Family of 5 'shop from home'food storage challenge...

donnajt

spent £101.something, but I did pick up two of the butcher counter joints of beef and boneless pork joint (have never cooked pork before will need help!!) the biggest piece was a £16 joint reduced to £6.10 - that's gone straight into the freezer for leaner times

Right the braid dough is in the breadmixer, am planning on hobnobs and cherry bakewells, got DD a copy of the Shrek cookbook from the Book People for £2 and it has an amazing recipe for tomato soup - I am going to make a double batch today - I plan to use half of it as a tomato pizza topping base

I cheated and bought ready made pastry - I was thinking of trying a chicken pie tomorrow - can I use a tin of condensed soup? - got a nice campbells chicken & white wine soup - I was thinking those bacon lardon things, chicken, mushroom, peas, onion - but would I need to add water to the soup? if so, would it make it really wet? dumb question but would I need to cook the chicken first?

my little girl is almost eight, I'm v lucky, she is a very good girl, does anybody have experience of sleepovers? I'm not sure what I am letting myself in for but we are only inviting girls that are very local (just in case we need to take them home) and all four I know them and their parents extremely well

re child tax credits - I am going to give them a ring and ask if I can do the application over the phone - because I've had the same problem - in 18 months I have requested 12 forms - I only received 1 - which they claim they never received

right back to the kitchen...hope you are all having great days, donna x

ravylesley

donnajt you got quite a bargain there with the meat.

As for the Chicken pie,Yes you can use condensed soup I use it all the time but wouldn't personally add any water as I like thick rich sauces and the veg releases liquid as you cook it so will dilute it slightly anyway.

purpleivy

Hiya Donna, you sound busy!

See my thread Pastry Economics.... I'll try and find the link for you. It might help you save a few pennies!


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=675197&highlight=pastry+economics

donnajt wrote: »

spent £101.something, but I did pick up two of the butcher counter joints of beef and boneless pork joint (have never cooked pork before will need help!!) the biggest piece was a £16 joint reduced to £6.10 - that's gone straight into the freezer for leaner times

Right the braid dough is in the breadmixer, am planning on hobnobs and cherry bakewells, got DD a copy of the Shrek cookbook from the Book People for £2 and it has an amazing recipe for tomato soup - I am going to make a double batch today - I plan to use half of it as a tomato pizza topping base

I cheated and bought ready made pastry - I was thinking of trying a chicken pie tomorrow - can I use a tin of condensed soup? - got a nice campbells chicken & white wine soup - I was thinking those bacon lardon things, chicken, mushroom, peas, onion - but would I need to add water to the soup? if so, would it make it really wet? dumb question but would I need to cook the chicken first?

my little girl is almost eight, I'm v lucky, she is a very good girl, does anybody have experience of sleepovers? I'm not sure what I am letting myself in for but we are only inviting girls that are very local (just in case we need to take them home) and all four I know them and their parents extremely well

re child tax credits - I am going to give them a ring and ask if I can do the application over the phone - because I've had the same problem - in 18 months I have requested 12 forms - I only received 1 - which they claim they never received

right back to the kitchen...hope you are all having great days, donna x

bebee_2

Welcome to any Newbies - sorry not been to good the last couple of days but have gone back a little bit to try to catch up.
Donna - Welcome i agreed that this thread and site is a eye opener, like you and others we had to cut budgets. After over 15 yrs my OH had a situation where he had to go to the claim JBS personally we found JBS were ok But the Council Tax benifit bit was the worst. they put us through the loop!!
Fortunately OH did get another job within 2 weeks BUT it is a lot lot less in salary so we have had to adapt. and though this thread and others it has made things a lot easier and healthier and i don't feel as alone dealing with things.
so a PLEASE to one and all keep up the good work as i'm sure you all now every little bit helps.

ps. i made icing buns with custard in yesterday using the braid mix and they were a massive hit nearly had a que at the front door :rotfl:

donnajt

I have cooked up a storm in the kitchen - I've made 6 individual cherry bakewells, and one large minus the cherries (OH hates cherries) - they look divine

