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

In_Search_Of_Me

Evening all! Had a chat ith my SW woman and it seems adapting recipes is a case of trial & error so bear with me while I try & see where the error is! Hope you had a great day with friend & forraging weezl? See diary for todays update of naughtyness!!

weezl74

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

Hi everyone

new recipe for

Onion soup

600g onions(peeled weight)sliced thinly
tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon sugar
175g small diced potato (peeled)
1200ml veg stock 1 teaspoon dried thyme/1 tablespoon fresh


Fry the onions over a gentle heat in the oil with the sugar ,it takes about 1/2 hour until they are golden then add the thyme and potato and cook for another 5 minutes then add the stock and simmer until the potato is cooked

Its a recipe adapted from w/watchers (with spray oil) so might be S/W friendly too


its lovely an sweet and savoury


weezl any chance of a cost and nutrtional breakdown???
Shaz

Hiya shaz! that looks like an amazing 27p per batch :money:Did you say how many servings you thought it made?

Loving your sig!;):p

ceridwen, sorry I think I've missed sommat! What was your bargain meal?:D

moneydribbler, I'd slice the buns in two, whisk one egg per pint milk an 100g sugar with some cinnamon into it, and pour over the buns and then bake. nomnomnom. Especially if you leave some bun poking out of the liquid, and sprinkle with sugar, cos then you get a crunchy bit and a soft gooey bit:D:D:D

Hiya, Claero, welcome on board

hello too to tattycath, eselt and Lesley gaye. I'm really chuffed that you are wanting to come and post your thoughts and ideas. Thanks loads!

Will have to catch up properly tomorrow, as am pooped after entertaining all day and evening!

The gnocchi went to go down well: 2 sauces, pesto and a spicy tomato one, and a salad made with foraged rocket, a home grown tomato:T:T, and some nastertium leaves from the garden!

Pudding was 3 flavours of homemade ice-cream. Blackcurrant, vanilla and Lemon.

My friend seemed genuinely pleased!:T:T

Might try to get up early to get some morrissons goodies

Love Weezl x

In_Search_Of_Me

hurro weezl...just off to bed, tying one handed as alfie comfy in crook of my arm asleep! will ring tom am re flirtations with butcher!! Have fun at morrisons! dont go wild now!! no more than a pound lol!

weezl74

a pound is 8 pieces of Chicken tomorrow!

Look forward to butcher buttering up!:D

Weezl x

cw18

I've been "playing" with my supermarket shopping list over the last few days, pricing up meals based on what I know the family will eat and have had in the last 8 weeks or so......

Including all 'non-food' items like cleaning and hygiene products, and allowing for elder son being home 4 weeks a year (meaning I'm catering for 4 instead of 3), it came in at a staggering £250 month :mad: But that was based on MrT prices (without special offers) and I know I can generally get some of the items cheaper at our local shops, especially Lidl for the fruit and veg.

(Also doesn't include £30/month on dog food that comes from elsewhere, but that can't be reduced without getting rid of a dog :shocked: )

It's going to be a long, looooong time before I'm anywhere remotely in the vicinity of the rest of you, but I'm going to aim to halve the MrT value of my shop by the time I do my first supermarket shop of 2009 which means a reduction of £20/month.

Whilst that doesn't sound a huge monthly reduction, I'm going to have to be careful what I do otherwise hubby is going to freak at me (and he has health problems that mean he has to be on a high fat/high calorie diet -- so cooking things he tips into the bin isn't a wise move ) . I'm going to spend the next few weeks checking out the recipe ideas on here in more detail, and trying to figure which I dare try out on him at the rate of roughly one every 7-10 days which is historically about the fastest he'll happily be a 'guinea pig'. The biggest problem is actually going to be trying to reduce the amount of meat, as without meat on his plate he doesn't think he's eaten !!!


