my new goodies!

I have successfully mastered crepe pancakes!

Picked up this brand new Tefal crepe pan in a charity shop while shopping with a friend, £4! Should've been around £18. Wasn't going to pass that one up. It makes the most amazing thin perfect pancakes. Love it to bits!

My slow cooker has been on its way out for a while, so:

Met my new purple slow cooker.

Dinner last night was this:

4 chicken quarters, a handful of reduced asparagus, 4 mushrooms, handful of frozen green beans, 1 carrot, 1 red onion and a sachet of thyme and garlic seasoning, (it was 10p and include a baking bag).

All sealed into a baking bag and bunged in the slow cooker.

If I weren't out all day I would have done the veg separately, but I did this at 9am.

Also set the bread-maker to finish for when we got home to go with it.

I went into town to get some gardening supplies:

Thyme, Sage and Rosemary plants! I want to take some cuttings to grow some for my windowsill and plant the rest outside to try and get some herb bushes established.

These are the seeds I have planted to far.

 Broccoli, cauliflower, celeriac, peppers, salad leaves (spinach, lettuce, rocket) cherry tomatoes, large tomatoes and coriander. 

At the shop today I picked up my potatoes (second earlies, not the main crop) a mushroom growing kit, a blueberry bush, raspberry bush, purple cala lilly and purple climbing rose bush. They were all only £1 each! 

Hubby has been busy building me a raised bed from my daughters old cot bed, ill post a pic when I can. Just waiting for this weather to pick up now so can get on with it. 

Bargain butter...

Look what I picked up yesterday! Two pots of extra thick double cream for 46p each. Big 600ml pots. The very sad part of me that needs to get out more actually got excited about the fact that it was extra thick, as it meant I wouldn't have to spend as much energy on whipping!

So I've been through butter making before, stick the cream in and whip it.

I washed the pot out to store the butter milk, I got about 400 ml, destined to go into pancakes for tomorrow's breakfast.

Added half a teaspoon of sea salt.

And mixed again with the K beater. Yes my 3 year old did photo bomb me.

628g butter and 400ml buttermilk for 92p. *happydance*

My mum recently gave me some old fashioned butter paddles (thanks mum!) so finally got to try them out today! They really get all the buttermilk out.

Wrapped into 4 blocks ready for the freezer :)

Fridays are usually the day I get to go out. But I'm stuck inside (again!) waiting on a couple of parcels. Cant complain really, they are both for me :P But were getting cabin fever, cant wait for the weekend! I'm going to a local indian shop to pick up some eggs (£1.69 for 30 from a local farm) and some Gram flour. I have plans to make my own instant 'just add water' falafel mix with it. Also an onion bhaji mix. Watch this space. X

very lazy cooking.....

Still full of cold today so wanted something super quick and easy. You should know by now im a huge fan of slow cooker recipes.

Stick it all in, in the morning, switch it on and let i fragrance to house. 

America has a HUGE crock-pots (fancy word for slow cooker) following so I read a lot of blogs for recipes and tips. A tip they had was to use these: 

awesome. No washing up, no mess. But.... £6.50 for a pack of 4!!! that's adding £1.60 to the price of every single meal you make in them. I. DONT. THINK. SO.

But it did get me thinking. I had some season and shake sachets to trial for a consumer research company. And in them come a baking bag, you pour the seasoning over and stick it in the oven.

I had some Pork lion steaks marinating in Piri Piri seasoning and sealed in a baking bag. So I thought, 'why not just chuck that in the slow cooker'. Quick google showed its exactly the same product just a different shape. And it worked! Beautifully moist and tender seasoned pork slow cooked through the day. And NO WASHING UP!

Even lazier than a McDonalds drive through!

Tadah! 

LOOK! Completely clean!!!

The baking bags are about 99p for 12, so much more affordable. 

I wanted something equally lazy to go with it, so cous cous it was!

Half a jug of mixed veggie into the microwave for 10 mins to boil.

This pot of cous cous is pre-seasoned, (1.99 from approved food) and has a scoop in it to measure out portions.

I added a sprinkle of chilli and garlic flakes for extra spice.

Pour over enough water to cover plus half an inch, leave for 5-10 mins to soak up.

Then drain your veggies and add.

Use a fork to fluff up and mix in.

Uber quick and easy dinner! The pork steaks cost £1.15 for the 4. So less than 50p per person all in all for the entire dinner.

And very minimal washing up. Cant say the same for the hoovering once the kids had finished with the cous cous though.

