Hubby did a sponsored cycle this morning. So I've just stayed at home and cleaned.
Off to an 80th birthday party at 5 so no dinner needed. gift was on offer and i got my mums discount on it.
It's so cold I've given in and lit my fire! I'll keep it just lit and not roaring to save coal as we don't have much left.
Thats it from me today told you there wasn't much happening.
Saturday, 7 September 2013
Friday, 6 September 2013
A whole chicken
Hi all this is a post for Jen over at Stretching the pennies to save the pounds who wanted to know how to cook a chicken well I had this in my freezer.
Which i paid £1.60 for :)
First of pop it on the scales, this says it's 1.37kg it's actually over 1.6kg
As a general rule you cook for 40mins for every 1kg and then an extra 20mins, I rounded mine up to 2 hrs.
Mine already has seasoning but if your cooking a fresh one i like to add the following to a bowl and rub it on (after washing)
teaspoon on veg oil/sunflower oil
sprinkle of paprika,.
garlic salt,
pepper
mixed herbs.
Next you wrap in tin foil adding half a cup of water to the bottom, make sure not to wrap it too tight while also making sure the juices/water stays in. And pop in a preheated oven at 180.
20mins before it's done open the tin foil and fold down the sides so the liquid stays in but so the skin can crisp. We don't eat the skin and I don't make stock* so the skin is no use to me so i didn't bother.
You know your chickens done when the juices run clear.
Use the stock to make gravy.
*We don't like proper chicken stock I've tried it a few times with no success so it's really not worth the effort or cost in making it for it to go in the bin.
This chicken will feed 5 for dinner tonight and i will pick the carcass clean and it will do lunch tomorrow for sandwiches and whats left will go into a pasta bake the kids tea tomorrow. Not bad for £1.60
You can cook chicken in the slowcooker, pop it in with a small amount of water on low for 6hrs and off you go :)
I hope this was a help Jen and everyone else. Personally i find chicken breast better value but then I have access to good quality reasonably priced ones. If i was just eating supeermarket ones i'd go for a whole chicken every time.
Which i paid £1.60 for :)
First of pop it on the scales, this says it's 1.37kg it's actually over 1.6kg
As a general rule you cook for 40mins for every 1kg and then an extra 20mins, I rounded mine up to 2 hrs.
Mine already has seasoning but if your cooking a fresh one i like to add the following to a bowl and rub it on (after washing)
teaspoon on veg oil/sunflower oil
sprinkle of paprika,.
garlic salt,
pepper
mixed herbs.
Next you wrap in tin foil adding half a cup of water to the bottom, make sure not to wrap it too tight while also making sure the juices/water stays in. And pop in a preheated oven at 180.
20mins before it's done open the tin foil and fold down the sides so the liquid stays in but so the skin can crisp. We don't eat the skin and I don't make stock* so the skin is no use to me so i didn't bother.
You know your chickens done when the juices run clear.
Use the stock to make gravy.
*We don't like proper chicken stock I've tried it a few times with no success so it's really not worth the effort or cost in making it for it to go in the bin.
This chicken will feed 5 for dinner tonight and i will pick the carcass clean and it will do lunch tomorrow for sandwiches and whats left will go into a pasta bake the kids tea tomorrow. Not bad for £1.60
You can cook chicken in the slowcooker, pop it in with a small amount of water on low for 6hrs and off you go :)
I hope this was a help Jen and everyone else. Personally i find chicken breast better value but then I have access to good quality reasonably priced ones. If i was just eating supeermarket ones i'd go for a whole chicken every time.
Thursday, 5 September 2013
Look what I found!
PUDDING RICE!
Now this pudding rice has moved house with me, I'm pretty sure I bought it to up a spend so I could use a voucher. Most of the best before date on it has rubbed off all i can make out is the 2012 now rice keeps for ages so that gives you an idea of how old this is. This post is more a method than a recipe as you don't need a recipe.
Pudding rice (I have no clue how much this actually cost i can't even find it on tesco site)
ground cinnamon
skimmed milk powder
I used half the packet of rice. pour it into the slowcooker, and cover with around 4pints of made up milk powder. add a sprinkle of cinnamon. Turn on low and leave for 4hrs.
