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

THIRZAH

Cottage. Back in the 1970s when I was a student we always made chilli with baked beans.

Cottage_Economy

mumtoomany - that's a good idea. I'm going to pop to a £1 shop later and pick up a couple. DH is hankering after the tin of rice pudding in the cupboard something terrible.

THIRZAH - I've never even considered doing that! I've put baked beans in loads of other things to bulk up the portions but for some reason never considered switching kidney beans in a chilli.

D&DD - thanks! I'm glad everything went ok. My mother is going in for her hip replacement at the beginning of next month and it can be such a worry. Someone once told me that as your parents age you become the parent and they become the child. Normally I wouldn't worry about my parents (mid-70s) but this year I've gone into a sort of 'mum' mode with them.

I've just about finished my work for the day after working through lunch, so I am shortly going to run around like a whirling dervish and pack. Everything is clean and I have a list to go by.

I've then got fairy cakes to ice, cookies to make, and blackberries and raspberries to pick for the freezer. Then I'm going out to buy a few GF bits to take with me.

Dinner tonight is probably going to be a shepherd's pie followed by rice pudding and tinned peaches.

BTW I never bother putting down breakfasts because DH and MIL have cereal every morning (DH - whatever is on offer for the most amount, MIL - buys her own [STRIKE]floor sweepings[/STRIKE] bran sticks) and I usually alternate boiled eggs (done in the steamer) and porridge, usually accompanied by a banana or apple.

The next three months are going to be very important money-wise. The engineer came to sort out the hot water yesterday and, long story short, I had to have a new hot water tank and immersion fitted this morning. By the time the electrician has finished sorting out a wiring issue with the immersion the bill will be about £550. Very unexpected. Have the money in savings thankfully but want to reduce our expenditure and make it back up.

Oh and I have a confession. I was so hacked off about the water tank business I ate a box of chocolates put aside for xmas :EasterBun :(

mumtoomany

Hi all. Glad the idea helped Cottage. Right I'm not going to read the rest of this thread yet. OH and I are on the 8 week diet, (Micheal Mosley) to try to reverse his diabetes and so I can loose some weight. The diet is NO potatoes, pasta, bread, cakes, sugar etc. This thread is like torture! Can someone remind me I'm upto page 38 when I've finished the 8 weeks, (7 weeks 3 days to go).

I've collected more tomatoes and squash from the polytunnel today. Also more blackberries and raspberries, rhubarb and french beans. Must look at the apples tomorrow.

Hope you and all yours are well, mumtoomany.

joedenise

mumtoomany when I'm part way through a thread I just bookmark it so that I can come back and pick it up again whenever I want! I quite often find a thread when it's got loads of pages and just too many to read all at once and bookmarking works for me. Definitely worth a try.

mumtoomany

Thanks joedenise, why didn't I think of that? Will stop me having to see all those recipes for bread, cakes, apple braid, mmmmm! Goes off to sit in a corner and drool> Mumtoomany.

D&DD

Aw sorry Mum yes it's a bit full of treats I'm afraid!!
Best of luck with the eating plan I would keel over having to avoid all those!


Cottage hope you're having a nice time


*waves at joedenise* cos we share the best name


Homemade pizza tonight again as DS2's mate is over for the night and was requested by all I'm pooped so it was an easy throw in the breadmaker job and top!


Had a few cakes in the freezer so they're busy demolishing them now,he moved away but they've stayed in touch as they have been besties since primary school and they're off to Germany for a short break tomorrow with an early start.


Had such a busy few days this week I seriously need to get some cooking done this week to catch up so watch this space

D&DD

Well so far so good with the science experiments *shh*
Made a devils food cake mix and subbed the oil content for a tin of whizzed up pinto beans weird I know but as suggested in one of my food storage books.
So far everyone has had some and no comments about them tasting any different!
It's going to be a great way of getting some fibre etc into their diets so that's a win


All your posts about chilli made me crave a pot so yesterday DS3 helped me make a huge steaming cauldron of it complete with baked beans! I have to use these anyway as OH doesn't like kidney although I love them.
I siphoned off some for DS before adding the beans as he's not keen but he happily woofed down a whole plate of his very first chilli YAY so that's another *everyone will eat it* meal for the list.
Only took twenty years but we're getting there! He'd made a lovely fresh loaf in the morning while I was busy so he had that and a little bit of rice with his.


Had to pick the rest of the apples today as the squirrels are starting to munch on them so the rest of the day will be spent stood up sorting them all out.


Last few blackberries are picked and got another bowl of raspberries and some white and red strawberries.


Not sure whats for dinner yet as DS2 is away so theres only us 3 home might do the gammon I have in the fridge mmm

D&DD

Well apart from a few windy moments no one suspected a thing with the cake


Today we've been experimenting with chicken and made some burgers which were stretched with a load of stuffing,an egg to bind,plenty of seasoning and some fresh basil from the garden just about still going! I added in some dehydrated tomatoes from the stores and everyone scoffed them down quite happily.


