Simple suppers - potato salad 13p portion

Well, we had it for lunch actally, but I like the alliteration ;)

1/2 a 500g bag new potatoes (these happen to be charlotte 39p pack Lidl offer) - 20p

3-4 (or more!) tablespoons Mayo (500g jar £1) - 20p
Chives - Free! Homegrown organic in my garden, dont'cha know! ;P

Total cost 40p 3 portions. 13p each!

Is it high in carbs? yep. Do you know what else its high in? Vitamin B-6, Potassium, Vitamin C, and it also has Iron and Magnesium. Not including the chives and mayo, that is all the humble potato.
100g contains a whole 77 calories, we used extra light mayo so 87 calories portion. Kids have had 2 whopping great big bowls of porrige for breakfast and have been snacking like crazy (that bag of pears I bought aint gonna last the week!) so they get plenty of calories elsewhere and werent that hungry for lunch. And I already got plenty of calories to get rid of ;P

Breakfast was sultana porridge for kids, for dinner tonight im making home-made mcmuffins 38p each. I may even go all extravagant and add a slice of smoked ham each, fried till crispy. The other half a pack of sausages is making toad in the hole for dinner tomorrow.

Monday madness....

Mondays are always a mental day here! Back to work, back to (home)school, back to housework routines, back to cooking. 

My aim is to do all this sorting of 'stuff' on sunday. So that by monday its all sorted and I can breeze through the week (yeah right!)

The morning ends up being a whirlwind of, how on earth did I get a years laundry appear overnight?! Changing bedcovers, defrosting food for meals, washing up every single item in the cupboards that somehow ended up getting used and dirty over the weekend. Then remembering the two little minions I spawned, that are fighting over the remote control, and 'oh yeah, schoolwork, about that....'

Madness.

I tend to do any extra jobs on a monday to start off the week well, changing bed covers, mopping, deep hoovering (including the cobwebs etc) dusting, wiping down leather sofa etc etc. I give myself an hour to get back on my feet and the house in order so I can function properly.

I have a daily morning routine, swishing and wiping down the bathroom (sink/toilet etc) washing up after breakfast, wiping down table, dipping the dirty teatowel in washing up before running it away and using it to mop up the surface layer of dust off kitchen floor. Evening is similar, making sure the washing up is done and put away after dinner, kitchen wiped down, everything in order etc.

The kids have 4 main rules at the moment,

1 - dirty clothes go IN THE BASKET. Not on your bedroom floor/bathroom floor or wherever else you dump them. That way I can work through laundry and never have to search the house for a piece of clothing theyve lost.

2 - food stays at the table. It contains the crumbs/mess in one place. and dirty dishes go next to the sink for washing up, not left at the table.

3 - We keep a box in the living room, any toys that find theyre way downstairs throughout the day go in the box and upstairs when you go to bed. It means when the kids go to bed the front room is free of kiddy toys and gives me a break to relax and not be bombarded with constant kiddy mess. They both have toy boxs in their room, that is where toys go. 

4 - You pick up and put away what you get out. end of. 

This keeps me sane and keeps the house ticking over in workable order so I an focus on the more important things. Like....

Kids :)

They have a lot to learn and they grow up fast.

Im very fortunate that my husband supports us so that I can stay home and teach them rather than sending them to school. Ideally I should be getting this ready on Sunday ready for Monday. Im still working on that. Weekends are a whirlwind of family time and not usually time for organizing. So this morning I printed out a free unit on whales :) We will we learning about whales, the sea/environment and focusing schooling around that. We have some writing activities and some number activities built into this too. Of course they are constantly learning life skills, cooking/cleaning/cleanliness/social skills/reading etc throughout the day with me. Its a constant process but some sitting down book learning is also important along with the creative.

Ooooh, and a small announcement....

We have a daytime dry little girly!!!

Its been a bit up and down. She did it for 2 weeks perfectly, not many accidents, then 1 week decided she couldnt be bothered any more. 

