Would Sir care to hear tonight's special?....

Welcome back ladies and gents! Its dinner time and what could be more appetising than a delicious spaghetti and meatballs? 'Just-a like-a mamma yoosta make!' Well maybe not, as we are going to make meatballs with a twist.
Traditionally meatballs are made with minced/ground beef and herbs but as we are on a bit of a budget, we are going to have to find an alternative.

Sausage meat makes a perfect alternative to beef, its cheaper,has herbs already mixed in and the meatballs fry up real nice in a little bit of oil.

If you have a little spare cash, you can mix it up a bit. Add a squeeze of lemon, garlic or cheese to the mixture.

Lets get started...

Sausage Meatballs in Homemade Tomato Sauce

Serves 5 - 6 people

preparation time 30 mins

cooking time 30 mins

Ingredients

Meatballs

Pork sausages x 8

Sauce
2 tbsp Olive oil
4 Garlic cloves, crushed

2 Medium onions chopped
4 x 400g cans Chopped tomato

2 x Bell Peppers cut into small strips
125ml red wine or dry cider (optional)

A splash of Worcestershire sauce
3 tbsp caster or granulated sugar (optional)
½ a large bunch flat-leaf Parsley, finely chopped or a tsp of mixed herbs
A few basil leaves (optional)

Serve with 40g Spaghetti per person, and grated cheddar cheese (optional).

First preheat the oven to 160 C.

1. Heat a large frying pan (make sure it has high sides) on a medium heat and add a tbsp of olive oil. Snip the sausages apart, then squeeze and pinch the meat out of the skins so that you get little meatball shapes – don't make them too big or they will take too long to cook. Try to get at least three balls out of each sausage. Don't worry about rolling them into perfect balls, the rustic look is pretty cool! 

meaty balls

2. Put the Meatballs into the frying pan and cook until they're golden brown, turning them regularly. Once browned pop them in to a roasting tin and let them cook through in the oven. That will keep them warm while you make the sauce.

The tomato sauce

3. Using the same frying pan add another glug of oil. On a lowish heat fry the garlic and sizzle for 1 minute, add the onions and cook for a further 5 mins.

4. Add the wine/cider and cook for a minute (if using), then add the tomatoes, sugar, mixed herbs and Worcestershire sauce. 

5. Simmer for 10 mins and then add the peppers, stir and simmer for a further 10 mins or until the sauce slightly thickens.

6. The meatballs should be ready to come out of the oven now, so bring them out and add them to the sauce and you can add the basil leaves now if you using them.

7. Keep the sauce on the low heat, whilst in another saucepan bring some water to the boil and add the spaghetti. Wait for it to soften before stirring so the pasta doesn't stick together or to the bottom of the pan.

8. It takes about 10-11 mins to cook the spaghetti. Once cooked drain in a colander and pour some boiling water from the kettle over it to prevent it from sticking together.

9. Dish up the spaghetti and add the meatballs and sauce over the top. Garnish with basil leaves if you have any and serve with some parmesan or grated cheddar cheese. 

and then enjoy! 

Costings

So this meal can be as cheap as you want to make it. I prefer to use a better quality sausage with a higher meat content for the meatballs. These were a little more expensive than the budget sausages, but the best price i could fine was £1.19 for 8 pork sausages from Lidl. I know that the big supermarkets will often have deals for the butchers choice sausages occasionally so you can normally pick them up for around a £1 a pack.

• Onions from lidl were 63p for a bag of 8 that works out around 8p each.

• Garlic was 25p per bulb and we used 4 cloves, that's about 10p. 

• Peppers are expensive but you can pick up a bag of 5 for £1.65 only green and yellow variety. That works out as 33p each. 

• Chopped tomato cans were 31p in Lidl 

• Spaghetti was actually cheaper in Tesco at 19p for a pack of 500g. 

All the rest of the ingredients are totally optional but if you are interested I found worcestershire sauce for a 99p in Lidl and cider is a cheaper alternative to wine and you can get more for your money. Dry Cider can be found around £2 for 2l.

So for the basic meal without the optionals this meal will cost you £3.42 for 5 - 6 servings

All the extras added in will cost you £3.84 

I hope you enjoy this meal, its a real tasty dinner and one of my favourites.