I made some rolls with OOD flour and found a tin of Allinsons yeast BBE June this year but they came out lovely so will use the rest up this week and by the we should be onto the 'new' flours.


All I have had to buy this week is milk,strawberries..,peas and um that's about it!


Our milk consumption is huge so either I adopt a cow or figure out how to get the Nido into more regular use..


Garden is still producing well,we still have peppers and the last few tomatoes I forgot,raspberries,strawberries,French beans,pea shoots,squash,radish,pak choi,rocket,spinach,tiny kale, all ready to harvest and lettuce,mustard mizuna almost there as are the autumn broad beans,sp onions and flower sprouts! Parsnips are looking huge as are the carrots so I'm pretty pleased with it Should have some decent winter squash to store alongside the potatoes and onions, DS3 has got ridiculously green fingers.
All the apples are in store now so we should be good for at least a year the amount we preserved.


Feeling very tired but happy we managed to preserve so much this year,my jam rack was almost completely empty!! Oh the shame...

joedenise

Sound like you've got a small holding D&DD!

Cottage_Economy

Morning all

D&DD – Made a devils food cake mix and subbed the oil content for a tin of whizzed up pinto beans weird I know but as suggested in one of my food storage books… Well apart from a few windy moments no one suspected a thing with the cake.

That made me laugh. I remember the first time I discovered tinned chickpeas and ate a tin over the course of an afternoon as a snack. I was dead chuffed I’d found a healthy snack and they were delicious but by God I suffered all that night!! Never again.

Good to be back home. One of my sister’s in-laws invited us to stay with her in Cyprus, which was lovely and much-needed treat at this time of year as it is hot and sunny out there. There’s nothing like being back in your own bed though. I took a couple of packs of GF crackers and pitta breads with me, which was lucky as while the local supermarket did have a GF section there were no savoury things like that, mostly just sweet. So I had scrambled eggs in a pitta most mornings and took cheese, crackers and fruit to the beach. Then later on we'd have a small meal somewhere but most of the time I didn't have much of an appetite so ate quite lightly.

We got back from the airport quite late on Saturday but were both starving so stopped off and treated ourselves to a Subway (it now has a GF roll!). Yesterday I was back on cooking detail so dinner was baked chicken breast with sage, roast potatoes and caramelised leeks and peas. MIL had a piece of salmon. All out of the cupboards/fried/freezer. DH decided he was going to buy his lunch today as there was ‘nothing’ to take. A scratch around produced tuna, sweetcorn and mayo sandwiches and two big lumps of bread pudding out of the freezer. I also had a pack of Jaffa cakes I’d hidden before I went away. I will not be thwarted.:D

I discovered that despite me buying ample food for them DH and MIL still bought stuff during the week. They were due to go out on Sunday for lunch with BIL and ended up at ours instead, going to the shop to pick up a gammon joint (I have at least 10 in the freezer from the last lot of pigs) and a bag of frozen roast potatoes (12kg sack in the cupboard). At least it was cheaper than a meal out but it could have been FREE with better planning! There was breaded fish and chips but they went out to the chippy. They bought pizza, thankfully from Sainsbury’s instead of Dominos, and I found both packs of beef mince still in the freezer despite DH cooking Bolognese one night. Turns out MIL made him go out and buy ‘a smaller pack’ as I wasn’t here to eat. Cooking as normal and sticking the rest in the freezer didn’t cross their mind. As it was, he ended up buying exactly the same size as what was in the freezer and they ate the lot anyway :doh: It’s frustrating progress with these two.

Our neighbouring farmer has harvested his field of pumpkins leaving behind the ‘imperfects’ to be ploughed in. This is the cue for the four houses of people living here to glean a few before they go. I currently have six pumpkins of varying sizes on the patio being washed by the rain. I’ll process those over the next few weeks and go back and get some of the smashed/slashed ones for the pigs as a treat.

Tonight will be pulled pork, homemade chips and beans. I need to make some fairy cakes for DH’s lunches and pick some more blackberries and apples. There’s self-seeded spinach all over the place as well so I ought to do something with that, although we’re not great spinach fans. I have last month’s finances to do and a recipe to hunt down – Lebanese lentils and rice (mujadara). I had it on holiday and it was delicious. Caramelised onions, brown lentils, rice and spices. Not a risotto and less rice than a pilaf. Think it might be a nice cheap recipe if I can find the correct mix of spices to make it tasty – lentils can be very bland sometimes. A quick look on the internet suggests that everyone has their own version of spices so it will be trial and error.

And somewhere in all of that I will be working as well and taking a nap. The flight wiped me out!