With the cost of living crisis, we are all looking at ways to save money. Energy saving is a huge one (have you bought an air fryer yet?), and so is trying to manage the food budget. However, saving time is also really a huge focus for everyone – and you still want really delicious meals!
I get my shopping delivered from a supermarket – its quick, convenient and it saves you from the dreaded middle aisle feeling, when you buy things you don’t need. However, again, the quality of some of the products aren’t as good as you would get it you went to your local high street.
I’ve come across a fantastic option for well priced, fantastic quality meat – Swaledale Butchers who deliver to your door! The meat all comes vacuum packed and in a well insulated box with ice packs. (I have saved these for summer!) I wanted to share what I made from just £50 (gifted) worth of meat, for a family of four. I was amazed that this all went so far – its really hard for me to express how good the quality of the meat is. No added fat, no water coming out like with supermarket meat – really great.
They have monthly specials, so check out that section first!
What I bought, and what I made
Tuscan Pork, Fennel and Red wine sausagemeat, This was gorgeous – I made a fantastic ragu using chopped tomatoes. No real need for any herbs or onions as the sausagemeat is already so well flavoured. I served with rigatoni pasta and a little parmesan. This served 4 people plus two smaller portions for lunches the following day.
Coarse Pork Sausages, 6 delicious, meaty and large sausages. I made a toad in the hole, by cooking the sausages in a little oil in the oven for 20 minutes. I then took it out and put the batter straight in – the flavour from the sausage got into the yorkshire pudding batter, and we all said it was the best we had ever eaten. Because the sausages were so thick, one sausage was plenty for smaller appetites, so this still served 4 very generously.
Beef minute steak– 4 steaks Beautiful thin steaks that I just flash fried with mushrooms and onions. Delicious flavour and easy to cook for a posh but quick weekday supper.
Steak strips I made philly cheese steak rolls with thism served with baby potato wedges. This one packs of strips made 6 rolls so we had some left over for the next day. Again perfect steak, evenly sliced for you.
Dry cured smoky bacon I cheated a little here and used these to make pigs in blankets to go with the pork roast below. However I’d already used the coarse sausages. So I bought some supermarket sausages that are “okay” – but wrapped in this first cleass streaky bacon it made them absolutely amazing. Brush them with cranberry sauce or redcurrant jelly towards the end of cooking for a great flavour.
Leg of Pork Roast This made a perfect pre Mothers Day dinner for my parents who were visiting. We cooked for 8 people, and this provided everyone with plentiful, delicious meat, with some leftovers too. The crackling was gorgeous. If you are like me and usually go for a supermarket joint, you will taste the difference. Yes it’s a bit more expensive, but so much more worth it. It was also easy to cook, so one for anyone.
Ham hock I’d never cooked a ham hock before so spent some tine deciding what to do with it. This is a very economical piece of meat. You can boil it and then use the liquid (with a small amount of the meat) to make a pea and ham soup. You can also slow cook it, or roast it. I did a combination of the three in the end, I boiled it for a couple of hours, then cut the skin off and glazed the fat with honey and mustard. We were able to slice it beautifully for an evening meal of ham, egg and chips; then there were still leftovers for sandwiches the next day – try it with homemade coleslaw.
I would absolutely recommend Swaledale and think this is a great way to have really good food, delivered conveniently at a good price. Make sure you check out each product page properly too, there are often great ideas on how to cook the meat. The many positive reviews are worth a read too, as their customers share great recipe ideas.