So she had a break for a week.

Then we tried again....

2 weeks in, so far so good! :) aside from a little issue with her wanting to hide when she needed a poo, she has found that she can hide in the toilet instead! no accidents, no reminding, no potty, shes just taken to it.

We are down to 1 nappy per night, 9p per day :)

Next issue - NOT empying an ENTIRE roll of toilet paper down the toilet!

yay! X

Budget breakfasts - good old porridge!

1kilo Value Oats - 75p

500g Value sultanas - 85p

400g raisins - 89p

Organic milk - £1.50 / normal milk £1 per 4 pint

My kids LOVE their breakfast. They have been known to down 2-3 bowls of porridge each and then start on toast. Im not a breakfast person and dont tend to get hungry until later in the morning, but my little ones are ravenous upon waking, usually far too early! :S

I do buy them dried cereal from Aldi occasionally as a treat, they have maybe 1-2 times week. 500g box of malt wheaties is about 85p. But it only lasts maybe 3-4 days. Porrige lasts much longer, is a lot cheaper, a lot HEALTHIER, and a lot more diverse.

My daughter loves hers with raisins and almonds, any fruit that needs using, apple/banana/blueberry/raspberry/blackberry/strawberry have all found their way into her breakfasts frequently! If i dont have any fruit or if im saving it for snacks, the raisins/sultanas are her next choice. I use a mix if i can as it gives her more rounded nutrients from both red and white grapes. A little goes a long way since they are dried, and it counts as one of her 5 a day, of which she usually has about 7-8 a day! After the initial outlay the packs usually (depending on wether they are being used for snacks aswel! ) last a month or so. A bag of Oats last us about 2 weeks depending on any other breakfasts they have instead. Its difficult to work out per portion as it varies so much. But its pennies! Not much at all.

My son likes his lukewarm and plain, just oats and milk. The exception being if I offer to do a special 'chocolate' porridge for them ;) Then he goes nuts for it. You make up a hot chocolate and add that to the oats and microwave. Or just melt a couple of squares of chocolate (lidl half price 17p bar) into it.

Ideas for jazzing up porridge:

chocolate porridge!

raisins/sultanas/currants

Add fruit

make up a tropical one! Coconut milk and pineapple (incidentally, 69p for fresh one at aldi this week!)

Nuts/seeds

Add a spoonful of yogurt

Add a spoonful of jam

Add leftover cream/evaporated milk

Good old demerera sugar (or any sugar!)

the list goes on.....

Its certainly cheap but doesnt have to be boring! Mine love it and a large bowlful (or 2!!) certainly fills up they're tummies full of nutrients.

Lidls bargains

I only got 6 packs not 12, but its plenty for us ;)

99p pack for 200g!!!, each pack will do maybe 3-4 meals. We dont use it as a base for a meal but a garnish to add strong flavour to a meal, so only a little is needed. They had some really decent packs yesterday! Hardly any rind/fat, very lean :) Can you believe in each of those packs there are 3 layers of ham.

I also found a 1kilo pack of cooking bacon that contained very lean cuts. I think it was around £1.50 for a kilo bag. Again we dont use meat as a base for a meal often and certainly not with bacon. These arent rashers for sticking in bread/cobs. These are offcuts, really chunky thick pieces in all shapes and sizes. 

I tent to cut them up into tiny cubes and fry them until very crispy and use in an omlette/quiche/pasta/pizza/soup/scones, endless possibilities. Very versatile and cheap ingredient with lots of flavour.

