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