As much as I love reading foodie blogs, they do sometimes make me feel a little bit inadequate with their delicious sounding recipes accompanied by photos that look like a professional photographer took them.
My recipes are more practical than creative and if I want a nice stylish foodie shot of what we’re having for tea it usually takes me so long to get a shot that I like that the meal everyone else is half way through theirs before I sit down.
As much as I enjoy cooking, I don’t always have too much time so I do use the odd packet mix and the occasional jar of sauce. I also believe that life is way too short to chop onions and other veg which is why I have a bag of frozen chopped onion and at least one bag of frozen mixed veg in there too. I *may* have even bought ready made mash in the past but let’s keep that between us!
Don’t get me wrong, I do cook from scratch with no ‘help’ whenever I can but I just wanted to tell you that it’s not every night – don’t ever read a blog and wish you were more like someone who cooks every night or who can craft perfectly or always has well behaved children and looks perfect. Because the chances are you’re not seeing the whole picture. 😉
And to show you that not all meals made in my kitchen aren’t perfectly made from scratch, I thought I’d show you last nights meal – made in the slow cooker with a big casserole pack of pre-chopped veg (£1), a sachet of chicken casserole sauce mix (30p), a packet of ready made dumpling mix (30p) and some reduced price chicken (£2.39). Our chicken casserole cost under £4.00 and fed all of us with leftovers which I think is great value….
I hope I’ve shown you that you don’t have to cook a meal from scratch and it doesn’t have to look pretty for it to be a great tasting, cheap meal.
