Post Furlough/Student Food- Butternut Squash Risotto

 Having used tidying the pantry shelves as a diversion activity I found a tin of coconut milk that I had obviously picked up and forgotten about.  I decided to try this butternut squash and coconut combination which had been on my mind for a while.  It uses roasted butternut squash (or pumpkin) - this freezes beautifully so do not use the oven just for this but throw some in to make use of the space when you have it on for something else, I made use of the spare space from cooking Sunday lunch.

Butternut Squash Risotto - Serves 4

1 butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed and cut into rough chunks 

vegetable oil

1 clove garlic, sliced

350 g risotto rice

1 tin coconut milk

1 litre vegetable or chicken stock (made from a cube will do!)

Toss the squash in some vegetable oil and roast in the oven (in a metal tray) until slightly soft and with some caramelised edges. - you can freeze the squash at this point to use another time.

Put a little oil in a pan and saute the garlic for about 1 min.  Do not allow to brown.  Add the rice and stir to coat in the oil, then tip in the squash followed by the coconut milk.  (You can use the stock to rinse out the tin if there is any stuck on the inside), Allow to come to the boil and as the liquid is absorbed add a ladleful of the hot stock, stirring all the time, until the rice is cooked.

Variations:

If you cannot get tins of coconut milk then the block form is fine, dissolve about 20 g in boiling water for the same result.

Risotto rice is the best for risottos but of you cannot get it then pudding rice is the next best followed by basically any rice you can get, the texture will be different but the taste will be the same.

You can also sweet potatoes instead of (or as well as) the squash.

Many supermarkets also sell squash in the frozen aisle...

Cost (from Tescos as a mid range ball park)

butternut squash - £1

1 tin coconut milk=69p

1 stock cube (50p for 10) = 5p

1 clove garlic (25 p per head, assume 1 head has 6ish cloves) =4p

Risotto rice (£2 for 1 kg) = 70p

total = £2.48 or 62p per person.

 

Post Furlough/Student Food: Simple Cream Cheese Pasta

 This is another one of the many recipes that is throw it in a pan that I can do in my sleep.  It was something that I discovered as a student 30 years ago and something that we still have for dinner today.  It can be cheap and cheerful or have "added extras" to make it feel more like a whole meal even though it just uses left over bits and pieces.  But what it really is is a substantial comfort food that does not use tomatoes - essential in our house since my daughter was sent home from uni with a stomach ulcer from all the worry.

Cream Cheese Pasta (serves 4)

300 g pasta - any kind will do (75 g per person)

1 onion, chopped

vegetable oil

1/2 a 250g tub of cream cheese, unflavoured or flavoured - up to you

splash of milk

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water according to the packet instructions.

Saute the onion in the vegetable oil until it is soft.  When the pasta is almost cooked add the cream cheese to the pan with the onion and stir - the objective is to let it melt.  If it looks like it is too thick then add a splash of milk, you want to make the consistency like double cream.  Drain the pasta and add to the pan and toss until coated. 

Serve.

Variations:

Do not use low fat cream cheese - it splits!

Second the cream cheese I mean is the one that is like Philadelphia - not Dairylea, a friend of mine made this mistake and I have to say it was really gross.

The savers brands from the supermarkets work just fine making this a nice cheap version in it's simplest form (62p at time of posting for a whole tub at Morrisons)

Now onto the additions...as always as many as you like...

Garlic can be added to the onion (add when onion is nearly done though so it does not burn)

Add sliced mushrooms

Add chopped peppers

Add leftover roast - any kind

Add tinned tuna

Add tinned sweetcorn

Add sliced cooked sausages

Add leftover cooked cauliflower or broccoli

Add bacon

Add leftover sandwich meat such as ham

Add leftover smoked salmon (Christmas treat!)

Cost for the basic version... 

Morrisons prices used from their website as a mid range cost.

300 g pasta (500g for 45p) = 27p

onion= 10p

Cream cheese (250g for 62p)=31p

total =68p for 4 people or 17p per person plus a couple of pence for oil and milk.

