MSE blog 2008

Just about to finish preparing a beef stew dish for the slow cooker. Here's what I did:

* 4 carrots diced £0.25
* 3 onions diced £0.11
* 2 garlic cloves £0.06
* 3 tbs oil £0.08
* 4 cups frozen peas (defrosted and drained) unknown, £0.50?
* 540 g beef £3.33
* 1 can tomatoes £0.33
* 1tsp paprika, salt, pepper and 2 tsb flour £0.04
* 1 tbs lea & perrins £0.05
* 200 ml ale £0.40

Total = £5.15

First I prepared all the ingredients. Next I heated 2 tbs oil and cooked the garlic and onion until it began to soften. Then I added the carrots. The flour and spices were put together and the meat was covered. When the veg had been cooking for about 5 mins I removed it from the pan, added another tbs of oil and browned the meat in batches. Removed the meat and deglazed pan using tomatoes, then added lea and perrins and ale. Finally added meat, veg and peas. Brought to the boil, transferred to slow cooker for 5 hours on high.

I was going to add dumplings, but the dish looks rather full so I probably won't and will save them for another dish.

Thanks to mollythewestie reposting the recipe here :T

So, if I get six portions, they work out at £0.86 bargain!

Edit: I've just discovered that I shouldn't fill the slow cooker to the top! Next time I need to reduce the ingredients by about a fifth. If I reduced by a quarter I'd have room for the dumplings.

I've just retreated from the kitchen after trying to make some gloop. I don't think I've done very well... just bunged all the ingredients into a saucepan and then heated. After reading some more posts, I realised I should have melted the soap first! Oh well, first attempts and everything.

I've left it to cool, in the morning I'll strain it and see if it's usable.

Some useful links / threads I've found on gloop:

Gloop thread
Infamyinfamy's method
Katy's method
Ten different methods
Green cleaning approach

Oh and thank you to larmy16 for original inspiration

So next time I'm going to:
* make a VERY small amount so I can experiment with different mixtures
* heat water first!
* then add soap and melt
* finally add remaining ingredients

Hey ho.. small steps .

Gloop updated:

To make 4 litres I used 65 g soap, 1/2 cup borax & 1/2 cup soda crystals. This was too much for my (almost) largest saucepan as I was supposed to add 4 litres of water, only had space for 3. It's very lumpy, but have decanted to 2 x 2 litre milk containers. Will add 1/2 cup to each each wash, but add boiling water first to make sure it's melted. Going to do a wash tomorrow - fingers crossed it's ok!

Gloop upated:
Well, the wash came out ok... but not sure if the gloop really washed anything as I'm used to seeing suds and I know you don't with this I added gloop to the washing ball, up to 1/2 mark (not 1/2 of the ball) and then added boiling water and mixed up. This seemed to melt it ok, so fingers crossed it worked. Clothes smell fresh, so will keep experimenting.

Feeling tired, but have to stay up till midnight when slow cooker is due to go off! I guess I could keep busy with ironing.....

Oh, just remembered, I've also learned you're only supposed to fill the slow cooker 1/2 > 2/3, not all the way as I've been doing :eek:

Busy day today, I felt very productive and then a fuse went this evening and spent time sorting that out!

Cooking saag aloo at the moment, had a few tastes... not sure it's my thing but with some mango chutney I'm sure it will be lovely Update: just sat down to eat (22:18) took ages to cook! Wish I had done this in my slow cooker now, I cooked instead on the hob as ran out of time this afternoon. It's not bad.. will be interesting to see how flavours come together when frozen and reheated. Also found another version here. It's so cheap, must be worth trying again

Found another great website for adding ingredients and them suggesting recipes: Supercook

Away from Tues lunchtime till Sunday.. lots to do and it's quarter to ten! :eek:

Reminder MSE tip of the day:
* measure out rice (60 g) rather than guessing and getting double the amount.. then eating it

Update:

Oh dear... I only made 4 portions out of the saag aloo and weezl normally gets 6! Maybe I need to look at portion sizes :rolleyes:. Roughly this would have cost:

500 g potatoes (or x4) £0.14
regular size tin spinach £0.53
250 g (or x4) chopped onions £0.15
1 1/2 tsp cumin & 1/2 tsp chilli £0.02
3 cloves garlic £0.09
50 ml oil £0.08

Total = £1.01

Per portion = £0.25

After such a positive start to the year... I then went ice-skating and broke my leg - I have just come home after a 5 months hiatus! :eek:

Lots has changed since January and at the same time some things haven't... I'll probably witter about it a bit in this blog.

First things first, time to wash with some gloop - though the bottles of gloop I made seem to have exploded rather in my kitchen cupboard . I wonder why that is, might hunt round the forum and ask for some advice.

Glad to be back with MSE .

Considering all things MSE Soup on the go... little steps..