Hello Dear Reader,
The last time we had a Chinese takeaway was on our wedding anniversary and it cost us £13 for the two of us. It was an expensive blow out but we decided it was a lot less than going out for a meal and we could justify the expense as a once a year treat. It will be a long time before we have another one!
Here's my ingredients for our meal for four (lovely guests for supper tonight) of sweet and sour chickenless and egg fried rice.
Quorn (one bag is enough for 4 and one bag has gone in the freezer) 1.89
1/2 bunch of spring onions - chopped - 37p
1 chilli - 16p
punnet of mushrooms - 25p
1 tablespoon of minced ginger - 10
bag of bean sprouts - 50p
shredded savoy cabbage - 10p
tin of pineapple chunks - 20p
1 jars of sweet and sour sauce - 52p
oil - 5p
Egg fried rice
250g of long grained rice - 10p
1/2 bunch of spring onions - 37p
tin of peas (I had no frozen) - 20p
2 beaten eggs - 33p
oil 5p
Total Cost £5.18 - £1.29 per person
1. Start by boiling the rice - 1 mug of rice + 2 mugs of boiling water - cook until the water has almost absorbed and then turn the heat off and put the lid on and the rest of the water will be absorbed leaving the rice cooked and fluffy.
2. Heat the oil in the wok.
3. Add the ginger, chilli and garlic - stir and immediately add
4. Spring onions, quorn, beanspouts, any finely sliced vegetables and mushrooms into the oil and fry rapidly on high.
5. After two minutes add the sauce and drained pineapple and leave to simmer for 10 - 15 minutes.
6. Whilst simmering, heat oil in a wok and add the chopped spring onions.
7. Stir in the cooked rice and make sure it is coated with the oil
8. Stir in the beaten eggs - keep stirring until all the egg is cooked - it looks like bits of scrambled eggs in the rice.
9. Stir the cooked peas through until they are hot.
Serve immediately with a splash of soy sauce.
A lot cheaper than the take away! I made this in less time than it would have taken me to walk to the takeaway and pick up and order.
£1.29 is a very expensive meal for us but we had guests and it was lovely to cook something really quick and tasty for them.
If we had a takeaway once a week, like many people do, then we would spend on average £10 a week and just over £500 a year. We have a takeaway as a treat, well just the one this year and the rest of the time, we cook quick and easy Saturday Night Takeaways for ourselves.
Over to you Dear Reader. Who else has kicked the takeaway habits? Who else has kicked the eating our habit? Who else saves hundreds of pounds a year by cooking for themselves? Who else sees a takeaway as a once a year treat? Raise that home cooked frugal flag and wave it with pride!
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxxxxx
Hehe you are making me hungry and I have already eaten.
ReplyDeleteValerie
xxx
Don't buy sweet sour...thicken the pineapple juice with 1 T cornstarch, stir in 1T soy and 1T vinegar and 2T brown sugar and add at the end. Stir until thickened and voila! (you may want to add bouillon too)
ReplyDelete:) Don;t buy sweetsour sauce...thicken your pineapple juice with 1-2 T cornstarch,1-2 T soy sauce, 1-2 T brown sugar and 1-2 T vinegar.(adjust to taste) Add at the end and cook until thickened and clear.
ReplyDeleteSounds similar to my sweet and sour sauce but with a pinch of chilli flakes and two tbsp tomato ketchup. Sounds odd but I guarantee delicious.
DeleteIs T = tablespoon Martha?
DeleteYes, works far better and is both cheaper and healthier than buying jars of sauce with all the artificial nonsense in them. Of course it does take a bit longer so won't suit everyone.
DeleteI made sweet and sour chicken the other night. So much tastier and cheaper than supermarket offerings, never been much of a take out fan myself.
ReplyDeleteWatching the calories too I would strongly push forward the Hairy Dieters books, their Fakeaways are outstanding. Plus using carefully sourced ingredients, dirt cheap too! We had Thai chicken curry for 286 calories each a decent portion for less than £3 the whole meal. More than yours, but still masses cheaper than a real takeaway!
ReplyDeleteWe made a great crockpot stir fry the other night...simple ingredients and frozen veggies. I prefer our home cooking to eating out any day.
ReplyDeleteTakeaway, or take-out as we call it here, has never been a fave. If I am going to pay that kind of money for food, I want to be waited on and have somebody else do the dishes! Although we don't eat out as much as many people, we have been doing a lot less since July, when the transmission in our car blew up. Most of the time, I don't mind cooking. A friend suggested that I go through my freezer once a week, make a list of 5 meals I could make, and post it on the freezer door. I did it this week, and it has certainly made cooking easier. I don't have to make those meals--in fact, I'm substituting one tonight--but it's nice to know that I have the food for at least 5 dinners and I do have a choice. PS, I've already made next week's list and there are 6 items on it!
ReplyDeleteHi Shara, would you mind sharing your recipe, I like the idea of a stir fry being made in a slow cooker. Hi Froogs, have been following your blog for a while now and love your no nonsense view to living. We never get take away as it is so expensive and never as good as even the simplest meals that I create. Keep up the good work, love hearing about your day at the other side of the world. Frugal Fi
ReplyDeleteI used this basic recipe, but made a few changes. I used beef cubes cut into small bites. I also added an extra bag of veggies. I used one bag of store brand stir fry veggies and one bag of broccoli florets.
