'supporting each other through really tough times'

Popperwell

Of course you do make a fair point Nobody...I generally enjoy most of their work and them. Its good to have another opinion. I have an open mind on most things...

Have you seen these posts?

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=59347661&postcount=56

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=59347739&postcount=57

VJsmum

Morning!

Horses for courses is a very unfortunate phrase at the moment!! :rotfl:

My mum had to cook extremely frugal meals - there were 6 of us on a very low income. I don't really know how she did it, but typical meals would be

Roast on Sunday (pretty much always)
stew on Monday
shepherds pie
bacon pudding - she'd get "bacon bits" from the butcher (end bits I guess) and then make a plain suet pud mix, rolled out into a rectangle, scatter bacon pieces over it and roll it up into a sausage shape before cooking. We would have it in slices - bloomin delish, but extremely calorific. Though we were never fat.
mince done in the oven with roasties - i loved that, can still taste it.
fish fingers
sausage meat patties

I'm guessing she did vary it, but these are the things i remember. Very stodgy food but, as I said, we were none of us fat. Afters was something we only had at weekends, and usually something with custard. In fact my brother once said to her "what are we having with custard today?" :rotfl: She did change it up a bit after that I think the thing with mum was that she didn't like anything spicy, or anything with rice or pasta (except, bizarrely rice pudding or macaroni pudding - oh that must have been something we had without custard!!), and because she couldn't afford to waste anything she couldn't really afford to experiment, so she wasn't confident that we would eat those things. In later years she do bolognaise and she just had it with a jacket spud whilst the rest of us had spaghetti.

Sorry waffled on then.

I am experimenting with the 5:2 diet and today is a 2 day. I shall have half a grapefruit for breakfast, a bowl of butternut squash soup for lunch and a light dinner. i did it on Tuesday and it was OK. I will see how I go - even if it is just a kick start to lose some weight, that'll be something.

Have a good day all

nuttyp

morning everyone, did anyone see ch4 obsessive cleaners last night. I watched it and have decided im bordering some of the cleaning habbits. I have to clean the toilet daily, sometimes twice and i am always hoovering. I use to laugh at DD fiance when he mentions things like it, but maybe he has a point. I have to behave myself when i visit. I seem to walk in and then tidy up. Must stop!!!!

Had a lovely day with my girls, was nice to spend some time together. But i had a major headache, but then a migraine as when i got to bed as soon as i shut my eyes i could see the holograms dancing around. Felt so sick.

So today im going to just chill......

have a good day everyone

Pooky

VJs - my childhood meals sound very similar to yours. We had the stewpot that lasted all week on the really tight weeks to. Everytime a bowl full came out a few more veg would go in to top it up. My Dad was a carpenter when I was very little so if he had work we had money, if he was between jobs/sites then we'd go to my aunts or grandparents for dinner. All of my aunts were in the same position, ones husband was a fisherman, the other a bricklayer so what I remember as fantastic family meals with my cousins were in fact the families coming together to share what food they had in order to make a meal for the kids.

Fuddle - I do my meat stocks in the Slowcooker, bung the bones in and veg if you want add enough water to cover the bones and leave for a good few hours, when the bones are softer fish the bigger ones out and crack them open to release the marrow and bung back in. I normally leave them in there for a good 6 hours before straining the liquid off. Yum!

Peeing down here and thick horrible fog, I need to do a food shop but DH isn't to good so he's gone back to bed for a couple of hours. Will see what the afternoon brings.

sevenup01

Morning all. Thank you everyone for thinking of my little brother. We were supposed to hear from the police yesterday but didnt so i will call them today for an update.
Nuttyp i hope your headache or migraine is better now? I am in the third day of mne and its much better but still annoying me just it being there at the back of my head. It started at the right side, move to all over and is now at the back. URgh. I even went to bed for an hour yesterday which helped but also scared my kids as i NEVER sleep in daytime.
I should go out and deliver some orders but think i will be better off staying in the warm and do them tomorow.

Vjsmum i like the sound of your menu. Its very much the type of meals i grew up with. The bacon roll one i remember as having a tin of baked beans poured over the bacon and maybe a couple of eggs cracked on to it before being messily rolled up and cooked. Was really lovely.

maryb

Meat stocks are a really good source of calcium in a form the body can use easily. Try adding a tablespoonful of vinegar to the water, it helps to leach the calcium from the bones and you don't taste it in the finished stock.

My chicken stock used to taste a bit dull (even though I added lots of veggies and bay leaves) until I started doing it the way Gordon Ramsay does it - he adds about half a bulb of garlic cut in half so there is a cut side to each of the cloves, together with some thyme. I've got thyme growing in the garden but dried thyme works as well. Garlic is also very good for you ( as in antibacterial/antibiotic/immune system stregthening) and it doesn't taste garlicky in the finished product, just yummy. I could drink the chicken stock just as a hot drink it's so tatsy

katieowl_2

I bottled out last night didn't say anything. I felt physically sick all evening.

There was a card (Non valentines, picture of owls) on my laptop this morning...the one place it could not be missed. I ignored it for a bit, then opened it, and went and said. "Thank you for the card, I'm sorry but I didn't get you one" he started to say "That's ok..." but I interrupted and said "I started to have a panic attack in the shop and I had to leave" and walked out of the room...I heard him say "Oh dear..." but then he went out to his workshop, and has carried on as if nothing has happened. Which is what he does best...

I've now moved on to my next crisis which is DS birthday tomorrow and I have to meet DD in town, even if I give him cash I have to give him something however small. I'm in a right state generally...!!!!!! is wrong with me!

:} Thanks for listening. You are a great bunch!

Kate

7_week_wonder

Kate,

Another big hug coming your way. It sounds like stuff has slowly been accumulating in your life for a while and it's got to the point where you can't just shrug and carry on! Is there any way you could go away for a wee break just for yourself, even if it is only an overnight break or something? Maybe visit a friend or check into a B&B (you could claim you were doing market research!) armed with a pile of books (Did you get this year's Booker shortlist? I remember you discussing it last year) and do nothing but go for a walk, read, drink hot chocolate and chill by yourself for 24 hours.

For DS - could you get away with baking him a cake plus some other goodies? Or getting him a really cheap "tuck box", just a pile of his favourite sweets and treats? Something that is readily available, cheap and won't stress you.

Take care of yourself.

The_Dragon

fuddle wrote: »

What has surprised me reading up on stock is that its packed with vitamins and minerals. Literally all the goodness from the veg and bones goes into it. I read one older lady saying that stock had all the benefits of eating veg without eating veg. I don't get it though as I was taught that cooking the veg gets rid of goodness. How can it be in a stock that's on the hob from anywhere from 3 hours to 12 one lady suggested (eeek the gas!)

What happens is that the goodness from the veg goes into the cooking liquid, so in this case it goes into the stock

nuttyp

Kaieowl, im so sorry your having a bad time. I think everyone gets like this at sometime or another. I hope you can find to time for yourself and just chill.

My migraine at the moment is stress related. I know as yesterday everything that could go wrong did. My OH tries to help, but he cant. I forgot his mums birthday was yesterday - he did too. So today i will get some flowers, any will do and a card.


Right must crack on, curtains still shut but its nicer that way!!!