And if you wrap the half used tub of cheese in clingfilm then it will keep for a whole week easily in the fridge making it less than 10p per person for week 2.  Impossible to beat on the money front!

Emergency Meatloaf

 The other day I started cooking Sunday lunch only to discover after all the veggies etc were prepped that the chicken that I had picked up had gone off. What then to do?  My sons are simple as they already have sausages instead of roast meat (it's an autism texture thing...) but this still left me, my eldest and my OH with only veggies, and I had deliberately left off going shopping as long as possible as well so had hardly anything in. (chicken nuggets anyone?)  In the back of the fridge I had 250 g minced beef for the next day and so this was going to have to do.  Luckily I also had a box of savers sage and onion stuffing (no idea when or why I picked that up) .  I followed the instructions on the stuffing mix and made this up and then added the mince and mixed well with my hands to combine it all.  This I then put into a loaf tin and cooked alongside the boys sausages.  Served with roasted veggies and gravy it was absolutely delicious and may well be something that I "pull out of the hat" again.  It would even feed 4 non-greedy people and would have cost about £1.55 total if I used the 15% mince from Tesco.   This would be less than £1 per head even by the time the veggies were added in, not bad for a Sunday Roast if I do say so myself.

Using up leftovers : Calzone Pasties

 Leftovers are a dangerous thing in our house.  I will cook enough to feed 4 and then my OH will insist on dishing up dinner and I'll discover that instead of another two portions I will have barely enough for lunch for one.  I vividly remember cooking enough for 6 from a new recipe (for just OH and I)- serving up one portion for me and taking my kids to the support group meeting at the local soft play (back when such things were allowed) and when I got back there was  only just enough for lunch for me for the next day.  When I asked OH if it was nice he said - "Yes but there was too much and I'm absolutely stuffed." Of course he was shamefaced when I pointed out it should have fed 5 people not just one and a half.

Anyway I am still getting used to cooking for 2 adults for most meals (my two boys having something different due to autistic sensory issues) and so we often have leftovers since if a recipe feeds 4 and freezes well why not cook two batches, so in theory I ought to have a freezer with lots of lovely home cooked meals ready to reheat.  (She looks at the freezer drawer and discovers - zero!)  So yesterday true to form we had a tiny amount of spag bol sauce left over. Not enough for a main meal on it's own and the size of portion that OH usually decides is not enough to put in the fridge/freezer and pigs for "supper" behind my back.  Inspiration struck in the form of a comment on the Old Style Money Saving Expert Forum from "goldfinches" when she said that pasties made from spicy carrots, peas and potatoes were cheap and good.  So formed the idea of a pasty, filled with leftover spag bol sauce topped with grated cheese.

Take pastry (shortcrust or puff it doesn't matter) , homemade is cheaper

Cut into circles about 6 inches in diameter- top with one half of the circle with left over chilli or spag bol (you only need a couple of tablespoons) followed by a sprinkle of grated cheese.  Fold the other half over to cover the filling and seal and crimp the edges.

Bake in a hot oven for about 25 minutes.

All I can say is we served ours with HM wedges and steamed veg and it was delicious although it would have made a good lunch just on it's own.

Variations:

If you don't have left over spag bol then use tomato puree and top with your favourite pizza toppings

e.g

-Mushrooms

-peppers

-cooked sausage sliced

-left over roast meat

-crispy bacon

-tomatoes

-sweetcorn

-fish

and the list goes on...

you could also use cream cheese rather than tomato puree and something like chicken for a more "blond" version

