Turkey broth....

 

 

Lunch today :)

 

The turkey broth I made, with onion, garlic, carrots, peas, orzo pasta, half the shredded turkey and topped with a handful of spinach. Served with bread straight from the breadmaker :)

 

 

All the stock is gone but I still have this much shredded turkey left and frozen. Should be enough for a risotto for the 4 of us. 



turkey carcass broth and leftovers......

 

 

Woke up to gorgeous smelling turkey broth this morning! :D

Drained off the broth, look at the colour! This is the half the carcass that hasn't been roasted, just chucked in raw and left overnight.

 

Spent about 10mins picking off all the shreds of useable turkey meat:

 

 

Full bowl full left of turkey meat to go into the soup! :D

No space in the fridge so since its snowing the broth is outside with Clingfilm cooling down, then ill scrape the layer of fat off the top. Meat shreds are in the fridge for now.

 

This is the other half the carcass that I roasted. This one has already been picked clean last night once roasted and I got the same amount, 1 full bowl full of shreds for this soup too :)

The roasting is meant to produce an even darker and richer broth. So into the slow cooker it went with another onion, carrot, bit of garlic (which I forgot last night!) salt, pepper and bay leaf:

 

This will stay on all day on high then ill drain it off and discard the carcass, then sort out wether I will freeze them separately or make up the soup and freeze.



Butchered a bargain turkey.....

 

My mum picked me up a bargain turkey today! 6.6kilos. £5 down from £33.

I debated roasting the bird and shredding it, but decided instead to joint it up, with help from a very long suffering husband!

Wish I'd took pictures of this.

 

So what we were left with were:

 

2 turkey drumstick & thigh joints - I left these as whole joints with the bone in and skin on. Possibly will de-bone and use the meat, use the bone for stock or might marinate and roast them as they are.

 

2 turkey wings - Hubby had a 'giant hot wings' vision and marinated them ready for roasting.

 

2 giant breasts, boneless and skinless - I got 3 bags of cubed breasts from these, each to make a meal for a family of 4. Curries/sweet and sour etc.

 

That left the carcass with still quite a bit of meat on it. Split the carcass in half to fit in my slow cooker. First half went in with an onion, carrot, bay-leaf, salt and pepper and a pinch of herbs, covered with water. I should get plenty of rich stock and a good amount of meat once I strip the carcass in the morning to make a lovely turkey soup.

 

The other half the carcass would've gone in another slow cooker the same, except my other one broke! And the turkey was use by today. So I roasted it off in the oven. It'll give a richer flavour and it will keep another 3 days now its been cooked. When the first lot has finished ill start off the next lot.

 

Potentially 8 family meals from the turkey :)

Choc chip banana loaf...

 

 

Dead easy recipe for a loaf of chocolate chip banana bread:

 

3 x old bananas (mashed)

2 cups plain flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

Pinch salt

100g choc bar (bashed with a rolling pin)

1/2 cup melted butter

1/4 cup milk

2 eggs

 

 

After mashing the bananas I chucked everything into the bowl and mixed it up. Pour into a large loaf tin lined with baking paper. Bake at 190 for about 50mins. This is also lovely with walnuts instead of the choc chips :)

Weekly shop & meal plan......

 

£22.50

 

Aldi:

4 pint whole milk - 99p

Double strength squash - 99p

Merlot - £3.20

Tonic water x 2 - 78p

Mature cheddar - £1.75

20 x3ply Nicky toilet rolls - £3.50

2 x garlic baguette - 68p

Bread flour - 75p

Pack 3 peppers - 89p

2 x 1 kilo sugar - £1.18

Butter - 95p

Pocket tissues - 59p

Basmati rice - £1.19

Babywipes - 69p

 

Tesco:

Cornflakes x 2 - 62p

Pepsi max x 2 - £1.98

Maltesers - £2

 

 

So the maltesers are because were going to the cinema tonight with some free tickets! And the maltesers at the cinema are double the price so were taking our own. There are a lot of drinks in there which are unnecessary but help with sanity so totally worth it. I stocked up on sugar as 59p bag is cheaper than I've seen it in ages! Pocket tissues as we've hit cold season :(

 

Meal plan:

Mon - Roast chicken dinner

Tues - Leftover chicken chow mein

Weds - Sausage & chickpea pilaf

Thurs - Meatballs and spaghetti
Fri - Duck breast & veggies

Sat - sausage cobs
Sun - Out

 

The roast chicken will stretch 2 meals (possibly 3) and ill have the stoke for the freezer. Meatballs will be made from a pack of burgers. Friday night is date night so we have a special meal once the kids have gone to bed. I haven't fully planned the weekend yet but have a rough idea and plenty in the freezer to cover it. Lunch for us is usually sandwiches/leftovers/beans/egg on toast etc from whatever I have in or have made so I don't plan them out but I know I have enough in to hate it covered.

