When I plan the meals, I tend to think seasonal first, then healthy and then cost. Fresh food isn't expensive, seasonal food is cheaper and use lentils or pearl barley rather than meat to keep the cost down. I only plan for fish on a Friday night and meat for Sunday.
Yesterday I had to gather in the rhubarb from the garden as it was going wild. We've already had a couple of crumbles out it for a Sunday afternoon since March. I made the stew base for the delicious rhubarb and ginger crumble recipe we use all the time courtesy of the wonderful Fox & Anchor
fresh from the garden
Think the colours of rhubarb are glorious
Fresh grated ginger & star anise
After it had cooled down I froze the stew to whip out Nigella stylie when the occasions calls.
I also made a cost cutting (and calorie cutting) shepherds pie with lentils so Olive magazine calls it a garden pie. It is delicious and consists of puy lentils, celery, shallots, carrot, parsnip, veg stock and tomato puree then topped with mash. Quick 5 min grill to give it that vajazzeled look!
The garden pie
My next top tip is a great healthy summer breakfast for pennies. I mix porridge oats with grated apple and usually add 2 tablespoons of 0% fat free Total Greek yoghurt the night before and put in the fridge. It is such a fresh uplifting thing to eat. If I've got raspberries or strawberries I add them in the morning. I splashed out this week and increased the per unit cost slightly with Rachel's Organics Gooseberry yoghurt. I do love gooseberries.
The porridge oats
Half an apple to grate
The yummy gooseberry yoghurt from Rachel's Dairy -just two & a bit tablespoons
Mix up porridge oats, grated apple and yoghurt
Cover with clingfilm & put in fridge for morning
Porridge oats are 99p for a bag, I buy granny smiths for grating and the biggest expenditure is the yoghurt. You can add anything to the porridge oats, like raisins and chopped nuts or chopped dried apricots. I like to keep it simple with the grated apple.