The First Weekend Part II

Lunchtime

With breakfast done and dusted we need to start thinking about what we can do for lunches. With a limited budget of £5 a week (£20 a month) we decided to make a few soups. Soups can go a long way with a few ingredients. If you make soup in big batches, you can freeze the remaining portions for later on in the month. 

Here's the first recipe...

This recipe makes enough for 8 servings. Its made with a lot of vegetables and lentils to bulk it out. Its a thick warming soup with a hint of chilli. 

prep time around 15 mins

cooking time around 50 mins

You will need a blender or food processor to liquidize the soup after cooking.

Tomato and Red Lentil Soup

Ingredients

make sure you have a big pot!

2 tablespoons Olive Oil

2 Onions - finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic finely chopped or grated

A pinch of chilli flakes

4 carrots finely chopped

450g red lentils

3 x tins of chopped tomatoes (400g)

1.4 litres hot vegetable stock

salt and black pepper

Heat the oil in a large saucepan*, add the onions, and cook over a low heat for 6-8 minutes, or until soft and translucent. 

Add the garlic, a pinch of chilli flakes and the carrots and stir. Season with some salt and pepper and cook for 2 minutes.

Add the lentils, stir in, then add the tomatoes and the stock. Bring to the boil, then simmer on a very low heat for 35-40 minutes, or until the lentils are soft. Make sure its a low heat and stir occasionally or else it may burn on the bottom of the pan!

Transfer to the blender and whiz up until blended and smooth. Taste and season if needed.

To serve transfer into a pan and heat until piping hot.

You can add a dash of cream if you have any, or a pinch of coriander is nice too. But this is not essential.

*If you don't have a large saucepan, then you can either half the recipe or split it in to two saucepans and then add them back together at the end.

Cost

We did the majority of the shop at Lidl. The remaining items we bought from Tesco.

Lidl

Bag of onions 1kg (approx 8 onions) 63p

Bag of carrots 1 kg (approx 10 carrots) 75p

Red Lentils 500g bag 95p

Chopped tomatoes 31p 

Tesco

Crushed chillies 95p

Garlic 25p

Value vegetable stock cubes 30p

I have assumed that people have the basics like olive oil, and salt and pepper in the kitchen already. However the cheapest olive oil i've seen so far is £3.48 for 1l at ASDA that works out about 35p per 100 ml.

So this meal should cost you around £2.56 for 8 servings.

For the lunch budget we suggested £5 a week (£20 a month) this works out around 66p per serving/meal.

This soup is coming in around 32p per serving, just under half the proposed budget! 

I might see if I can make some more soups around this price range, and then we can put the remaining budget to good use somewhere else, like in the dinner menu.

If you got some ideas what you could add to this recipe just drop us a comment.

Dinner budget to follow...

The first Weekend...

The Budget

So here we are, as you may or may not know the challenge is create a decent menu for people on a budget, that's tasty and healthy. The budget was set at £14 for the week, this includes breakfast lunch and dinner.

My plan is to make meals in bulk so that it works out cheaper per serving, and freeze the remaining unused portions for lunch and dinner in the following weeks. So I have a budget of approx £56 for the month give or take a day or two.

I am going to test out splitting the budget in to £12 for breakfast for the month, £20 for lunches and £24 for dinners. I have an inkling i may have been a bit generous with the lunch budget so that might change and adjust into the dinner budget. We shall see how we get on!

The first shop

With this project being National we had to take into consideration the location of the supermarkets we would use. They had to be available for the majority of people to travel to. Also we decided that we could not use the deals or offers that were on at any given time, due to them not always being available. I do however think that you should look at these deals for yourself if there are any good offers on, it would be crazy to pass up the better quality products at the lower prices... Just don't exceed the budget people!

  Sooo Hannah and I did some research into the various supermarkets checked the ASDA and Tesco websites, spoke to a few people about where they shop etc and came to the conclusion that we would do the majority of shopping at Lidl and whatever we couldn't get there we would use the value products from somewhere like Tesco, ASDA or Sainsbury's.