Deletehttp://www.emilybites.com/2013/01/slow-cooker-beef-broccoli.html
Oops...I just served it over white rice. The sauce was quite good!
DeleteHi Shara, would you mind sharing your recipe, I like the idea of a stir fry being made in a slow cooker. Hi Froogs, have been following your blog for a while now and love your no nonsense view to living. We never get take away as it is so expensive and never as good as even the simplest meals that I create. Keep up the good work, love hearing about your day at the other side of the world. Frugal Fi
ReplyDeleteHi Froogs, have been following your blog for a while now and love your no nonsense view to living a frugal life. We never get takeaway as it is far to expensive and never as good as what I can create at home. keep up the good work, I love hearing about you life on the other side of the world.
ReplyDeleteMost of our meals are home cooked. There are very few tinned or jarred foods either. However I doubt we will kick the takeaway habit completely. I care for both my parents and mum has become an extremely fussy eater and is suffering many nutritional deficits too. Throw in my food allergies and cooking is no longer fun, nor easy. However we have a local Chinese that serves low allergen food. So a week or so mum gets a $7.50 lunch and the serves her twice. Personally I dislike paying a fortune for cooked rice when it is simple to prepare. Are the English shops full of Asian ingredients? We have many little Asian supermarkets around here as there is a Chinatown in the next suburb. The veg and fruit costs much less than in the regular stores. My Asian inspired saver is to grow your own herbs. Saves me about $20 a week.
ReplyDeleteI experimented this week to try to reproduce a "thai tofu" from a co-op market in a town I no longer travel to for work. My results weren't perfect, but pretty good - I was very pleased! And the price was right, especially saving the expense of a 60-mile round-trip! I think you are inspiring me to try new experiments on the kitchen :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could explain what Quorn is ? Where I come from it is a town.
ReplyDeleteQuorn is a faux meat. The Wikipedia explanation is as follows: Quorn is the leading brand of faux meat mycoprotein in the United Kingdom. The mycoprotein used to produce Quorn is extracted from the fungus Fusarium venenatum.
DeleteIt's really good stuff and they have stopped putting milk in the Quorn pieces and mince, which is good news for our household as we're both vegetarian but hubby doesn't have dairy products either.
Hi, We're really impressed with your frugal cooking, could we ask if you would mind us posting a link to your blog on our page? https://www.facebook.com/SavvyOnlineSaverUK
ReplyDeleteWe think quite a few of our readers might be interested...
Thanks
Hi Froogs
ReplyDeleteDoes look lovely and i can do fried rice so maybe just need to broaden my 'takeaway night' ideas. I think we have broken the TA habit. Having something quick and easy available for those nights when you are totally exhausted after work, I suspect that might be the key.
xx
I've eaten your @home takeaway grub, and it is as delicious as it looks. x
ReplyDeleteWe used to love a takeaway, mainly because it was so different from anything we cooked at home (and there were no dishes to wash!). However, we have learned to cook Chinese and Indian food ourselves. Both hubby and I muck in and share the cooking on a Saturday night (and the washing up) and much prefer the quality and the price of our own meals.
ReplyDeleteSupermarket's own basic sweet and sour is fine, I bought some at 26p a jar recently and just use half a jar at a time. The remaining sauce keeps well in the fridge for a few days. We just add some more pineapple, onions, cabbage, pepper, passata - anything really to stretch it out.
We have never had a take away, just cannot afford it, the only time we ever eat out is when we are on holiday, its our one treat meal and its usually fish and chips. I used to make sweet and sour chicken years ago, have not done it for ages.
ReplyDeleteYou can't beat a homemade takeaway, so much nicer as well as cheaper.
ReplyDeleteX x
Since learning to cook myself, and surprisingly discovering I'm quite good at it) I've realised just how much we pay other people to prepare take-aways for us, I can't remember the last time we bought one.
ReplyDeleteOnly exception is fish & chips (there's an award-winning chippy in the next village) maybe once a month, and a standard portion does the 2 of us.
When we buy fish and chips we always share ours too. We buy 3 lots between me husband and 3 kids, I'll stick bread on the table too in case there isnt enough and open a tin of mushy peas.
DeleteHi Froogs,
ReplyDeleteWe have not had a Chinese takeaway for ages now, even though we have been back in the UK since March. I think we had one, and although it was ok, it was certainly not worth the money. Last weekend I did my first weekend shift at new job and had forgotten to take out the meat from the freezer before I went, so we were very tempted for a take-away, but instead of this we compromise by going to the supermarket and bought a jar of curry sauce, some chicken breast and a couple of side dishes to make it a real feast. For less than the price of one medium Chinese takeaway we had a real Indian style feast with enough beer for two nights.
made this for tea last night. thanks Froogs!
ReplyDeleteWe have a takeaway as a treat, well just the one this year and the rest of the time, we cook quick and easy Saturday Night Takeaways for ourselves. Takeaway 4 Less
ReplyDeleteOne way I have reduced our takeaway purchases is an extra crockpot. Now I do two crocks at a time and we have more choices and more meals precooked. The other way is by canning one pot meals. We have four adults working different schedules so having premade healthy meals and precutting veggies really helps.
ReplyDelete