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

Boodle

For the pate, girls, I just use about 2 rounded tablespoons of butter for the entire amount of liver. When I whizz it up I use milk to loosen it which helps it not be so strong. I also use value unsalted butter (I stock up whenever I go to "Mr T's" and keep in the freezer) which I think helps, as it otherwise might taste to salty or if marg too much of the marg, iykwim?

I haven't tried this with pig's liver yet, but with the chicken livers, I have add a clove of garlic and on a separate occasion, a sprig of rosemary to the pan when I'm cooking them. Tastes lovely. French chives or the greens of spring onions help when your eating it on bread I think.

I also once tried something Nigella recommends in How to Eat for baby purees! Works really well as a pate! She whizzes up soaked dried apricots in with the liver... she says it's to counteract the strength of the liver. It's surprisingly nice!

Hth ya

Boodle

Beki wrote: »

Hi all,

This is my first ever post - and i have to say i've been SO inspired by you all! I stayed up until 3am last night reading this and other related threads, and i'm still only on page ten of this one!

Just thought i'd pop in and say hi! :beer:

There's the four of us - me and my partner alan, and our two children who are 9 and 2. We've decided to budget 75p a day each for me and alan and 50p a day each for the children, so £2.50p a day in total.

We'd managed to get our food shopping in at around £30 per week before reading up on this, and it sounds so do-able we HAVE to give it a go!

Thanks to Weezl and all who have contributed to this thread! :beer:

Beki xxxx

Hi Beki. I just joined in a couple of days ago too, after reading this entire thread, enthralled! Wow, you're doing well with your budget! I have decided we are going to spend the next two weeks with storecupboard/freezer stuff (except milk and some fresh fruit we'll need) so most of the sixty-odd quid sofa I want from Ikea will be mostly paid for Been wanting it for ages, but it's the first time I'd even thought about doing this to save some cash. So thanks to you guys here inspiring me :T x

cw18

Boodle wrote: »

so most of the sixty-odd quid sofa I want from Ikea will be mostly paid for

Great to have something to aim for, but I have to say "best of luck with Ikea" !!

I've just got through the most horrendous delivery problems and customer services I've ever encountered with a company -- and it was them. Nothing complicated about it at all from my end either !!!

Kitchen units to build up in a craft room !!! office -- 3 base cupboards, 2 drawer units, 7 standard top units, 1 corner top unit, 3 length of trim, 2 length of plinth, 3 packs of handles, 10 packs of drawer dampers, and 2 special order lengths of worktop. Ordered on 3rd May, and was promised 7 days notice of delivery.

Got a call on 23rd May to say everything but work tops was coming the next day -- so I was up all night clearing out the room ready for delivery. It arrived two hours later than I'd been told to expect it -- but the trims/plinths were smashed (obvious before off-loading from the van), so they insisted on taking everything away.

3+ weeks later they attempt re-delivery, but it comes minus trims, plinths and drawer dampers -- plus both drawer units and two top doors very badly damaged on opening. Promised replacements and missing bits the end of the following week, only to have the units, doors and dampers (one pack of those damaged!) arrive on the Tuesday -- followed by a call on the Friday to tell me they'd nothing else showing as outstanding on my account (other than the worktops). Then promised the trims/plinths on 1st July, but when I called that morning to check what time I was told it had been booked for 8th !!!!

At that point I had elder son home on 3 weeks leave from the Army, so I told them to stick deliveries until he'd gone -- and I was confident we arranged at that point for missing bits to come on 21st and worktops on 4th August. On 21st I called in the middle of the afternoon (having not heard/seen anything) to be told the system didn't have anything showing as outstanding for me -- and it took them over a week to get 'permission' to deliver from store instead of the central base (as it's quicker). So missing bits arrived on 1st August!!! (And worktops on 4th as it was too late to re-arrange delivery even though we were working against the clock to get everything in place for them!)

When putting fronts on units on Tuesday I spotted a drawer front and a top door had minor damage to the fronts (a damp cloth took off the coating), so I spent all of Wednesday afternoon at my local store getting them replaced -- and dumping the original damaged things on them as they'd "lost" the request to collect them when deliveries had been re-arranged

I love the quality of them now they're sorted, but I would never, ever, ever trust Ikea to deliver again !!!! Still haven't totally finished assmbling though (trims and plinths to cut, and a length of worktop to take a bit off some corners so it fits my 'non-square' walls) but at least I now have everything here.


And a friend went to the Croydon store yesterday -- having phoned first to make sure what she wanted was in stock (180 mile round trip for her, but she didn't trust the delivery system after what I've been through) and to ask if she would be able to get staff to help with the 'picking' and loading the car. Was assured all OK on both counts. Got there to be bounced from person to person when the stuff wasn't where it should have been for 'picking' (finally found in a back warehouse), then when she got to the tills she was told the person helping until then couldn't help the other side of the tills and she had to listen to 3 members of staff argue about who was getting landed with the task of assisting her :eek:

She says the most helpful person she met was the chap collecting trolleys in the car park -- he helped load the stuff into the vehicle after no-one else was forthcoming !!!