7 bags of little cubes of bacon. Each bag should do at least 1, maybe 2 dishes. for £1.59, not bad :)

I have so much frozen veg I havent bought much fresh stuff this week. Just a bag of small apples for £1.30 (Lidl, they are 79p at aldi this week but we couldnt get down) and a bag of pears for 79p. Plus a kilo of bananas for 68p. With raisins and almonds and maybe some home-baked scones/muffins they will do snacks for kiddies for the week :)

I havent done a menu plan yet. I have some cooked turkey steaks to use up, I have a bacon and brie risotto on the brain that I just HAVE to cook soon. I also have a very sorry looking half savoy cabbage and few carrots at the bottom of the fridge that I want to use up.

I made me some ghee!!

Mum picked up a 4 pint of whipping cream for me reduced to 94p! :) 

I wanted to make some butter, but unfortunately my kenwood decided to be stupid. It is old, 3 generations old and I think the coating on the metal whisk is starting to come off. It left little grey flecks of metal through my butter, and I was gutted! :(

I didnt dare serve it to my family (heavy metal poisoning anyone?!) and couldnt get all the flecks out no matter how much I tried. So I decided to try clarifying the butter into ghee, in the hope that when the milk solids floated up so would the metal flecks. And whatcha know?! it worked!! :)

Basically you pour the cream into the bowl and whisk until it separates into butter and buttermilk. 

Then heat the butter to a simmer and the milk solids will float to the top in a white scum that you skim off the top. The process took about an hour! Longer than I thought and was a faff, but it saved my butter :) 

Of course if my kenwood hadnt been stupid I wouldve left it as butter saving a lot of time and effort and washing up, but there ya go!

Our lamb biriyani. Fried in said ghee. Well the onions and veg anyway, the rice and lamb had enough oil with the curry paste to fry. 

Naan and chutney from approved food. I think the jar of chutney was 20p and did 3 meals. for the sake of argument lets say weve used 10p of chutney, and the pack of naan breads 25p. So total 35p for the extras.

The biriyani is difficult to price up. The lamb was from a leg I bought in spring when they were £4 kilo. I used about 300g of lamb so about £1.30 ish? If i'd had my wits about me, there was enough lamb I couldve stretched it 2 meals with a biriyani tonight and the rest with cous cous tomorrow. But builders had been in all morning and then my 2 year old threw up on me. So I was just glad to get dinner done!

Tikka pasta (20p jar), half a jar 10p

2 peppers - 46p (pack 3 for 69p)

Mushrooms (half a 50p pack I sliced and froze) - 25p

Onion, goodness knows! was a 5 kilo bag for £1.99. 5p??

4 cloves garlic - call it 5p?

Ghee not even 1p, used 1 tsp and it was 95p for 700ml

Total for biriyani - about £2.20 give or take, feeding 4 of us and also a small lunch portion for hubby to take to work, makes it about 50p portion, plus less than 10p each for extras.

It is quite carb-tastic, only 1 portion of veg each in this meal I usually squeeze more in. But plenty of protein from mushrooms (also selenuim and B-12 vitamins, one of the few foods that actually give vitamin D too), lamb and I might add some cashew nuts for an extra bit. Peppers are brilliant for vitamin C and vitamin A. Infact 100g provides 404% of a persons vitamin C RDA I think, if I have my facts right, which I probably dont. Lamb being red meat is good for iron. Fresh garlic and ginger good for anti oxidents. All in all could do worse. Financially and nutritionally.

Beans soaking for my double batch sausage casserole tomorrow. I would normally do 4 sausages between us, sooooo much protein from the beans theyre not really needed (but taste so good!) but im trying to fill the freezer with meals to defrost when im ill. So cooking double and one batch will be frozen. There is a mix of haricot beans, chickpeas and aduki beans here. A glass of red wine was left out last night accidently so that will go in the casserole (makes it so deep and rich in flavour.) And served with wholewheat pasta and cheese. Im sticking it all in the slow cooker in the morning.