Post Furlough/Student Food: Cottage Pie

What does a "budget meal" consist of?  The answer of course depends on where you stand.  "Cheap" is in the eye of the beholder and it is something that causes OH and I to disagree- whilst he likes the bottom line of "cheap" (he is as he would put it "as tight as a duck's a**e in a power dive") as soon as you put something in front of him that does not have meat in it he looks like you have just served him something that smells like it has come out of a dogs bottom.  I went back to a resource which I used to use many years ago now The Money Saving Expert "Old Style" forum board.  Having had nearly two months on unpaid leave due to family problems, will (and spare cash) is running low.  Looking through the suggested recipes on the latest Grocery Challenge thread many of them are now way out of the price range of a lot of the readers.  Not surprising really when you consider that many of them are based on prices from years back when tins of tuna were only 29p (now 59p) and I came across a corned beef one that stated that corned beef was 69p a tin (now £2.30 a tin for 300 g) so I think it is time to rethink what is cheap.  This along side a free Kindle book entitled "Cheap recipes Cookbook" by Thomas Kelly Delicious Cheap Recipes That Can Feed The Family Without Breaking The Bank" where every single recipe was meat based and used 4 chicken breasts chopped up to feed 4 people.  Sometimes we need to be aware that everyone looks at the world through their own lens.

This means that I struggled to think of a recipe that wasn't sausages AGAIN for tea tonight.  The freezer yielded lots of bags unlabelled bags and whilst I don't really want the excitement of "Guess the mystery meal" I have some mince that is calling my name and not wanting pasta or rice again (OH has been doing some of the cooking if you complain it is curry again he always just serves pasta) I think cottage pie is the one for me.  Definitely on the cheap side of a meaty meal although you can do a veggy version and a comfort meal for these horrible dark wet days.  As usual basic version with variations and a reminder that all the variations will freeze well, and the base can be served without the potatoes on pasta or as a pasty filling as well so if it is more than enough to fill the ovenproof dish you are using don't waste the leftovers.

Cottage Pie - serves 4

1 medium onion, chopped

1 pack of beef mince (450-500g)

2 medium carrots, peeled and grated

dash of Worcestershire sauce 

450g potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed

Variations

On the mince front get the one with the lowest fat that your budget will allow (your heart and waistline will thank you for it eg the cheapest mince at Tesco is £1.49 but 20% fat - go for the 5% one instead and it is £2.59)

Use lamb mince instead - makes this shepherds pie rather than cottage pie.

More veg - you can go up to half and half with chopped/grated veg (whatever you have) and mince and it will still be delicious.  Either add to base mixture and reserve half for another meal (freezer!) or only use half the mince.  Easy way to feed 8 from the same pack of mince rather than 4.

Add crushed/chopped garlic at the same time as the mince

Add grated cheese to the top of the mash

Add horseradish sauce to the mash

Use a mixture of sweet potato and potato for the mash

Use soya mince instead - works brilliantly

Add a sprinkle of oats to eak out the mince

Add a sprinkle of red lentils to eak out the mince (Tell OH it is a tomato seed he he)

Sliced mushrooms make a good addition to the base mixture too

Use a spoonful of marmite if you don't have any stock cubes

Tinned tomatoes work instead of passata of course - IMHO they are more watery and about the same price - why not go for 1p more per person but a better flavour?

Substitute cooked lentils (tinned) for half the mince

Ring the changes with the flavour of the mince.  The classic is a splash of Worcestershire sauce (if you want a giggle try watching YouTube where an American tries to pronounce it...), but there are no rules that say the mince cannot be more Italian (add dried mixed herbs instead) , Jamaican (add cumin, chilli and thyme), Tex Mex (add chilli powder, cumin and ginger), Greek (think moussaka oregano and cinnamon), Indian (curry powder or your own blend of spices to make a keema style mince), or even South African (curry powder, mango chutney and dried fruit as in Babotie).

Cost

This one really does depend on where you shop and the standard of mince you want to buy so going for the £2.59 for 500 g from Tesco for the prices below in the sure and certain knowledge that you can do better if you have too!..

500 g mince (5% fat) - £2.59

1 onion - 10 p

2 carrots - 8 p

1 heaped tablespoon of flour - 2 p

1 carton value passata - 32p

1 beef stock cube (Tescos own 10 for 50p) -5p

Worcestershire sauce (£2.80)- 2p

 potatoes (99p for 2.5 kg)- 20p

 total cost is £3.38 or 85p a head before you add any sides that you may wish to have with it.  Still well under the £1 a portion that seems to be the most popular benchmark for "cheap" even before stretching it with the cheaper ingredients; but definitely not Jack Monroe standard!

