Eating less meat...

Hi

I thought I'd share with you how we eat much less meat than we used to. We were big meat eaters...every day in greedy quantities!

My family has changed. At one time I was feeding six adults. Now most of the time it's just two adults and Daisy. 

We don't eat meat every day now. I will make egg and cheese based meals with jacket potatoes or pasta or rice. I make veggie risotto or pasta. Sometimes omelettes or simply dippy eggs (one of Daisy's favourites). We have adapted and adjusted to not miss the mountains of meat we were consuming.

We went shopping on Sunday and after looking for the offers, we choose a selection of meat to last the next fortnight. We choose to buy good quality and British so look out for when these are on offer. We never buy the value meat because of the animal's living conditions and welfare standards. If the better quality 'happy' meat is really expensive, we won't buy it and do without. 

When I get home from shopping I split the meat up to freeze...

The meat is divided into meal portions, bagged and frozen until needed. The portions I need to create our meals is considerably less than I used to cook. This is how we continue to afford to be meat eaters. We are not greedy either now! I pad out meals with extra veg too. We are certainly not underfed!!

Does anyone else do this? I like to get as many meals as possible from a pack of meat. 

Mandy x

Two challenges...How many meals can I make from this amount of meat???...And weaning Daisy-May

Hi everyone,

On Saturday, my lovely husband went to the butchers in town and bought quite a lot of meat. We have two butchers in our village, but these are really expensive (probably worth it for the quality and service) and we cannot afford their prices now. This is what he came home with:

• 3 chicken breasts
• 5lb minced beef
• 15 sausages
• 1lb diced pork
• 2lb diced braising steak
• 4 lamb pieces (for casseroles)
• 45 rashers of back bacon

I divided these all up (into the freezer) to try to get as many meal opportunities as possible from them. The chicken will make 2 meals, mince - 10, sausages - 3, diced pork - 2, diced beef - 4, lamb - 2, and the bacon - 8. There are 3 adults to feed. In recent times, we would have eaten a chicken breast each but now we will eat half because I will stretch it in a curry or something. I only use half a pound of mince or diced meat for casseroles per meal now. I split the bacon so it could be either used for a fry-up or in a recipe. I have got lots of cheap and filling recipes that use very little bacon.

So far, we have eaten half a pound of mince - we had spag bol for tea last night and there was plenty. This meat will last over a month, but my challenge is to see just how many meals I can get from it. We have been eating far too much meat and I want to introduce more non- meat days. We are greedy and have too much on our plates! I intend to concentrate on filling the plate with vegetables or salad and reducing our meat intake.

Another issue is Daisy-May, she isn't keen on lumps or a thicker puree yet. I have been relying on jars too much lately because I have been ill and just too tired. This is not ideal for her health and development or our pocket!!! She needs protein and we want her to eat our meals. I have bought some baby stock cubes because oxo is way too salty for her, so now I can give her our meals just cooked without the little bits I add for flavour. I have made her spag bol before and it tasted bland, but not to Daisy, because she hasn't experienced all the flavours that are bad for us that I have! I read an interesting book last night, written by Gina Ford. It came free in a pregnancy magazine last year. I feel clearer now about why Daisy was waking up in the night for feeds (twice a night). The last 3 nights she has slept from 10.30 to 6.30 and that is fine by me! We had started to give her a protein tea and baby cereal for supper at about 8pm. Last night she fell asleep with her bottle at 7.30 after her bath and only had half a milk feed at 10.00. She did stir at 2am but went back to sleep with her lullaby. After reading this book, I'm convinced that she hasn't had enough filling food throughout the day until now. The book suggests a protein lunch and carbohydrate tea, so we will be carrying on with our new routine - it works!

Daisy-May is lactose intolerant (as was her mummy) so feeding her is a challenge in itself! She has wysoy milk but will only tolerate 4oz at a time, even though she is 7 months old! She was premature and apparently this is ok for her as she still has a little tummy. According to her milk powder tin, she weighs the same as a 4 month old, no surprise as she is wearing 3-6 month clothing and still some 0-3. She is our 'dinky Daisy' but she is growing and developing and very happy! She just needs to be fed all day.

Another challenge faced by me has been the laundry. The good drying weather (it's so windy here today) has meant that I am up-to-date with the washing, but created the hugest ironing pile! Yesterday I tackled it but in bits because obviously Daisy doesn't want to watch grandma iron all day. I may finish it later???

I'll be back soon...

Mandy x

Finding things in the freezer I forgot I had...

Hi everyone,

Just lately I haven't found time to bake.

I have even bought cake from the supermarket!

This IS NOT good money saving!!!

Yesterday I went to my freezer to get a loaf out and came back with a coffee sponge and fruit cake. I batch baked some time ago (probably put photos on my blog) and these items had been buried under frozen veg. I was so happy to provide my husband and daughter with cake for their packed lunches.

You see I had thought ahead if things got too hectic to bake - I'm just so tired that I totally forgot I had been organised!

A lesson has been learned here - keep the freezer organised (which I normally do) by putting the new shopping away properly instead of piling it on top of what's already there.

I wonder what else I will find lurking at the bottom of my chest freezer???

Is your freezer perfectly organised so you can put your hand to whatever you need?

Mandy x

Food shopping and meal planning...

Today we braved the cold weather and did our fortnightly shop. Our main shop comes from the supermarket and I supplement it with purchases from approved food. We don't pop into our local mini-supermarket like a lot of people do daily, because you just end up buying things you don't need, there's too much temptation.

We have cut our grocery bill by quite a lot recently, but there's still loads of room for improvement! Meal planning is really important to save money and reduce waste, but I didn't have time :(  We have been looking after Daisy-May all weekend and she came with us, so I just tried to plan meals as I shopped - I wouldn't recommend it!!!

We bought:

 2 big packs of stewing steak which will go in the slow cooker with dumplings.

2 big packs of chicken drumsticks which will be roasted and eaten as bbq chicken with rice and probably cooked in the slow cooker as chicken casserole.

Sausages will be - bangers, mash, peas and onion gravy and sausage casserole.

Sausage meat that will be giant sausage rolls with beans.

Belly pork strips which I will turn into a mini-roast.

Bacon bits which I will use to make a quiche and other frugal bacon recipes (undecided yet).

A gammon joint which I will bake with mustard and honey.

I bought loads of veg etc, so I could make cauliflower cheese, vegetable lasagne etc. I can be quite flexible over the next 2 weeks because I already have a full freezer. The only thing we buy ready made is breaded pollock. This is handy when I need to do a quick tea. I am in the process of trying to fill the freezer with homemade ready meals when I batch cook, but my freezer is already full! I am making changes that I can stick to and sometimes it's a slow process. I'm learning which foods freeze well and still taste nice reheated. My family think that fruit cake freezes really well.

With all this cold weather, I think that stew and dumplings and treacle sponge with custard is necessary this week.

Sorry that my blog is lacking in photos, but I cannot upload from my laptop and I don't know what else to do.

Thanks for reading,

Mandy x