Cottage pie is a firm favourite in this house and a real 'comfort' food. This is the recipe I used:
500g beef mince £1.75 from Lidl
1 clove of garlic (35p for 2 garlic heads - so 4p-ish)
1 onion (I used frozen diced onion from Morrisons £1 - so 16p?
2 carrots (47p for a big 1kg bag in Morrisons - so 5p)
2 tbsp plain flour (3p)
500ml beef stock (30p for 10 cubes from Sainsburys - so 3p)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (12p)
1 tbsp tomato puree (7p)
For the mash:
500g potatoes (2.5kg bag was on offer for £1.43 in Morrisons, so 29p)
2 carrots (47p for a big 1kg bag in Morrisons - so 5p)
Heat a large pan and brown the mince. Add the garlic, onion, carrots and cook for 2 mins. Then add the flour and stir for another minute.
Add the stock to the pan, stir, and then add the Worcestershire sauce and puree. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 10-15 mins.
Meanwhile, cook the potatoes and carrots in a pan filled with water until they are tender. Drain well then mash with a little bit of butter.
Spoon the mince into an ovenproof dish, then cover with the mash. Cook under a grill for 4-5mins.
This was a meal for the 3 of us with a portion left over. Once I've done my shop in Lidl I'm going to compare the costs to try and see if I can get my meal costs down even more. For this recipe it doesn't need the extra carrots in the mash but it is tasty!
When this was cooking in the oven I put a tray of oatmeal and raisin cookies in too to save on energy.
It's freezing in this house today! It's really cold here at the moment. I'm determined to not put the heating on though because I need to get the energy bills down even more!
The less I pay the energy companies means more to put towards saving and debt repayment.
My daughter is at nursery til mid afternoon - she gets 12 free hours a week - so she's not sat in the cold like me (she's usually so warm anyway, we call her a little oven!)!
I had to put it on for half an hour last night because it was just too cold, but it kept the house warm for a few hours. I tucked the curtains behind the radiator in the living room to stop the heat from being trapped. xx
I always stretch my mince with a couple of spoonfuls of oats and the same of red lentils. Can't be detected in the finished dish but means that there is an extra portion for a very few pennies extra. That means I can put a ready meal in the freezer for another day. I'm a big fan of stretching meat : )
ReplyDeleteThanks for another great comment Jo :-) my husband would detect the lentils though, honestly he's such an expensive pain in the bum!! xx
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