Here is to hoping that whatever your own version of "cheap" is having to be you manage to keep your bellies full.#

 

Post Furlough Food/Student Food: Sausage and Tomato Pasta

It never ceases to amaze me that people need to buy pasta sauce.  You know just the tomato and herb kind. It is the easiest thing in the world to make and you can even freeze it if you need to.  Why is it something that supermarkets sell multiple brands of ?   The answer is of course that it is so versatile, it can be used in countless pasta recipes and can even make the transition to rice dishes (jambalaya and the like) or be used in things like pie fillings.  However for most "with tomato sauce" recipes you just need a tin of tomatoes or in my case for more flavour value passata.  The following is just one idea with variations.

Sausage and Tomato Pasta - Serves 4

vegetable oil
1 Onion chopped
8 sausages
carton of value passata
300 g pasta
Courgette, chopped

Heat oil in pan and fry onion and courgette until soft. Remove the skins from the sausages and add to the pan and cook for 10 minutes breaking them up as they brown. Add the passata and season. Bring to the boil and cover and simmer for 10 minutes until cooked. 
Cook the pasta in boiling salted water once the  passata has been added to the pan. Drain and stir in the sausage mix .

Variations:

Tinned tomatoes can be used instead of passata but you may need two tins or one tin and a squeeze of tomato puree to get the same depth of flavour, a single tin is only 4 p cheaper than the passata but also more watery.

Add crushed garlic when you add the sausages.

Use sausages with herbs in for more flavour

Veggy sausages also work well

Substitute any other veg for the courgette, mixed veg, carrot, sweetcorn, peppers, peas any mix of what is in the bottom of you fridge can be added maybe not potatoes though as you already have the carbs from the pasta.

Add mixed dried herbs at the same time as the passata.

Add chilli instead of herbs

Add grated cheese before serving

Use leftover cooked meat instead of the sausages.

Use cooked pulses in place of sausages.

Turn into pasta bake and sprinkle with breadcrumbs and cheese

For a storecupboard emergency recipe tinned hotdog sausages can be used, sliced rather than "crumbled"

Skip the skin the sausages stage if you can get sausage meat - sometimes this is cheaper for example Tesco sells pork sausagemeat for £1.50 for the same weight as their mid range sausages which cost £1.70

Prices from basic version (Tesco used as "average" supermarket price, with mid range sausages- could be done cheaper if necessary)

Hearty Food Co Spaghetti  (20p for 500g) -12p

1 onion- 10p

8 pack of Lincolnshire sausages - £1.70

Growers Harvest Passata - 32p

courgette- 40p (yep really- seasonality has hit as I write this at the beginning of November!)

that's about 66p per person but you could buy value sausages and swap the courgette for a handful of frozen mixed veg and bring the total cost down by another 70p to give a price of  49p ish per head and of course if you have been clever enough to grow your own veg then that shrinks a little more than that even. A big filling plateful for four for the less than the price of tins of spaghetti hoops in tomato sauce from the brand leader at 68p per tin.  Four tins of hoops or homemade.  No contest.

Crafting Hack - Foiling using a laser printer and a laminator

 This week saw my silver wedding anniversary.  We marked it quietly at home sheltering as much as possible from this unprecedented year.  We also made cards for each other rather than buy them.  Not exactly fair as my husband is about as practical as a blind man wearing boxing gloves but he did his best and found a lovely cat image which he stuck on my card.  Meanwhile I used the occasion to try a hack I noticed on the internet some time back and was curious to see if it worked.  

One of the advantages of the schools being shutdown earlier in the year was that I was pushed to (finally) get a new laser printer after our old one died after about a decade.  Laser printers (and photocopiers) use ink that is a powder that it set by heat rather than liquid ink like an ink jet and this is exactly what you need for this technique.

