Redsquirrel's 'Striving For Better Days' Diary

Karmacat

I agree about the "free" food. And as for wine, I have 3 bottles of my faves, plus one half opened, plus at least a couple of litres of weird and wonderful liqueuers that seemed like a good buy at the time. So my wine budget will be £20.... erk, hope I can stick to that.

redsquirrel80

Karmacat wrote: »

I agree about the "free" food. And as for wine, I have 3 bottles of my faves, plus one half opened, plus at least a couple of litres of weird and wonderful liqueuers that seemed like a good buy at the time. So my wine budget will be £20.... erk, hope I can stick to that.

OK - am going to attempt to match you on that! Have got 9 bottles of beer in the fridge at the moment, that'll probably last me the next couple of weekends (unless OH comes over in which case they'll be gone in an hour or two :rolleyes: :rotfl: ). I might cut down on wine and invest in some Tesco Vermouth which is about £2 a bottle and value lemonade for 20p!!

Have spent 10p on a packet of crisps today, and need to get toilet roll (not newspaper ) and some fruit later. I think this weekend will be spent batch cooking....

redsquirrel80

How did toilet roll and fruit end up costing me nearly £9?? Damn Tesco and their reductions... :rolleyes: Oh well, had a bit of a stock up - bought some of the aforementioned Vermouth as apparently it's being discontinued, how dare they? Also got some mint as there was tons of it in the reduced section, and had a go at making the mint cordial invented by Avocet here - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=12171833&postcount=57 - made a slight variation by adding some lemongrass as well, tasted a little bit and it seems quite nice! I've also put some of the Vermouth into a little bottle in the freezer with some mint and lemongrass, thought it might come out with an interesting flavour, kinda like making flavoured vodka.

Also got some value branflakes to try making cereal bars from one of the recipes on Old Style.. and assorted other bits and pieces. Spinach is 50p a bag at the moment so tonight's tea was a spinach & potato curry, with rice, yoghurt & mint, and some mixed pickle I've had for ages.

Got the last quarter of a cabbage that was in the fridge sitting in salt to be pickled later.. and I'm just off out into the garden to chop some onion tops - thought I could freeze them then add to dishes as needed.

Karmacat

Wow - you're doing well already - I think its important to stock up on cheapies when they're there (tho I may have gone a little overboard on that!). And Tesco vermouth costs £2???? I better get some before they discontinue altogether.

Cos of this challenge, I've dug some old onions and garlic out of the bottom of the fridge, and they're happily cooking away at the mo - no more chucking out food for me. I planted some fennel years ago, and its self seeded now, I wonder if I should experiment with that the way you have with the vermouth? Interesting. This is going to be good!

Tonight - no batch cooking for me, I have some freebie DVDs to watch! A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do! Have a good one, anyway.

redsquirrel80

You too KC, enjoy the DVDs! I love fennel, sure you can find some nice things to make with that. Vermouth is £2.60, they have both 'rosso' and 'bianco'... :beer:

I've now got three tubs of chopped up onion tops/ leaves in the freezer and one in the fridge. Have made experimental cereal bars with crushed bran flakes, oats, mashed banana and some of my mum's plum and cherry jam... all mushed up, put into a shallow container and microwaved for five minutes. Think they're a bit more cake-like than crunchy, but should hopefully taste ok. I seem to have loads of jam in the cupboards, wonder what else I can do with it....

Hey, this is unusual for me, motivation on a Wednesday!

bubbles0169

sounds like your doing well and having fun well done xx
its the inventing stuff outta stuff that i like
most snobs wouldnt let their cat eat it but when youve turned it around it could have come from gordon ramsey, well i think so anyway:rotfl:
caught hugh fernley wotsit the other night going on about offal, its the cheapest cuts but the most flavoursome-could you go that far
i havent been brave enough to get past pate(definitely not a liver an onions person-the smell yeeew), or mutton in stew yet:o

boredofbeingathome

Jam sponge? Is the same recipe for the treacle sponge, 100g of sr flour, 100g of marg, 100g of sugar,a bit of skimmed milk, 2 eggs and i like vanilla with it. Put the jam in the bottom of the bowl,(microwavable with a lid) whisk all ingredients together put on jam and microwave on high for 3-4 mins. Put in a knife to test, if a bit sticky put it in for a couple more seconds..serve with custard.
I usually make double the above and use the same amount of sugar. kids and hubby love it and very filling.

redsquirrel80

bubbles0169 wrote: »

sounds like your doing well and having fun well done xx
its the inventing stuff outta stuff that i like
most snobs wouldnt let their cat eat it but when youve turned it around it could have come from gordon ramsey, well i think so anyway:rotfl:
caught hugh fernley wotsit the other night going on about offal, its the cheapest cuts but the most flavoursome-could you go that far
i havent been brave enough to get past pate(definitely not a liver an onions person-the smell yeeew), or mutton in stew yet:o

You know, I was thinking about offal earlier (weird I know ) - not something I ever buy but I didn't mind liver and kidney when my mum used to make it, so I might give it a go. I don't tend to eat loads of meat anyway, in fact the only meat/ fish item in the house at the moment is a tin of sardines!

redsquirrel80

boredofbeingathome wrote: »

Jam sponge? Is the same recipe for the treacle sponge, 100g of sr flour, 100g of marg, 100g of sugar,a bit of skimmed milk, 2 eggs and i like vanilla with it. Put the jam in the bottom of the bowl,(microwavable with a lid) whisk all ingredients together put on jam and microwave on high for 3-4 mins. Put in a knife to test, if a bit sticky put it in for a couple more seconds..serve with custard.
I usually make double the above and use the same amount of sugar. kids and hubby love it and very filling.

Yum, that sounds good! I think I need to invest in some baking ingredients, only got plain flour at the moment.

boredofbeingathome

I think Aldis self raising flour is nice and fine..i use it for cake making and is very comparable to dearer brands, as is finely sieved. There are lots of cheap baking ingredients in there, same for Asda.