Last but not least, I have it on semi-reliable authority that next weeks super 6 at Aldi will be:

Fun size apples

Fun size pears

Plums

Pineapple

Chestnut mushrooms

Salad potatoes

All priced at 69p

69p is pretty decent for pineapple! Might have to get one of them. I have salad potatoes to use up from when they were 39p so will pass on those. The mushrooms are still expensive but so lovely! Really nutty taste to them, nicer than standard mushrooms. Apples, Pears and Plums are not exactly a fantastic price but low enough to get a pack of each for kids munchies. If i leave the plums out to be eaten first as they go soft quicker. Pears and apples will go in fridge for later in the week/month, it stops them ripening faster than they can get eaten. Then pears will go out, they ripen fast once at room temperature. Apples ive had for over a month in the fridge and they've been perfectly fine. So should get at least 2-3 weeks of fruit from a pack each. Then again now ive said that ive probably jinxed it and my daughter will go on a fruit binge.

Menu plan 23 - 29 Sept

So as you probably guessed the one a month shopping didnt work out well. My hubby's newfound passion for baking is wrecking my budget but I cannot bring myself to complain considering in the past week he has made:

2 x pavlovas

2 x chocolate fudge cakes

1 x chocolate victoria sponge

1 x chocolate tart

1 x GIANT tiramisu

Jam tarts/Mince pies

probably more I cant bring to mind right now.

Needless to say, the soup ive been batch freezing is helping me to get off the lbs I have gained over the past few weeks!

Keep calm and carry on.

Plan for this week:

Mon - Leftover lamb biriyani (naan and chutney for those who havent gained half a stone in a week!)

Tues - Double batch of Sausage and bean casserole, half for freezer (using  Lidls half price ones)

Weds - Roast chicken dinner (making chicken soup with leftovers)

Thurs - Chicken and musroom risotto with rest of leftovers

Fri - sweet and sour turkey with noodles/egg fried rice

Sat - pancakes for lunch, out for dinner

Sun - sausage and egg muffins for after meeting, dinner undecided, maybe bolognase.

Snacks - raisins, apples, bananas

Puddings to make: Mincemeat and custard pie, apple and blackberry (foraged! free food, yeah!) crumble, jam/lemon curd sponge

Spending this week has been on 3 joints of pork from morrisons. The pork shoulder was £2.50 kilo and I managed to find some 1 kilo joints so only £2.50 each. 1 is in the freezer ready for a roast dinner. 1 is marinating in smokey chipolate marinade and frozen for a pulled pork in slow cooker at some point. And 1 I chopped and have 2 bags of chopped pork for easy meals with jar sauce or in a chow mein etc. Saved the skin for extra crackling when I do roast dinner.

Lidl ,12 packs of sausages, and 12 cartons of the longlife milk for 24p per carton. also the breakfast muffins as a treat to go with sausages.

Next week Lidl will be having their smoked ham half price, I split each pack into 2 as there is LOADS and you only need a tiny bit to add strong flavour to a meal. so 12 packs usually do me a year. Also they have some special chocolate 34p bar which will be a welcome treat for hubby and kiddies ;) Aldi are changing their super 6 next week and rumour has it that chestnut mushrooms will be on offer! So will be spending a little next week on special offers we couldnt otherwise afford and stocking up.

In other news, my reluctant little girl is *almost* dry during the day! Cannot wait to reduce to 1 nappy per night it will make a huge difference to our budget. Meanwhile i'm collecting clothes in the next sizes up for little ones when I catch them on sale or in charity shops and i want to send out a HUGE thankyou to all my friends who have been donating clothes to us :) 

Brocolli, feta and walnut soup

This one is 'technically' a brocolli soup, but I managed to sneak everything green into it ;) I had half a block of feta well past its best that was bugging me. I couldnt figure out how to use it up so came up with this, brocolli was only 49p at aldi this week, as was the savoy cabbage, I think the celery was 39p and has done 4 soups so far.

