two frugal years to freedom: a fritterer's tale

joedenise

can you freeze pizza dough? because that's the faffy bit that I usually can't be bothered with when tired/ill, proving knocking back etc.

Yes you can. You can either freeze it in a ball or you can roll out and stack them up with greaseproof paper between them.

Denise

liltdiddylilt

Hi lobbyludd!

Sounds like you're having a bit of a time of it really. The chicken and beef stews sound lovely and I admire you for doing them. I am so tragically lazy when it comes to cooking although I am a good cook

Couldn't you just kill fussy kids. The only green thing jellytot would eat was peas and now suddenly she doesn't like them. Rahhh!

lobbyludd

oooh fab joedenise - thank you, I'll make a massive amount this weekend and freeze then

well - good intentions......burnt the bottom of the chicken stew (rescued enough for work and have added extra stock to overpower the smoky aroma!) and after that decided just to portion and freeze the beef, I'll cook it another time.

Lilt - the only vegetable that both kids will now eat is broccoli. ds will also eat sweetcorn and peas and dd claims she likes cucumber but will never actually eat it. they were both amazing eaters until they were about 2 and then they gradually stopped eating most things, ds has started getting more adventurous lately though which is great. I found out after struggling to get ds to eat veg and feeling i was failing him that kids have way more taste buds than adults, and they change in mix of types when you are 2 ish and again going in to puberty, so lots of veg taste horribly bitter to children. Some people hypothesize that evolutionarily speaking this was an adaptation for the point at which they switched from mother's milk to picking up their own bits and bobs to eat as they were more mobile and bitter things were often poisonous (lots of plants are) so avoiding anything bitter tasting was a good thing -

and that's exactly what I told ex MIL every time she pointedly waffled on about what good eaters her children always were and ways to get mine to eat "properly" (her son is a complete veg-dodger in adulthood).

jelly will get there in her own good time I had a cousin who for an entire year would only eat chips chicken and jam sandwiches. she was and is perfectly healthy, her gp was entirely unconcerned as she was a healthy weight, thriving at school and socially and eventually she decided to eat more things.

lobbyludd

£6 on milk, bread and sweet treats for the mitherers. lunch and tea was smoked chicken stew (very edible despite the burning).

got my £120 of amazon vouchers through from switching broadband to EE - hurrah. may buy an enormous amount of cat food with the bulk of it and flea drops to stop me frittering. do need to earmark some for a cheap microwave for when friend wants hers back .

will not buy brand named cast iron pan in coastal blue with it. burning a hole, burning a hole. I should try and forget it really. this is a test.

lobbyludd

have ordered £30 of cat food from amazon as his nibs does have to eat.

I can't yet do £60 for a month of food, I'd have to work much harder at getting it right so I'm reverting back to £80, I know I can do that with planning and not waste money at the local shop on expensive treats for the kids because I've not got a secret stash in.

This month the kids are at my mum's for the first week of the summer holidays so I can work through the more interesting food that i've got in and have some hm treats that I like.

I am staring into a possible 3 week stretch without coffee on the reduced food budget, and I'm afraid that's a step too far.

I tested the potatoes and have dug one out - it's the size of a pea lol, think I may need to wait a little longer - ds wants the "potato-fail" roasted - he shall have it!!

liltdiddylilt

LOL at your potato fail. Won't take long to roast :rotfl:

You inspired me big time. I have spent a good portion of the last 2 days ambitiously using up all the meat in the fridge (including smoked bacon that 'went off' on the 28th... It smelled, and looked fine, and no dodgy tummy reactions thus far to yesterdays dinner including some. I made, creamy hunters chicken stew (so so yum!) - 6 portions!!! Also a spaghetti bolognese for the little miss, with 250gms of mince. The other 500gms went into a homemade chilli con carne. I have never done it without the packet mix I am ashamed to say and was surprised at how ridiculously easy it was! All the ingredients were in the cupboard!! Also did chicken with onions and mushrooms. Love this. So simple, bit of salt and pepper and I could sit and eat it on it's own until 2 meals worth has disappeared. Luckily I stored it and have added pasta and roasted veg for work lunches! And made sausage casserole in the slow cooker today, just turned it off. Ate yesterdays slow cooker spoils today, 'soy glazed chicken adobo' yum!

So thank you. I have successfully cooked a weeks worth of food, my freezer and fridge are groaning, I wasted nothing! And I researched recipes and learned new skills

I totally feel you on the coffee. Before I had jellytot I only drank tea (with a teaspoon of milk - true story) and 2 sugars! Now, I drink douwe egberts, usually £6.58 a jar minimum. I am a snob, but I love it and cannot drink cheaper coffee. I also switched from 2 sugars in both drinks to 1 stevia sweetener. And changed to black tea, with soya milk in my coffee (allergic to dairy proteins) - The DE was on offer at £3 in Mr A's a while back. I bought 5 jars! Lol.

Will be back, but hope you enjoy cooking whatever you feel like with no kids in tow. Jellytot today stole the wooden spoon from the soy glazed chicken and licked it to death. I ended up giving her a piece of chicken, with some sauce and the onions and wilted spinach in it too. She actually ate it. I nearly fell over!!! I was a bit worried about the salt content but I had chucked a potato quartered into the slow cooker with the soy sauce and apple cider vinegar that makes up half of the glaze, and it sucked most of the 'salt' out

lobbyludd

go Jelly with the soy glazed chicken

I have run out of coffee.
I forgot to get it at the toscos earlier.
I am reduced to drinking tea.
I have lots of top quality tea.