However as we were passing by Morrisons we thought it would be rude not to pop in! We bought the majority of breakfast food on Friday night. The main contenders for breakfast being 6 'M savers' crumpets at 37p, 1 kg 'M savers' porridge oats for 75p (Beast!) and 'M saver' Cornflakes for 31p

I'm thinking the porridge is going to go a long way, and i'm hoping the cornflakes taste ok!  Ive weighed up a bowl of cornflakes and i recon 30-35g is a reasonable portion which works out you can have 16 servings from the one box. (So thats half the month right there!) The porridge oats around 40g per serving thats provides you with 25 servings and thats nearly a whole month! happy days! 

Now I know that will probably get a bit boring so lets mix it up a bit and add some fruit and honey.

Banana bunch of 4 at 39p and runny honey £1.24. Milk is cheaper the more you buy of it, but remember it doesn't have a long shelf life only buy as much as think you will use. We bought a 2 litre (4 pinter) for 97p and of course you cant start the day without a very British cup of tea! tea bags Morrisons savers 80 for ...27p! Butter 250g for a £1(ASDA) and raisins 500g for £1.49(ASDA) Orange juice 1l £1(ASDA)

Total budget for the month £10.40

This leaves us with £1.60 to either think of another breakfast option or transfer into the Dinner budget.

I think it might be nice to have eggs at some point so I will look into that option in the coming weeks. 

Just to note also the next few weeks shop will be cheaper again due to some of the items lasting longer than a week.

First Breakfast Shop

As for now week 1 will be as follows...

Monday 
Cornflakes with sliced banana and orange juice

Tuesday

Porridge with half milk half water and honey to top and a cup of tea

Wednesday

Crumpets with butter/honey and Orange juice

Thursday

Porridge with banana and a cup of tea

Friday

Cornflakes with honey and orange juice

Saturday

Crumpets with honey and cup of tea

Sunday

Porridge with raisins and orange juice

so thats breakfast sorted, lunch to follow....

Before we begin...

Healthy eating on a budget is not impossible, but it will require a bit of extra effort. I've picked up a lot of good tips from my family over the years my Aunty Ruth is a very resourceful cook and my Daddio being a relentless bargain hunter. This has stood me in good stead over the years and hopefully I can pass on some pearls of wisdom in this post.

Planning is key to living on a budget, know how much you are going to spend on each meal,how many servings you can get out of the meal, ingredients you can use in future meals without them going out of date etc. Once you know what your cooking for the week compile a shopping list of everything you will need. This will help you avoid making any impulse purchases.

Check in the papers adverts or online supermarket websites for price checks. You can save yourself a lot of money if you shop around.

Buy in bulk. This may sound strange but if you have planned well, then you should know how much of any ingredient you will need for the month. It is often considerably cheaper to buy larger quantities  because it has saved the producer money on packaging. Be sure that the ingredients will keep for the month mind, think things such as pasta, rice, pulses and tin canned goods. If you have a large freezer then you can freeze meat, milk and bread.

Check for special offers in store, and if you can afford to stock up on the long shelf life products. At the end of the day supermarkets will discount the items that will be at the end of their shelf life, you will probably need to eat these items by the next day however, but check the meat section around 7-7.30pm and you can find good cuts or sausages much cheaper, just freeze them if you are not eating on the day.

Frozen vegetables tend to be cheaper than the fresh varieties but still count towards your 5 a day! You can use them as and when you need them and it cuts down on any wastage. *Just a little note any leftovers/passed used by date makes useful fertiliser for growing your own fruit and veg.

Growing your own fruit and vegetables can be a worthwhile investment as you can produce a variety and in great numbers  and save you self some moola. Why not get involved with some friends or neighbours? Each grow something different and then you can trade with each other later on.

Use leftover Vegetables to make soups and salads. When you make your own soup, you can add as much vegetables a you like and you can control the amount of other ingredients such as salt, stock and fat. Finely chop some leftover veg and any leftover cooked meat and add to couscous to make a fast and nutritious meal.

If you have any bones leftover you can boil them with some leftover veg and herbs to make some stock, which come in handy for soups, risotto and gravy..also tastes amazing!

In season fresh fruit and vegetables are often cheaper as well as more flavoursome. Any overripe soft fruit can be chopped up and mixed with some frozen berries to make tasty smoothies.

