A frugal dinner...or is it??

Back before we started to remove meat from our diet, before we started buying organic produce, and before embarking on a gluten free diet - this *was* my answer to a tasty frugal dinner!

I made it for dinner tonight, we haven't eaten it for a while (bar a few weeks back when I had my parents over for dinner) and I remembered how this used to be a staple number once a week. I actually stopped making it because Danielle isn't so keen on curry flavoured food - and she's still not, but the mash goes down well...

Curried Sausages!

But now...
The sausages cost twice the price gluten free
The produce is no longer cheap spuds, carrots and onions from the supermarket

And of course, having meat in the meal fullstop increases it's overall cost compared to some other protein/iron options out there (although if you bought the *really* cheap sausages as we did it would have been pretty close).

So, it's all relative really!

I find it interesting when reading message boards and the question "how much is your grocery budget?" is asked to get a frugal comparison. While it may be vaguely useful, it's not helpful when you have some who are vegetarian, others who only buy organic produce and others have specialty diets which require expensive alternatives. So while we shop frugally, sticking to the above changes, we still spend a lot more than other families of four who truely do/can stick to buying the cheapest. But I still consider us frugal buyers.

Also, because we buy a box of organic vegetables every week, I don't think of individual veges and their individual price per kilo - I just work it out as a daily $$ value we consume because we get the same volume every week and it costs the same regardless.

So anyone want a recipe for frugal *meat* meal?

6 sausages sliced (precooked are easily to handle)
1 onion chopped
1 carrot grated

Gravy
2 cups boiling water
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
1-2 tablespoons curry powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon butter

Place meat and vegetables into a casserole dish. Mix up gravy and pour over and stir through. Cook in oven at 180 degrees for 45mins.

I like to serve this with a large serving of mashed vegetables. Tonights was a real medley of whatever was available (potato, kumura, cauli, kale, silverbeet, pumpkin, pumpkin), but just plain old potato is pretty good! I like to serve it in a pasta bowl with sausages at the bottom and the mash on top - it saves the mash from instantly turning to liquid.