I'm eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge

recovering_spendaholic

Lynsey - I love this site http://www.crockingirls.com/ - it's a slow cooker recipe site run by two Mums - they have loads of recipes, videos and they have a chat forum too with loads of hints and tips on it. Americans do indeed use their slow cookers for all kinds of weird and wonderful stuff - they make this thing called "dump cake" which can be loads of different flavours and is basically what we would call a sponge pudding I think. It's worth a look!

I envy you being able to use Quorn - for some reason, and I don't know why, I am allergic to it - if I have it I get horrendous stomach pains and I go all puffy - it's weird - I'm not allergic to mushrooms so there must be something else in it.

Went to Mr T tonight and not a SINGLE thing was reduced! Got some mince and garlic for DD2's cookery lesson tomorrow - she is making bolognaise so if it's okay we will have it for tea! She is very excited about it. For the first time in AGES I didn't have any mince in the freezer!

I am still debating about the slow cooker - I want the Morphy Richards flavour savour one - cheapest place at the moment is Very. I think it might save on my electricity particularly as I have just had a bill for £425 for the last quarter's gas and electricity combined:eek:

Lynsey

Thanks Jane, I'll have a look.
The Morphy Richards one looks nice, but expensive!!
Mine is a cheapie, LOGIK from Curry's when they were rebranding and clearing and probably during the £5 voucher "glitch" (got loads of free stuff).

EDIT: OMG, this is when I bought it (slow cooker) lol.
http://forum.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=38924962&postcount=9
A bit of an antique!!!

Lynsey

bramble1

I am hoping for 3 nsd in a row this weekend. Tonight's dinner is some chicken drumsticks with jacket potatoes, I've got a packet of hickory marinade i will use on the chicken. May do some beans too.

I have SO much pasta around the house, so instead of buying bread for lunches next week i shall be doing pasta salads.

cheerfulness4

Those marzipan muffins sound nice. Just printed that recipe off, thanks Recovering.

Having a treaty lunch today as its my anniversary weekend (24 years ) I'm defrosting a lovely piece of steak we got reduced a few weeks back and having it with chips, mushrooms, toms, peas etc. The whole works! Can't wait.

Fortunately the others don't eat steak so tonight when they come in they'll be having Sausage (masses of reduced in freezer), chips beans and eggs. I have a fair few eggs to use up so they'll come in handy for lovely breakfasts. Might have french toast one day this weekend.

Going shopping this morning as soon as I've had my hair cut. Won't be any bargains I shouldn't imagine at that time but thats fine as I'm still trying to make a bit of space in freezer. Still jam packed with goodies so no need to spend much.

Must check out the lidls offers tho for this week.

Wow its cold this morning. Frosty white outside.:snow_laug

Lynsey

bramble1 wrote: »

I am hoping for 3 nsd in a row this weekend.

Never went out last night, so I've actually completed 3 NSD's in a row (by luck as Tesco never had the milk yesterday to use with coupons). 10p spent in 4 days. :j
Good week so far, good year so far in fact.
Must buy today as only 1/2 pint of milk left. Tomorrow I'll buy also, always do on a Saturday.

Took out a pack of rump steak this morning ready for slow cooker tomorrow - hope it goes well and need to get my head around how I'm going to make this!!

BTW - It's Friday 13th - be careful. :rotfl:

Lynsey

tracey12_2

I love my slow cooker. I haven't had it long but have made beef stew with dumplings, cooked a whole chicken (you will be amazed how much more meat you seem to get from it), soup, I am now cooking jacket potatoes in it today for the first time.

Tracey

canspendnomore

Lynsey wrote: »

We all have our weaknesses.

The foil makes sense in a dry slow cooker I suppose, interesting.
With a slow cooker, do you or can you leave it on overnight, or just pop it on in the morning for an evening meal??
I would imagine slow cooked meat would be very tender??

Lynsey

If I wanted to do it the night before, I'd just keep the bowl in the fridge overnight and then put the bowl in and turn it on in the morning, in case any ingredients ruined overnight.

