It has been the case for a long time now that in the UK, THE 4TH RICHEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD there has been a lot of poverty.

This poverty is not the lowest of the low, the homeless and the lazy no good dole scroungers that are the favourite whipping boys of the rich media barons but people like the middle class, Mondeo man, workers who are struggling to put food on the table, PEOPLE LIKE YOU AND I.

To help make ends meet in our household we go in for "food Stretching..."

Food stretching is simply a way to make the food you have go further without compromising on flavour and a way of saving money.

An integral part of making your food stretching is giving thought and consideration to prepering a menu for a weks food and buying all of this at one time and sticking to the shopping list. Your budget will go further without you suffering.

A lot of the so called "food waste" is by people shopping;

When hungry

In a hurry,

With the eyes and not their head

Basically you cook up a big pot of "something" for instance for meat eaters this could be a mince meat type meal and then add to that whatever you have. It is important to understand that this is a trial by nature method so if it doesn't taste right in the first instance then you need to refine it by adding other ingredients later.

For instance you fry off a kilo of onions and 3 kilo of mince meat. Add to this about 6 cloves of crushed garlic, a good handfull of fresh herbs  such as parsley, oragano, basil or a couple of tablespoons of dried mixed herbs, 300g of good quality porrige oats, 3 tins of tomatoes and a half a tube, about 50g of tomato paste, salt and pepper to season.

Add a kettle of hot water and simmer for 20 minutes or so. Keep stiring it occasionally and keep an eye on the pan to ensure it is not sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add more water if it's starting to dry up or is sticking to the bottom of the pan.

This is the base "tumbledown" meal.

This is portioned up and frozen in the tin foil cartons like you get from the takeaway and when you need a quick meal take out one of the tin foils and add to that what you have.

For example throw in a tin of red kidney beans a couple of chillies and some more garlic and you have a chilli con carne type meal.

Other meals are:

sheperds pie add potatoes.

Lasagne add pasta sheets and home made white sauce.

Mince and dumplings add dumplings.

Curried mince Add curry powder.

Although these are meals that make the pennies eek out for a weeks food these meals are very easy to use when you have had a hard day at the office or with the screaming kid or even if you've just lost the corkscrew.