£95 worth of 'free' food

Yep, that's right.  I redeemed my nectar points in a massive shop this morning.  I have been saving them all year.  I had a list and I stuck to it (more or less).  The main items on it were meat and freezer stuff.  I took aaaages to work out the best meat deals but think I got my money's worth.

I also got some chips (McCains original straight cut chips are GF, not all of them are!), 2 packs of Genius chicken pies (4 pies in total), 2 packs of fish fingers (20 fingers) and some pigs in blankets (20) for OH's son.  Chips, pies and fish fingers are a real treat for us now so stocking up with gluten and diary free stuff can be expensive.

I also picked up stuff like extra cheeses and more eggs than I would normally use in a week so I can batch bake plus a few other 'treats' for the holiday period.  I also got some other store cupboard items that are pricey.

So, here's the breakdown:

4 x 660g packs of chicken thighs and drumsticks @ £1.50 = £6
4 x 750g packs of 10% fat minced beef @ 3.50 = £14
3 x 450g packs of lean diced beef @ 3 for £10
3 x 250g packs of turkey breast strips @ £2.10 = £6.30
2 x 1kg bag preserving sugar @ £2.20 = £4.40
2 x bottles Tamari @ £2.60 = £5.20
4 x bottles cooking wine @ £1.02 = £4.08
2 x bags chips @ 2.50 = £5
2 x packs chicken pies @ 3.50 = £7
2 x fish fingers @ £2.50 = £5
4 x pastrami @ £2 = £8
15 eggs = £2
Dried sage= £1.65
Sage and thyme seasoning = £1
6 pack of San Pellegrino water = £5.50
Cheddar cheese = £4
Goats cheese = £3.40
Ribena = £2
Tortilla chips = 50p

Grand total £95.03

So far I've simply baked all the chicken pieces, cooked half of the minced beef with onions/carrots, put the diced beef into the slow cooker with carrots/onions and 1 of the wee bottles of cooking red wine and the turkey strips are marinating in the fridge with the juice of a lemon and a packet of fajita seasoning.

Later I'll be making some quiches and mini egg muffins to put in the freezer for the Teenager (that's why I bought 30 eggs!!!)

 

Last week I bought these veg in Morrisons in their 3 for £1.50 deal.  The sprouts are already prepped, blanched and frozen for Christmas day (they'll be served with chestnuts from my storecupboard). The carrots are in the beef stew and minced beef dishes as above.  The cabbage will be shredded and stir fried and some made into bubble and squeak.

 

Actually rather chuffed with myself!! And it proves that planning is the key to saving money.  I really must make more of an effort.

Cooking therapy

The weather here has become rather cold and damp.  Dark mornings turn into dark days and early nights.  Not my favourite time of year.  I love it when it's cold and crisp but the damp seems to turn me into a miserable cow and I just want to hibernate!  Best way to cheer myself up is cooking therapy and if it includes wine so much the better!  Last night's tea was Chicken and Broccoli Risotto.  My basic recipe is here on my old blog although now I use Pure spread instead of butter, Alpro cream and goat's cheese to make it dairy free.  There's loads leftover to make risotto cakes for my brunch today.

 

I had to pop into Sainsbury's last night to pick up some things for my oldest son who doesn't keep well.  I always have a quick look at the yellow stickers and found some packs of lean casserole steaks reduced.  I got 4 x 450g packs for £10.76 instead of £16.  There were 10 steaks in total (2 of them quite small) so definitely will be able to make 8 or 9 generous meals from them served with dough balls or pastry.

 

This morning I chopped 4 onions and about 6 carrots and threw them into the slow cooker.  I coated the steaks with GF flour and layered them on top.  I poured in some hot stock (made from Marigold powder) and red wine to cover.  I'll cook it on low for about 8 hours checking it every now and then.

 

I didn't want to buy a whole bottle of red wine as I can't drink it (gives me a migraine) so I saw this and thought I'd try it.  It cost £1.02 for 250ml, contains 60% de alcoholised wine and 40% 'normal' wine.  Also contains salt!  I'm now wondering if I would have been better just buying a cheap £2.99 red from Lidl and freezing the remains for the next time. I'll report back on the taste.  Kitchen smells lovely already after an hour so I hope it tastes as good as it smells.

Potatoes, tatties, spuds....

What can you do with a 2.5kg bag of potatoes that cost only £1.25?

 

 

Make rosti by grating 2 large potatoes (skin on), squeeze out the excess liquid, season well and fry in small heaps in oil until crispy and brown. Be brave and don't turn them over until they're really brown on the first side.  I made 8 but some got eaten before I got my camera out!!