Canned oily fish is cheaper to buy than fresh fish. They are a good sauce of omega-3 fats which help to keep the heart healthy, they are easier to prepare and have a long shelf life. Keep the salt content to a minimum use the fish in spring water. It is recommended that we eat two portions of fish a weekend at least one of those should be oily.

Start your day with porridge, it's cheap and has no added salt or sugar. You can add your own options for taste, honey is a sweet alternative for sugar. You could also Add sliced banana, apple or raisins for a healthy option. If you would prefer a non warm option try mixing oats with plain low fat yogurt and some grated apple and cinnamon.

Make your own frozen meals by doubling your recipe and then freezing. This is a great time and money saver. You should be thinking of meals such as soups, stew, lasagne's, bolognese, chili and cottage pies. Some meals you can prepare then freeze or some you can freeze the left overs after you cook the meal. Make sure to transfer any food to reheat into a suitable container!

Items such as canned tomatoes, beans and pulses, rice, pasta oatmeal and barley are low cost items and are a useful and healthy addition to bulk up meals and make them go further. Add them to soups, stews and casseroles. Beans and pulses are a good source of protein and fibre, where as rice, pasta and oatmeal are a good sauce of carbohydrate and also can boost your fibre content of your diet.

Make your own healthy packed lunch for the week. Pre-make sandwiches and keep in the fridge to save time and effort. Often you have other important things to do, or are too tired to prepare lunch for the next day at work, so this way you can relax and not waste money having to buy lunch because you didn't have time too or forgot to make them the night before. Not only will this save you money but will also help you control what you eat. Leftovers can make a much tastier and healthier alternative to processed lunch meals which can often be high in salt and fat.

Watch your portion size! Try not to cook more than you need, measure out food like pasta and rice before you cook instead of guessing. This will help you with overeating as well as save money.
Vegetables and beans tend to cost less than meat, so try adding more vegetables to your meat based dishes. The meat will go further saving you money and it will help keep the saturated fat content of the dish down too.

and really this is a no brainer...

Limit your eating out. Its often easier to grab a quick meal on the go, but you pay extra for that convenience. Careful planning is essential if you want to save money and eat healthy.

if you have some valuable cost saving tips please pop them in the comment section and we can add them to the list too.

The challenge ...

Hello! 

Welcome to the first instalment of 'Manna'! Let me first congratulate you on finding your way to our little cwtch of the interweb, come on in, take off you shoes put on your cyber slippers and apron because we about to get stuck in to some good ol' homecooking! We hope we can provide some useful tips, recipes and chitchat to make your mealtimes a little more interesting and tasty gorgeous:)

Now let me explain who we are and what on earth we are doing! I am Matt...hello! And that's my girlfriend Hannah...... (she's shy). I love food and pottering around in the kitchen making meals and adapting recipes, it's my chance to be creative every day! Hannah is a wonderful cook herself and excels in baked goodies. Cakes, biscuits and muffins she's a dynamo in kitchen!

Recently we had the opportunity to get involved with an excellent debt counselling charity by the name of CAP (Christians against poverty) https://capuk.org. They do outstanding work with clients who are struggling with debt. One of the ways they help people to get out of debt is by setting them a budget. This is where Hannah and I had our first ideas. We discussed how difficult it would be to live on such a budget and wondered if we would be able to stick to it. We got in contact with the CAP area manager in Southampton and found out some information about how clients are helped and what type of budgets they would be given. He told us that an average food budget for a CAP client was anywhere between £14 - £40 per week per person. Yikes! Now this provided a challenge for us, as we both like to eat well and were more likely to spend £14 a day than in a week!

After a little discussion the challenge was agreed upon. We were to live on a CAP food budget of £14 per week for one month. The money we would have saved from not spending so frivolously would then be donated to CAP. As we discussed it further we became inspired to do more than just live on the budget, but to make the food as tasty and nutritious as possible! Then to provide these recipes for the CAP clients so that they have some good ideas and eat well.

This is where the blog idea was formed, it will be a place to document our trials and efforts as well as be a place to find recipes and budget shopping information.

So that's it I hope you come back and visit regularly. Please feel free to leave lots of comments to let us know how well/ terribly we are doing and to share your budget food ideas. If you have any requests I will happily work on recipes for you and do my best to bring them under budget!

So, until next time

Tata for now

Matt