The OS Doorstep - a helpful and supportive thread in these tough times

floss2

Kez & Fuddle - if you make toad in the hole, cut the sausages up as you will find that 2/3 or even 1/2 the number will go just as far

Also, adding lentils or oats to stews or mince makes it go farther.

Finally, does your local butcher do free bones for dogs? They can be used to make nutritious soup or even "blind" stew.

thriftmonster

Plus a tip from Lionel Blue (the cooking Rabbi) - add stuffing balls to a toad in the hole - basics packet mix - really yummy and gives the impression of more filling.

Plus when I was little my mum swore by potato scallops and baked beans at the end of the month. Long thin lengthwise slices of potato, dipped in batter and fried slowly (as long as you have oil to fry in). Not the healthiest meal but it's filling, tasty and gives you protein, fat and carbs.

Good luck to you both.

[Deleted User]

FUDDLE I always add pearl barley to a stew and if things are tight I use half the amount of meat in the recipe and chuck in a tin of basics baked beans. The pearl barley and beans combine to make a protein comparable with meat so the nutrition is right too. I've a wonderful book called Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe that gives you recipes for combinations of cereals and pulses or cereals and milk etc. that give protein equivalent to meats in vegetarian recipes. It is an interesting read from the early 70s but very useful when you are on a tight budget, might be worth seeing if the library has a copy. When I'm home again I'll send you the ISBN number and publishing details if you want them. Keep your pecker up girlie , ask and we'll help as much and as often as you need us to, Cheers Lyn xxx.

fuddle

Oh I like that idea thrift monster - stuffing balls in toad in the hole! thanks for de-lurking

How many eggs for a toad in the hole do you think. Tray not as big as a roasting dish.

Florenceem

mardatha wrote: »

I haven't touched a sweetie since the 15th of June Ginny :D
Low carbing ! Tried Atkins/Paleo but hated it, people telling me I had to eat more to make it work and I'm not a big eater ever. And all the sodding green stuff -YEUGH!
So now I'm doing the Carb Addicts diet (CAD) and can happily go all day with an oatcake or two then have a normal meal at night. I suppose its a mix of fasting and low carbing. But I've lost just over a stone already and like this way of eating.
Re food banks - are there any in Scotland? I've never heard of any. I don't think there will be many up in my area - people would starve quietly to death here rather than make a fuss.
I'm another one who wore cardboard soles lol and poly bags inside boots. And we had many soup & pudding nights, pudding being home made cake with custard. School uniform you had to get from one local shop and of course it was always the dearest one.

I had 6 children to get school uniforms for. I volunteered to help run two school second hand uniform shops so got first choice on the items. Yes - I had to donate a couple of hours 2 mornings a week but it was worth it plus it helped other families.

thriftmonster

I usually use 3 for 8oz of flour for a mega one - but you can get away with 2 eggs. Luckily one of the tricks to getting it rise is to use half milk, half water - very MSE. If the tin is quite small you could try 4oz and 1 egg - that makes 12 individual yorkies. I make a mega one to fill up the ds's (17 & 14) as flour and 3 eggs are cheaper than sausages. One of the pubs near us serves it with loads of mash as well - just the thing for hollow legs.

[Deleted User]

I just use a Yorkshire pudding batter mix for Toad in the Hole which is

1 egg
1/2 a pint of water + 2 tablespoons of skimmed milk powder
4 heaped tablespoons of plain flour
a pinch of salt

I cook the sausages in the oven in some dripping/lard until they start to brown then when the fat is really hot I pour in the batter mix and cook it for as long as I do a big Yorkshire. Cheap and very easy.

GreyQueen

Afternoon all.

Fuddle, appreciate your reticence about the issue but I have every confidence that you are woman enough to rise to the challenge. We'll support you; you know that.

Was racking my brains to recall typical family meals back in the seventies when Bruv and I were nippers and the money was equally small.

Toad-in-the-hole was a regular meal, brown the sausies first and serve with gravy. Gravy helps a lot of things go down, in my experience. There were stews where the chunks of stewing beef were rather outnumbered by the root veg and lentils but they were tasty. And there were dumplings.....

We ate a lot of semolina as a pudding, especially in the winter. It's easy and filling, I don't think there's anything wrong with it nutritionally but it is a tad bland. We used to get a dollop of jam in the middle of the bowl and I can still recall winding it around to make the pudding stripy and spread the sweetness.

Mum's recollection of an improverished 1940s-50s chilldhood was that suet featured strongly. In both savoury and sweet dishes. Funnily enough, everyone was slim, even on a calorie-dense diet, as they were very active. Her foster-Dad was still ploughing with horses and walking many miles a day.

Have you considered fish, such as smoked haddock? Maybe only for you and OH as the taste can be a bit strong for littlies. If you're not already a regular at Icelund, please can I recommend them? Some people seem to get a bit snooty about this store but their stuff is good quality and very reasonable.

And when every other supermarket seemed to be having horsies where they should've been having coos, and even Waitroose was caught having the wrong species in its products, there was no scandal at the land of the ice.

Florenceem

fuddle wrote: »

Oh I like that idea thrift monster - stuffing balls in toad in the hole! thanks for de-lurking

How many eggs for a toad in the hole do you think. Tray not as big as a roasting dish.

I use 2 eggs plus 6 ounces plain flour.

mardatha

I love semolina, could eat a pailful. Yes with a dollop of jam in the middle
Fuddle dont take more kelp than it says on the bottle - it's high in salt.
Re D/Ds bouncing etc - that's why I hate the things and use cash wherever possible. I save the cash weekly for everything and put it in the bank the day before it comes out.