Budget beater meals.

I'm not one to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I really admire those people who are creative cooks, passionate about the whole process of cooking. For them cooking seems to be an art. Unfortunately I am not one of them.

I do however love to eat! Perhaps just a little too much. I also like to coook soup. The one thing that has stood out more than anything since I started this journey has been the amount of money we spent and wasted on food. On average we were spending $200 a week for groceries and take away and about $45+ a week on junk food. We have made our biggest savings with food. There are 4 adult mouths to feed and 5 when my son is home from college.

I really want to learn to be thrifty in the kitchen and still make nutritious and yummy meals. So here is what I made today for lunch with a complete cost breakdown. I even took a photo so you can see how good it looks.

Lamb & Vegetable Soup.

• 1/2 bunch celery $1.29
• 1 onion .30
• 2 carrots .70
• mashed pumpkin leftovers .60
• olive oil 2 tbspns .30
• 500 kg lamb forequarter bones $3.69
• vegetable stock powder .20

Heat the oil in the bottom of a large soup pot. Add vegetable stock powder to the oil, then add chopped onion and celery and stir until onion is translucent. Add the lamb bones and brown well. Add 2-3 litres of water, grated carrot, leftover pumpkin (and any other leftover vegies) and simmer for 3-4 hours. Put in fridge overnight, scoop of the fat, remove the bones, heat and enjoy!

My family, who don't actually like my cooking (or burnt offerings as they call them) agreed to try it because it smelt so good on such a cold day! They all agreed it tasted OK. So that is saying something coming from them. It was nice and thick with tender meat pieces from the bones

So the total cost was $7.08 for soup for 5. Even with bread this would be a meal for 5 for under $10. Or make it up and freeze if for low cost lunches at work.