Mines all portioned up ready for puddings. Not including the rice as most people would bin it this cost around 30p. You can buy tins of rice pudding for cheaper but this is good if you want to know whats in your food or use things up or maybe you just can't get out to the shops.You can make this with value rice that costs 40p a bag I have done before but you need to give it a good rinse in warm water first and add extra milk.
You can add brown sugar if you like, skimmed milk powder has sugar in to it so i really didn't want to add more and it didn't need any.
You can make this with normal fresh milk, condensed milk, or even uht.
If you don't like cinnamon i would suggest adding sugar or using a full fat milk to make it creamy.
This is a prefectly acceptable lunchbox idea
Wednesday, 4 September 2013
Homemade mini pizzas.
When I was little I used to love those pizza finger thing, but they have been discontinued I think and aswell as that were very expensive a good offer on them would be £1 for 8-10 fingers!
So now I'm making my own version.
Flour 250g-I use self raising for eveything. =8p
oil 1 table spoon (you can use any fat, if using a hard fat i do half the amount of fat to flour so 100g you can use more or less) 10p
yeast- 8p
passata (I used under half a jar) 34p
cheese (I used 1/3 bag, normally i use value grated so even better value) 50p
salt 1p
dried herbs (i added these on a whim you don't need them) 3p
Total cost £114, this made 36 so 3p each, 4 is more than enough for lunch.
Add 200g flour to a large bowl, add salt and yeast (and herbs if using any), mix, make a well, add oil, mix, add warm water until you get a dough like consistancy, I do this by eye so I'm no help but I used a small mug. it should form a ball and your bowl should be pretty clean. your dough should be sticky but not so much as it leaves lumps behind when you handle it.This is mine
Leave it somewhere warm with a towel over it for around 30mins-half an hr (I collected the child from nursery)
When you come back knock it down(just knock the air out of it but kneading), you can allow to rise again but I didn't.
Flour your bench/board and oven trays and turn you oven on to 180.
Turn your dough onto the bench, cut into 2 for ease. roll nice and thin if you like crispy bases like us. If you prefer deep pan style pizzas you will get less pizzas aswell. Cut to size, I used a pasty cutter you can use anything you like, a small glass would work well, or you can form into small balls and just push them down on the tray. Make sure to flour you bench well as a few of mine got stuck, keep going until you run out of dough.If your having a deep pan style you need to bake the bases slightly before you add the toppings so pop into the oven now for 10-15mins until it feels slightly hard when you press on it.
Add passata you don't need much, mine has less than half a teaspoon on each, spead it with the back of your spoon, add a tiny bit of cheese
Trust me this is plenty of cheese!
Then it's as simple as straight in then oven 7-10mins will he do it depending on the size of your pizza.
Told you it was enough cheese :)
Value cheese and passata would make this alot cheaper at just 63p for the whole lot!
Add sweetcorn, mushrooms and peppers to make it more healthy.
Making a pasta style sauce with hidden veggies and using it in place of the passata is a great way to sneak some veggies into your kids.
You will always have leftover dough unless your rolling it into balls, add abit of cheese to this and some passata mix it well in your hands and cook it for a mini dough ball :)
These are yummy cold aswell so can be popped into lunch boxes.
To freeze simply open freeze on a tray and not in a bag, when frozen pop off the tray and into a bag that way they won't stick together, these freeze great if they last long enough.
So now I'm making my own version.
Flour 250g-I use self raising for eveything. =8p
oil 1 table spoon (you can use any fat, if using a hard fat i do half the amount of fat to flour so 100g you can use more or less) 10p
yeast- 8p
passata (I used under half a jar) 34p
cheese (I used 1/3 bag, normally i use value grated so even better value) 50p
salt 1p
dried herbs (i added these on a whim you don't need them) 3p
Total cost £114, this made 36 so 3p each, 4 is more than enough for lunch.
Add 200g flour to a large bowl, add salt and yeast (and herbs if using any), mix, make a well, add oil, mix, add warm water until you get a dough like consistancy, I do this by eye so I'm no help but I used a small mug. it should form a ball and your bowl should be pretty clean. your dough should be sticky but not so much as it leaves lumps behind when you handle it.This is mine
Leave it somewhere warm with a towel over it for around 30mins-half an hr (I collected the child from nursery)
When you come back knock it down(just knock the air out of it but kneading), you can allow to rise again but I didn't.
Flour your bench/board and oven trays and turn you oven on to 180.
Turn your dough onto the bench, cut into 2 for ease. roll nice and thin if you like crispy bases like us. If you prefer deep pan style pizzas you will get less pizzas aswell. Cut to size, I used a pasty cutter you can use anything you like, a small glass would work well, or you can form into small balls and just push them down on the tray. Make sure to flour you bench well as a few of mine got stuck, keep going until you run out of dough.If your having a deep pan style you need to bake the bases slightly before you add the toppings so pop into the oven now for 10-15mins until it feels slightly hard when you press on it.
Add passata you don't need much, mine has less than half a teaspoon on each, spead it with the back of your spoon, add a tiny bit of cheese
Then it's as simple as straight in then oven 7-10mins will he do it depending on the size of your pizza.
Told you it was enough cheese :)
Value cheese and passata would make this alot cheaper at just 63p for the whole lot!
Add sweetcorn, mushrooms and peppers to make it more healthy.
Making a pasta style sauce with hidden veggies and using it in place of the passata is a great way to sneak some veggies into your kids.
You will always have leftover dough unless your rolling it into balls, add abit of cheese to this and some passata mix it well in your hands and cook it for a mini dough ball :)
These are yummy cold aswell so can be popped into lunch boxes.
To freeze simply open freeze on a tray and not in a bag, when frozen pop off the tray and into a bag that way they won't stick together, these freeze great if they last long enough.
Tuesday, 3 September 2013
Slowcooker sausage casserole
HI everyone as you all know i love my slowcooker. Today i'm making sausage casserole.
8 sausages- 40p (these are the frozen iceland ones at 40 for £2 these are great for sausage casserole but not for much else)
carrots-20p (these are the carrots i cooked a few days ago)
passtata 29p (mine cost 68p but just showing you my normal costings)
spices 20p- i used paprika aswell as the pictured spices pinch of everything.
Total cost £1.09, this will do the kids 2 dinners so 6 portions 19p, I will serve it with the cabbage I frozen 2p and a tin of potatoes at 13p with a knob of butter 5p- Dinner for the 3 kids will cost 26p each and include 3 portions of veg (passata, carrots and cabbage) you could throw in a tin of kidney beans or washed baked beans aswell if you have any.
Cut sausages length ways and in 4's (so you get 8 pieces per sausage) this is easier slightly frozen, then throw them and everything else in the slowcooker, 3/4 fill the jar of passata to rinse it out and pour that in aswell. Cook on high for 2 hrs or low for 6hrs. Don't open it or poke it too much trust me it's fine.
Sometimes the packet mix is cheaper when you take into account the cost of passata ect but I don't have any and I did have all this. If we were all eating this i would have added an onion but as the kids leave them on the plate it didn't seem worth it.
Lots of people brown meat before slowcookering. i clearly don't :)
Oh the spends from i bought 2 litres of milk and 4 tins of potatoes and 2 tins of tinned spag bol as i noticed it's down to 15p and is a good back up dinner for the kids :)
8 sausages- 40p (these are the frozen iceland ones at 40 for £2 these are great for sausage casserole but not for much else)
carrots-20p (these are the carrots i cooked a few days ago)
passtata 29p (mine cost 68p but just showing you my normal costings)
spices 20p- i used paprika aswell as the pictured spices pinch of everything.
Total cost £1.09, this will do the kids 2 dinners so 6 portions 19p, I will serve it with the cabbage I frozen 2p and a tin of potatoes at 13p with a knob of butter 5p- Dinner for the 3 kids will cost 26p each and include 3 portions of veg (passata, carrots and cabbage) you could throw in a tin of kidney beans or washed baked beans aswell if you have any.
