How could I resist 6kg of ripe tomatoes for a mere £3.50?
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| The ketchup tasted good but took ages to reduce to ketchup-consistency |
I struggled home with the box & set about cooking. I used 4.5kg to make 4 jars of tomato ketchup (I've always wondered if I could- I now know that I can). The rest were slow roasted with herbs.
Breakfast toast & homemade jam. I made the bread yesterday. We ate about half the loaf.
Approximate total cost for breakfast 40p
Lunch for me was the leftover soup from yesterday zapped in the microwave at work. Mr TH finished off the bread in a sandwich with some leftover ham from Saturday. 20p for me, 40p for Mr TH.
Approximate total cost for lunch, 60p
Dinner was spaghetti with a sauce made from about quarter of the roasted tomatoes, lots of garlic (I'm trying to fend off a cold) roasted courgettes, shredded ruby chard leaves & a good sprinkling of smoked cheese from the freezer. I will take the remains to work for lunch tomorrow.
Total cost about 60p for 3 portions (bulk bought store-brand spaghetti, tomatoes & garlic, homegrown herbs, courgettes & chard)
Approximate cost for our dinner, 40p
Total cost for the 2 of us on Tuesday was £1.40.
I was only able to do this because of a big store cupboard, buying in bulk & having homegrown vegetables.
Mr TH hasn't noticed yet...
10 comments:
I am following your posts with interest - I find I am spending more and more and am keen to try and find some ideas for cutting costs. My mother was always good at making sixpence do the work of a shilling but sadly I seem to have lost the knack. You certainly aren't going without and your meals sound great.
Are you including cooking costs!
I'm not including cooking costs at the moment as I wasn't sure how to- I figured that the $4 per day Food Challenge didn't include cooking costs just the food...
I am a bit stunned by how cheaply I'm managing to cook for- but I am using veggies that we've grown or been given/traded.
I've worked out the costs that I can based on proportion of bulk weight & then added a bit extra for oil/seasoning...
The tomatoes were an amazing buy at the end of a day. I bought the whole box for £3.50 not knowing the weight (just that it was pretty heavy) so was extra thrilled when I discovered that it was 6kg with only one rotten tomato! I've never encountered such a tomato-bargain!
True tomato bounty, you lucky thing. It is very interesting to read your posts.
It's fun to read your posts this week, and to discover some new recipes to add to my now familiar menu choices.
Think that my potato/onion/parsley/butter/dill seed/part of an OXO cube soup lunch came in at under $1. Definitely better than stopping in at the McDonald's at the corner of my street for a Double Cheeseburger.
New York City apartments have tiny kitchens, with little storage space, so we don't have much pantry possibilities. Still, there are many possibilities for those of us who still do know cooking basics and try to withstand the lure of take out menus or the likes of McD.
Cheers!
A great series of posts Mrs TH, you are an inspiration.
CKx
The tomatoes look delicious. What a good buy! And they do take forever to cook down. :)
Reading your posts this week does make me wonder where all the grocery money goes.
Wow and those tomatos look delicious! my grandmother used to keep a dustbin full of sugar in the kitchen, i think that might have been taking buying in bulk to the limit. - Annie
It's just coming into tomato season in Sydney, but I'm already looking forward to the end of the season when I can buy bulk tomatoes cheaply. I am dreaming of having a big Italian-style passata making day and making an event of it.
I was looking forward to doing lots with tomatoes this year but my plants got blight and I was tomato free.
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