I was just about to reply and say 'Bonnie Blue, I'm surprised at you', and then I read the sentence above!

Ironically, I much prefer to use my own stock as I don't like that processd salt flavour many stock cubes give... I prefer rock salt which seems a lot less salty!

If you want to be frugal, I recommend (depending on how many you need to feed):

• Buy a chicken - have roast chicken on Tuesday.
  

• Pick it and have the bits in a risotto/rice dish on Wednesday, and then

• boil the carcass for stock and use it for a vegetable soup/broth

Btw Bonnie Blue, I was about to say that your Lasagne recipe sounds more like a full English than Lasagne (eggs, sausage, tomatoes etc) but I'll assume that's authentic if you've got italian genes...!

Although is that not specific to certain parts, like Sicily?

I loathe stock cube flavour so much so that I went and bought a chicken on Saturday so I could make fresh stock for my risotto. It's mostly the 'salt' content I think but just tastes fake.

I made good use of my chicken; cut off the breasts for the freezer, cooked the carcass (with thighs/legs) for stock. Pulled the cooked 'poached' meat off the bones, used some in risotto and rest in various sandwiches.

Interesting variety in Italian recipes. My mother is from Lazio and our sugo for lasagne is quite different - no sausage, less puree and more tomatoes and no water, garlic rather than onion and a good splash of wine. I always feel the trick for a good lasagne is to have the sugo wetter than you'd have it for a bolognese so that it stays moist.

Unless I am cooking something like lamb shanks in red wine the most I use is about 100ml. The red wine is there to give the food flavour along with any stock.

You should also be able to buy a bottle of Sainsburys basics red for less than ?3 a bottle. At 100ml a go that is a good few meals.

Living on my own, I'm a massive fan of the slow cooker. I've been using one for years and haven't had the slightest hint of a problem.

MIL and FIL were born in Southern Italy

MIL could make a boiling chicken last a week by making Sugo on Sunday served with the pasta and sauce and then chicken and salad
Sometimes she made the sauce with Blad Bone Steak and occasionally she would make meatballs and serve them with Spaghetti
We always have Penne Pasta with sugo never spgahetti unless it's meatballs

then it would be spun out all week

I once made deep fried Marrow flowers and cut the stalks off she told me to cut them up and put them in the batter

The Lasagne is their regional recipe

I will give you their Easter Speciality nearer the time

I like to make my stock from a whole chicken and then use the meat for sandwiches
I sometimes use star anise in the stock with veg and chicken
others tell me they use parsnip for a good flavour

I agree about stock cubes but the soup is a fast diet version for people who have no time and want somethng tasty and fatless quickly

I have to say that I have been eating it for a week now with absolutely no bread at all and very little protein and I feel as though I have had a big shot of energy I feel wonderful for the first time in several years

I am currently into Turkish Iranian Indian cooking so if we have any people from that region I need family recipes

I'm British, but had the pleasure of Arab and Greeks cooking for me for many years. Currently working my way through an Ottoman cookbook. Yum. And taught me to love aubergenes!

So you will be sharing your favourite recipes?

Roz
I think you are totally doing the right thing. Supermarket ready meals are total con and the only thing that Sainsbury's or any of the other ones are interested in are their profit margins. Ranges like "taste the difference" are just marketing - how can a meal that was made in a factory four days earlier by a man a white coat and then shipped around the country in a plastic container to be reheated ever taste better than a home cooked meal? Unfortunately they seem to have most of the population in the palm of their hands.

I only have limited growing space at my flat but last year we successful grew salad leaves, spring onions, lots of tomatoes, herbs and chilli plants, so I am sure there is quite a lot you could manage in your garden.

Try this lasagne recipe:
Chop 1 large onion and 2 cloves of garlic - fry in oil for 5/10 mins until soft. Add 500/600g of beef mince and fry until browned then add 2 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp ground coriander. Then add 1 tbsp tomato puree and mix around then add in two tins of chopped tomatoes and 2/3 tsp dried oregano. (You could also add some red wine or a chopped red pepper at this stage if you wanted). Bubble that gently on the stove for 20/30 mins until reduced and a nice consistency.
To make a bechamel sauce melt 50g of butter and then add 50g of plain flour and whisk to make a roux. Take off the heat and add a splash of milk and mix in, continue to add a few more splashes until it starts to resemble the beginning of a sauce - then add about 1/2 -1 pint of milk and simmer gentle for about 5 mins while stirring or whisking to avoid lumps until it thickens into a nice sauce.
Then arrange your lasagne with a layer or bolognase, then lasagne sheets, then bolognase. Finish with a layer of lasagne sheets and then pour over the white sauce. Bake on about 200C for 20/30 mins. (Sometimes I replace a layer of pasta with a layer of courgettes.)

For cookbooks I would recommend Delia's Complete Cookery Course - it is quite old and has few pictures (which often puts people off) but is brilliant and goes from the basics and provides good family meals. I also often make pizza's which are so cheap to make and so much nicer than anything from the supermarket. It is easy to make once you get the hang of neading the dough - I use Jamie Oliver's recipe which I think you can get off his website.

Goodluck!

Delia's Cake book
and
Mary Berry's Book of Cakes are excellent