We've just come back from our weekly shop at Asda. Doesn't work out too bad for three of us - £60, got some food for work out of the reduced section as well.
Must admit that I like a surprise with meals - hubby just decides what we're having that night. Tonight it's home made onion soup - would have been with crusty bread but we forgot to get some! It will be with granary now.
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I love home made soup - quite often my other half makes Lentil and Bacon soup - costs around £8 for a huge pot - dearest thing is the smoked bacon joint ( normally £4). That and a chicken/ Beef curry is his speciality - his home made curry beats any takeaway - and its made using only spices ( tumeric/Coriander/cumin)for the sauce. I also do the home made nan in the bread machine!..So instead of spending £20 on a takeaway as we used to do - We can now spend around £9 and have a curry that lasts us 2 days meals. Soup normally lasts us 3 days and there is still some goes in the freezer for dinners later in the month.
We often pay a visit to the chinese supermarket in Manchester city centre - the spices etc are great in there and half the price for a larger bag than in any supermarket!
Susie
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We use an Indian Supermarket and get loads of spices from there really cheaply as well. Hubby does a mean curry and it costs him about £10 to do a big pot of curry for about 20 people. He always splits into two - a hot curry and a mild/medium curry.
What else does hubby put in his curry Susie - my hubby is always open to suggestions to improve his.
We have a fab cookbook - The Balti Selection - from a chef who has a restaurant in the Balti Triangle in Birmingham. The recipies in there are great but I don't think you can get that book now.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
You can't beat a chinese or Indian supermarket. What else goes into it - Garlic, Challots and Chillies( tend to use red finger chillies or Dorset Nagas - get them in tesco). They all get whizzed up not to a pulse but just smaller bits in our little chopper thing - like a mini food processor. I always marinade the chicken or meat in Pataks Paste, normally the vindaloo or madras, leave it over night. Then he cooks all in a wok, adds the spices with hot water and lets it all reduce. Then put it in slow cooker till we are ready to eat, normally a few hours. He then adds some more pataks paste towards the end to thicken it up, and we add in an onion, cut up very chunky - delightful!!!..
Susie
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IVA Accepted 31st March 2011.
IVA Ends 31st March 2016.
Agree with you about the supermarkets - they are great value for spices.
Hubby says, with his currys, first of all he starts with a basic curry sauce which consists of onions, garam masala, tumeric, fenugreek, green cardamoms, chili powder, cooking oil, tinned plum toms, water, fresh ginger, garlic, coriander and cumin.
These are then cooked and once cooked, blended into a smooth sauce.
The meat is then precooked in water and spices, once this is done then the meat is cooked (dependent upon the recipe) with spices and the basic curry sauce to taste.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
That sounds lovely - lots of nice spices in it...I much prefer the home made ones now to having a chinese takeaway, At least you know what's in them which is good for me when following weightwatchers.
Might have to give yours a go over the weekend
Susie
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IVA Accepted 31st March 2011.
IVA Ends 31st March 2016.
We don't do Chinese often, always prefer Indian. Don't have to do WW thankfully.
Hubby always makes his own sauce rather than that out of a jar.
It is all down to personal taste at the end of the day.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
ladies those curry spices sounds fabulous! I haven't made a proper curry for years, maybe now I'm in this situation I'll give it a thought, although haven't had an indian takeaway either for over a year!
"It is never too late to be what you might have been"
Fiona
The book we have is great. If anyone wants the basic recipe for sauce and precooking meats let me know, I'll copy them and send them on to you.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
we have some lovely cookbooks on the shelves in our kitchen,racks of herbs and spices and all sorts of fancy gadgets-all of which I dust regularly (begrudgingly).
Hubbys the cook in our house,when he goes off to sea its back on the *can we cook it in the microwave*meals!!!
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I have some great cookbooks as well - my favourite recipe
is a chocolate truffle torte recipe by Delia Smith - it's gorgeous!
Most of our gadgets we tend to use even if we don't use them often.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
On the subject of curry, if anyone likes the "chip shop style" curry sauce, ASDA smart price curry sauce with some softened onion and a couple of cloves of garlic tastes just as good. Mrs 4kids has been buying this for a few weeks now (costs about 9p) sling some chicken chunks in and it's "bostin" as us Black Country folk say
I like the SP curry sauce - it's great with chips!
4kids - where are you from? I'm Black Country as well!
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
If you have an Asian supermarket nearby then go there as they are much cbeaper and they have a greater variety.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