 



leftover sausage carbonara....

 

Nothing specific planned for dinner today. Its cold, wet outside, we've had a lazy day watching films. Comfort food was needed this evening, a root round the fridge produced this:

 

 

1 1/2 leftover cooked sausages which I sliced up, half a block of parmesan and a beaten egg leftover from baking.

I decided to make a some sausage carbonara (traditionally carbonara is made bacon.) So simple and easy it took about 15mins from fridge to plate in total. Most of that was boiling the pan of spaghetti.

 

Simply whisk up some egg (I used 2) with a bit of black pepper. Pour over drained spaghetti and stir through. The residual heat will cook the egg through.

 

 

Then add a good handful of parmesan and sliced sausage.

 

Done.

 

Serve with garlic bread and salad. You could add vegetables, I probably should have but it was a lovely Saturday night treat and filled 3 hungry tummies :)



pork and pepper pasties.....

I defrosted a pack of 'mystery meat' from the freezer. It turned out to be pork. Wanted to do something for Saturday lunch so decided to do some patsies.

 

500g strong white flour

125g lard

25g margarine

5g salt

175ml cold water

 

 

Lots of fat in this pastry I'm not going to lie.

Rub in the fat until to mix looks like breadcrumbs.

Add the water bit by bit until the mix comes together.

 

Tip out onto a surface and work for about a minute. While a standard pastry would be over-worked and tough, this is made with bread flour and is tougher, so it can take a bit more working.

 

This pastry is very tough and needs chilling before it can be worked. Leave it in the fridge covered for 3hrs.

 

I wanted to make large patsies so I cut the dough into 4, and rolled them into circles.

 

For the filling I used cubed pork, diced onion, grated garlic, red pepper, a bit of tomato passata and smoked paprika.

You don't want too much liquid.

 

Spoon the mix into the circles of pastry, fold over and crimp the edges. Try not to get any air trapped in and make sure they're sealed well.

 

I kept mine in the fridge for a day and baked them at lunchtime. Glaze with egg before baking. Completely forgot to take a picture of them once cooked sorry!

The pastry was very rich and 'shortcuts' like. I was trying to get them more dough like, resembling the ones we had in Cornwall. I'll keep trying different recipes until I find a favourite. Patsies are a fab way of using up leftovers and stretching a small amount a long way. How about:

 

- sausage and pesto

-sausage and bean/egg

-Bacon and cheese

-lamb and mint

-steak

-potato and cheese

-vegetable and cheese

-pork and apple

-steak and stilton

-beef and ale

-mince

-chicken curry

 

Loads more use your imagination. There were even Thai chicken curry ones in Cornwall!



weekly shop...

 

 

£23.70 at Lidl.

 

6 x smoked ham 99p each (half price)

Red pesto 99p

Green pesto 99p

Paprika stuffed olives 69p

Parsnips 49p

Cream cheese 49p

Living salad 69p

Cucumber 49p

Battered cod £1.99

Spicy chicken thighs 1 kilo £1.99

Frozen mix veg 89p

Whole milk 89p

Sugar 69p

Strong white flour x 2 75p each

Cheddar £1.75

Pepsi max x 2 99p each

Orange juice x 2 69p each

 

More than I wanted to spend but the chicken was too good to miss at that price and I stocked up on pesto and olives and decided to treat us to some orange juice and Pepsi max. The battered fish works out at 50p per fish and is a cheap emergency meal with oven chips for when I'm too shattered to cook. Smoked ham is a FAB price, 200g packs for 99p and a little goes a LONG way. Got 6 packs and frozen them.

Meal plan to follow. We have family round tomorrow and I will be doing a roast lamb dinner with a 2 kilo leg of lamb! (it was £3 kilo in spring) leftovers should make a lovely dinner later in the week.





Kedgeree......

 

Didn't happen.

 

Yes that is a spoon sticking straight out of it, no I don't want to talk about it.

