Thursday 30 June 2011

How to save money on Summer cooking!

Hi everyone,

Well I have started maternoty leave now! So this has inspired me to have a big week of cooking next week, and I am looking for inspiration from you folk and online generally.

What can I cook now that will be easy to freeze and make for easy meals once the baby arrives next month?
Of course there are things like spaghetti bolognaise, cottage pie etc but they are not very summery... I will make some as back up meals though.

Also on my mind recently has been saving money on bills even more than normal in preparation for the year ahead.

Here is what we have done so far:

- Paid our tv licence bill in advance until September 2011
- Paid our water bill in advance until March 2012
- Fixed our gas and electric tariff onto a fixed tariff that ends in 2013

That's about as much as we can do on bills, apart from save money on usage, food, petrol etc.

So as to the cooking, here are some of the items I have come up with:

- Quiche - could be frozen in portions - not as good as fresh but still nice
- Pasta sauces - can be put into sterilised jars, or frozen, either way super quick with pasta
- Macaroni cheese - can be half cooked then frozen, then popped in the oven to finish and crisp up
- Pizzas - buy basic bases then add our ingredients on top and freeze. Super easy to chuck in the oven, plus handy to eat with one hand if needed!

So over the next few days I hope to come up with some more food ideas - generally some light items that can be quickly heated up, any suggestions you have are much appreciated!