Feeding us with few bought ingredients.

We have had to eaten similar food each day recently as there is just no room in the freezer. My priority is to freeze vegetables and fruit for winter nutrition. During the summer when the garden is abundant I spend as little as possible. I therefore am feeding us with as few bought ingredients as possible.

These are the bought things I had in my fridge, cupboards and freezer. Everything else was foraged or grown in my garden.

Bought items list

Pack of 8 wraps (yellow sticker)

Block of cheese (bought on offer)

Tomato puree (tube)

Tin of kidney beans

Bit of frozen sweet corn

Eggs (2)

Pack of bacon mishapes (75p)

Squirt of tomato sauce.

Oil

Mini pasta (3 handfuls)

2 cooked beef burgers

Milk (1 pint plus a splash for quiche)

These made 9 savoury meals for us. We did have puddings, and they were all compote based from foraged and grown fruit.

First of all I made a 5 bean chilli by roasting tomatoes and garlic, blitzing them, and putting them into the slow cooker. I added diced peppers, the tin of beans, a chopped chilli, and 4 different beans from my garden, onion, and a handful of sweet corn. I cooked this for 4 hours on high.

Meal 1.

This was lunch. I cooked some bacon, put it into a wrap, and grated some cheese on top of the bacon. Mr S loves the bacon and cheese breakfast wraps at McDonalds and this is similar. I rolled them up and air fried them. We served them with salad.

Meals 2 

I took a 3rd of the chilli and heated it up. I added some water, tomato puree, a squirt of tomato sauce, and added mini pasta shapes. Cheese was grated on top. Viola, Spicy pasta.

Meals 3 and 4

The next evening I took a third of the bean chilli and warmed it. The beefburgers were left over from a previous meal and so I heated and crumbled them up, and added to the chilli. I cut 3 wraps in half, and using a slatted spoon I filled 5 of the half wraps, rolled them and put them in my dish that fits in the air fryer.

I took the rest of the sauce and put it over the wraps in the dish, and grated cheese over it.

Our meal was enchilados.There was enough left over for me to have for lunch the next day when Mr S was out.

Meal 5

I cut up another wrap, and the half the wrap left from the day before, tossed them in oil and salt, and air fried them.These chips made nachos with the rest of the bean chilli (layered and grated cheese on top).

Meals 6 and 7

I used a wrap to make a quiche, using a little bit of the bacon.

I added home grown veg and herbs, and 2 eggs and milk.

This will make 2 meal for us. One a lunch with salad, one a main with new potatoes and vegetables.

Meal 8

Tonight I am making a family meal for 5 of us. It will be layers of potato with bacon and onion, with a cheese sauce in it. It will be served wiith home grown veg.

Meal 9.

The last wrap will be made into a pizza using the last of the bacon and cheese. It will be a lunch with salad.

I wouldn’t usually eat so similar meals in one week but would freeze two portions of the chilli, the bacon in portions, and the wraps.

The bacon was from the Company shop. We don’t often buy bacon but over 900g for 75p was too good a bargain. We had already had a bacon sandwich with it before I started this challenge. I hope this shows that if you grow a garden, shopping for food doesn’t need to cost a lot. Meals can still be tasty and fun.