How
people cut costs in the home in 1914
The patients
“We love curry,” says Jessica Patterson, speaking for herself and her three
housemates, Liam Dooley (who works in IT), Lizzie Mowat (consumer events
marketing) and Bashie Hougham (the wine trade), who share a cosy Victorian
house in East London. But takeaways and midweek steaks are becoming an
unaffordable luxury as the cost of living rises. Their rent is going up,
too. It's a case for the credit-crunch kitchen clinic.
Every Sunday they share a roast (the remainder of which languishes in the back
of the fridge for the rest of the week), followed by cheese and pudding.
They usually have at least one takeaway a week, rustling up anything from
pasta to chops in between. All four twentysomethings enjoy cooking and try
to eat sensibly, but they can't always co-ordinate their efforts at the end
of a working day when they meet up around the kitchen table. How can they
make their meals less extravagant and more nutritious?
“From a health point of view, we eat too much meat,” admits Jessica, who
researches and programmes business events. Lizzie agrees: “It's expensive,
too; we don't buy cheap meat.” Liam and Bashie are also unashamed
carnivores, but while food prices are up 11 per cent on last year, meat
costs 15 per cent more than it did a year ago. Cheese, which has also gone
up more than most food, is another weakness, particularly of Jessica's.
“It's expensive and bad for you - my family has high cholesterol.”
The four are lucky enough to have a weekly fish stall, street market and
ethnic shops selling produce, as well as a fishmonger and butcher near by.
Local supermarkets include Waitrose, Lidl, Sainsbury's and Budgens. To save
money they don't need to change where they shop, they need to think about
what they eat and what they don't. “There's a bad rotting veg scenario at
the end of the week,” Lizzie says. A fridge inventory reveals four
half-eaten large tubs of yoghurt, the remains of a weekend takeaway curry,
about £10 worth of cheese, olives, some mangetout and a couple of peppers,
choy sum bought on a whim - “what would you do with it?” wonders Lizzie - a
vac pack of four beetroots from Lidl and a cucumber. A jar of sundried
tomatoes languishes at the back. Sausages and bacon and a couple of floppy
carrots will end up in the bin if no one rescues them soon.
Yet none of this needs to be wasted: the carrots can go into chicken stock;
beetroot could become borscht to take into work; yoghurt and cucumber make a
raita; choy sum and mange- tout could go in an Asian noodle soup; and the
olives, tomato, pepper and some of the cheese could top a pizza. After
consultation, Amanda Ursell and I prescribed an alternative, improved week's
menu that cut out the fat, the waste and we saved Jessica, Lizzie, Liam and
Bashie over £20 a week each. Here's how it worked.
The new regimen
Sunday supper is sacrosanct. The housemates bought a large free-range chicken
(not for much less than a joint of beef but with more potential for using up
leftovers) and cut down on waste by cooking fewer potatoes. They economised
on the cheese course by buying only two types and switching from Dolcelatte
to Stilton and Beaufort to cheddar. Leftover Stilton was earmarked for
Wednesday's pizza topping. And instead of buying or cooking sticky toffee
pudding, they opted for poached pears. Instead of cream they could grate
over some of Lidl's 70 per cent cocoa Ecuadorean dark chocolate.
Jessica put in a Sunday night call to her mum for a pressure-cooking
consultation and once she'd stripped the remaining meat off the chicken
carcass she turned it into a good concentrated stock in under 40 minutes, a
third of the usual cooking time. Come Monday evening, with the chicken stock
ready, the aromatic Asian noodle soup took minutes to make. “It was filling
in a nice substantial way,” Lizzie said. They shopped in their usual shops
but were more conscious of planning and each one took it in turns to cook.
“It's as much about a mindset as having to look for cheap food,” Jessica
concluded. Having a good supply of fresh herbs - rosemary from the garden;
coriander from the Asian grocer - added zest to the most frugal of dishes.
Lizzie tackled the mackerel. “We love eating fish, but usually get seabass or
bream,” she said. Now they're converts to mackerel, packed with omega-3. “It
was really tasty, much cheaper and easy to cook.” Friday night's chickpea
curry satisfied a craving for Indian food and by the end of the week they'd all eaten less meat than usual. “We usually have chickpea curry as a side
dish, but this was so cheap and more filling than we expected. Once you've
bought the spices you can make it again.” As Liam said: “You notice the
economies of scale when you all eat the same food.” There's no recipe for
Saturday night as the housemates eat out.
During the week they'd started to change the way they think about shopping and
cooking. And they had saved enough on food to cover the imminent increase in
their rent.
SUNDAY:
Before Roast beef with roast potatoes (1kg), roast carrots and parsnips
and steamed broccoli. Cheeses from Waitrose including Beaufort, Brie and
Dolcelatte with Carr's table wafers. Sticky toffee pudding.
Cost £27.36 (£6.84 each)
After Roast free-range chicken with roast potatoes (700g), roast
carrots and parsnips and steamed broccoli. Stilton and Cheddar with
crispbread from Lidl and celery sticks. Poached pears with grated dark
chocolate.
Cost £18 (£4.50 each)
Money-wise A top-quality chicken will pay its way by turning into
another meal. Veg cost less because they were bought loose. The best British
cheeses are better value than French and one less means less waste. Fruit
costs less than a rich ready-made dessert.
Health-wise A good free-range chicken shouldn't be too fatty. If the
four eat just a matchbox-size piece of cheese in total they limit the
cholesterol damage without having to give it up completely. The fruit
pudding drastically cuts the fat in the meal and calories.
MONDAY:
Before Fresh tagliatelle with a ready-made arrabiata sauce for Jessica
and Lizzie. Sausages with mash and baked beans for Liam, and for Bashie with
mash and a buttery onion and white wine sauce.
Cost £6.54 (£1.64 each)
Before Asian chicken noodel soup made with chicken stock, flavoured
with garlic, ginger and chilli, spring onions and carrot slivers, plus any
mange tout, green beans or Asian greens knocking about, quick-cook noodles,
lime juice and coriander leaves.
Cost £2.24 (£56p each)
Money-wise Fresh tagliatelle costs more than dried pasta and a
home-made tomato sauce would be cheaper; £1.20-worth of noodles was the
largest outlay for the soup, plus 49p for the spring onions and a few
pennies for the other ingredients.
Healthwise The pasta supper isn't bad nutritionally, but the shared
meal gives them all more vegetables and replaces the boys' fattier sausage
and mash. Low-GI noodles leave them feeling nicely full and satisfied.
TUESDAY:
Before King prawns and vegetable stir-fry (from a packet of prepared
veg) for Jessica. A low-fat chicken and noodles ready meal for Lizzie. Lamb
chops with new potatoes for Liam. Tuna with pasta, tomatoes and chilli for
Bashie.
Cost £13.92 (£3.48 each)
After Butternut squash and pearl barley risotto with lettuce and
cucumber salad
Cost £3.20 (80p each)
Money-wise Pearl barley is much cheaper than Arborio rice. Grated
cheese - grana padano is cheaper than Parmesan - and chopped parsley add a
bit of luxury and a little more to the cost. A cos lettuce for 75p is half
the price of a bag of salad leaves.
Health-wise Ready meals can be salty and short on veg. Tinned tuna
doesn't provide omega-3 fatty acids. A good portion of cos lettuce counts as
a serving of veg and the dark outer leaves can give some iron and
potentially health-boosting carotenes.
WEDNESDAY:
Before Takeaway pizza, ham and mushroom, and American hot.
Cost £27 (£6.75 each)
After Home-made pizza dough topped with tomato passata, roasted red
onions, red pepper, olives and grana padano; and courgettes, Stilton and
rosemary.
Cost £2.60 (65p each)
Money-wise A home-made pizza is a no-brainer. Bread flour costs less
than £1 a kilo and with 20p-worth of yeast you have enough pizza for four.
The onions, passata and courgettes were a small investment, and the cheeses
were left over from Sunday.