I've made 2 plaits but in my excitement I didn't follow the instructions properly, so dough wasn't quite dough when I took it out of BM - 10 mins of dough later it was ok - so I made one apple and one pizza braid - the pizza one is yummy! but the dough could be better

also made hobnobs but they resemble rockcakes I think I took "smallish balls" a bit too literally

my arms ache from all the rolling LOL! but I have got 1/2 the braid dough in the freezer and 1/2 the bakewell pastry also

so pleased with myself:rotfl: :T :j

purpleivy - I cannot believe your thread - must try harder, I think I need to invest in a food processor - used to have one but gave it away due to lack of use/storage issues. I def need a bigger mixing bowl and I think my scales are on the blink - should invest in digital ones

ravylesly - thanks for the chicken pie recipe - I am going to do this tomorrow as I am doing the beef and bean shep pie tonight

bebee - thank you so much for such a lovely post

purpleivy

Donna, the pastry freezes fine if you wrap it well, so I tend to do 4 lots one after another, use what I need and freeze the rest. I'm basically laazy and don't want to wash the food processor more than once.

Sassamac

Hi Donna and welcome, Were in a similar situation. DH got made redundant 9 months ago and the job he has now only pays about two thirds of what it was. We have just cut out / down on loads of stuff and just about scraping by. We've had grief with tax credits who have been paying us a pittance as they got the income oh so wrong and we were none the wiser. Just worked it out last night how much we should be receiving and its certainly enough for us to live on, we'll feel like millionaires comapred to the lifestyle were leading at the mo. Anyway chase them up and mkae sure you get what you're entitled to.

Well the second batch of hobnobs are just out of the oven as the first batch I made at the w/e are gone already. I altered the recipe slightly, using just half the sugar in the recipe, and having nicked a hot hobnob off the tray, it didnt taste any worse for it. Also used a little bit less syrup with the itnetion of making them more crunchy and less chewy, which also had the effect of stopping them spreading across the baking trays (my first batch all merged). I got 31 out of my first batch and 45 out of this batch. Lets see if they last any longer as a result!

Also did some HM choc cpread this morning. Im not convinced it has turned out right. It didnt really do as the recipe said so I made it up a bit as I went along. I put it in the fridge to cool (in the jar) so should really go and check what consistencey it has come out as. Has anyone made it before. It was a recipe I got off the OS board somehwere (not sure where just stumbled across it and scribbled it down), wondered if anyone else had tried it.

Suggestions welocme please, its my birthday on Sunday and as per usual I shall be baking my own birthday cake. Not sure what I want though. Something a bit different as most of my baking these days is of the quick and easy variety, so fancy something slightly more extravagent, but not thats going to take all w/e to make.

purpleivy

DOne a bit of baking just now and photographed so will post later... used up a few things, buttermilk (well out of date) in some fruit scones, a change as I normally do plain, ds requested summer fruit muffins when asked to select from the book, found requisite amount of fruit in freezer of unknown vintage, not tasted yet, but appears to have done the job, loaf, also trifle sponge (see tropical trifle thread). place smells good, who needs air freshener,

Was going to do wedges to go with burgers at teatime, but family will probably be prepared to scoff cake instead.

Sassamac

well done on all your baking PI, would love to see the pics.

Ive just done a risotto for dinner for the first time ever and used the chicken stock, which I made last week for the first time in a long time. It was lovely. DH approved despite his general dislike of rice. DS refused to even try it (hes very reluctant with new dishes) so DD polished off his when she finished hers (bless her 16 months and eats 2 portions of food that would fill the average school kid).

Had a rummage in the freezer this afternoon and Im very impressed with the amount of space its generating. I also wrote out a weeks shopping list which I will get tomorrow. Added it all up and it comes to just £15, just fruit, veg, dairy and the odd tin to make up the dinners. So certainly seems to be saving us money.

Today I have meal planned about 8 definite dinners out of the freezer and theres potential for more in there, which I will worry about next week when we've cleared it some more. Plus tonights risotto is only half eaten, so there is an entire dinner to go back in the freezer for the week after next.

I originally hoped to survive for the first two weeks of Feb using just what I have in stock, but it looks at this rate like I might make it to the end of the month, or at least close.

purpleivy

I didn't really want to get rid of everything in the freezer, just to get rid of non OS stuff (not much of that really) and some of the stuff that has been residing there for some time.

The forest fruits in the muffins I used this afternoon were dated BBsome time in 2004, but they tasted fine. There is some older stuff there, so will defrost and sniff. Only stewed fruit and stuff.

Rescued some raspberry freezer jam. That is sooooo delicious. I don't know when I made it, but it was gorgeous. DD is off cake and stuff for Lent, but had some on a natural yoghurt.