Ideas for Summer food that don't cost a lot

 

Rice crust quiche, carrot sticks, yellow peppers, spring onions, seafood sticks and home made hummus with crisps

In tomorrow's Foodie Friday video I'm talking about the cost of foods we eat in the warmer months.  A viewer asked if I thought it was more expensive to eat in the Summer as you can't do as much batch cooking and freezing.  So I gave it some thought and came up with some ideas using similar ingredients I'd use in Winter but prepping them for a picky plate or salad plate.  They last several days in the fridge so you could make a big enough batch to make several meals.  Each meal could be different depending on what you fancy!

Vegetables:

I buy carrots, onions, potatoes, cabbage and peppers all year round.  In Winter I'd cook them into meals etc but in the Summer I use them differently.  You could make various coleslaw dishes and potato salad.

Carrot, apple and onions in apple cider vinegar with mayo

Potato salad made with finely chopped onion, potatoes, mayo and chives

Meat and fish:

I tend to eat less meat in the warmer months sticking to chicken (which can be eaten cold) and the odd sausage.  But I do eat more things like canned tuna and seafood sticks.  Someone suggested batch cooking sausages and home made burgers on the BBQ (or in the oven) and freezing them so you'd have access to making a quick BBQ style meal.  

Eggs:

You can keep boiled eggs in the fridge for a few days so I do batch cook these for egg mayo.  You can also make quiches with or without a crust.  They keep well for a few days.  In the video I'm making a rice crust quiche.

It's featured in several picky bits type meals this week!

Other things to make using standard fridge and storecupboard ingredients could be tuna pasta salad, rice salad, couscous and hummus.  All fairly cheap and nutritious.

You could add pickles like beetroot, onions or olives.

You could serve bread and butter, cheese scones or oatcakes to fill tummies.  I make all these from scratch inexpensively.

And finally, some fruits work well with savoury things.  For example apples, grapes, oranges and pineapple.

So, does Summer food cost more than Winter foods?  As long as you're careful with what ingredients you use and how you use them I think it's about the same.  What do you think?

Tattie scones

 

I made a vlog on cooking tattie scones.  They can be made from just 2 ingredients and are cheap, filling and delicious.  And they freeze beautifully!

All you need is leftover mashed potatoes and self raising flour.  I add black pepper to mine but that's completely optional.  The ratio is always 4 parts mashed potato to 1 part self raising flour.

I used a hot frying pan but traditionally they would have been made on a girdle like this one HERE.

Ingredients:

• 400g seasoned mashed potatoes (skins on or off)
• 100g SR flour
• black pepper (optional)

Warm the potatoes and mix with the flour to form a dough.  If (like mine) your potatoes have a lot of butter in them then you might need to add extra flour to stop them sticking.

Divide the dough into 3 and roll out to form a circle about 1/2 cm thick then cut into to quarters.

Dry fry them in a pan until golden brown on each side.

Traditional tattie scones are triangular but I've made circular ones in the past too.

I find they're best served warm.  They can be fried, toasted or warmed up in the microwave.  They're extra tasty in a fry up with eggs and bacon 😋

Eating from the storecupboard: lamb burger hash

 

In my continuing effort to feed myself from the storecupboard/fridge/freezer, today's meal was using up the lamb burgers I got free from the community waste shop ages ago and some cooked potatoes.  A hash seemed a good idea!  The above quantities made 2 main meals.

I broke up one of the burgers into rough pieces and put them in my wok.  I use my wok for just about everything, not just stir fries!  No oil needed as they produced their own fat!

Once they were nicely browned/carmelised I added the chopped potatoes.  I fried them until they were browned too.

I tossed in some steamed broccoli and the hash was done.  It was really good.  I'd never buy burgers but they were free to me.  And as they were M&S ones they were a good quality.  I'm not keen on a burger in a roll so this was a good way to use them up.

I believe a hash usually has a potato and onion base but I used my last onion to make a soup.  I eat a lot of these style of meals as it's all done in one pot, or wok in this case! 😋