Guest post by Tracey Phillips from Bridal Designs Wedding Jewellery.

When I was asked to do a blog post about frugal food I must admit I was a bit flummoxed, my day job is making and selling wedding jewelry but I’m not one to refuse a challenge! Luckily then I remembered a website where I have whiled away many a productive hour learning fantastic tips and tricks to save money..which just happens to have a section on food.

This website is MoneySavingExpert.com and the food section is the Old Style board , frequented by lots of lovely helpful people who don’t want to spend a fortune on processed or junk food but who want to feed their families good old fashioned food on a budget. They are the experts in frugal food so I will share with you some of their tips and recipes.

Rubber Chicken

So called because it s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s a long way ..a good way of making one chicken last for 3 days/4 meals

Sunday Lunch – Chicken cooked in the slow cooker or roasted in the oven with vegetables and roast potatoes,

Sunday Dinner -Chicken sandwiches

Monday – Pasta bake using some of the chicken meat

Tuesday Chicken noodle soup, using stock made from the bones, and the meat left over.

also works well with turkey from Christmas/Thanksgiving

Cauliflower Soup

If you have made a cauliflower cheese or used it to go with your rubber chicken you can use the leftover stalks and leaves to make a lovely soup.

Ingredients:

1 cauliflower, or equivalent in stalks/leaves

1 lg onion, chopped

1 med potato, chopped

2 cloves garlic

2 sprigs parsley, a bay leaf, sprig thyme

30g butter or any oil

1 litre stock (veg water from cooking or stock cube)

100g cheese

100g red lentils

good tsp smoked paprika

Directions:

Sweat all the veg, garlic, herbs and paprika in the butter/oil for a few minutes. Add everything else except the cheese and simmer gently for 20 minutes. remove the herbs and whizz with a blender or in a food processor. Stir in the cheese, don’t allow to boil after the cheese goes in or it will go all stringy

Note: You don’t HAVE to have the herbs or the paprika, they do give extra flavour though

Serves 4-6 and is quite filling and very delicious

Twinks Hobnobs

Not sure if you have Hobnobs in the U.S but they are delicious oaty crumbly biscuits, however they are very expensive so here is a recipe from a regular poster called ‘Twink’ who has made her own version.

Ingredients:

8oz self raising flour

8oz sugar

8oz porridge oats

8oz margarine

1tbsp golden syrup

1tbsp hot water

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Directions:

Mix flour, oats and sugar, melt margarine, syrup and water in a pan stir in bicarbonate soda and add to dry mix, mix well, make smallish balls and put on greased tray and flatten slightly with a fork, bake at 180o c for 15 mins,until golden, cool on the tray.

Note: You may need to hide these away as they tend to disappear in about 5 minutes otherwise!

Hope these recipes have been of use to you and you enjoy trying them and eating the results!

Tracey Phillips is 38 and is the owner of Bridal Designs Wedding Jewellery she designs and handcrafts Sterling silver bridal jewellery with Swarovski crystal and pearls and in her spare time likes walking in the beautiful Devon countryside with her two Border Collies.