Not the same though.

I am trying very hard not to go to the corner shop for a tiny jar of rubbish coffee for £8000 - or whatever ridiculous price they charge and will get some decent coffee tomorrow.

Work has coffee, so I'm not entirely bereft.

non-coffee updates:
the window-cleaner has collected his last payment so that's not burning a hole in pocket any more.
phone company have not charged me again for the line connection (I may have misunderstood this, they have charged me for broadband connection, but I thought there was a line connection from BT as well) so the £60 I had put in budget for that can be used towards holibobs in august (5 days camping near mum's cottage, pitch paid for by lovely mum, but petrol costs ove £100 to get there and had no spends - including food - budgetted, so that's a lot better )
managed to be a decimal place out in the electric meter reading submission (should have read 8hundredish but I entered 8thousandish) asked for it to be overwritten and customer services online response unit can't understand my request and have quoted non-applicable OFGEM regs at me. I'll ring them.
cat food arrived for his nibs should last 3ish months.
boot full of food for £36
£6 over planned spend entirely on off-list reductions that actually aren't that good value - MUST stick to the list in future.
friday tomorrow, I've woken up every day this week thinking "TGIF" - tomorrow it actually will be.
number one offspring got final primary report and welsh SATs equivalent scores and I'm very proud of him.

45 swagbucks
11p Qmee
31 nectar adpoints
25 "tell us about your shopping experience" clubcard points
full day of paid employment
as many children at the end of the day as at the beginning.

over-all a good day

liltdiddylilt

I LOVE your update, especially the coffee and having as many children at the end of the day as at the start :rotfl: - hope you avoided the corner shop. I am so off tea.. I just can't be bothered with it. It seems a waste of the muscles used to swallow at the minute, and thus a waste of a teabag!

I too get caught out with the supermarkets naughty offers and reductions that aren't worth my time. Precisely why I avoided the £5 Mr M fruit and veg voucher in the Scum today as I will only spend endless money on deli food etc and cancel it out and then some!

Re the elec meter reading, surely their system should pick up such a vast difference in readings anyway and have got in contact with you? It used to flag to a special team when I worked at e.On if it would generate an abnormally large bill. That was a few years ago though.

Hope you have a lovely evening! I am stuffed full of my lovely dinner still, although I may have found and eaten way too many sherbet flying saucers in the cupboard though. I found them in the cupboard, I didn't eat them in there... Lol. Anyways you still inspire me, Heston Blumenthal or not :D:D

lobbyludd

well - tea's fine, mostly, (and I really like lady grey tea) it's just an additional drink to coffee, not a replacement. I now have some - which is a blooming good job as snapped at boss yesterday. boss was once again, saying something incredibly tactless in an open office that I've hinted before is not a good idea, and instead of taking them aside and explaining why this was tactless I snapped in front of everyone. thing is I'm still not sure they've got it. still, I'm blaming the lack of coffee.

final credit card bill is due on monday so I can update my new totals, hurray

cashed out £5 amazon vouchers yesterday on sb, will try harder to build up a pot of amazon vouchers for christmas, or see if I can buy necessaries with these and put the equivalent cash to christmas fund or to pay off credit, hmm, well I'll decide when i've got some money to play with (not at the moment).

yesterday was not an nsd - bought 4 lovely denby egg-cups for 99p (picked up so no postage) I've been after some of these for ages to do christmas presents, BUT I really love them, I don't have any egg cups. maybe by christmas I'll be bored of them.

also instead of buying a takeaway I bought some pakora and coriander hummus on the way home, need to learn to make onion bajis the way my favourite restaurant does (really light and crispy with chickpeas and chickpea flour, but no idea on the spice mix.

today won't be an nsd eaither, friend coming over, so will be takeaway and wine (once a month treat) but we'll be doing sewing projects with the kids so hardly the decadent blow-out of the century. (I'm so rock and roll).

edit: fuel company rung and they will delete the incorrect reading - this can take a while though apparently so I'll have another estimated bill, but at least it won't be a bill for thousands of pounds

liltdiddylilt

Hey there

Well done on avoiding the takeaway last night. I avoided last week with all my batch cooking. I may make up for it this week though

Found this online ages ago. I haven't tried it but I had saved it for a rainy day!

(Makes 8)
60g gram flour
30g rice flour
1 tbsp ghee or butter, melted
Juice of ¼ lemon
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin seeds, coarsely chopped
¼ tsp fennel seeds
1-2 hot green chillies (to taste), finely minced
2 tsp root ginger, finely grated
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Small bunch of coriander, chopped
2 fresh curry leaves, chopped (optional)
2 onions, halved, core removed and thinly sliced
Vegetable oil, to cook

Sift the flours into a mixing bowl, then stir in the ghee and lemon juice and just enough cold water to bring it to the consistency of double cream. Stir in the spices, aromatics and herbs and add salt to taste. Stir in the onions so they are well coated.

Heat the oil in a deep-fat fryer to 180C, or fill a large pan a third full with oil and heat – a drop of batter should sizzle as it hits the oil, then float. Meanwhile, put a bowl of cold water next to the hob, and a plate lined with kitchen paper. Put the oven on a low heat.

Once the oil is up to temperature, wet your hands and shape tablespoon-sized amounts of the mixture into balls. Drop into the oil, being careful not to overcrowd the pan, then stir carefully to stop them sticking. Cook for about four minutes, turning occasionally, until crisp and golden, then drain on the paper and put in the oven to keep warm while you cook the next batch. Serve with chutney or pickle.