1) produce your image or sentiment that you want to foil and print in black and white only (the card you print on may be coloured but the image should be black ink only)

2)Lay the heat reactive foil over the top of the image  (foil side up) and then top with a sheet of paper to protect the foil

3)Put through the laminator

It really was that simple.  

I used the Minc silver reactive foil from Amazon UK (the price has gone up a little since I bought mine - I paid about £5.50)

Other colours are available and since the roll is 5 feet long I should get lots of use.  Thermoweb is another brand that you could also use which has even more colours, but not as long.

Microwave Flapjacks

 If you are a fan of chewy and soft flapjacks then this is the recipe for you.  Using the microwave has the advantage of only using 10 minutes cooking time - thus saving fuel; but also means that there are less crunchy corners to break your teeth on.  Flapjacks also have the advantage that they are cheap, don't require flour which makes them both gluten free and something we can get hold of the ingredients for (2020 being a year when the whole country seemingly stockpiled flour and kept it next to the toilet roll mountain), and they are easy to vary.  This recipe won't save you money on ingredients versus the supermarkets but will stop the trip to the shop where you can be tempted into spending money.

Microwave Flapjacks - makes 9-16 depending on size.

100g butter (not spreadable)

75 g sugar (preferably light brown but use what you have)

2 tbsp golden syrup (or if you have scales that measure in ml then 30 ml)

200g porridge oats

For this you need a square microwavable dish, it should be able to fit on the turntable comfortably and still allow it to turn.  Lightly grease the tin as flapjacks are notorious for sticking to the tin.

We now all you need to do melt the butter then add it to all the other ingredients.  Choose your own method, saucepan, double boiler or microwave.  Stir it all together until everything is well coated.

Tip into the tin and press down with the back of a spoon.

Cook on high for about 5 minutes (more powerful microwaves may take slightly less).  The flapjack will still be soft but will harden up when left to cool.

Once cold slice into squares and serve.

Variations:

Variations can be with the filling or go to town on the decoration.

First the fillings...

Add dried fruit (up to about 50 g) this could be cranberries, apricots, sultanas, dried mixed peel, apples, mango etc. anything except banana chips (too crunchy), for the bigger fruit chop small first.  Could be a combo or your favourite flavour.

Add chopped nuts - again choose you favourite or use a mixture, even coconut can be used

Add seeds- OK so a slight nod towards energy bars (not that flapjacks could ever be healthy!) but seeds such as sesame, linseed, pumpkin, sunflower all add a nice flavour

Add chocolate- use chips or use a cheap bar chopped into chunks as a more budget friendly version. (Yep that's me folks)

Add smarties to the mixture (if they work in smartie cookies why not here)

Add crystallised ginger chopped up.

Add orange zest

Use honey instead of golden syrup

Toppings:

Add chocolate, any flavour and drizzle over the top or dunk

Add sprinkles or other cake decoration on top of the melted chocolate

Add a sprinkle of seeds or coconut or nuts.  Press into the surface of the flapjack whilst warm and soft.

Add caramel and then chocolate millionaires shortbread style.

Cost for one basic batch 

oats = 16p

butter= 60p

sugar=20p

Syrup=8p 

total = £1.04 per batch (prices from Tesco online website)

Although I think that I should declare that if you can still get to the supermarket then the Miss Molly's flapjack is also sold by Tesco for 80p for a similar weight.  There is no law that says that you couldn't use this as a base and have fun decorating that with the kids either...Hopefully you do not find yourselves in the position where that 24p matters...

Post Furlough Food/Student Food:Sausage Cassoulet

This is a quick, throw everything in the slow cooker/oven type of meal for when the nights are cold. It can be varied to add more ingredients and can be ready in the time it takes to bring to the boil if you are using leftover sausages. Easy peasy lemon squeasy which is what I wanted as homeschooling continues here with my youngest son not being at school due to worries about a "bubble" which is over 240 with teachers that move from bubble to bubble to teach during the day. This is barely supported with work from the school. Since furlough ended I have been on unpaid leave- which is brilliant of my employer as they recognise that they still need my skills when I am able to return to work but means effectively I am worse off than if I was on benefits! Nothing like the government forcing people like me with chronic illness to choose between health with poverty or risking your life but getting a wage. Never mind, rant over - back to the recipe which is a student favourite from years ago.  Never mind sliced bread, the baked bean was the best invention ever from the cheap instant nutritious food front and this is my favourite way of serving them in a recipe.  