The actual recipe:

1 onion chopped and 4 cloved garlic grated

Whole head of brocolli including stalk

half block feta cheese

walnuts

1.5 litres stock - 2 chicken stock cubes

plenty of fresh cracked black pepper

I also added:

half a savoy cabbage

half bag of spinach

celery

4 mushrooms

The last of the smoked ham

Fry onion and garlic in a little oil. Add the veg (minus spinach) and add stock. When cool enough to blend, blend in the spinach. When smooth heat up and crumble in the feta. I added the ham and because I was freezing, left the walnuts out. When defrosting and heating I will add some walnuts ontop and maybe a little extra feta if we have any.

Courgette and Dill soup

This one I first did when i'd finished my juicing. Liked it so much ive been making it ever since. Courgette is normally very expensive but there is a small window during summertime when everybody gets influxed with them and the price drops dramatically. They dont freeze well chopped but I have grated and frozen them somewhat successfully. Mostly they just mush so far better in soup.

1 Onion chopped and 3-4 garlic cloves grated

1 kilo courgettes

packet of Dill

I added celery but not necessary

I also had spinach to use up. When my ribs were very bad, my lovely friend Andrina came round and souped all the veg that I was too ill to cook. She mentioned that when she puts spinach in soup she adds in when the soup has finished, just blends it in without cooking. Which never occured to me but I think its fab! Not only does it make the soup very green and fresh but I imagine it preserves a lot more of the nutrients. And spinach really is a powerhouse of vitamin C, vitamin A, Iron and Magnesium and also B-6. 

And 1.5 litres stock, I used 1 chicken stock cube because the dill gives plenty of flavour.

So again just fry off the onion and garlic in oil, add courgettes and fry a little to soften. (also the celery at this point if your using it) Add stock and simmer for 10-15mins and add dill last to preserve the flavour. I put too much dill in so would recommend using half a pack. 

We had some leftover smoked gammon when I made this so I added chunks and before freezing.

Mushroom soup

I literally have been souping all weekend. They take about 15mins to put together. And if I have a day at home its easy to put one together, let them cool, blend and freeze for a quick meal out of the freezer.

So this was my second soup, I intend to jazz it up by adding some feta cheese and smoked ham when I serve it, or maybe some walnuts.

Mushroom soup

1 onion chopped 3 cloves garlic grated

1.5 kilo  mushrooms

I had some leftover celery to stuck some of that in

1.5 litre stock - I used 1 chicken stock cube and teaspoon veg buillion.

plenty fresh cracked black pepper

Again just fry the onion and garlic to soften, add mushrooms and celery and stock.

This is my easiest one yet the mushroom only take maybe 5 mins to cook? Then blend. Easy and simple and anything can be added to it to make it a bit 'more' for a family meal, and fancy bread such as ciabatta or focaccia. I didnt add any herbs to this one because I wanted it simple.

Lots'a soups!! - carrot and coriander

The super 6 at Aldi the past few weeks and offers at Lidl have been very decent! Seasons changing mean salad veg is becoming more expensive and root veg is becoming more affordable! Ive been busy stocking the freezer with lots of soup this week. Not only is it cheap, but its super nutritious, packed full of vitamins and antioxidants ready for the coming cold months.

Carrot and coriander soup.

This is one of our favourites. 1kilo of carrots cost me 50p. A managed to grab a reduced pot of corander for 25p, fresh has the most nutrients in but you could use ground coriander. 

1 Onion chopped and 3 garlic cloves grated

1 kilo carrots - washed but dont peel them! Once blended you wont be able to taste the skin and its an extra dose of fibre, most of the nutrients are just under the skin. so by not peeling you are saving all the goodness.

Coriander - I used a whole pot but 3/4 teaspoons of ground would work

Stock - I used 2 chicken stock cubes and half a teaspoon of veggie boullion powder in 1.5 litres of boiling water. I did need to top up an extra half a litre water as the carrots take a while to cook.

