Today has been another day of preparation and decluttering. It makes you feel good doesn’t it? I still don’t feel well but instead of moping around on the settee I pulled out my kitchen drawers and started to sort through them. Over the past two years I have accumulated so many food magazines and recipe cards that I have no idea where anything is. So I threw a lot out ( well recycled) and looked through the ones I’d kept and wow I found lots of cheap, family friendly recipes that I had forgotten about so I’m looking forward to sharing them all with you.

First of all I thought I’d share a new slow cooker recipe with you which I kind of made up on the go and it seems to work well:

Slow cooker Thai curry

You will need:

2 boneless skinless chicken thighs £1.50
2 tbsp green curry paste (£0.65)
3/4 tin of coconut milk (£0.79)
2 cups of chicken stock ( from store cupboard )
1/2 sweet potato diced ( £0.40 )
1/2 onion diced ( £0.15 )
A handful of mushrooms chopped roughly (£0.60 )
2 spring onions diced (£0.30)
1 handful of frozen broccoli (£0.40 )
Seasoning ( from store cupboard)

Lightly brown your chicken thighs in a hot pan with a little olive oil and your onion. Place in your slow cooker and add all of the remaining ingredients mixing together thoroughly. Turn your slow cooker onto low and cook for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-5 hours. If your curry is thinner than you would like add some cornflour mixed with water toward the end of your cooking time. Thai curries are traditionally thinner than say an Indian curry bit it’s all about personal preference.

This would feed 3-4 people quite easily and is extremely budget friendly at just £4.79 – based on my most recent shop at Asda. You could add more meat if you wanted or different vegetables depending on what you have to use up.

As this recipe came out at under a fiver I thought it would be fun to share one or two of my Sainsburys feed your family for a fiver curry favourites. Do you remember the campaign? The adverts were with Jamie Oliver and I loved the recipe cards you could pick up instore. Now I say favourites as I love the recipes but due to my cluttered drawer I haven’t used them in some time!

Chickpea & Spinach curry

You will need:

1kg pack new potatoes ( £1.50 )
1 onion (£0.20) chopped
410g tin of chickpeas (£0.69)
500g jar of tikka masala (£1.00)
300g of frozen spinach (chopped) (£0.75)
Olive oil ( from cupboard)
1 tsp chilli powder
Pepper
Naan breads x 4 (£1.20)

Slice potatoes in half and boil until tender. Drain and set aside. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan and onion and chilli powder, cook until soft. Add your spinach and heat through until it breaks up. Add your drained chickpeas and potatoes and stir through until warm. Pour in your sauce, heat through and season. Serve with warmed naans.

I did a quick price check on sainsburys website and now it comes out at £5.34 ( well inflation after 3yrs is to be expected) but you do get a lot of curry and its tasty and easy even if you aren’t a huge fan of the kitchen.

And finally..

Red Lentil Curry

You will need:

1 x 390g carton of chopped toms with basil & oregano ( £0.69)
2 tbsp red curry paste ( £1.75 for a whole jar, approx £0.75 for this serving)
1 x 28g pk of coriander ( chopped with a little reserved for garnish) ( £0.80)
1 x pk of 4 pitta breads ( £0.40)
200g dried red lentils (£1.09)
1 onion, finely chopped (£0.20)
2tbsp olive oil ( from store cupboard)
1 pinch of curry powder ( from store cupboard)

Preheat oven to 200 degs C/ gas mark 6.
Heat 1 tbsp of Olive oil in deep frying pan. Add your onion and coriander, sauté for a few mins and stir through your curry paste. Add lentils and 500ml of water. Simmer for 5 minutes and stir in chopped tomatoes. Simmer for a further 10 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Meanwhile brush your pittas with olive oil, sprinkle with curry powder and bake for 5 minutes. Just before serving sprinkle with coriander and serve with hot pittas.

A perfectly simple vegetarian curry. Delicious and again very cheap. Everytime we have eaten this we have always had leftovers for lunch the next day. A bargain at £4.93 or £3.93 if you consider that you can use the rest of the curry paste on a different meal.

Some money saving tips for you when buying ingredients for curries:

* check out Indian supermarkets for bulk buying rice/spices
*buy lentils from the world foods section of your supermarket
*buy coconut milk and chickpeas from bargain shops such as home bargains or again in the world foods section of supermarket.

I bought 2kg of red lentils some time ago for a fraction of the price above by shopping in the world foods section. I store mine in a jar and I think it looks quite attractive.

I hope you try these recipes out and I’d love to hear your food budgeting ideas.

Happy new year.