50p a day til Christmas - healthily?! Weezl's next challenge...

ZoeGirl_3

Hey all, :j

Have just stewed and strained my collection of frozen apple cores (cut out of apples I have given my son not ones I have eaten to core lol) and it gave me a jar of apple sauce, about 500g. A least two cups anyway. Feels like free food, and even though it took me an hour,

Well, my challenge to not shop is going good, haven't been near a supermarket for 5 days. Have been making all my own bread etc.

A hint for the people thinking of snacks for kids friends, or kids in general, make a double batch of biscuit mix, almost all of the roll into balls and shape mixes work, and grease a bit of kitchen paper and roll up a biscuit log and freeze. :rolleyes:

You can pull it out, anytime, cut a few off and put in a cooling oven (one that has been used for something else and then turned off, thus saving on power lol) they cook fine that way. Actually better, because harder to burn. Or you whip out a log and cook some for kids friends, no kid will turn their nose up to fresh bikkies from oven lol...not one I have met anyway

weezl74

mama67 wrote: »

Must admit though now he has a parttime job and if we do decide to have a takeaway as a treat he will offer to put some money towards it.

awww what a lovely thing to say, he's a real credit to you mama67

moneydribbler

Wow - I had dodgy internet for a week and a half and it's taken me nearly half a week to catch up!

Loved hearing all about the pig adventures... I think we really should eat "nose to tail" although I'm a bit squeamish so I.. yeah. Not yet

I've been continuing to try and cook from the freezer - and I've made a decision to get rid of one of them as two fridge freezers for one person is just stupid with the way energy cost are going (and just encourages me to over stockpile at that...) - although right now I think I've just as much in there as I did to start, there are a lot more "take out and nuke" meals than there were and I'm working through my ingredients.

Weezl - I think it was you who suggested the "bread and butter pudding" idea for my excess of hot cross buns - it was totally nomnomnom (and nice cold, too). Thank you!

I did do an inventory to work through, and discovered I have a ludicrous number of chicken thighs (given I'm squeamish about bones, that confused me a bit) so I needed to invent a recipe for them.

paprika chicken:
4 * Chicken thighs, deboned and skinned and "reshaped" (rolled back into thigh shapes)
3 tsp smoked paprika
3 tsp cumin
1 (I'd call it a turnip cos I'm a scot, but the bigger yellow/purple one) swede chopped to 12 cubes
2 large carrots (or 3 medium) peeled and chopped to similar sized bits
4 large tomatoes, roughly chopped (I got them for 20p whoopsied, but they could be omitted)
1/2 pt passata
1/2 pt boiling water

Put the veg and passata in a large casserole.
Heat a little oil in a frying pan and gently place the thighs "join side" down. sprinkle the spices evenly over the meat and let the meat seal.
Turn the thighs over and seal the "spiced" side.
using a wooden spoon "open" the thighs so the uncooked meat is now on the outside, turn over and slide around to collect all the loose spices. Seal.
Add to casserole.
Deglaze pan with water
bung in hot oven for at least 40minutes ; temp and time are a movable feast depending on whatever else is in there.

I've made that into 6 reasonably big portions, frozen with some cooked wholegrain rice.

It's really nummy - I had the first portion with some potato wedges and the other 5 are awaiting .

I'm not entirely sure of costings, given most of the things were hanging around my kitchen, but I'm thinking it can't be a lot. Could easily cook in slow cooker, and have lentils added for more protien/thickening/feeding hungry boys.

Any other recipes for chicken thighs greatfully received

I now need to update my inventory list so I can meal plan from it

phizzimum

ZoeGirl wrote: »

Hey all, :j

Have just stewed and strained my collection of frozen apple cores (cut out of apples I have given my son not ones I have eaten to core lol) and it gave me a jar of apple sauce, about 500g. A least two cups anyway. Feels like free food, and even though it took me an hour,

what a good idea!

moanymoany

It is important for children to learn that money is not endless. One day they will have to balance their own budgets and learning at mum's knee is a good start.

meanmarie

Phizzimum...good idea with apple cores...might do the same with windfall apples which are all over the place atm

Marie

NemoToad

When I was a kid we only ever had shop bought biscuits just after Christmas when my parents would have a few tins that they'd gotten as Christmas presents. We'd be allowed a few for pudding. I think we only had shop-bought cakes if they were reduced. My mum did a lot of baking (scones, cakes, pies, biscuits, etc) but these were only for puddings (and to go in our lunch boxes, but not every day!).

If we were hungry between meals (or late at night when it seemed we got the most hungry!) we were told to have bread (home made of course), crackers, cornflakes or fruit. I probably moaned about it when I was a teenager (don't all teenagers?!) but now I realise it was the best thing, and it's taught me not to buy unneccesary snacks! My mum has taught me so much about cooking and budgetting and I hope she realises how much I appreciate her. Also my friends were always really impressed with my mums homemade bread, coming to ours for toast was a treat, although it was just normal for me.

I think she got a bit more relaxed as the kids went on though, my youngest brother is still at home and he's allowed to get away with a lot more than I was! I don't think they have snacks still though because she's always moaning that my brother spends all his EMA on subways and mars bars!

But basically that was a rambelling way of saying to those with kids, don't feel bad about denying them snacks, I'm sure they'll be secretly learning a lot from it and they'll hopefully appreciate you more for it in the long-run.

newlywed

We often used to have only plain digestive or rich tea. Often there was a tub of chocolate spread in the cupboard though.

So usually if we asked for biscuits after school we were told we could have 2. After tea, we could have 3, sometimes more (not sure what it depended on).

I limit the kids to how many they have by not giving them the tin - I put 3 or 4 on a plate for them (usually 2 choc, 2 plain) - they very rarely ask for any extra.

shaz_mum_of__2

newlywed wrote: »

We often used to have only plain digestive or rich tea. Often there was a tub of chocolate spread in the cupboard though.

So usually if we asked for biscuits after school we were told we could have 2. After tea, we could have 3, sometimes more (not sure what it depended on).

I limit the kids to how many they have by not giving them the tin - I put 3 or 4 on a plate for them (usually 2 choc, 2 plain) - they very rarely ask for any extra.

Just reminded me as kids we had digestives with peanut butter and nutella on rich teas nom nom ..........as weezl would say

Shaz

eselt

Wow! Thank you so much everyone-I'm all fired up and ready for the summer hols now- some great ideas. Survived today, gave the teenage fridge-raiders:

HM cheese straws (spare pastry in freezer-oven was on anyway)
Bowl of HM natural yoghurt with tsp mint sauce and 2inch chopped cucumber for a dip (about 15p)
Clearing out fruit bowl ready for shop tomorrow, so chopped up strawberries and bananas and put them on kebab sticks, sprinkle of caster sugar, grilled
Bowl of tortilla chips (18p)grilled with a bit of cheese sprinkled on top

Looked quite a mini feast really!!!! I'm definately going to freeze everything that I can. Plus I've had a bonus, sis is going to give me a soda stream that shes had for ages, never been used- my cunning plan is to just use the machine to carbonate some tap water, pop that in fridge in the little bottles that come with it, then freeze some real fruit juice in ice cube trays and they can pop one in for flavour.

Thank you so much everyone