 

Yesterday was a BAD day!

chilli enchiladas....

 

 



This was dinner tonight. A box of chilli from the freezer, filled with wraps and topped with passata and cheese, baked in the oven. The rest of a loaf a bread a friend gave me! :) and green beans. Also have a rhubarb crumble and custard for pudding.

 

Making some kedgeree tomorrow so while the oven was in a stuck the smoked fish in to cook. I picked it up ages ago (a kilo of smoked cod loin for £2!) and also soaking some chickpeas overnight to add to it too.

 

 

Not made it before so looking forward to trying something new! :) that amount of fish will make a LOT so will probably be freezing half of it (without the egg) for another day.

Ive almost got my shopping list and meal plan for next week sorted so I'll post it up when I get chance.

 

HomeMade pizzas.....



 

We had a family movie night last night with pizza and a few wedges.

Made a chicken and pesto one and a smoked ham and pepper one with a few garlic dough balls.

More butter making, cheap ice cream treats and using up leftovers....

My sister came round with a 4 pint of double cream last night. So today has been a couple of hours of butter making.
 



The buttermilk is in the fridge ready for baking later in the week and it also topped up the regular milk. (buttermilk is full of protein and other goodness.)

 

The 4 pints made over 1.1kilos of butter and plenty of buttermilk.

I wanted to show one of the kids treats they've had all summer. When we can we will get a pack of really nice 'magnum' still ice cream or a Mr. Whippy when out and about. But most of the time the kids wait till they're back home and we do this.

 

The purple box is from aldi, 21 ice cream cones. Its usually around 80p box, this week they have them for 49p on sale to get rid of them, summer being over and all. Normally wed pick a tub of ice cream to fill them with along with chocolate sauce and sprinkles. But I have a few of these Angel delight mixes in at the moment. I think they were between 10p-20p a few months ago at approved food. You add milk and whisk and box it up into he freezer. I add chocolate sauce/chips, raspberry sauce or peanut butter or whatever else to flavour it. 2 packs fill up that box in the background and its been going all summer. Its makes a special treat for the kids, they love it and it doesnt break the food budget. 

 

We had leftover roast dinner for lunch, mostly veg, potatoes, stuffing and I made up some fresh gravy. Dinner tonight I have some leftover roast chicken and HM chicken stock from the carcass. So making a chicken risotto using that and some chopped veggies from the freezer.

 

 

 

 The bagels I made yesterday have been frozen for later in the week while we use up the fresh bread and cinnamon/pesto swirls for snacks with some black grapes.

Carrots being 39p bag at aldi I've decided to make some soup at the weekend. I also want to get some more celery for chopping and freezing at the weekend.

Meal plan week beginning 15th september......

 

Our emergency fund took a battering for the past couple of months. So at the moment I have a maximum of £30 week for shopping, but lots of stock in cupboards and freezer to use up.

 

Monday : Roast lamb dinner with all trimmings. (family round for dinner)

Tuesday : Leftover roast chicken risotto with HM stock.

Wednesday : HM pizzas

Thursday: Chilli enchiladas (defrosted from freezer)

Friday : sausage meatballs with pasta

Saturday : bacon cobs - chicken & chickpea curry

Sunday : carrot soup & fresh bread - at families house for dinner

 

Aldi have a fab super 6 on for a few weeks, including onions, carrots, Savoy cabbage and celery for 39p each. Lidl have black forest ham for 99p pack at the weekend so will get 6 of those. Other than that I need to get some frozen mixed veg and a couple of other bits. Most of the menu is coming out of freezer and cupboards to try and stash away as much as possible. We've booked a Sun 9.50 pp holiday for October in Cornwall. Need to budget for petrol and sorting out a plan for food. Ive baked cinnamon swirls and pesto and parmesan swirls, and some bagels. Plus plenty of fresh bread. Will be baking some cake at some point for a treat. 

Pizza dough recipe....

 

I take my pizza very seriously ;) And I've been trying different bases to try and find the best! Its taken a while but I've got a recipe that works brilliantly. Its a Jamie Oliver one.

 

This is a double batch recipe, so I keep half in the fridge and freeze half. Makes at least 2 large pizzas.