If you put it on Low/Auto you need about 8 hours of cooking, half if you put it on high. If you were to find it wasnt cooked enough you can always put it on high for the final few hours of cooking. It's quite flexible really. It's easy to think of it different to cooking on your cooker, but it's similar, just cooks slower!!!

canspendnomore

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

Lynsey - I love this site http://www.crockingirls.com/ - it's a slow cooker recipe site run by two Mums - they have loads of recipes, videos and they have a chat forum too with loads of hints and tips on it. Americans do indeed use their slow cookers for all kinds of weird and wonderful stuff - they make this thing called "dump cake" which can be loads of different flavours and is basically what we would call a sponge pudding I think. It's worth a look!

I envy you being able to use Quorn - for some reason, and I don't know why, I am allergic to it - if I have it I get horrendous stomach pains and I go all puffy - it's weird - I'm not allergic to mushrooms so there must be something else in it.

Went to Mr T tonight and not a SINGLE thing was reduced! Got some mince and garlic for DD2's cookery lesson tomorrow - she is making bolognaise so if it's okay we will have it for tea! She is very excited about it. For the first time in AGES I didn't have any mince in the freezer!

I am still debating about the slow cooker - I want the Morphy Richards flavour savour one - cheapest place at the moment is Very. I think it might save on my electricity particularly as I have just had a bill for £425 for the last quarter's gas and electricity combined:eek:

Thanks for the site info, will need to take a look at that. I think that Quorn is made from a distant cousin (so to speak) of mushrooms, so it could still be the problem. Shame though cos it's so low in fat.

I can't believe your electric\gas bill, I be you nearly had a heart attack. A slow cooker could help, but I think teenagers can be very unhelpful with these things too, but I guess there's not much you can do about that, eh! Got all that to come, my lo is only 4, so he cant reach most of the light switches yet!!!

Having said that because we pay by DD monthly I forget to look at the bills. (Note to self: check bills immediately!!!)

Lynsey

Bought my milk and got some muffins from Lidl, nothing else and £1.54 spent. I would love to have waited until tomorrow but the milk wouldn't last. Maybe I should freeze a carton for reserve of get a pack of long life for emergencies.

The slow cooker is now out on the bench, ready to be switched on in the morning - still got cardboard protecting the plug!!!
So basically, I'll be putting a layer of carrots, swede, potato, lightly fried onions in the bottom of the bowl and browned steak on the top??
Do you cook in gravy or just water and add granules later??
How much liquid would you recommend??
Put on low setting for 8 hours or so??
I've only got 3 cook settings, low, high and warm.
Bigger bowl than I'd imagine, especially cooking for just two.

Fingers crossed.

Lynsey

Lip_Stick

Yesterday I had my sausages and mash, with sweetcorn, tomatoes, onion rings, and peppercorn sauce. It was gorgeous and I felt stuffed for ages.

Tonight I think it's going to be fish and chips. I fancy it as I've not had it for ages and I've not got anything out of the freezer to defrost.

rs - that website looks good, there's some interesting recipes on there that I fancy trying out.

Lynsey wrote: »

Bought my milk and got some muffins from Lidl, nothing else and £1.54 spent. I would love to have waited until tomorrow but the milk wouldn't last. Maybe I should freeze a carton for reserve of get a pack of long life for emergencies.

The slow cooker is now out on the bench, ready to be switched on in the morning - still got cardboard protecting the plug!!!
So basically, I'll be putting a layer of carrots, swede, potato, lightly fried onions in the bottom of the bowl and browned steak on the top??
Do you cook in gravy or just water and add granules later??
How much liquid would you recommend??
Put on low setting for 8 hours or so??
I've only got 3 cook settings, low, high and warm.
Bigger bowl than I'd imagine, especially cooking for just two.

Fingers crossed.

Lynsey

Hi Lynsey. Yes that's how you do it. I sometimes put mine on high for the first couple of hours then switch to low, just so I know it'll be done on time and it's practically impossible to over-cook something, but if you're not going to be you can't do that.

Put the potatoes at the bottom then add the carrots/swede, onion and steak as you said. What dish is it you're making? I do the potatoes separately, as it's a !!!!! when they're still hard lol.

I'm going to use my slow cooker next week with the lamb I have, I'm making a promise to myself!