Frugal Food 1

Leftovers

The carcass of a roast chicken can be used to make stock, just put it in a saucepan with the skin, bones, etc. and add some washed onions skins, seasoning and mixed herbs. Cover with water, then simmer for an hour then strain. Keep it in the fridge until you want to make soup and then you can pour it over vegetables and simmer for an hour to make veggie soup! I used mixed veggies for my soup and they were carrots, swede, broccoli, cauliflower and some white cabbage.

Mixed herbs

I used mixed herbs from Asda, a tub contains thyme, marjoram, sage, parsley, oregano and basil. You can add the herbs to soup, stir fry and even gravy. My gravy on my Sunday lunch was delicious. I made it with a Bovril cube and a spoonful of herbs. Simply pour boiling water (I used the water my veggies were cooked in) over a Bovril cube and stir in the herbs; then mix a teaspoon of corn flour to a little cold water and stir well. Then you add the corn flour to the gravy and simmer until thick, stirring constantly.

Rice

If you do boiled rice any left over can be stir fried in the wok or a pan and it will absorb the flavours of the soy sauce, herbs and whatever ingredients you use. Pork bellies are popular in Asia, but we slice them for bacon and so why not try stir fried bacon and rice? I did stir fried bacon a couple of weeks ago. Stir fry the bacon and rice adding soy sauce, the herbs, a little tomato puree, spring onions and peas. If you want it spicy add a teaspoon of five spice.

Potato

You can also stir fry leftover potato, just stir fry it until it’s golden brown! If you stir fry bacon and spring onions with your left over potato and then serve it up with tomato ketchup; that is really good!

You can also make bubble and squeak with left over potato and white cabbage; just mash them together and mould them so they fry easily. The addition of a little cooked onion to your bubble and squeak makes them even more tasty; serve with ketchup!

Left over potato can also be used to make a cottage pie. Chop cooked meat, traditionally lamb but chicken and turkey are also good. The cooked meat goes into the bottom of a foil container and then pour over a little gravy (don’t cover the meat) and top that with left over mashed potato. The pie can then be frozen and heated in the oven when required. When you heat it up simply heat until the top is golden brown; delicious…

I hope you liked this blog, my most frugal meal is probably egg and chips; but you can experiment. Try making croutons to make the soup more filling (I just used toasted bread). People throw away hundreds of tons of food every year and most of it can be used. If something is left over, pop it in the fridge until you have an idea of how to use it. It’s also a good idea not to put too much on your plate and risk not eating it all; people do that all the time and it wastes food. Think about growing your own in the garden or a container too. Salad ingredients are fairly easy…  I have my thrifty and frugal blogs that you might like and my Neodigital Art blogs are popular; that’s frugal too!

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