight loss between us for the past 12 months = 56 lbs)

As for the 'T' word, no. Far too expensive or poor quality.
We shop at Asda and are extremely lucky to have a Aldi.
Aldi rules for Pasta, Rice, and Milk (we only buy UHT Skimmed by the crate).

Plus there are the weekly markets and our beloved "Tin lady".
Yes we have a pound shop and a poundstretcher.
Yes we love shopping in them too.
Our fruit and veg is as cheap as chips and we're going to guess you do like we do and buy bread and things when they are on special.

It's not economical for us to make bread being an all electric house.

Our tin lady sells off unwanted stock so that's the tins sorted at pence not pounds.

Just to make you sit back a bit Prepaday,
Our average weekly shopping bill is a bit over £25 a week for the two of us and the dawg.

We're not blowing our own trumpet here, it's just the way it has become and according to SWMBO, it's getting "tricky".

Paul

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p.s. SWMBO is really impressed at the £40 food bill. Way to go!