Tuesday night: lasagne made with beef schnitzel.

Chop schnitzel ($8-00) into very small pieces - about 1 cm square & brown in electric frypan with a chopped onion ($0-50) and two or three chopped tomatoes ($2-50). A large electric frypan is your best friend when cooking for a family. Energy efficient and big enough to cook for two days at a time.

Once meat is browned, add stock or water & simmer for 60 minutes.

After 40 minutes, add in 3 large carrots ($1-50) diced into small pieces, then add in a whole head of broccoli ($2-00) cut into very small pieces when there is about ten minutes to go. Add garlic & other flavour at the same time. At the end of the hour, thicken with cornflour. Mix cornflour with enough water to make a runny mixture before adding to the hot meat.

During the time it's cooking, boil a packet of lasagne ($2-29) and make some cheese sauce by melting a tablespoon of butter, adding flour to make a thick paste, then adding 2 cups of water or milk and 50 grams of cheese. Heat  until it thickens, then use as above. (Total $2-00)

Total cost of ingredients: $18-79.

Using a lasagne or oven dish alternate layers of meat, lasagne and cheese sauce to the top of the dish - I find two layers to be ideal, finishing with the cheese sauce on top, which gives a perfect finish and a crispy surface. Cook in oven at 160-170 degrees Celsius for 30-40 minutes; until top is golden brown.

You should only need half of the meat, with the other half to be used on toast, or with rice, as a dish later in the week. Remember to freeze it if you're going to be more than two days eating the other half.

Everyone will go away well fed and satisfied with a solid meal. I'm not a lasagne fan myself, but the kids loved it, and came back to finish off the little that was left after serving four full plates and one little one for the wee chap.

Here is the meal and the leftover meat & vegetables for another meal:

 

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