Simple suppers: cheese and courgette pancakes

This used up the last of the reduced courgettes I picked up (15p for 3!)

Last week we had a last minute change to plans which meant I had to rustle up something instant for the kids and raided the fridge. The bread in the background is balsamic vinegar and red onion tear and share. Recipe to follow soon!

So I raided the fridge and found the courgette and the end of a bag of 10p watercress. My batter mix I get from approved food whenever they have a mix that is just 'add water' meaning I dont have to find milk or an egg! At the moment they have M&S mixs 33p tub.

So I made up half a pint of that by just adding water. Fried off the courgette in a bit of coconut oil, added the batter mix and topped it with watercress and cheese. Kids will eat anything in a pancake! Im thinking of making some stuffed pancakes for a dinner soon, you can also make a lasagna with pancakes instead of pasta sheets if you run out. Well worth keeping some mix in. I think the most expensive part of the recipe was the half a teaspoon of coconut oil I used to fry it in. Which says a lot really.

Boycott deli meat!

Im serious! Its usually in excess of £10 kilo at supermarkets. Although alidi does do a box of ham trimmings at a very reasonable £1.79 for 400g.

I got this turkey crown for less than £4 kilo on Christmas eve. I bunged it in the slow cooker for a few hours and left it to cool. Sliced it up and got over 1 kilo of pure sliced breast meat. No added preservatives/stabalisers/water/dextrose etc etc etc that you get in the deli meat and it was less than half the price this way. Added bonus:

I got 1 1/2 pints of lovely stock from the carcass! That went into a family risotto (kale and walnut) and 3 different soups over the week!

Every day that thereweren't leftovers from dinner, hubby could take some frozen sliced turkey breast and home-made bread to make a turkey and cranberry sandwich for lunch. Double the size and less than 1/4 the price of a shop bought one. 

Simple suppers: Pesto and walnut pasta

 I think this worked out at about 16p per person.

Im full of a stonking cold and not feeling up to cooking much :( So for lunch I just boiled up some pasta and frozen mixed veg, stirred through a couple of teaspoons of pesto and chopped walnuts and topped it with Parmesan.

Keeping pasta in stock should be a no brainer, its a staple. Parmesan I always grate and bag up by the block, and freeze whenever I see if reduced. Its worth keeping in. And pesto has become another staple, I always keep a jar in the cupboard/fridge. You can spread it on a pizza base as an alternative to tomato, add it to soups, its amazing on pasta. At around 90p per 200g jar its not too expensive but adds massive flavour. We love the red pesto too which is tomato based rather than basil. 

Batch baking - making the most of your oven

I was having a rummage around the fridge a couple of weeks ago (yes it has taken me that long to finish this post!) and hade quite a few odds and ends to use up. I did't want to freeze anything if I could help it, I'm trying to wear down the freezer, so decided on a batch baking session.

I made lemon tart yesterday with half a pack of sweet shortcrust pastry that was gifted to me (thank you heather!) It has been frozen so once defrosted needs using in 24hrs really. I also have a bag of leftover crumble topping I made last week, (that I keep confusing with the grated Parmesan next to it!) and a bag of apples I snapped up from morrisons (reduced to 45p) So decided to make a hybrid apple pie/crumble type thingy.

Had a bit of rhubarb jam to use up, so spread that over the base.

topped with a tin of 18p custard

and the cumble mix.

I needed to make some cobs for sandwiches for Friday. Since the oven was already warm from blind baking the pastry, whipped up a batch of dough in the kenwood and stuck it in an oiled bowl. Covered and put in the warm oven to prove.

After a rummage around the fridge, found a tiny bit of cooking bacon that really needed using, along with some fat leftover from roast chicken, some tomatoes that were going squishy and a bit of spinach. All the makings for a lovely batch of 'JJ's cheesy herby bread'. I already had the kenwood out so it didnt take long.

The original recipe goes like this: 

8oz self raising flour

1.5oz fat

4oz cheese

herbs

1 egg

1/4pint milk to bind (maybe less)

1 tsp mustard.

I doubled all the ingredients, except the cheese, I was short on so only added 5oz. Along with it added chopped bacon (nuked in the microwave for 3 mins to cook through) cherry tomatoes chopped up, and a handful of spinach chopped up.

you can egg glaze them but i didnt want to waste an egg so just baked them as they were. Along with the bread once it had finished proving. 3 bits of baking at the same time making maximum use of the energy.