How to Feed Your Family for £5 a Day. Bernadine Lawrence
pinch of salt. Cook until just tender but not soggy.
Spinach should not be shredded but covered and cooked with a drop of water and a knob of butter and seasoned to taste with salt and pepper. Cook on a low heat for 3–5 minutes.
Once the vegetables are cooked, drain them and save the liquid for stocks and soups.
If the recipe you are following involves oven cooking and you have a fan oven, reduce the oven temperature by 20°C (68°F).
An important tip to remember is to keep a ‘shopping purse’, that is, a purse used strictly for your weekly groceries. Say you want to allow yourself £33 for the week, put that amount in your purse at the beginning of the week. That way you can easily tell if you are keeping within budget.
Should you overshoot your weekly target in the beginning, this need not mean a failure to budget successfully; your weekly budget will gradually balance out.
A good way to keep within budget is to use up any ingredients you may already have in. This method is particularly useful towards the end of the week when you can use up ingredients in soups and stews.
Obviously single people and couples can make great use of this book.
Most of the ingredients in the recipes can be divided more or less by two, and surpluses can be chilled or frozen for future use.
It is not advisable to buy large quantities of highly perishable foods. These should be bought daily or every other day.
A TYPICAL WEEKLY SHOPPING LIST
1 small roasting chicken
2 × 1.5kg plain wholemeal flour
1.5kg plain white flour
2 large tins of baked beans
2 × 400g tins of tomatoes
1kg porridge oats
500g raisins
500g red split lentils
500g wholewheat spaghetti
500g black-eyed beans
2 × 500g sunflower margarine
1 litre sunflower oil
2 tins of tuna
1 jar Marmite or Vegemite
115g houmous
700g Cheddar cheese
2 mackerel
900g frozen peas
5 litres milk
12 eggs
500g lean minced beef
5kg potatoes
1 small red cabbage
900g onions
450g carrots
1 head of broccoli
1 green pepper
garlic
120g mushrooms
1 cucumber
4 lemons
3 lettuces
600g tomatoes
1 bunch of bananas
900g apples
450g pears
12 oranges
Feeds 4
115g porridge oats
850ml milk (whole, skimmed or soy)
4 tsp soft light brown sugar, for sprinkling
1 tsp ground cinnamon, for sprinkling
Method
1 Bring the oats and milk to the boil in a large saucepan, stirring with a wooden spoon. Reduce the heat and simmer for 3–5 minutes, stirring continually, until creamy.
2 Serve sprinkled with the sugar and ground cinnamon.
– ALTERNATIVELY –
Chocolate Porridge
Toasted Oats with Raisins, Bananas and Strawberries
Feeds 4. Serve with milk or yoghurt
200g rolled oats
100g raisins
2 bananas, sliced
50g strawberries, sliced
caster sugar, for sprinkling, or runny honey, for drizzling
Method
1 Toast the oats in a large frying pan over a high heat for 3–5 minutes until browned.
2 Mix the toasted oats, raisins, bananas and strawberries in a large bowl then divide into 4 bowls