The work we are doing to help build a Local Food Supply Chain for Bedfordshire took me to Bedford Hospital last week. The main issue on us supplying the hospital was could our high quality local meat be used when the hospital have a budget of only £2 per person per day for 3 meals.

BigBarn is part of the Tastes of Bedfordshire Meat co-operative and following on from our schools initiative we are trying to get as many food users as possible in the county to buy from local farmers. As the hospital feed over 550 people 3 times per day a great deal of meat is required and to help patients recover one would hope they are fed good meat.

I was hoping that we would be able to provide similar range of products as we do to local schools but also offered to create a Bedfordshire banger or burger to suit the hospitals budget as well as nutritional needs.

To meet this need for good meals within a tight budget I started thinking. Is all good quality meat expensive? Can you use small quantities of good meat and still make a whole nutritious meal? What other savings can be made to give a great meal on a low budget.

So here it is my attempt at a thrifty menu for 2 for the week. Menu These are the kind of meals I enjoy and you will notice reflect my taste for savoury rather than sweet. My first challenge is to offer a BigBarn Shopping Bag to the person who comes closest to guessing the average cost of ingredients per person per day. Click here to enter. When the competition closes in 4 weeks I will put up the recipes used and a breakdown of ingredients and cost.

I will also let you know whether we got the contract in case you are planning a visit to the hospital. Apparently quite a few people go to the Hospital’s Swannery Canteen especially for Sunday lunch.