Homeowners across Scotland are facing a number of financial challenges with fuel and energy prices rocketing – so healthier foods are sometimes swapped for cheaper, more convenient options.
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But, healthy eating does not need to cost a fortune, says Scott Jarron of Scott Brothers Butchers Dundee. It is possible to create cheap healthy meals.
Scott said: “People default to what is cheap – which is usually processed foods – but it’s not cheaper in the long run and it’s so much worse for your health.
“Food delivery apps have made it more tempting and convenient to order takeaways, but they are expensive and not good for you.
“Food is ‘fuel for your body’ and we should all be following ‘a healthy balanced diet’ but we need to get more experimental and creative in the kitchen so we are not wasting food, or money.”
The butcher recognises that householders are looking for more affordable ways to feed the family, so he has come up with five tips for making your meals go further – and three meal cheats you can enjoy in your family.
5 ways to make good food go further
1. Bulk it up:
You don’t have to stop buying quality meat. Instead, add other quality products to it to bulk it up and make it go further. Scott said: “I can feed my own family of four for two nights with 1lb of mince. It’s all about bulking it up with sauce, pulses and vegetables. The trick is to make it as tasty as possible.”
2. Freeze:
When freezing food to make it last longer, first allow it to cool, then place it in a sealed container with the contents and date of freezing clearly marked.
3. Batch cook:
Once you have cooked your meal, take the lid off, let it cool down and put it in a sealable container in the fridge for four-to-five days. Mince on a Monday can quickly become chilli on a Tuesday or spaghetti Bolognese on a Wednesday.
4. Portion control:
It has been proven that if you cook for yourself, you actually eat less, because we are more respectful about what goes into preparing a meal. We don’t all need the amount we think. Top tip: before a meal, have a glass of water from the tap. This will reduce the amount you eat.
5. Same meals two days-in-a-row:
“When I was younger, everyone had mince on a Monday (and fish on a Friday), but in my family we also had mince on a Tuesday and Wednesday too,” explained Scott. Don’t be afraid to eat the same meal on consecutive days. You could even consider haggis two nights running which is both affordable and delicious.
Top 3 cheap healthy meals
“You don’t have to go out or buy in to have something special. It can take practice, but you will be amazed at what you can do in your own kitchen,” insists Scott from Scott Brothers. And you do not need to be a MasterChef applicant to do it either!
Below are some quick and easy meal cheats from the family butcher that are tasty as well as affordable.
- MINCE: One of the nation’s favourite evening meal staples is mince. Scott explains how much further the cost of two home deliveries (at £20 each) can go when you swap it for buying quality meat from your local butcher. He says that £40 can buy 8lb of mince, which could create 64 meals – as he says he can use 1lb of mince to feed his family-of-four TWICE.
- CHICKEN: Scott has some top tips for creating a tasty chicken dish, on a budget. Buy a chicken fillet, roast it in the oven and season it. Then if you slice it thinly, it goes much further. Serve the slices of fillet on a bed of rice, or with salad and salsa. This chicken dish costs around £1-2 per portion, compared to £10-plus in a restaurant.
- STEAK: Steak is traditionally thought of as an expensive meat, but the butcher has a top tip that should mean we do not have to give up this luxury, despite tightening our purse strings. He said: “Buy a 6oz rump steak, cook it medium rare and allow it to rest, then slice thinly. Serve up a simple salad – use olive oil and lemon to create a dressing, don’t buy one – and lay the sliced steak on top.” This simple steak salad is around £4 per portion, saving around £6-per-serving when ordering it in a restaurant.
RECIPE: Scott’s Spaghetti Bolognese – for £2.11 per person!
Ingredients and cost for Spaghetti Bolognese (serves 4)
- 450gm mince… £5.40
- 1 medium onion (chopped small)… 30p
- 20ml (1 x tablespoon) tomato puree… 5p
- 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes… 45p
- 1 garlic clove (finely chopped)… 5p
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs… 5p
- 400ml water… FREE
- 1 x teaspoon (level) sugar… 5p
- 1 x teaspoon (level) salt… 5p
- ½ teaspoon (level) Black pepper… 25p
- 500gm Spaghetti pasta… £1.80
Method
- Preheat (medium heat) a pot or high-sided pan and add a little olive oil, then add the onions and garlic. Once they start to brown, add the mince to brown. Mash the mince as it browns with the back of a large spoon, or something similar, so that it breaks into down the larger lumps. Add the Italian herbs and mix well.
- Add the tomato puree and chopped tomatoes and stir over the heat for a few minutes to mix the ingredients well.
- Add salt and pepper, and simmer for about 45 minutes.
- Once cooked, set the Bolognese aside and stir through a teaspoon of sugar.
- Cook your pasta and serve.
Scott explained: “This recipe easily feeds four hungry adults and based on ingredient cost works out at £2.11 per person. I would suggest that these are large portions, so it would be quite feasible that this recipe would feed 6 people, meaning that the cost per person is £1.41 – pretty budget friendly for a quality healthy meal.
“Not feeding that many people? Simply wait until the Bolognese is cool, then portion off and keep in the freezer to enjoy at another time. Write the name of the meal and date on the container.
“We recommend keeping frozen meals for no longer than three months.”
Top tips: Want to bulk out the meal a little? Why not add a tin of baked beans near the end of the cook? Or cut a couple of slices of bacon up into small pieces and add them when browning off the onions? The best thing about cooking at home is that you can be as creative as you like when making cheap healthy meals!
Everything should be eaten in moderation as part of a healthy, balanced diet, which includes quality meat. When it comes to selecting the meat they sell at Scott Brothers Butchers, Scott and the team are very choosy. It has to be great quality, well brought up and local, from farms where the animals have been properly reared and treated.
See the huge selection of meat products on Scott Brothers’ website. It also sells healthy ready meals and butcher boxes as well as sauces, sides and seasonings from its ‘larder’ section.
