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

chardonnay_2

sammy do you have space in your kitchen for more units? if so try freecycle, you might be lucky.

chardonnay_2

bonsibabe wrote: »

Over here in germany most things come in jars - so the lids get recycled and the jars get put in the glass bin for recycling as well. But I'm too lazy to carry all the glass to the glass bins (its halfway to DD2's pre-school) so I wash them out and keep them for storage.

So far I have made my own cajun seasoning, mexican seasoning, italian seasoning and steak seasoning so they are all stored in recycled jars in my cupboard. Sticky labels on to say whats in them with another label with the ingredients on it.

bonsibabe could you let us know the ingredients in each of your seasonings -sounds like a fab idea - cheers

D&DD

FREEZERS
1 sliced loaf
1 x gf french sticks
4 x gf pitta breads
3 x packets smoked bacon
1 x bag of diced steak
1/2 a bag of chicken breasts
8 x chicken drumsticks
10 x chicken thighs
1 x oxtail
1 x bag of 4(!) large sausages
1 x stewing steak packs
2 x pork chops
1 x pork ribs
1 x pork strips
2 x cod portions
1 x boxes gf fish fingers
1 X chicken
Peas
Sweetcorn
French beans
Beetroot
Parsnips
Loganberries (loads!)
Raspberries (loads!)
Blackberries (loads!)
Apples 4 x huge tubs prepped ready for cooking.

:eek: :eek: :eek:

Right from this lot I can see ...
a fish pie
stew
chicken nuggets/burgers
oxtail hotpot (this went down well with the boys..just didn't tell them what was in it!!)
steak pie/pies depends what veg I can bulk out with
gardners chicken
roast chicken dinner (stretched into cajun chicken/wraps)
ffingers and mash
sausage toad (chopped up sausages lol)
Only me and OH eat pork...:think:

I do have loads of tins/packets/jars of stuff still and also a shepherds pie,cajun chicken x 2,chicken curry x 3,leek and bacon tarts mini x5,cheese and potato pie x 2 small,2 x chicken stocks,3 x various garden soups and half a hawaiin pizza in the freezer made up ready...

lil_me

D&DD sorry, stocks that low and I would be twitching I am happy at the minute because I have to jiggle stuff around to close the doors on the freezer. I think when I classed myself as 'finished using up' I probably had double that in I need help don't I

Recipes for mixes http://southernfood.about.com/od/seasoningrecipes/r/bl40322p.htm

Great thing is you can add/remove what you do and don't like. Divide the ingredients if you want to make less etc. If you do a quick google search it will bring up more options, there are many varieties to give you the basic idea then just make to your own taste.

D&DD

lil_me wrote: »

D&DD sorry, stocks that low and I would be twitching I am happy at the minute because I have to jiggle stuff around to close the doors on the freezer. I think when I classed myself as 'finished using up' I probably had double that in I need help don't I

Recipes for mixes http://southernfood.about.com/od/seasoningrecipes/r/bl40322p.htm

Great thing is you can add/remove what you do and don't like. Divide the ingredients if you want to make less etc. If you do a quick google search it will bring up more options, there are many varieties to give you the basic idea then just make to your own taste.

:rotfl: Twitching ain't the word lil_me :rotfl: I think I may use the vouchers for some meat stores..I have £30 I think..put them down on the kitchen table and they got tidied...:o

sammy_kaye18

Ok from what i can see.
You and partner use the pork if its only you too who eat it.
Whole chicken - roasted, strip the carcass for using meat in either fajitas, wraps, curry, pie bulked out with some veg? use the carcass to make stock or soup - maybe add any left over meat to this too
oxtail you could make the stew again if it went down with all 3 boys
a couple of chcken breasts you could cook up and leave to cool and use them in OH sandwiches
Toad in hole as you suggested with sausages (or could use ot make OH a nice cooked brekkie with soem of the bacon?)
bacon butties or use the bacon in a pie
diced steak could you make a stew with dumplings?
you could make fish pie with the cod or make breadcrumbs adn coat it your self whilst the boys have the fisf fingers
gardeners chicken
could you not strip soem of the meat off the drumsticks/thighs and make a stir fry if you eat them??

with the chicken breasts, could you cut them (as if you were going to butterfly them, insert a fillign of say maybe some mild cheese, then put them back together using a tooth pick, bread crumb them and cook them - and tada! home made kievs!
drumsticks if you have any nice spices (not too hot depending on what kids like) and make your own sort of homemade KFC buckets - possibly with wedges and beans?

all the fruit you have about - how about making pies, tarts, pureee to top off yoghurt?

bit stumped for thighs and stewign steak but i guess you could jsut strip meat off the thighs and use in place of the chicken in any of the meals

cheerfulness4

rosieben wrote: »

how about choosing 2 or 3 recipes you really fancy trying, get the ingredients for those recipes this week, then do 2 or 3 more next week and so on. That way you build up your store cupboard gradually, instead of having one huge expense. You will very soon get to the stage where you have all or most all in your cupboards already!

Rosieb _ thats exactly what I did and you're right, within just a couple of months I'd got a good little stock of essentials. I'd plan to get a new one every week or so and work it into my budget after checking the price the week before. Did it with herbs, spices etc, too.


Yesterday made some gorgeous breadcakes from a recipe that I found on this site. It was called Pan Amasado from a South American sandwich take out shop. (elvergel.co.uk ) I kid you not it was the best bread I have ever made. DS2 pleaded for me to make more so I let him have my breadcake as they were HUGE! DH and I shared one even I would have struggled to eat a whole one.

Secondly, I wanted to use up those apples in some muffins and got totally sidetracked by the muffins thread on here. I tried out the Apple strudel muffins and the kids loved them. They had no idea there were apples in them as they just liked the sweet moistness of them with the crunchy crumble topping. DS1 even taken some to work with him today.

Is it usual for the apple to totally disappear? There were lots in there. Going to try d&dd's recipe for spiced apple ones today and add the 'crumble' topping to them.

Right, must get washing up done. :rolleyes:

JAMIEDODGER

made some more donuts as the yesterdays were all gone:D and some fairy cakes too....

JAMIEDODGER

i have a mushroom soup bubbling away on the hob as we speak and in a mo i will be making quiche:) the kids have all gone back to school today so im getting busy:)

sammy_kaye18

Lol

i made fairy cakes yesterday too - i made 24 - and we are down to 6 now. between me and DS and bf!!! :eek: god i hate my time of the month - i get such a sweet tooth.

Plus jsut found out my bf has been snooping for christmas ideas and my mother in law told him i wanted a doughnut maker and he went 'im not buying her that! , shes trying to lsoe weight not gain it' - charming :rolleyes: