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

Yategirl

thanks for that angchris - I will ask in our butchers next time I go in.. I have had breast of lamb rolled with stuffing - £2.71 - now I have worked out proper stuffing, I will do it myself next time (and for cheaper!) - like you say, not much meat but the flavouring of the juices in gravy and the tiny bit of meat (with veggies and stuffing was plenty for us all) was divine! I have bought belly pork before now - that was £1.71 for three large pieces which fed 2 adults and 2 children - again not much meat but tasty.

courgette cake - yummmmmmmmmmmmmm!!! is wonderful! DH won't try it but he can be a fussy **** and ds1 moans/whinges/creates as it has courgettes in (however I know he likes courgettes) but ds2, me and MIL loved it!

2cats1kid

sammy_kaye18 wrote: »

I can just about correctly identify bleeding bramble berries let alone an elderberry tree!! i know its white star shaped flowers but that could be anythign over here in port talbot!

On an off note - some of the blackberries over here in port talbot are already ripe and a lovely deep black shade - think i will be out foraging with my littlie next week to keep a nice stock in the freezer. I have 3 patches to 'hit' so should get enough for a crumble i think on monday. may bring them home to freeze them though then take up mother in laws as she is really good at pies etc

anyone know how i clean them?? is it as simple as in a bowl in the sink with clean water??

Put them in a big bowl, cover them completely with water and add a generous glug of vinegar. Leave overnight. Then you will need to pick over the berries one at a time, because fly and butterfly grubs just lurve blackberries. I gathered about 5lbs a few days ago, but out of that 5 lbs I probably extracted 50 or 60 grubs. It's a bit eeeuuuww, but better than eating grubs! A lot of them will sink to the bottom, but some will still be part out of the berry, so you do need to check each one. That's another reason why I tend to do blackberry wine and jelly, cos the solids get strained away rather than eaten just in case I've missed a little visitor.

MRSMCAWBER

Hi Angchris

Breast of lamb is one of my faves -closely followed by belly pork

If you get it with the bones attatched like you did... you can trim them off in one flap, i then make HM stuffing and stuff and roll + tie the big piece of meat and roast... the bones with the meat on go into a pan or slowcooker with potatoes, swede, onions carrot, parsnips and toward the end a tin of marrowfats to make breast of lamb stew (forgot to say you just pull the meat off the bones as soon as its tender enough and you have got all the goodness out of them)and then finish off the stew.... 2 meals for the price of one :T oooh and stick dumplings in mmmmm
That is something i learnt from my mum when her and my dad were bringing up 5 of us on one wage..and those meals are still firm faves in this house

cw18

angchris wrote: »

for those of you looking for uber cheap meals here is my fav at the moment i cooked it up tonight so thought i`d share....next time you go to your local butchers ask for lamb breast, my local butcher charged me the princely sum of 12p...yes just 12 pence per breast :eek:

Wow!! Now this scrounge I really MUST try !! Thanks for the heads up -- now I just have to find an obliging butcher

Did the one breast really do all three of you? How much meat (weightwise) do you think you got off it? I have two menfolk here who still don't believe they've been fed without a substantial amount of meat on their plates

Have to admit that the one meal I've really missed in the last 12 months (that's how long I've been working on reducing my food bills !!) is my lamb stew with pickled red cabbage and soggy boiled potatoes :rolleyes:

In_Search_Of_Me

bit of free protein then 2cats! Our weezl would be proud...not of me as I have eaten carp all day and out of house carp but have excuse of a migraine...hello lessr spotten weezl if you look in...hope decorating is going ok? At least the weather is right for it...see me diary (later!) for my cunning allotment plan...
Have a busy w/e with patchwork day tom then sunday am going to see if I can get a sewing machine so not much time for cooking alas...must do some as dire week budget wise as v.busy and didnt have the energy...

angchris

cw18 wrote: »

Wow!! Now this scrounge I really MUST try !! Thanks for the heads up -- now I just have to find an obliging butcher

Did the one breast really do all three of you? How much meat (weightwise) do you think you got off it? I have two menfolk here who still don't believe they've been fed without a substantial amount of meat on their plates

Have to admit that the one meal I've really missed in the last 12 months (that's how long I've been working on reducing my food bills !!) is my lamb stew with pickled red cabbage and soggy boiled potatoes :rolleyes:

yes the 1 breast really does make an ample meal for us three i do however always bulk my curries etc out with other stuff as well.
if your hungry chaps are big eaters and like their meat then buy 2 if you are doubtful...or more lets face it at 12p a breast you could be a bit frivoulous and really push the boat out :rotfl:

cw18

thanks for the reply

sounds like two for me then, as I've yet to manage much 'padding' into our meals (am working on it slowly, and just about getting away with extra onions plus peppers in mince dishes -- replacing some mince with dried soya is the next one to try )

angchris

have just realised the breast i bought was included in the price of half a lamb i bought, the butcher did write 12 pence on it although im not sure how much it would be alone without the rest of the meat i bought iyswim , either way it is still going to be the cheapest way to eat lamb.

cw18

can't hurt to ask a few butchers when I'm in the vicinity -- even if it means a phone call a few days later to check they've got them before going back to collect/buy them. Will just make sure the ones I ask are close enough to other places I can hit at the same time, to make it worth paying the fuel or bus fare


have had funny looks from both hubby and son tonight..... went out to check for the last Whoopsies! of the day in our local shops, and one had a couple of punnets of mushrooms at half price. My immediate instinct was to think what I might use one for tomorrow, and couldn't come up with anything we've not had in the last few days. As I went to walk away I remembered some people on here saying they freeze them after slicing (which is how I mainly use them), so I bought both lots. The confused looks from the menfolk were because we'd already had tea, so they couldn't understand why I was prepping mushrooms :rolleyes2

FieryBlondeScot

Money_saving_Diva wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestions honey but despite mine just being a ginger moggy, she refuses anything but Whiskas and Felix. She is 12 though and getting over an operation (which cost over £300.... but that's another story!) so I guess I can indulge her for a little longer and then wean her off them.



Thank you for the encouragement CW, I really appreciate it!

My OH did his monthly visit to Lidls tonight and Batchelors savoury rice are 49p BOGOF and the pasta and sauce are 4 for £2, so that makes them even more frugal. As I said before we add a big handful of normal rice into one packet of savoury rice before we start to cook it and it could easily feed 4 people that way! Can't persuade the OH to try the really cheap asda sausages - he is convinced only 'good' (read branded) sausages are edible!

Oh and bashful, - we too have made our own prawn crackers tho I bought my box from Tescos - it wasn't as cheap as the one Ashia mentioned but it was still a fairly generous amount for not much money and it IS fun watching them puff up and they taste fabulous when really hot!

What a fab idea i cant believe i didnt think of this one myself! i used some of the 50p chicken drumsticks from morrisons deals a few weeks ago, seasoned them and served with the asda smartprice savoury rice, added some plain rice to it to double it - fed 2 people and some left over for tomorrow lunch! cost £1 for chicken, 22p i think for the rice and say 10p for plain rice! was well pleased!:beer: