Like all people I have energetic days and can’t give a fig days and today is the latter! I batch cook and have a stash of food in the freezer. Here are two cottage pies and yes they are in old chinese takeaway boxes! So because I’m on half term holiday I’m catching up with coursework marking and not cooking today. However, batch cooking is one of the greatest ways to save money, fill up your oven with about four meals from a kilo of frozen mince. From this I make two lasagnes and two cottage pies and freeze for a ‘can’t give a fig day’. The ‘gravy’ is a little tomatoey because I add tinned tomatoes to almost every thing to add flavour and make anything go that little bit further. When I reheat these (for about half an hour in a hot oven) I will only have to switch on my mini-oven (one of those microwaves and ovens in one). Save time and save money.

The joy of my slow cooker. There are appliances in our homes that just eat electricity and our cookers and especially the oven certainly racks up our electricity bill. so here is my recipe for Roast Pork and all the trimming for under a fiver and that includes the cost of cooking. A slow cooker uses the same electricity as a 40w light bulb (not that I have any of those old things any more. So here is the recipe.



Take a look around your supermarket and usually there will be a roasting joint on offer. Here in Morrisons, a shoulder of pork was 3.42. To be honest it’s much bigger than we need but we can use of for sandwiches for tomorrow’s lunches, or I could actually make the roast pork left into another meal altogether by having it cold with some salad and boiled potatoes.

Recipe - 10 potatoes (small) 10p
8 carrots = 10p, 2 onions = 5p, 6 parsnips = 30p Pork shoulder joint = 3.42 = £3.97

Method - before you go to bed the night before - take pork joint out of the freezer!
Before you go to work - peel veg, slice onion and place in the BOTTOM of the slow cooker (I do this at about 6.15 in the morning whilst I’m waiting for the toast to toast and the kettle to boil)

Take pork out of the packet, rinse under the cold tap, place on top of veg, add half a cup of water in the bottom (I worry needlessly that it will dry out) and place the pork ontop. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put the lid on.

Switch on - I use the low setting and know the dinner will be ready when I get home at five.

I serve broccoli and peas with this but any veg will do.

To make this go a lot further - make up a packet of cheap stuffing as it says on the packet and cook in the microwave - tasty and spread the meal even further.

Recipes this weekend. Homemade chunky vegetable soup and bread rolls.

1. Take reduced price break rolls out of the freezer - 15p for 9 rolls!
2. Set mini oven onto warm, put bowls and bread in.
3. Peel and chop: four carrots (half bag from Asda 18p); four potatoes (1/4 bag from asda 10p); 1 large onion 5p;
4. dissolve 2 vegetable stock cubes in 1 litre of boiling water (10p)
5. Add 1/5 bag of red lentils 10p
6. Add 1/4 bad frozen Asda Broccoli - 18p
7.Add 1 tin of Asda tomatoes 18p.
8. Bring to the boil and then simmer for half an hour.
Family of 4 fed for approx £1 + approx £1 of energy bills. (Save this by using slow cooker and preparing this earlier!