Hard Times Cookery ?

[itsybitsy]

Urgh - mince and rolled oats? No wonder there was an uproar! Try mixing the mince with peas. Mince, tatties and peas - lovely meal. With HP brown sauce, of course...

[diamond lil]

If you just put in a wee drop then nobody notices but the mince gets thicker I shove everything in mince... fried onions and mushrooms and grated carrot and bits of broccoli and cauli.

[Red Doe]

I bulk out mince with oats too and chopped tomatoes, carrots and onions and garlic.

[Graafen]

I'd seriously suggest finding somewhere that you can buy TVP (textured vegetable protein) mince from. Health food shops usually sell big bags rather cheaply, 500g for £2 at my local place.

It's an epic replacement for mince lamb/beef. These last two months I've been quite skint but have been able to eat rather well with TVP.

TVP in bags is dehydrated and thus requires rehydration before use. TVP has the wonderful property of absorbing it's own weight in water, so 250g of TVP mince is the equivalent of 500g of minced beef/lamb. It can be eaten straight away after rehydrating, but it's best when added to other ingredients just like mince.

I find that TVP also tastes a little better if you use stock to rehydrate it rather than water, gives it a better taste. TVP also lasts for a LONG time.

[metatron]

We get quite a few giant puffballs around here and other fungi, you can bulk any meal out for free. Other than that I live near the coast so fishing of the beach means free food year round. Rabbits are easy to get, trapping works well but an air rifle and a high power lamp at night will bag you a lot of rabbits. I was helping a local farmer out with his rabbit problem and me and a friend shot 107 rabbits between us over two nights. His land was infested with them but he had a lot of land.

Other than that textured vegetable protein is a great idea, go to your butcher and you can get a bag of bones for nothing or near to nothing and make a lot of good stock which makes it taste a lot better.

[Graafen]

Other than that textured vegetable protein is a great idea, go to your butcher and you can get a bag of bones for nothing or near to nothing and make a lot of good stock which makes it taste a lot better.

Ahh yes, forgot about that. Bones are great for making stock.

[diamond lil]

Great ideas and input thanks people

[luxor]

the family save all
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[diamond lil]

OMG Luxor what a truly FABULOUS find. I have saved that and will pore over it for hours, I LOVE this kind of thing, thank you !

[Decaff]

Not sure if this has already been posted elsewhere so just in case.

That little bit of cheese left over in the fridge, not enough to do anything with but getting too old to eat can be either cut into small cubes or grated an then frozen.

Cubes can be added to any pasta dish and will taste fine and grated can be added to the top of home made breads, into soups or any dish requiring added cheese. I also like to use the grated when making cheesy chive/mustard bread, that is a bit like cake as no yeast is required and adding in some dried onions is just food heaven.