A Substantial, Nutritious Meal for under £5.00

There is a lot of talk around these days about the price of food and believe me the general prices have risen beyond recognition but it is still possible to eat well and cheaply but it takes a bit of thought and planning.

Recently I was shopping in my local supermarket and they were offering a quite large turkey thigh and leg for £4.00.  I put this in my basket along with two large sweet potatoes costing around £2.60 for both.

When I got home I got out my stoneware Deep Covered Baker from The Pampered Chef. 

 

 

I sliced one of the sweet potatoes into thick rounds, sprinkled the finely chopped onions and parsley left over from the take-away the night before (I hate waste), placed the turkey thigh on top and drizzled with a bit of olive oil.

 

 I added a Knorr herbal infusion stock pot and let this cook on a low heat in the oven for a couple of hours. About 30 minutes before dinner I turned the heat up to crisp the skin.

 

This dinner, along with rice served both of us for that meal, I had some for lunch the next day, the meat made two days of sandwiches for Mr R to take to work and the bones went into the pot eventually for the soup.  As I had only used half of what I bought this cost £3.30 for approximately 7 servings.

Two days later the placed the large turkey leg into my Deep Covered Baker with three carrots sliced lengthwise, salt & pepper, about half cup of water, a spread of Maille Dijon Mustard with Honey (this is a new dijon mustard from Maille) and a good glug of white wine.  Again this went into the oven on a low temperature for a couple of hours.  I took the meat off the bones = more sandwiches for Mr R!

The bones from the leg and the bone that I had saved from the thigh then went into the stock pot covered with water and left to boil for a couple of hours.  I strained the stock, added any little bits of meat I could pick off the bones and the carrots and sweet potatoes that were left over and blitzed this up to make a lovely, tasty and very economical soup.  I had two portions for the freezer, one for my lunch and a double portion for Mr R to take to work for two days.

 

My spend of £6.60 produced approximately 12-13 portions of delicious, nourishing food without adding very much to my raw materials.  The would equate to approximately £0.50 per portion.  A litle bit of shopping around and a little imagination and you can make a substantial meal without breaking the budget.