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

munchki

cw18 wrote: »

Not long back from the blackberry bushes -- reckon I've got around 800g of them, and that was without any real struggling to reach........

Question now is what to do with them all !! Thought I might get a couple of Bramleys (no free supply for me ) and make a crumble -- but I think I'll be the only person to eat it !!

If I were to make jam, how long can I reasonably expect it to last? Just wondering if it's something I could do while holding back a jar or two for my Dad at Christmas, as he's the family member most likely to enjoy it.......

When I make the blackberry jam, as long as it seals down correctly I have never had a problem with it keeping for 8-12 months.

hth

kath xx

MRSMCAWBER

Lesley_Gaye wrote: »

Bero! my, that's a blast from the past, my Mum used one of their cookbooks when I was growing up

and yes, we had thumb jam cookies too, and melting moments, remember them?

you can still pick up their latest edition in Morrisons ..I have one ... what about butter tartlets? my mum made those too..in fact my mum baked just about everything, but I have only ever seen those in bero ..I still think its one of the best books..and I have loads of books:p

cw18

weezl74 wrote: »

cw18, hiya, I'm just about to have a bowl of blackberries with cream and sugar....

Do you like them like that?

not especially, and can't really justify the spend on the cream anyway :rolleyes: but then I didn't eat them at all until I found the free sources 2 years back !!

cw18

munchki wrote: »

When I make the blackberry jam, as long as it seals down correctly I have never had a problem with it keeping for 8-12 months.

hth

kath xx

thanks for that will try my other 'spot' tomorrow and then have a bash at some jam.

I've only every made Strawberry jam in my breadmaker before (other than the Marmade marmalade which I absolutely adore -- the closest thing to 'real' marmalade I've ever found)

rachel83_2

oh my 50p a day to live on, i cant take the kids to schol without spending tripple that, i will definatley be waching this with delight

good luck with it

In_Search_Of_Me

Allegra are you yugoslavian? I am 1/8th yugolavian (croatia) and went there when the war was on. People said I was nuts but I felt that I would be looked after and was...people ere lovely and the trip was a pivotal moment in my lifes journey...just tried to ignore the bulletts!
I've now made the cocout rice whic was nie but would ommitthe curry leaves next time as dont feel it quite goes...the saag aloo was a bit undercooked so will bake it all tomorrow for lunch and freeze the rest. Have also made the prune cake but havent samples it yet!! Now going to collapse as feel poopied after all the effort...
weezl well done on the 7 of 5.yuck re pilchards...wot it be funny is fergus ends up fergalinna!!

ashia_2

ISOM- You're not suppose to being doing too much!!!!!!*insert waggly finger here* Let us know how the cake went, I'm trying to convince him that prunes are allowed into the house, let alone in the yummy foodables.

Well our tea was the decidedly uninspired sausage sandwich,it was supoose to be toad in the hole et. al. but I discovered just a little too late I had too few eggs...improvisation at its...well,maybe not best but you get the drift.

Allegra

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

Afternoo weezilies...saag aloo (or is it aloo sag..always get that mixed up) simmering, as is rice. Wil let you know what the latter is like....also have 1/2 tin of spinach ready as I halved the recipe...any ideas of what to make with it?

Try Spiced Chana Dhal with Spinach.

1 cup yellow split peas (chana dhal)
1 cup water
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 inch piece root ginger, grated
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1/2 tin spinach (or an equivalent amount frozen spinach)
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp salt

Soak lentils for 30 minutes (I tend to skip this bit, but then, I don't mind them having a bit of bite).

Heat the oil in a large pan, add mustard seeds, wait for them to start popping. Add onion, garlic, ginger, fry for 5 minutes, then add the spinach. Cook until dry, add spices and salt, then add the lentils and water and cook for 20-30 mins, or until water has evaporated. If it evaporates much earlier, add a bit more water.

As you can probably guess, I don't have a slow cooker yet, but I imagine this could be just as easily done in one of those instead.

Allegra

In_Search_Of_Me wrote: »

Allegra are you yugoslavian? I am 1/8th yugolavian (croatia) and went there when the war was on. People said I was nuts but I felt that I would be looked after and was...people ere lovely and the trip was a pivotal moment in my lifes journey...just tried to ignore the bulletts!

We don't tend to say "Yugoslavian" since the country combusted nearly twenty years ago But yes, I am Croatian - lived in the UK since 1995 though, which amounts to pretty much all of my adult life !

Where did you go, then ? And what did you eat ? I have lots of lovely frugal recipes if you (or anyone else) are interested....

cw18

Well, I think the chaps are finally getting the idea it's not worth complaining about meals unless they want me complaining about budgets :j

10 days ago I got one of the half price chickens from Somerfield, and we had [strike]Roast[/strike] Slow-Cooker Chicken for tea on the Friday night, then Chicken and Chips on the Saturday, and a HM Chicken & Mushroom pie on the Monday -- with enough for another meal plus some 'bits' towards a rissotto going into the freezer. Found another large chicken in the offer a couple of days later, so managed to rejig the freezers to make room for it -- I know hubby saw it go in (which meant he knew it was to come in the next 4-6 weeks).

Today was the last day of the offer, so had a quick look through the limited stock they had in -- and grabbed the one and only chicken there that was bigger than average (and the same as the one in the freezer).


So I came home and lobbed it into the slow-cooker, then took the dogs for a walk. When I got home I was greeted by hubby asking if I'd bought another due to the fact "the one in the machine doesn't look frozen". (I would have defrosted first, but he's not seen one out for that either). When I said yes, all I got was an "I take it today's the last day of the offer then?" :rolleyes2

So it was Slow-Cooker Chicken tonight, which I thought would bring complaints due to it only being 10 days since we last had. But not so much as a mutter from either of them

And we're having Chicken Salad tomorrow - told hubby that's what I'm doing as he's at the hospital until heaven only knows when, which makes it hard to cook.

So I've been down the shops again tonight and managed to get Spring Onions (10p), Cucumber (10p), and a Lettuce (13p) -- so just tomatoes to source tomorrow Not sure what the blokes will make of the lettuce though, as we normally have Iceberg which it isn't. But at 13p for this one that we'll likely use most of tomorrow (I'll probably have a bit on my butties at lunch), against 57p (also Whoopsie) for an Iceberg we probably wouldn't use more than half of, this one it had to be.......