 

800g bread flour

200g semolina

1 tsp salt

2 tsp yeast

1 tblsp sugar

4 tblsp olive oil

650ml warm water

 

I've halved the recipe and that works fine if you don't need as much. Ive made it by hand and in the breadmaker on 'dough' setting. I prefer leaving the breadmaker to get on with it, but at the end of the cycle it was hitting the roof and trying to escape, so id halve it if using a breadmaker :)

 

 

My old breadmaker! I had my other one making a loaf so had two on the go this morning.

 

Right tub will be in the fridge for pizzas later on. Do keep an eye on it. Last week it rose in the fridge and managed to pop the lid off and escape. The left one is stashed in the freezer for later.

 

Let's face it, pizzas aren't the healthiest of foods. But it depends how you make them. Its basically bread and whatever you put on it. Favourites here are:

 

Bases:

Garlic butter

Tomato Passata and herbs

BBQ sauce

A drizzle of olive oil

Pesto

 

Toppings:

Leftover chicken

Chorizo

Salami/pepperoni

Peppers

Mushrooms

tinned pineapple chunks

Spinach

Prosciutto ham

Ham trimmings/Gammon bits

Cooking bacon

sweetcorn

Jalapeños
Basil leaves

Leftover sausage

Cheeses (mozerella (40p) cheddar/Brie/Edam etc)

 

You can come up with any number of combinations of whatever is in your fridge. Its cheap and fun to make with kids and lovely for a family movie night on the sofa.



Bagels.....

 

I love bagels! But they're getting more expensive and 1 pack will do 1 each for us all for 1 breakfast. So I've been looking at recipes to make my own so we can still enjoy them and also afford them. They are a bit of a faff with having to boil them, but worth it.

 

 

This will make 8 decent sized bagels:

500g bread flour

Pinch salt

1 tsp yeast

2 tblsp sugar

300ml warm water

Toppings if you want them

 

 

 

Add the yeast and sugar to the water and mix. Leave for 10 mins to work.

 

 

In the meantime measure all the dry ingredients into a bowl.

 

 

Mix into a rough dough and tip onto floured surface. This dough will be very stiff! You need to work it will to get the gluten stretching so plenty of kneading and it will come together very smooth.

 

Place in a bowl and cover until doubled in size.

 

 

Divide into 8 equal pieces, I used a knife.

 

Roll into a ball, and flatten with the palm of your hand (or a little helpers hand.)

 

Cover them for 10 mins to rise again, then form a hole in the middle using your finger.

 

Tadah! Looking a bit more like bagels.

 

You need 2 tblsp sugar and 1 tsp bicarb in a deep pan and bring to a rolling boil.

 

 

Boil the bagel for 1 min, then flip and boil for another min.

 

Place on greased baking tray.

 

Brush with egg white and sprinkle over whatever toppings you want (I used poppy seeds).

 

 

Bake at 180 for about 20mins or so.

 

I'm going to try adding onion or chives next time ;)

 

 

 



Bread base for rolls (i.e - cinnamon)

 

Ive started making these weekly now! They're a lovely snack, can be filled with anything and are cheap and easy to make.

 

 

575g strong flour

300ml warm water

4 tblsp oil

2 tblsp yeast

3 tblsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

 

Mix the water and yeast together with the sugar and set aside to froth up.

 

And measure your flour into a bowl with the salt.

That froth means the yeast is working!

Add the egg and oil and beat together.

 

 

 

Pour into the flour.

 

 

 

And mix into a rough dough. We used a plastic chopstick, its a trick I got from another baker. Because its so much easier to clean sticky dough off that than it is a wooden spoon.

 

When its roughly mixed up, tip onto a floured surface and knead well.

 



This dough is very soft and elastic, easy to knead.

 

Then leave it in a covered bowl to prove until doubled in size. In a warm kitchen this can only take about half an hour or so.

 

 

 

Divide the dough into half and roll into a rectangle.

 

Spread a thin layer of butter across.

 

Make some cinnamon sugar (just mix sugar and ground cinnamon together) and sprinkle across the dough.

 

 Roll up tightly.

 

 

Use a sharp knife to cut swirls around 1-2" wide.

 

Place on a greased baking tray.

 

The other half we spread with pesto and sprinkled some parmesan.

 

The ones on the right have puffed up a little bit, you want to leave them about 10-15mins to prove again.

 

Bake on 180 for about 20mins or so.

 

 

Leave to cool and box up ready for munchies! :)

 

Other variations I want to try as a filling are:

Jam

Lemon curd

Peanut butter

Tomato and cheese

Raisin
Golden syrup