weezl and friends Phase 4 - recipe testing christmas treats!

Savvy_sewing · 3 January 2011 at 9:37AM

I will not be able to stretch out my meat/fish stocks, as there is only one packet of mince, one cooking bacon cuts and a packet of sausage meat. With the move and loosing a freezer I havent bought much other then the odd whopsie as I was passing.
Infact all i did since returning from Portugal in October has been "top up shopping" which probably has cost me more then if i was following a plan.

I shall be back on the website to check out some meals that are less meat orientated.
Milk, cheese and bread are my main purchases. So I will have to see if I can follow your bread recipies as my bread machine has been a complete disaster the last few months I have tried.
Must be doing something wrong, as I used to make good bread in the old house. (sorry, old old house, not the cottage).
Time to go and delve into the cupboards and see what we can concoct tonight. think DS will be home too.
So 3 of us to feed.

domesticgoddess789 · 3 January 2011 at 11:15AM

weezl74 wrote: »

the next few weeks meals I have planned (and made most of!)

cottage pie + beans
slo-cooker curry
potato gratin
spaghetti marmite
pasta funghi (wild mushroom)
chicken and mushroom slice
pasta amatriciana
cottage pie
mushroom pizza
TITH
meatballs
pasta amatriciana
spaghetti marmite
potato gratin
mushroom pizza
TITH
pasta amatriciana
shepless pie
pasta funghi (wild mushroom)
meatballs
TITH
shepless pie
puy lentil lasagne
potato gratin
spaghetti marmite

I think I can go til mid-feb on £34.02 for the 4 of us having made my current plans

good luck to all of you with your thrifty plans

Thank you for taking time to post that Weezl

Sounds like your challenge has gotten off to a good start.

Last night we were at my mum's for a sunday roast which was lovely. We had offered to take a pudding so I dug around in the cupboards and decided to make a Rocky Road. Had Nigella's recipe in mind that can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rockyroadcrunchbars_87104 However, adapted it to what we had in the house.

125g marg
300g tesco value chocolate
3tbsp maple flavoured golden syrup (because that's all we had in at the time!)
200g mixture of digestives and ginger biscuits
50g marshmallows cut up
50g mixture of dried cranberries, dried cherries, glace cherries, raisins, sultanas (all lurking in the cupboard in half eaten packets)
Icing sugar to dust

Came out very rich and you definitely only need a small bit. Even my OH, who has the sweetest tooth struggled to eat more than a tiny slice.

Am still trying to run down our freezer and cupboards at the moment but last night my mum gave me a slab of leftover Dolcelatte so hoping to try making a soup later. Just need to grab some brocolli and should be all set. Waste not want not eh?

Goodluck all!

weezl74 · 3 January 2011 at 11:18AM

troublingly a storecupboard challenge reveals things which are quite a challenge to think of a meal for!

Found a can of cod's roe :eek: but the lovely Jenny helped me out with a suggestion of taramasalata

so am going to give that a whirl today.

Have also over the weekend made 9 loaves of bread, 3 meals of potato gratin and 5 of shepherdless pie

So all's going ok I think.

Spent £7.89 in Asda and I think apart from milk that's January sorted :T

aless02 · 3 January 2011 at 11:50AM

weezl74 wrote: »

troublingly a storecupboard challenge reveals things which are quite a challenge to think of a meal for!

Found a can of cod's roe :eek: but the lovely Jenny helped me out with a suggestion of taramasalata so am going to give that a whirl today.

Have also over the weekend made 9 loaves of bread, 3 meals of potato gratin and 5 of shepherdless pie

So all's going ok I think.

Spent £7.89 in Asda and I think apart from milk that's January sorted :T

Ooo you could do a lovely nibbles & dips thingee by baking up some breadsticks and then doing hummus & taramasalata

.

Guess I better get off the computer and do some cooking then...you lot are making me feel lazy! Have a big ASDA delivery coming this afternoon that should do us for the month minus fresh fruit (which we get cheapo from Aldi anyways).

aless02 · 3 January 2011 at 12:15PM

Okay, I have just made this month's meal plan, made up of an amalgamation of many different CFR recipes.

Mon 3 toad in the hole + mash
Tues 4 salmon pasta
Weds 5 Pea & sundried tom risotto
Thurs 6 breakfast fry-up
Fri 7 pasta carbonara
Sat 8 slow cooker chicken + veg + stuffing
Sun 9 mushroom pizza
Mon 10 C&O pie
Tues 11 chicken curry
Weds 12 bacon+tom pasta
Thurs 13 chili con carne (soya mince)
Fri 14 mushroom risotto
Sat 15 bacon pancake lasagne
Sun 16 Cheese & onion pie
Mon 17 Cheese & onion pie
Tues 18 salmon pasta
Weds 19 risi e bisi
Thurs 20 sausage, spinach & pot soup
Fri 21 saag aloo
Sat 22 calzones
Sun 23 spag bol
Mon 24 baked bean curry
Tues 25 breakfast fry-up
Weds 26 toad in the hole + mash
Thurs 27 french onion soup
Fri 28 pasta carbonara
Sat 29 beef with dumplings
Sun 30 bacon pancake lasagne
Mon 31 egg fried rice

domesticgoddess789 · 3 January 2011 at 2:10PM

Right, popped to Aldi for some brocolli and now the brocolli and leftover Christmas Dolcelatte soup is done:j Tastes really nice so am looking forward to having some of that for tea this evening.

Everyone is doing really well with their cooking and planning. The taramasalata sounds lush Weezl!

poohbear59 · 3 January 2011 at 3:32PM

queen_of_string wrote: »

Pooh bear, before I gave up, I had an electronic cigarette, the sort you buy capsules for.

I will have a look online for them.I would prefer them to growing tobacco. I talked to DH last night about buying something for him to help him stop smoking and he said 'as long as it doesn't hurt'.

Today I have made a soup for the men from a boiled chicken carcase, some lentils, 2 pencil thin leeks from the garden and three carrots from the garden.

We are going to have liver tonight, haven't decided whether to do liver and bacon or Indonesian liver. The liver was only 80p per lb. I only bought 2lbs and now wish I had bought more.

Lesley_Gaye · 3 January 2011 at 5:34PM

along with what seems like everyone else, I am trying a storecupboard/freezer challenge this month

surveyed the freezer yesterday. There are lots of bags of fruit in there from the garden, suggested we had a fruit crumble as lunch now and then, and OH was quite enthusiastic about it.

Keep mentioning the month to date cost pppd of our food spend in the hopes of getting OH more aware of it, he seems to be getting into it, but is a terrible one for buying the this and that things that add up

he came home from buying a newspaper at the local Spar this morning with a pk of ham, just in case - £2.68, sigh. I keep mentioning that every £3 we spend is 10p per day on the total

we had spicy bean burgers on Sat, and to be fair, he did suggest using up the remaining burgers in a toad in the hole type way, so that's what we're having tonight

went for coffee today to a friends round the corner and she invited me and the other friend there for lunch, so had a very nice (free) beef casserole and veggies for lunch, so the turkey and toor dal soup I had planned is still in the fridge for another day

when it's cold, we usually have soup most days for lunch, and I've started having just the soup, without any bread, and have found I am just as full as when I have the bread. So am now having a very slightly fuller bowl of soup, usually with quite a lot of some kind of pulse in it, and no bread. Am hoping it will help with the new year weight loss

good luck everyone with your challenges, and I'll keep you posted on mine

domesticgoddess789 · 3 January 2011 at 8:11PM

Well the brocolli and dolcelatte soup was delicious. Even my sister (my biggest critic and epic fussy eater) devoured a bowl full and said it was the best thing I've ever made. Hurrah! :jMy OH and I had ours for tea with some homemade garlic bread.

Have also made a batch of the CFR lemon and pepper houmous for lunches this week. I am going to have houmous and sliced roasted red pepper sandwiches. Am trying out some new frugal sandwich fillings to keep things interesting so will be trialling one a week. Will report back on my progress.

Finally, I made a batch of Peanut Butter Bars for our lunchboxes from one of Weezl's really old threads. Recipe can be found at http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11695119&postcount=1098 I make them all the time and they are easy to make, delicious and very frugal compared to shop bought cereal bars:money:.

Keep posting everyone, I am enjoying reading how you are all getting on.

Allegra · 3 January 2011 at 8:49PM

Yep, a storecupboard/freezer challenge here, too

I planned out the meals right up until the end of Feb with just what we've got in - that's for me and !!!!!!, DD gets what she blinkin' well wants, as long as she'll eat it ...

Anyways. Made a massive batch of bolognese for the freezer tonight, using 1kg of mince I bought whoopsied from Netto ages ago (£1.50), plus masses of whoopsied onions (25p, Asda), celery (12p) mushrooms and peppers. Also made a batch of bread and 12 mince pies to use up the last bit of HM mincemeat and make some space in the cupboard :T

weezl and friends Phase 4 - recipe testing christmas treats!

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