Cut sausages length ways and in 4's (so you get 8 pieces per sausage) this is easier slightly frozen, then throw them and everything else in the slowcooker, 3/4 fill the jar of passata to rinse it out and pour that in aswell. Cook on high for 2 hrs or low for 6hrs. Don't open it or poke it too much trust me it's fine.
Sometimes the packet mix is cheaper when you take into account the cost of passata ect but I don't have any and I did have all this. If we were all eating this i would have added an onion but as the kids leave them on the plate it didn't seem worth it.
Lots of people brown meat before slowcookering. i clearly don't :)
Oh the spends from i bought 2 litres of milk and 4 tins of potatoes and 2 tins of tinned spag bol as i noticed it's down to 15p and is a good back up dinner for the kids :)
Monday, 2 September 2013
First day of small spends september
Hi all just a quick update. Went shopping today. Only bought dog food, bread and milk as planned :) Paid off some of my creditcard and £200 went into the savings :)
See you all tomorrow.
See you all tomorrow.
Sunday, 1 September 2013
Small Spends September
Hi everyone setting myself a small challenge your all welcome to join in if you like.
In Septemeber i will..
Go whoospie shopping once a week.
Not eat out except for the girly night out planned at the end of the month.
Use up as much food in my freezer as possible (look out for some strange recipe posts)
Keep my weekly spends under £80- £30 desil, £14 to school and £20 personal training leaves £16 for food.
Keep my food spends as low as possible. hopefully whoospie shopping will help if not the freezer and cupboard will.
List 5 items a week on ebay or local selling pages, 99p is better than nothing.
Do a small batch cook every week with dinners for the kids, week 1 spag bol, week 2 stew, week 3 sheperds pie, week 4 potatoe bake, week 5 sausage casarole and so on.
Go shopping with a list every week and stick to it unless it's a very reduced item.
Take a bottle of water with me everywhere i go and aim to drink 4 bottles a day, my bottle holds a litre.
Go for a walk every Sunday afternoon with the kids and possibly the dogs providing it's not pouring down (we have no tow bar on our new car so not sure how that would work)
Make as few trips to town as possible, kids are back to school, and we go in to the gym so hoping my desil costs won't go up too much.
Keep a running total of all moneys spent and all extra moneys earners from selling stuff (I've already sold £37.50 worth of stuff)
Post of my blog everyday, even if it's just to say hello and let you all know i haven't fallen off the savings wagon.
PAY MY CREDITCARD IN FULL AND STOP USING IT SO MUCH.
Wish me luck i'll be back here at the end of the month to let you all know how i got on.
In Septemeber i will..
Go whoospie shopping once a week.
Not eat out except for the girly night out planned at the end of the month.
Use up as much food in my freezer as possible (look out for some strange recipe posts)
Keep my weekly spends under £80- £30 desil, £14 to school and £20 personal training leaves £16 for food.
Keep my food spends as low as possible. hopefully whoospie shopping will help if not the freezer and cupboard will.
List 5 items a week on ebay or local selling pages, 99p is better than nothing.
Do a small batch cook every week with dinners for the kids, week 1 spag bol, week 2 stew, week 3 sheperds pie, week 4 potatoe bake, week 5 sausage casarole and so on.
Go shopping with a list every week and stick to it unless it's a very reduced item.
Take a bottle of water with me everywhere i go and aim to drink 4 bottles a day, my bottle holds a litre.
Go for a walk every Sunday afternoon with the kids and possibly the dogs providing it's not pouring down (we have no tow bar on our new car so not sure how that would work)
Make as few trips to town as possible, kids are back to school, and we go in to the gym so hoping my desil costs won't go up too much.
Keep a running total of all moneys spent and all extra moneys earners from selling stuff (I've already sold £37.50 worth of stuff)
Post of my blog everyday, even if it's just to say hello and let you all know i haven't fallen off the savings wagon.
PAY MY CREDITCARD IN FULL AND STOP USING IT SO MUCH.
Wish me luck i'll be back here at the end of the month to let you all know how i got on.
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