Plum_Pie

Morning all!

I had a very productive 4 days off (2 day of leave plus the weekend).

1. Finally finished decorating my flat! Feel great looking at my nice fresh walls! Such respect for Weezl and similar who have to do so so much more than just tart up a one bedroom flat.

2. Did a massive food shop - £28. (A LOT for someone who lives by themself!) I found lots of whoopsied chicken breasts, mince and chorizo. Yay! Then spent a happy hour dividing it into portions for the freezer - now have 30 portions of protein in stock. Having (making?!) time in the kitchen is so relaxing.

3. Batch cooking: Lentil pate (enough for 3 weeks of work lunches), pasta for this week's work lunches, brown rice and coconut and currant flapjacks.

4. Also went to a lovely exhibition at Tate Britain, although that cost a tenner. Ouch.

I was thinking this weekend (whilst chomping a flapjack, why yes, I am that greedy!) that long ago I had a recipe for some delish peanut cookies. They were chewy, made with dark brown sugar and sr flour and salted peanuts which really brought out the sweetness. I'm going to try and find the recipe, or recreate it, soon. I will post results. I mention this as salted peanuts are so cheap (although I'm sure you could subsitute other nuts!).

cw18

I froze half of last nghts Whoopsie beans overnight, and the other half have just gone into the freezer. then I've got the other half bag of peppers to do (greens done, yellows and red to do - though I plan to use half the red one today), and a fresh 2kg bag of onions to follow.......

I've also made a batch of broth this morning, using a tub of beef stock from Mr T that was reduced from £1.49 to 10p (have another in the freezer -- though they don't leave enough headroom in the tub despite giving freezing instructions, and the stock has pushed the lid up!! will have to watch out when I defrost it!)

hubby has just gone to hospital for his latest dose of chemo, and will be gone several hours. hoping son stays put in his room as I'm about to have a bash at the 'meatless' lasagne for tonights tea.

and while I'm in the kitchen I'm also going to try the no-knead bread (at last) as the stuff we have in is starting to 'go' so the blokes won't eat it. am going to rescue what still looks OK and shove in the freezer ready to make breadcrumbs -- they'll never know


hubby actually made some comment this morning about the fact I'm spending a lot more time in the kitchen just now -- think it has something to do with all the prepping and freezing of fresh veg I'm doing :rolleyes2 had to repack one of the freezers yesterday to make space for it all too.......

sistercas

cw18 wrote: »

I froze half of last nghts Whoopsie beans overnight, and the other half have just gone into the freezer. then I've got the other half bag of peppers to do (greens done, yellows and red to do - though I plan to use half the red one today), and a fresh 2kg bag of onions to follow.......


what preparation do peppers and onions need to freeze them? ( i didnt know you could freeze them ) I have a big bag of peppers and onions which will probably go off before I have used them
thanks x

newlywed

sistercas wrote: »

what preparation do peppers and onions need to freeze them? ( i didnt know you could freeze them ) I have a big bag of peppers and onions which will probably go off before I have used them
thanks x

chop em and bung in a bag I split them so there is roughly one onion per bag as otherwise it all sticks together in a lump.

Just cook from frozen (they are soft when defrosted so no good to eat the peppers raw after freezing)

cw18

sistercas wrote: »

cw18 wrote: »

I froze half of last nghts Whoopsie beans overnight, and the other half have just gone into the freezer. then I've got the other half bag of peppers to do (greens done, yellows and red to do - though I plan to use half the red one today), and a fresh 2kg bag of onions to follow.......

what preparation do peppers and onions need to freeze them? ( i didnt know you could freeze them ) I have a big bag of peppers and onions which will probably go off before I have used them
thanks x

the peppers I simply sliced -- will dice them when I come to use them

the onions I diced

both were frozen on trays, then bagged into meal sized portions (and I was advised to double bag to stop the freezer smelling totally of them!)

and yes, I've been throwing the onions into the pan straight from the freezer......

cw18

bread is in the oven -- it actually seemed to rise properly too, which the potato bread I made a few weeks back didn't !!!

think I may have put too many lentils into the bolognese sauce though !! don't think I'm going to be able to hide the fact they're in there, so the blokes will have to be told they were added to 'pad out' the meal (implying there's still some mince in there somewhere)

Boodle

cw18 wrote: »

Great to have something to aim for, but I have to say "best of luck with Ikea" !!

Yikes! What a farce!

We tend to just take our own stuff home from Ikea rather than get a delivery. Thing is, a sofa like that from anywhere else is at least about £249 whereas this is only 67 or 69 I think. It's a nice size for our dining room too. Maybe we should take reinforcements for carrying it out tho! So thanks for the warning! x