 

Make stuffed cheesy baked potatoes by baking 4 potatoes until the skins are crisp and the insides soft.  Cut them in half and scoop out the flesh.  Mix with butter and grated cheese and pile back into the shells.  Reheat until the tops start to brown.  This is a family favourite :-) They also freeze.

 

Boil the rest and turn into mash to top one individual cottage pie (using yesterday's batch

cooked mince), one decent sized pie for 2 hungry people and a portion for my lunch at work today.

Honey and Tamari baked chicken mini fillets ready for stir fries

 



Lots of cheap nutritious filling meals for not much money and just a bit of effort.  I'm going to try to make more of an effort at weekends to stock up on meals for the week ahead and for the freezer.

And back to normal blogging

Okay, just one last holiday pic!  Indoor sky diving!! Totally amazing experience.  I don't do heights and would be too terrified to jump out of an aeroplane at 12,000 feet to sky dive so this was a unique opportunity to experience sky diving without the dangerous bit.  I loved it!!

 

And now back to normal blogging!  I got 3 x 500g packs of Scottish beef mince for £10.  So I browned them along with 3 large diced onions and 3 grated carrots (to bulk it out a bit), a goodly shake of mixed herbs and a tablespoon of stock powder, then it simmered for about half an hour.  It's currently waiting to be portioned up into bags for cottage pie, bolognaise and tacos with the appropriate seasonings and extra veggies. 

 

 

I also got a couple of bags of British frozen chicken mini fillets (2 x 1kg for £6).  These will be drizzled with honey and Tamari and simply baked for about 20 mins.  I use these chopped up for my lunch with some veggies or in a stir fry for my evening meal.  That's a few meals for this week sorted out and some for the freezer.

 

Finally a very simple makeover.  This has been annoying me ever since I moved in.  My dining table is too big (it seats 10) but I didn't want to get rid of it and buy a new one.  When we moved in it was positioned horizontally in the alcove.  It fitted, just!!  But you couldn't walk round it and anyone sitting at the back had to climb over seats.  So I had the idea of turning it round.  It's basically a large piece of glass (very heavy!!) that sits on 2 solid pillars.  Last night we had enough people to manoeuvre it into its new position.  Huge improvement!! And I was able to bring my Rennie Mackintosh style table out of the garage too.

 

No cost makeover, the best kind!

Fruit n veg

I had to pop into the supermarket for my eldest DS and had fruit n veg on my list for myself.  I never go in with a clear idea of what I what want as I like to see what they've got on offer.  I know this can be dangerous if you're on a tight budget cos all the advice says make a list and stick to it but I've worked out how they mark stuff down in my local Sainsbury's.  If it's a cold miserable night they start stickying stuff around 6pm.  If it's nice they wait till about 8pm. 

 

It's a wet cold miserable night tonight so I got some great bargains;.  But I'm especially pleased with my 5p bag of apple slices and grapes!!!

Brussels sprouts 20p (was £1), 2 bags of ready prepped broccoli/carrots/asparagus spears 30p (was £1.50), pomegranate seeds 30p (was £1.50) and black olives 24p (was £1.05).  Total £1.39 instead of £7.20 :-)

Sprouts will go freezer for Christmas dinner, apples/grapes/pomegranate seeds for breakfast, olives in a salad with some feta cheese for lunch tomorrow and veg in a stir fry tonight

Reductions

I was lucky and scored a good haul of yellow stickered reductions tonight!

I got -

2 packs of root vegetables, each containing 3 carrots, an onion, a small swede and a parsnip for 20p each (down from £1.20 each). 

A small organic Savoy cabbage 20p (£1.40).

A pack of sliced leeks and cabbage 20p (£1.10).

Organic unsmoked back bacon 99p (£3.99).

Ready prepared carrots, broccoli and asparagus 20p (£1.50)

6 Scotch pancakes 40p (80p)

Total cost £2.39, should have been £11.19. Saving £8.80

The root veg will be made into lentil and split pea soup, root rosti  and root mash to top a pie.  The sliced leeks and cabbage will be made into a creamy sauce with bacon strips and served with pasta.  The Savoy cabbage will be shredded and stir fried with chicken and veg already in the freezer.  The carrots/broccoli and asparagus were served with tonight's turkey and sweet potato bake.  And the pancakes will be the Teenager's supper after TKD training tonight and probably breakfast tomorrow :-)

Got my mojo back!!

My cooking mojo that is!  I've discovered a new magazine called the Healthy Eating Guide which is full of normal recipes slightly tweaked to be more healthy.  In the past few weeks I've lost 2.5kg(5.5lbs) just following their eating tips.

 

 

 

 

My favourite recipe so far.  Macaroni and cheese with peppers and roast pumpkin with salad.  It was rather delicious and even the Teenager loved it although he did add extra cheese to his!!

 

Our Halloween pumpkin has so far made soup and the above mac n cheese!  I didn't get a huge one this year but there's still a lot of flesh to get through.

 

Some yellow stickered goodies.  The cheesecake was served with some defrosted blueberries.

 

 

And finally Elaine's recipe over at MFin3 for tattie scones.  The Teenager has discovered he loves them so I knocked up a batch and froze them.  Very easy and frugal to make.  Best way to serve them IMHO is with a runny fried egg!!

It's November!

How did that happen?? Sorry for being MIA. I just needed a little time to re group myself and work out a few things.  As much as I would have liked to stay in bed and pull the duvet over my head for a few days when you've got kids (and dogs!!) you have to just Get On With It!!

 

So quick round up of a few things.

 

It's suddenly become winter so that means soup.  I had a few leeks and half a bunch of celery lurking in the bottom fridge drawer so they were chopped up with a token carrot, added to some veg stock, simmered then blitzed to become Leek and Celery soup.  Even the Teenager declared it delicious served with a wee spot of crème fraiche!

My latest frugal find in the supermarket.  This pack made 3 meals for me.  First meal simply fried in a little butter, second was baked with spinach and then lastly it was fishcakes. Very nice!

I've also discovered that I have a Lidl within walking distance :-) I've been testing the quality of their meat (it's all Scottish!!), fruit and veg.  So far I'm impressed with quality and obviously the price.

3 more kilts (ladies ones) were treated to the boil wash treatment and felted ready for use in The Tartan Tower.  I still haven't set up a proper sewing area so that's a priority.

I've been having a smashing time in the kitchen.  Ugly tiles are now removed so the walls are ready for re plastering.  I don't have a date for that yet so I'm cooking in a half madeover kitchen *rolls eyes*

Yesterday was my dad's 70th birthday.  All he wanted was his family together for the day so we pulled that off for him.  For the first time in many years all 6 grandchildren (ages 26 to 13) were together in one place.  He was a happy Grampa :-)

And finally a rare pic of me and my 3 boys.  I also got a rare pic of me and OH with all our 5 kids.  Precious!!

Hungry teenager at large!

 

The Teenager loves pizza, especially the stuffed crust variety from a well known chain.  But it's so expensive to buy and so cheap to make.  Last night I made him one and he declared it the best pizza I'd ever made! :-)

 

The details of how to make it are on my other blog (Click the linky at the top of the page)  Apologies for not posting it here but I have a good reason for the other blog.  All will be revealed when I move ;-)

 

I made a big batch of tomato sauce to freeze.  It's so versatile, I use it in loads of ways.  With the Teenager now on school holidays I need to have easy filling and cheap ways to stop him being hungry.  And stop him from grazing all day and eating all the food in my fridge.  He's already eaten a week's worth of yogurt in 2 days!!

On impulse I picked up a few boxes of these from the freezer aisle.  They were reduced to 50p as the use by date is August.  Although they don't say suitable for vegetarians there's nothing meat/fish derived in the ingredient list.  I would never pay £1.99 for them but at 50p they're a decent addition to bulk out a stir fry meal.

There's lots happening on the house front.  By the end of the week I hope to post more details.

Jelly on a plate, jelly on a plate.....

.....Wibble, wobble, jelly on a plate!  No idea where that song comes from but I always sing it when I make jelly!

 

I was getting bored of plain jelly with fruit in it so I played around and made some fruit fool type desserts.

 

 

I drained the juice from a tin of basics peaches and used it instead of cold water in making up the jelly (using a quarter less liquid).  I pureed the peaches and mixed it with the jelly.  I poured it into glasses to set.

This is peach and orange fool served with natural yogurt

 

What else could I make?  I defrosted half a bag of frozen strawberries and blueberries, pureed them and added them to the jelly mix.

Voila!!

 

 

More sneaky ways to get fruit into the kids without costing a fortune ;-)

Some frugal meals

Since last month's food and general groceries bill was over budget I'm trying harder this month to be creative and frugal.  I've discovered a new blog with fab recipes called A Girl Called Jack.  She has a section titled £10 a week food budget.  Link on my blog roll, do take a look!

 

In the last few days I've made the following meals -

 

 

Meatloaf made with turkey mince and some reduced sage and onion stuffing I got reduced in Tesco a couple of weeks ago.  It was down from £1.32 to 29p for 240g pack.  Use by date is April 2014!!! I guess they were just clearing stock leftover from Christmas.  So 600g of mince, plus stuffing and 1 egg made a 2lb meatloaf and 12 meatballs.

Baked haddock fillets (frozen ones) and spicy sweet potato wedges.  Spice was a reduced pack in M&S ages ago.  Plenty left for other spicy ideas.

Giant wholewheat couscous with pesto and char grilled veggies.  Veggies were the frozen ones I discovered recently, works out cheaper than fresh peppers, aubergines and courgettes.  Pesto was the end of a jar that's been sitting in my fridge for aaaages!!

I'm going to start costing my meals like in Jack's blog, just to see how much each meal costs.  And to see if I can keep costs down as my spending in other areas is increasing ie petrol!!

Meal planning

I'm conscious that the Teen and I haven't been eating as well as we could recently.  Despite having a well stocked storecupboard and freezer we've been rather lazy in our meal choices.  With various after school and evening activities we've got ourselves in a rut of same old/same old meals.  So when he asked for his favourite macaroni and cheese the other night I made an effort to change it up.  Instead of a flour/butter/milk cheese sauce I did a very quick cream and grated cheese one (using up the reduced cream) and I cooked some chopped up broccoli (also reduced!) in the same pan as the pasta.  Very nice!

Dessert was the reduced papaya, perfectly ripe.

 

So it's back to weekly meal planning.  I used to do this all the time when I cooked for 5 and we had so much coming and going in the evenings. With the Teen's help we've decided on the following vegetarian menu:

 

Mon (gym/tkd)    Chinese/stirfry

Tues (tv)              Pizza and salad

Wed (gym/tkd)    Pasta

Thurs (gym/tkd)  Rice dish

Fri (tv)                 Soup and pudding

Sat                       Meat night

Sun (gym)           Traditional (roast potatoes etc) and pudding

 

On Saturday night he usually stays with his brother so I get to cook a meat based meal for OH.  It will be much easier (and cheaper!!) for me to cook just 1 meal each night that we'll both eat.  Seems obvious now I've written it down but I think making 2 different meals most nights was ruining my interest for cooking.  Here's hoping things will improve.

Forward Planning

Here's the finished Christmas pudding.  It's now wrapped up and stored in the cupboard for next week

Cranberry and orange sauce already frozen and stored in freezer.  I got the cranberries with a gift card I had for another store so they were free.  A really quick and easy recipe of a punnet of cranberries, juice and zest of an orange and 3 spoons of sugar.  A 5 minute simmer until they pop and go squishy.  It's a wee bit tart so another spoon of sugar would have been better but I'll add some honey to it once it's defrosted.  So 2 elements of the meal are already sorted!

My latest felted kilt.  This was a long ladies kilt.  These are pretty hard to find so I was thrilled to win one on Ebay.  Although there is a lot of length in the fabric once the pleats are unpicked, the width is always short.  Usually only 40 to 50 cm once it's felted.  But this piece of felted tartan is a generous 180cm by 80cm and it's a lovely soft felted fabric.  No idea how I'm going to use it yet.  I'll wait until the new year to decide.  I have a few other kilts winging their way to me in the next week.  I went a wee bit mad after getting my first payment from the local craft shop :-)  But I now have a wide range of colours to play with including white Royal Stewart tartan for a commission.

I've been working on a few special pieces but can't reveal these yet in case the recipients see them here.  But photos to follow by the weekend ;-)

Christmas Meal Challenge

About 10 years ago I became very disillusioned with the whole commercial nonsense surrounding Christmas.  I could see that me, my friends and family were spending far too much money during the festive period.  We were buying gifts that were not needed nor really wanted.  A family member stated that they bought their child a laptop because "They couldn't think of anything to get."

 

We were buying food and alcohol just to eat and drink to excess (and a lot was wasted I'm embarrassed to admit) When I was a child Christmas (and birthdays) were the only times we got new clothes, toys or books.  It was a big deal.  And while my 3 boys were appreciative of the gifts they received I worried that they were getting too used to 'things' and expected 'holiday food' to be provided 24/7.

 

So I bought a book called 'Unplug the Christmas Machine'  It changed everything, not just Christmas but everything that felt 'wrong' in the way we were living to excess.  A few years later we made the commitment to totally change our lifestyle and begin the road towards a more self sufficient life.  Unfortunately my ex decided that he wasn't cut out for a life of working hard outside an office, hence the situation I now find myself in.  But I wouldn't change it :-)

 

Blimey, how did I manage to digress so far from the original post topic?? Lol!!  Thanks for sticking with it so far :-)

 

Anyway, back on topic.  I still feel that we as a family spend far too much on food at Christmas.  Much of it is waaay overpriced and we're conned into buying 'party food' even when we aren't having a party! 3 for £10 on prawns wrapped in filo pastry is still £10 we don't really need to spend.  But the main day itself is completely dominated by the turkey.  A turkey that can cost up to £60!! (Last time I cooked one for a bigger gathering it was an M&S one at £64) And that's before buying all the trimmings, a starter and desserts.  When I cooked Christmas dinner for us plus 4 grandparents and 2 uncles it easily cost £500 plus including wine.