Healthwise Making pizza is an opportunity to use lots of lycopene- rich
passata on the base and to add more veg to bring the topping up to
one-and-a-half of the day's five servings. American hot is a fatty topping.
Use the Stilton sparingly to keep fat and saturated fat down.
THURSDAYS
Before Salmon with asparagus, mushrooms and rice for Lizzie and Liam.
Sirloin steak and fried tomatoes, mushrooms and onions with sautéed potatoes
for Jessica and Bashie.
Cost £13.96 (£3.49)
After Baked moroccan mackerel, marinated in lemon, oil, cumin and
coriander, with couscous and a vegetable stew of carrots, courgettes,
turnips, tomato, onions and chickpeas (see recipe, right).
Cost £7 (£1.75 each)
Money-wise Mackerel is cheaper than salmon, and two large fish for £2
each fed four; the couscous is a relatively cheap carbohydrate. There was
enough for a vegetarian guest but any leftover vegetable stew could have
been rechristened as a soup.
Health-wise The fish is good for omega-3 fatty acids believed to be
good for the circulation and the brain. Chickpeas give soluble fibre that
helps to lower bad cholesterol. All the vegetables add up to at least two
portions of the five a day.
FRIDAYS
Before Indian takeaway for four of lamb rogan josh, lamb kallan, garlic
chicken, channa masala, palak paneer, two pilau rice, two peshwari naan and
poppadoms.
Cost £40 (£10 each)
After Chickpea curry with onions, tomato and fresh coriander, with
basmatic rice, cucumber raita and wholemeal pitta bread.
Cost £4.72 (£1.18 each)
Money-wise Home-made curry costs a fraction of a takeaway and it's
cheaper still by being meat-free. At about £1, two large naan cost twice as
much as a pack of six pitta breads. Six mini pitta cost even more than two
large.
Health-wise Takeaway curries are usually bursting with fat and calories
and these choices could add up to a whole day's needs. Basmati rice is lower
in fat than pilau and the wholemeal pitta not only adds fibre but saves 258
calories and 11g of fat alone.
RECIPE:
Moroccan mackerel with vegetables and couscous
Serves 4
Mackerel; four small or 2 large as 2 fillets
For the fish
1-2 crushed garlic cloves; 1 tbsp chermoula or 2 tsp ground cumin; tsp
paprika; tsp ground ginger; Juice of lemon; 1 tbsp olive oil; Salt and
ground black pepper; 4 sprigs coriander
For the vegetable couscous
1 onion chopped; 2 cloves garlic finely chopped; 1 tbsp olive oil; 3 tsp ras
al hanout (Moroccan spice mix) 2 small or 1 large turnip chopped into 1-2cm
cubes; 2-3 carrots as above; 2-3 courgettes as above; 400g tin tomatoes;
500ml vegetable stock;400g tin chickpeas or equivalent amount of cooked
chickpeas; Chopped coriander; 400g couscous
Start with the vegetables. Fry onion and garlic in olive oil for a couple of
minutes, add spices, stir and fry for 1 minute, pour in stock and tomatoes
and simmer for 10 minutes. Add turnips and carrots and simmer for 10
minutes. Add courgettes. Allow at least 30 minutes from the start to cook
everything; you don't want the veg too firm. Chickpeas go in for the last 5
minutes. Season and stir in chopped coriander.
Preheat oven to 190C/375F/gas 5. Start the fish 15 minutes or so into the
vegetable cooking. Make sure that whole fish are thoroughly clean. Mix all
ingredients except fresh coriander. Slip a sprig of coriander inside each
fish (underneath for fillets), pour a little marinade inside (or underneath)
and the rest over the fish and leave for as long as you have - anointing
just before cooking is fine. Grind black pepper over fish and sprinkle a few
grains of salt, then put in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Pour boiling water
over couscous to cover. Cover the bowl with a close-fitting plate and leave
until the water is absorbed. Fork through to break up lumps. Serve couscous
with the vegetable stew spooned over and the fish on the side.
Here are the rest of the recipes
Butternut
squash and barley risotto
Pizza
Chickpea
curry
Asian
chicken noodle soup
