Lou Robbie

And, you know, they're not fresh foods like the stuff in the fridge.

That's right, yeah.

If you know what's coming down the line, you might have decided to make something like a bolognese or a chilli on a Sunday.

And I would definitely encourage you to always double up if you can and maybe add some pulses in there that they stretch the meat because the protein is always the expensive one.

So ways to stretch the meat, it will definitely keep the cost down too.

Yes, yeah.

There are, you know, if you're into tinned fish, not everybody is, but tuna is great or salmon, anything like that.

You know, if you're happy to eat it, absolutely stock up on that.

It's always less than a euro usually for a tin of it.

You can always use frozen fish as well, especially good in a fish pie.

And then meat cuts, like the likes of chicken thighs are good or even like a whole chicken.

So I might buy a whole chicken.

I actually air fry it.

I've a fairly big air fryer basket.

So I'll just season it with salt and pepper, put a bit of oil on it, put in the air fryer for 40 minutes and then...

let it cool and then I'll take all the meat off the bone and that'll do us a couple of nights dinner and then to go the extra mile I put the bones into a pot and I'll boil them up with an onion and bay leaf and a bit of garlic and that'll do for a stock for a soup as well so just being a bit thrifty and wasting less as well is really important and just definitely planning ahead and

like if you're not great with pieces of paper you know put it into your phone and there's loads of apps there I don't use them now but you know there are meal planning apps as well whatever works for you but start small too because it can be a bit overwhelming if it's new to you so maybe start with two or three days and get the ball rolling there and you know in time you can add more meals to that to that plan.

Yeah, so for this, I actually went to my cupboards and I had macaroni pasta.

And of course, traditionally, macaroni pasta served with a creamy cheese sauce, like a white sauce.

Mm-hmm.