Stretching Our Food Budget #frugal #costoflivingcrisis #foodinflation #homecooking
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I tell you my secret Cottage Pie recipe that can save your bank balance. Frugal Queen in France Like the menu board & Budget …
Enjoyed the tour! Really like your scrappy quilts…the use of yellows and reds give them such a cheerful look!
I really enjoy listening to you cook as I cook, you've even reminded me of a couple of things to add, like bacon fat, that I forgot about because I got distracted… just a tsp. makes a vegetable stew so much tastier… love from Evergreen, Colorado on a ❄️ snowy day!
Hi Jane, I am going to try a vegetarian cottage pie with lentils and mushrooms. We are eating a lot less meat/chicken, my husband is kosher and I buy organic/free range so it can be quite costly, so most days we get our proteins from lentils, beans and chickpeas.
I made a cottage pie last night and emptied all the leftover vegetables out of the fridge to add to the rest of the mixture. Now my fridge is cleaned out and I didn't waste anything. The extra vegetables stretches it a little further. Never thought to add lentils or bacon to it. I will have to give that a try since I always have both in the pantry or freezer. Very helpful video.
Love your presentations! Thank you
Definitely will be making this recipe. Thanks
Thanks for this interesting video – great info! In Canada we call cottage pie shepherds pie and I put grated sharp cheddar on top of the potatoes. Last night we discovered how delicious cabbage is when sliced up and lightly sautéed in butter with salt. Wish I learned about this decades ago!
Southern US girl here (who also happened to grow up in Tour, France! ) My mama would save that bacon grease and fry the cabbage up in it. Sooooo good! Bacon grease is good for so many things – green beans, greasing that cast iron before baking cornbread, etc! Love your content and tips! Merci beaucoup!
In Canada we call it shepherds pie with beef in it. Lamb is not common in our country which is probably the reason for the naming. Great recipe!
Your pie is gourmet !! ❤️
My family love cottage pie. I save old marmite/yeast extract jars and rinse out to add flavour to cooking (I can never get the last bits of marmite out with a knife or spoon!). I seem to be having quite a bit of success adding lentils to meat dishes, often get told that it tastes better than the usual version. I've been adding grated swede (on offer) and sometimes other veg like grated parsnip to bulk out as well. Hadn't thought to add smoked bacon, can imagine that going down well. Like yours, ours also has a decent amount of mash on top.
So yummy, I'll be sure to make it this week. 👍🌹
I love this receipe and will make it for my family.
I’ve started putting leftover food in small containers and putting it in the freezer. Then when I go visit my oldest daughter at her University that is 2 hours from our house, I take her lots of little containers of home cooked food, which she absolutely loves and appreciates. No wasting food and cuts down on her grocery bill (which we pay for).
Looks delicious,, I put extra veggies in with the mince ,, whatever. I have got growing on my allotment, leeks, swede celeriac, tomatoes that I froze in the summer, garlic, chilli and sweet peppers, as well as carrots and onions ,,
A little tip for anyone growing cabbages, cut the cabbage off the stalk with some leaves still remaining, don’t pull it out of the ground,, the stalk will regrow and give 3 or 4 smaller cabbages later in the year ,,
Best wishes, Lisa
Thank you for this inspiration, In my chilli con carne I tried stretching the meat , with your suggestion of using lardons. It worked really well.I also added a bunch of carrots for stretching the minced meat . This way I had more food and it still tasted very very nice.
Well done! Not only does adding lentils stretch the dollar, it adds fiber, vitamins and minerals!
I've just made cottage pie using Thanksgiving leftovers. I stripped meat off the turkey carcass, chopped it, and mixed it with leftover gravy, and leftover vegetables. The topping was leftover mashed potatoes. It was delicious and there's enough for another dinner.
I took 3 cups of leftover stuffing – crouton type, added one egg and a cup of milk, and mixed. I let it stand to absorb most of the liquid. It made 14 small muffins. My husband and I each ate three for breakfast. They were tasty and filling. We'll eat the remaining muffins this morning. My mother-in-law took two yesterday. She was very suspicious at first, took a tiny teeth-tip nibble, took a bigger bite, and then inhaled them. They're like a cross between french toast and muffins.
I still have some stuffing and vegetables, so I'll add a pound of mince and make meatloaf that will provide about three dinners. We have leftover cranberry sauce to eat with it.
The turkey carcass will make a crockpot full of broth.
I can't eat legumes as they trigger excruciating migraines and IBS. I bulk out meat with vegetables and whole grains.
I'm allergic to mushrooms and found that eggplant makes an excellent substitute!
Thankfully I am still managing to stay within my £100 food budget. I did start the year on £75 but increased it to £100 in March. Out of this I usually have enough to add to the pantry/ freezer stock pile. I find it is getting to be quiet a challenge to find bargains and the meals I am cooking have changed. Your stretching the food we have videos are very helpful.
Comfort food at its best! Tasty and versatile. Thanks for your recipe Jane, it looks really good. I'm sure I have some lentils hiding in the cupboard somewhere. I always use a mashed potato topping with minced beef or lamb, chopped onions and peppers. If I have any swede (rutabaga) to use up I will add it to the mash potato topping and get extra veg in the kids. I add either peas, sweetcorn or diced carrots depending on what I have in the house. Like you, I have tried it with baked beans or tinned chopped tomatoes. We always call it shepherd's pie no matter what meat we use. Regarding the shepherd's pie/cottage pie definition I remember a chef on TV being asked the difference and he said that a cottage pie gets it name from the sliced potato topping because they are arranged like tiles. Who knew? No matter what you call it – tastes great. You know what we are going to be eating this week.
Yummy!! A friend of mine suggested to me to grate carrot to put in to a cottage pie mixture of a bolgnaise sauce as it bulks it out even more. It does!
Good cabbage: Fry bacon until crisp. Shred green cabbage and red/purple cabbage. Chop onion. Sautee all these ingredients.
add garlic, salt, pepper. Add fire roasted diced tomatoes (or regular if you can't get fire roasted). Sautee in bacon grease and/or
butter. Sprinkle bacon over the top before serving.
I have a question for you. How do you alot yourself money for your crafting (Quilting) / hobbies?