I'm back! Trying to spend less on food!

mumtoomany

Crazy busy again. Just sitting down for a quiet half hour, M very tired, I'm hoping she will have a sleep. The night before last i served the remaining bolognese, with kidney beans added, as chilli. No spice in the childrens! Both ate it all. Fickle! I made a batch of weezl74's carrot cake, from her recipe testing and frugality thread. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=31540303&postcount=4701. Hope the link works! N who won't eat dried fruit or carrots, loves it.

Last night we had home made beef burgers, I picked up four x 450gms kingdom Tuesday, paid £7.80 for all four. Lots now in the freezer.

Today will be salad and leftover veg/potatoes and some sort of chicken.

Tomorrow is DGD2's birthday party. M and N will eat there. Probably make curry for OH and I.

Saturday we are taking the littlies home and going to OH's sister's birthday party. No need to cook. 

Signature updated after this week's shopping, hugs to all, speak soon, mumtoomany.xxx

mumtoomany

Peace reigns again here. The littlies were returned to their parents on Saturday. No more pre 6am wake up calls now, I hope. Now to catch up on all the jobs I struggled to do while they were here. Spent most of the day outside, yesterday. Watering, weeding and tying up cucumbers and tomatoes. Also found the time to spread fertiliser on the back field. We have been getting fewer bails of hay year on year, so thought it needed feeding. Went to Farmfoods, as DD3 is staying this week. Stocked up on cooking oil, pasatta, and cheese, while i had use of the staff discount. Also picked a few bits up at the market, on Sunday, on our way home. Spend for all this, £54.94. New total spends for the year now stands at £1116.32/£1860. I need nothing but milk now for the month. I hope!

Will be having a lot of curry this week. I defrosted a tub of curry sauce I'd bought for 5p. Only used about a quarter of it, to make three portions of curry. Also more cauliflowers!

Hugs, mumtoomany.xxx

Katiehound

mumtoomany said:

 I made a batch of weezl74's carrot cake, from her recipe testing and frugality thread. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=31540303&postcount=4701. Hope the link works! N who won't eat dried fruit or carrots, loves it.

  mumtoomany.xxx

Thanks for the link- yes, it works, and I baked the cake yesterday evening.
Half quantity in a silicone cake 'tin' in my Remoska using solar panels so no energy costs.
Still used a whole orange, everything else halved: very very yummy! Think it would go well with dollop of orange sorbet, in an orange trifle with mandarins. (Cheap tins in Tesco Ireland) etc

mumtoomany

Hi, @Katiehound. There are lots of other recipes on that thread too. I'm just re-reading it, when i have a few minutes. 

Have picked all the very small and misshapen strawberries, they didn't get enough water and were having to fight against the weeds! Made them into a crumble for later, with leftover crumble mix and biscuit/cake crumbs. Also picked the remaining seven cauliflowers. They were starting to bolt. I've chopped, blanched and frozen them. They were covered in caterpillars too! Probably frozen a few.

Shepherds pie last night, I made two and froze one. Still not able to only cook for two or three! Something with chicken tonight, maybe in a white sauce with peas, corn, onions and mushrooms. Served with rice. I've also got a bag of pastry out of the freezer, may make a chicken pie too.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xx

Flossymuldoo

Mmmmmmm. Chicken in white sauce with rice. Mum used to make it and I loved it. Don’t know why I never make it. I need to rectify that!

2childmum2

Katiehound said:

mumtoomany said:

 I made a batch of weezl74's carrot cake, from her recipe testing and frugality thread. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=31540303&postcount=4701. Hope the link works! N who won't eat dried fruit or carrots, loves it.

  mumtoomany.xxx

Thanks for the link- yes, it works, and I baked the cake yesterday evening.
Half quantity in a silicone cake 'tin' in my Remoska using solar panels so no energy costs.
Still used a whole orange, everything else halved: very very yummy! Think it would go well with dollop of orange sorbet, in an orange trifle with mandarins. (Cheap tins in Tesco Ireland) etc

Hi. Not posted before but following with interest.
What size cake tin does this recipe need? I've just baked a cake in what I thought was the correct size tin but I obviously got it wrong as it was really flat!  Doesn't matter if it's us eating it but this was for other people so not so good!
Thanks

Katiehound

well my half quantity cake was in what I would call a ' Victoria sandwich' tin- 'though recipe talks about cutting into squares!
 quick google suggests 8" tin would be correct- and yes, that's about what mine is.

Can't remember what type of flour was used but I always use plain with generous amount of baking powder

mumtoomany

Hi, @2childmum2. Welcome aboard this frugal ship. When I made it used an old grill pan from a long ago replaced cooker. Lined it with trapdoor paper. It was 11 x13 inches. Could have done with being a little bigger, or a little less mixture. HTH. 

Took DD to the railway station yesterday morning. Called into the cash and carry, nowhere else was open before nine and they do free hot drinks. Bought a 4 kilo tub of red pepper soup, 4 naan, pack of turmeric, huge (over a kilo) tin mushy peas, tin of Heinz beans, tin of coconut milk, total for these, £3.30! Also called at Aldi for lettuce and pears, £2.09. Total now spent is £1123.81/£1860.

Cooked a joint of pork, HG, for tea. Served with carrots, HG cabbage, roast potatoes. Today will be pork with something.

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx

2childmum2

Thanks for the cake tin size recommendations - I will have to get the tape measure out and see if I have any tins the correct size. But I have 4 small bananas that I need to use up first. I have several banana based recipes for differing amounts of bananas but I am a bit bored of them so I will have to go through my recipe books and see what I can find.

We are collecting DD from uni this weekend and so I will have to start cooking for 3 again. The freezer still has a lot of meals for 2 in it (either precooked or yellow sticker bargains) so I will have to get creative! I find cooking for 3 quite tricky -  most of my recipes are for 4, and whilst I could send DH to work with the 4th portion I always feel that it probably costs more than a cold lunch does. So we will probably end up with lots of individual bits in the freezer. Maybe I could combine with the meals for 2!!

mumtoomany

Hi all. Still here, plodding on. I've been shopping again since i was last here. Mostly fruit and veg. 

@2childmum2, bananas can be frozen to make cake at a later date, if you've got the room.

Used the remains of the pork joint for a casserole. I added carrots, onions, baked beans, HG peas (actually the mange tout that had escaped me and grown too much), a can of white beans, most of two bruised apples diced, the left over stuffing and some of the soup (still eating it, maybe i shouldn't buy 4kilos!) Served with mash, I made far too much of everything, so froze half. I also made some small cakes. I only had one egg inn the house, and too lazy to go to the chicken run, so I also added the rest of the whole sauce and some of the liquid from the tinned white beans. I put in the remains of a jar of ginger i had preserved in syrup and some mixed spice. Very nice. 

Yesterday I picked the gooseberries before the birds did. They are now in the freezer. Also a tub of raspberries. I left the old canes, of the autumn fruiting ones, in rather than pruning them back. The raspberries are growing on them. Not quite as big as the ones that will grow on the new canes, but made a good trifle, with HM trifle sponge, a very out of date jelly I paid around 10p for, custard and cream,(frozen last year when it was reduced). 

Last night was YS chicken, potatoes and HG carrots and beetroot. Everything is starting to grow week now, after the rain. 

Hugs to all, mumtoomany.xxx