Cumin - 1 teaspoon. I just added this because I felt like it, not strictly in the recipe

Plenty of fresh cracked black pepper if you can afford the peppercorns

I had some celery to use up so chucked that in too but not necessary

Fry the onion and garlic until soft in a little olive oil (or any oil!) 

Add your veg/herbs and stock

Ass your seasoning and herbs

Top up with water as needed

Almonds go very well with this one and give you a protein/calcium hit. I added smoked ham to mine which was yummy too.

When the veg is soft enough to blend, take off the heat and allow to cool for 10 mins. I use a stick blender for mine as I make them in such large quantities it wont fit in my blender.

Portion into box's (I used leftover takeout box's) and freeze or fridge. Do label them as the colour can change when frozen.

38p sausage and egg mcMuffin!

Sausage and egg McMuffins from McDonald's sell for around £4.50 or so. We don't get them often but when we do we REALLY enjoy them! ;) Unfortunatly current budget means they are well out of bounds. But, guess what lidls half price offer was this weekend:

SAUSAGES!!! Decent 75-80% meat sausages for 79p per pack of 8! 

We filled the freezer with 12 packs ;)

This morning I woke up with a lot of pain and slobbed out on the sofa feeling sorry for myself. Hubby asked if I fancied a home-made McMuffin. They were awesome! He even cut open the sausages to make little patties out of them! And we ate them so fast I didnt have chance to take a picture, lol.

We priced it up and came up at 38p per McMuffin. Which is a ridiculous saving on the McDonalds version.

Sausage - 10p each (we used 4, 1 each, half a pack)

Egg - 10p (value ones are around 10p an egg, mine were some free range ones my mum picked up for me reduced)

Muffins - 10p (40p pack of 4 from aldi)

Cheese slice 8p? (yes the gross plastic cheese that tastes amazing! 80p pack of 10 lidl)

So around 38p each for a special breakfast! :) Still have half a pack in the fridge which I may make into a sausage and bean casserole to serve with pasta, or I might be really lavish and chop them into stuffing mix for an extra special roast dinner! This is how I afford to feed us varied food on a budget. When something is on special offer or reduced, buy as much as you can afford/store! Lidl tend to have sausages half price around every 3 month of so. 12 packs is enough for at least 1 sausage based meal per week for the next 3 months until the offer comes around again (hopefully!) Great timing too because we were down to our last pack from the last half price sausage offer, lol. Bring on the sausage recipes ;) Xx

Lamb, chickpea and apricot Curry.....

So, I got a reduction that was still expensive, but I just HAD to have it! (Never go shopping while hungry!)

450g Lamb shoulder fillet - £4.60 

*shock horror* 

It deserved to be made into an epic meal. My first thought was to stuff it, roll it and roast it. Along with the usual roast dinner trimming. Hubby had other ideas and so did google.

After researching the cut of meat, it seemed that slow cooking was the best option. Since its a very tough cut of meat. Not being in the mood for a stew/casserole, hubby requested a curry. 

Major brain fog this morning, so I just chucked in whatever spices fell out of the cupboard and hoped for the best.

This is what I used:

coconut oil - 1 tsp

2 large onions - chopped

450g lamb shoulder fillet - cubed

4 garlic cloves - grated

2" ginger - grated

4 chillis - finely chopped

cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon

Onions were fried along with ginger, garlic, chillis and cumin seeds in the coconut oil. Then added the Lamb and browned it off slightly. Chucked it all into the slow cooker along with:

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tin coconut milk

1 tin chickpeas (didnt have time to soak any!)

ground cumin - 1tsp

paprika - 1tsp

fenugreek - 1tsp

madras curry powder (could use garam masala, mine didnt fall out of the cupboard) - 1tsp

ground coriander - 1tsp

2 handfuls dried apricots

This came out quite creamy and suitable for the kids. And the lamb was as tender as you could wish for.

Served mine with mango chutney and naan. Plus there were plenty of leftovers for lunches. No pics, sorry! Little boy ran off with my phone again.