 

So here's the challenge.  I'm going make a 3 course traditional turkey dinner for 8 people for free, from scratch.  Yes FREE! Zero money.  How?

 

I'm going to use my nectar points that I've saved up over the year.  They're worth £52 in the supermarket that I usually shop in anyway. The turkey will be provided by a butcher friend of OH as a thank you gift.  Everything else including drinks will come out of the £52.  I totally believe that it's possible.  I keep a decently stocked storecupboard so I won't be including anything I normally have in stock like sugar, flour, stock powder etc.  But anything specially bought will be included in the £52.

 

 

Last night I had a good yellow stickered outing. 5 punnets of strawberries at 10p each, broccoli 10p, spring greens 10p and organic sprouts 49p.

Strawberries were chopped and left overnight in the juice of a lemon and a few teaspoons of icing sugar.

Today I pureed them and sieved them into just over a pint of strawberry coulis.  Some will go on a melon type starter and the rest can be ice cream sauce.  It's already in the freezer.  The sprouts have been prepped, blanched and frozen.  So that's 99p off my total already.

This lovely Christmas pudding mixture is now steaming away in my slow cooker.  I had all the ingredients except for the Guinness and black treacle.  But I used a voucher for another supermarket so I'm counting that as free as no money changed hands ;-)  I can use the treacle in other things (like treacle toffee!) and OH can drink the rest of Guinness!!

So far the menu looks like this (for 5 adults, 2 teens and a pre teen)

Fruit cup with strawberry coulis (possibly melon, grape and orange)
Soup

Turkey with gravy, bread sauce and cranberry jelly
Roast potatoes
Carrots, sprouts, sweetcorn
Chestnut stuffing (I actually have a pack of chestnuts in the cupboard!!)
Chipolatas
3 cheese tart (for the veggie teen)

Christmas pudding (Mary Berry recipe)
Mango trifle (saw this on breakfast tv the other morning)
DIY Knickerbocker Glories (to use up leftover cake, fruit and cream from trifle plus coulis)

Look ok to you?  All thoughts and comments welcome.

PS Recipe for biscuits in previous post is from Veggie Kids by Roz Denny

115g chopped butter
175g plain flour
50g caster sugar
2 tablespoons golden syrup

Put everything in a bowl and using your fingers rub everything together.  You might need to add more flour as it can get really sticky.
Knead into a smooth ball
Put dough in fridge for 30 mins to firm
Roll to 5mm thickness and cut out shapes, re roll to use up all the dough
Bake on a tray at 180 for 10 to 15 mins (keep checking after 10 mins as they can burn easily)

Some vegetarian cooking

*waves and says hello to everyone who has popped over from Rhonda's blog*

 

 

Once upon a time (not that long ago!) I used to buy premium organic vegetables.  I still believe that veg grown organically is better for you but have to cut my cloth according to my purse atm.  Once I move house I will put up my huge greenhouse and grow my own again but until then I buy whatever is on special offer at the supermarket. 

 

This week it was carrots, peppers and aubergines.  I also got 1kg bag of onions.  4 big bags of vegetables for less than £5.

I've been wanting to encourage the veggie teenager to be a bit more adventurous so when someone recommended Mary Berry's Spiced Lentil and Tomato Moussaka I knew what I was going to make.  (it's not got any spices in it so dunno why it's called spiced!!)

In my trusty wok there's onions, peppers, tinned tomatoes, cooked green lentils (recipe said Puy lentils but I didn't have any), veg stock and mango chutney.  I let it simmer away until it was thickened.

I sliced my aubergines and brushed them with oil and baked them in the Aga for 15 mins.  Recipe said to grill them for a couple of mins.

Then I made some cheese sauce.

Then I put a layer of veg mixture, some cheese sauce then a layer of aubergine and repeated.  I topped it with cheese sauce.  I still had half a pan of mixture so I made a lasagne as well using lasagne sheets instead of aubergine between the layers.

Lasagne on the left and moussaka on the right.  Both are in the fridge ready for the oven at some point over the weekend. 

I've also made a pot of carrot and lentil soup.  Just what we need in this damp cold weather :-)