Quite proud of myself tonight though..... I went to MrT for some essentials, and managed not to get tempted by anything else. I defrosted one of my freezers yesterday (astonishing how much extra space that gave me), and have been producing meals from the freezer for the last few days which has given me more room -- so when I spotted 3 packs of the bread rolls hubby favours in clearance I brought them home to fill the space, rather than just the one pack I'd got on my list for the next few days

Took my shopping trolley with me (one of those push along wheeled things that you see a lot of the retired folk out and about with) and filled it to total capacity having spent pennies over £20. I do think taking the trolley on the bus (something I've started to do when I already have a ticket for another reason - had to go into work this morning, hence food shop tonight instead of tomorrow) rather than taking the car is part of the reason for the low spend though......... If I take the car I can fill one of the large supermarket trolleys and just move from that to the car and the car to the house which means it's much easier to give in to temptation The fact the evening buses only run hourly also means I can't dawdle in the store, so can't wander up and down the aisles in an aimless way like I can during the day or when I take the car :rolleyes:

Herewegoagain

Plum_Pie wrote: »

I don't have a PC at home currently but will let everyone know the results of my culinary experiments. We used my friend's pocket-sized Food For Free (Richard Mabey) but soon realised we needed a bigger field guide...

"I'm sure this is fat hen."
"S'not. The leaves are the wrong shape."
"What is it?"
"Dunno. Can't see it in the book"
"What is it? I want to eat it!"

and so on....

I got the book yesterday but find it is so small I'm having trouble reading it with my eyesight, need a magnifing glass as well I think.:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
But can't wait to get out there:j :j :beer:

Herewegoagain

eselt wrote: »

Hi

I'd really love a remoska but I live in deep dark cornwall and can't find a stockist-anyone know where I can get one apart from lakeland...can't order on the net as I don't have any credit or debit cards(all chopped up...cash only!). I'm either going to invest in one of these or a slow cooker...any hints on which might be better/more economical???

Great thread, have been lurking for ages...perhaps I'm a bit sick but I just love the challenge of trying to live on next to nothing. Have had a bit of luck this week... (ex)OH picked up a garage full of winemaking stuff from freecycle..got there..old lady said "it was my husbands hobby but hes died and I want the garage cleared...havnt had time to rinse out the demijons (still full of gallons of lovely wine)could you take them anyway?"- result. Help me get over the disappointment of my tobacco plants going mouldy and dying (yeah I know...dreadful expensive habit!).

Oh well, back to a nice bowl of HM french onion soup (10p a gallon!!!)

French onion, my favourite, how do you do it so cheap:D

eselt

French onion, my favourite, how do you do it so cheap?

Hi HWGA

Well its a long story, but basically I get 250g of butter and a box of organic veg free each week from the local farm shop in return for giving their 2 boys guitar lessons, any herbs are from the garden, and I buy the smartprice veg stock cubes (16p for 8)- so it costs next to nothing really, just the stock cube and a splash of milk- if box has carrots, potatoes or any other root veg in I usually chuck a bit in too, then just wizz it all up with a handblender when everything has simmered soft. If I have any soup left over I often chuck it in with a casserole or pie to add a bit of depth of flavour, so nothings wasted. If I've cooked a joint of meat I always boil the bones up with some onion, celery and a carrot for stock and put it in icecube trays in the freezer-then I've got lovely stock on tap and can do away with cubes (beef rib joints make beautiful stock- I can't usually afford such an expensive joint, but my sister works in a pub which does sunday roasts and she always brings me the bones after her shift-dog gets one, stockpot gets the rest, sis gets a tub of fresh stock as a thankyou-everyones happy!!!)

cw18

Wow! Lucky, lucky you

eselt

Just thought some people might be interested in this database of 7000 plants- it gives you a breakdown of medicinal and edible uses, plus tells you where they grow- the actual charity (Plants for a future) is based just up the road from me in cornwall and they are a great bunch of self sufficient, caring people- I met one of them the other day and he's a 'vegan' who gathers/forages all his own food locally and seasonally free, grows his own veg, and only spends £5 a month in shops for nuts, and olive oil-he eats everything raw too so doesn't use any gas/electricity for food prep. Sounded pretty impossible to me!!!! but you've got to admire him!!

Check it out www.pfaf.org/ A note of caution, I tried a few of the laxative/purgent plants and they really really work.....!!!!!!