Frugal food

After spending so much on Japan (and trying to save some spending money), we’re trying to be a bit more frugal at home. Inspired by the great show Economy Gastronomy that’s just finished on BBC2, we’ve been trying to buy and cook food more cleverly to save money. It’s working pretty well and we’re actually eating more interesting and tasty things, too. Here are some recent meals.

A pie made with leftover bean stew. I made the stew last week and froze what we didn’t eat (a top EG tip) – it’s just made with tinned cannelini beans, tinned tomatoes and feta and olive antipasti, all bubbled together for half an hour or so. Simple addition of frozen ready-to-roll puff pastry turned it into a tasty pie. I’ll definitely make similar dishes again as the ‘leftovers pie’ was easy to put together and super delicious.

This is a really lazy dinner but super fast and cheap! A pack of mixed stir-fry veg (this lot even came with the chilli), fresh egg noodles, quorn and peas from the freezer, stir-fried with soy, sweet chilli, ginger (also frozen) and lemon juice.

Mexican is probably my all-time favourite cuisine. We usually just do fajitas with onions and peppers but for a change these are queasdillas, stuffed with black beans (just heated up from the tin) and strong cheddar cheese. The whole tortilla is then fried in a pan with a bit of oil and some Mexican seasoning, served with lots of sour cream.

Dauphinoise potatoes – pure food porn! I could eat this lot of garlicky creamy spuds all on its own (last time I served it with baked stuffed Portabello mushrooms, though).

I’ve been flicking through my Leith’s bible for ideas for this week – on the menu will be jambalaya, Cajan veg pilaf, sweet potato falafel, aubergine & lentil moussaka and cauliflower and lentil dhal.

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