AD | Feeding my Family for Under £5.50

If you know me at all and you're reading that title and thinking something is very very wrong! I am self-admittedly NOT a cook. The kitchen is not my domain, unless we're talking about baking which is a horse of a different colour of course. I am the furthest thing from a foodie it is possible to be so I tend to just stay out of the kitchen altogether and leave it to Damian, who LOVES his food. So trust me I get it that you might be thinking "there is absolutely no way AJ is cooking actual food" and honestly you'd be right! I am categorically not being the chef in this scenario-I have however set Damian a challenge, which is to cook a healthy dinner for four (or a meal that he can cook and freeze to cover at least four meals) for less than £5.50-using Schwartz Recipe Mixes!

I received the Sausage Casserole recipe mix from Schwartz so the ground rules were set: 

1. Make a Sausage Casserole
2. Use the Schwartz Recipe Mix
3. Make it healthy
4. Make enough to feed four people
5. Keep it under £5.50

Let's see how he got on shall we! 

Ingredients:

1. 8 Turkey and Caramelised Onion Sausages (£2.39)
2. 1 pack Sausage Casserole Recipe Mix (£0.85)
3. 6 Mushrooms (£0.54)
4. 1 Onion (£0.08)
5. 1 Carrot (£0.08)
6. 2 Tbsp Tomato Puree (£0.34 for 200g/one tbsp = 20g so approx £0.07 per recipe)
7. 1 Tin of Chopped Tomatoes (£0.37)
8. 175g of sliced Leek (£0.60)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180℃ gas mark 4-5
2. Fry sausages in a pan for 4-5 minutes until browned
3. Add in chopped onion and carrot and cook through before adding tomato puree
4. In a casserole dish pour chopped tomatoes 
5. Mix recipe mix in a jug with 500ml of cold water
6. Pour off excess liquid from sausage and veg mix before transferring to the casserole dish
7. Top the contents of the casserole dish with chopped mushrooms and sliced leek and then cover contents with recipe mix
8. Place on the middle shelf of the oven and cook for 60 minutes

Honestly, this was such an easy meal to make even I could have managed it (if Damian was telling me what to do step by step of course), and the finished result smelled and looked lovely. Let's have a look shall we...

Sausage Casserole before cooking

Finished sausage casserole

As you can see from the pictures the recipe was full of healthy, lush greens, and veg and the use of turkey sausages meant the fat content was reduced from 52g to 18g! Of course, you could make this recipe with any type of sausages and it would still work. But since Damian signed up for FatClub at work all of his meals have been heavy on the turkey 😂.

I know you're wondering if Damian completed his challenge or not and I can tell you that this whole meal (which would feed at least 4-but in our case became tea that night, and 4 packaged meals for the rest of the week) cost £5.25 all in but comes in at just £4.98 if we look at cost per use of each ingredient (the tomato puree works out at just £0.07 per tbsp). Which I think means that he did a wonderful job. 

Packed and ready for the rest of the week

Damian even liked the recipe mix so much that he came home from the shops with a couple more sachets to try out himself-without me setting him challenges. 

Have you ever tried these recipe mixes? Do you have a favourite we should try out next? Do let me know-because honestly I do so enjoy watching Damian trying and discovering fun new ways to make dinnertime exciting.