I made it at home myself for nothing...

Galtizz

Link is Here

I have pm'd you how to do links

16011996

i made them from culpeppers idea.

beachbeth

My mum always made things from scratch and it never occured to me when I got married to buy packets that you add water to and ready meals were a once-in-a-while treat. Now I find that ready meals taste horrible and arent a treat anyway because Im so used to home cooked.

Now my mum is the most excellent cook and has really missed her vocation. She can put ingredients together that you would never think of and make something really tasty. People have always remarked how good her food is! Im not as good a cook as her but I think my two teenage girls appreciate the home cooked meals that they have most of the time.

Im lucky in that I don't work but even when I did work I made sure we ate as well as we could afford!

It is definitely true that it can be quite expensive to work - think of the petrol, running a car (or bus fare), keeping up with the office fashions etc! Much nicer to spend an afternoon in the kitchen preparing a tasty meal for everyone.

filigree_2

I once annoyed the heck out of a market researcher who interviewed me about ready made pasta sauces. She would ask "Do you use Brand A, why not?" and the reply would be "I make my own from basic ingredients". We repeated this silly dialogue for Brand B, Brand C, Brand D... in the end I told her to just write Ditto and stop wasting both our time!

I'm not a saint and I use some convenience food, my reasoning is that sometimes there is a shopping crisis and it's better to open a few packets than order an expensive takeaway.

Of course, if something is BOGOF with coupons and costs me 3 pence a pack, then I'm in like Flynn. I do have principles about home made meals but I have even stronger principles about not turning down free food!

Sarahsaver

I know, same problem with 'what brand of nappies do you use' (i used terries when they were little babies) and what brand of washing powder (i don't) Dp they then think perhaps that we have dirty clothes and my kids were left to wee themselves!?
Im the same as the last poster i will get something readymade if its a silly special offer, but 'ready meals' are a big no-no. I suppose i had a ready meal yesterday, tesco value pasta tubes with a tin of tesco value tuna and some pesto mixed in. Yummy, my 3 year old thought so too.
My kids notice that homemade bread is more filling, i havent got the processed stuff for quite a while now.
Today im making soup, and tonight when the kids are in bed its mince pies and xmas pudding. I also think theres a lot more waste from processed food, packaging etc, and we dont know how much stuff they threw out to end up with what we are sold. The food industry is very wasteful. Once worked in a crisp factory and we got paid to sit there for a few hours doing nothing because the potatoes had not been delivered!!! When the flavour is changed the first few bags are thrown away, from every machine in the factory. Thats a lot of wastage of food and packaging materials. Thats why crisps are 30p and a HUGE sack of spuds if 4 quid.

16011996

well said. i hate those questionaire thingsm they always ask questions that don't apply to me.

r.mac_2

I'm with you on the pasta sauce issue.

I much prefer making my own - healthier as it has no/little additives and you certainly get more for your buck!

I saute an onion (whatever type I have, white, red, spring) and add a tin of plum tomatoes, add a pinch of salt and a pinch sugar (depending on taste). Simmer for 15 mins or so.

If I am extra hungry I add a red/yellow pepper, diced and sauted with the onion.

Very easy to freeze too.

Murtle

by 8am today i had made a curry and a cake
all i need now is to 'make' my kids go to bed early, i was woken up at 5.20 this morning!!!
oh and yoghurt yesterday, tried it using soya milk and it turned out really nice and thick

How do you make yoghurt from soya milk??  

ps absolutely amazed at all the stuff you guys do - like another poster - I just make a mess :-[ but I think I'm about to kick myself into action and sort things out, thanks for the inspiration

xx x x x

Sarahsaver

Soya milk yoghurt, i just followed the method given by Delia https://www.deliaonline.co.uk but used soya milk instead. If you are a complete vegan then start the culture by using a spoonful of soya yoghurt rather than ordinary dairy yoghurt. I found that the homemade soya yoghurt went curdly looking after 3 days whereas the cows milk yoghurt kept for a week.
You do NOT need a milk saver disc thingy in your milk pan, despite what 'she who cooks' says on her website!

chardonnay_2

The kids' treats are timetabled too so they dont pester me to go to the shop after school every day - Friday is 'treat day' where we either get some sweets or a toy from the pound shop, or last week it was a trip into town to see the xmas lights.

kids love routine, i have a really fond memory of every friday when my dad finished early of him taking me to the newsagents for a disney comic and a bar of chocolate ;D didn't vost the earth but i really looked forward to it