Sausage Cassoulet Serves 4

Sausages - at least one each and can be any quality to suit your pocket, veggy sausages also work here.
Generic tin of baked beans in tomato sauce
Tin chopped tomatoes
onion, chopped
oil


Cook the onion in a little oil until soft. Grill the sausages if raw, then cut into chunks and add to the pan with all the remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil and cook for 5 minutes until everything is hot through.
Serve with rice, baked potatoes, noodles, homemade bread, toast, mashed potatoes or pasta as your fancy takes you.


Variations

Needless to say adding bulk will mean that the recipe can stretch to feed more than four.
On the sausage front use leftover cooked sausages to save using more fuel to cook these! At a pinch tinned hotdog sausages will do. (It makes a great camping recipe if you use all tins).  Frozen sausages that have been cooked also work - this can be cheaper per sausage than mid-range fresh ones.
leftover meat from roast
Crushed garlic
a sprinkle of herbs such as oregano or dried mixed herbs
a spoonful of marmite (trust me it works!)
mustard to taste
chilli powder or chopped fresh chilli to taste
Chopped fried bacon (cooking bacon is the cheapest option here)
if you don't have generic baked beans (which is the cheapest option) then any cooked pulses will do- but they must be cooked, drain any water first and add a squirt of tomato puree to the cassoulet to make up for lack of ready made tomato sauce.  Adding another tin of beans is the best way to instantly bulk out the portion size and if you add a different type of bean it instantly adds more variety
Cooked leftover veggies/tinned veggies of any variety/frozen veggies but leave to simmer until these are cooked

Cost for the basic ingredients works out less than £2 for four people (i.e. 50p a portion) if you use pasta as your carb of choice (27p for 500g use 75 g per person) and mid range sausages (£1.40 for 8), of course if you have to you can do better than that cost wise!

Saving on milk

 "Desperate times call for desperate measures" as the saying goes.  This week I found myself out of milk and with a debit card which was frozen by the bank after I bought something on behalf of my daughter at uni and the bank decided to freeze my card since it was an "uncharacteristic purchase".  With very little cash in my purse (now everywhere is contactless) and no way of knowing whether the bank would unfreeze my card immediately or whether I would have to wait for a replacement I was forced to resort to a method that my mum used to use as a single parent in the 1970's.  I bought blue milk and then added water to it to make it go further.

In our house we get through about 8 pints a week of semi-skimmed (green top) milk at the cost of about £2.18 per week.  But if you buy blue top (full fat) milk at the same price then you can water it down by about a third with no detectable taste difference.  I can attest to this as I decanted the milk into a washed green top container and NO-ONE spotted the difference.  This despite my husbands assertion that he can tell when I go all "cheapskate".  Since most of the milk I use is in cooking (sauces/pancakes/Yorkshire puds) anyway there isn't going to be much of a chance to spot the difference.

So much for milk that I want to use immediately but what about extras "just in case".  It is tempting to have some dried milk in the cupboard given the COVID situation at the moment but look at the calculations. One tub of this cost £2 and makes 4 1/2 pints of reconstituted milk which makes it 44p per pint. Doing the maths it becomes £3.53 for 8 pints. (Prices from Tesco website) If you feel you must have some stock for emergencies then buy the fresh milk and freeze.  It defrosts with no change in taste at all.

So assuming that I did this on a daily basis how much could I save - approx. 73p per week or £37.79 per year.  One to remember for WTSHTF.

Post Furlough/Student Food: Jacket/Baked Potatoes - ultimate cheap comfort food.

 Ah, just imagine the rain coming down outside, the nights drawn in and cosy fire to sit by and a baked potato topped with butter for tea.  Ultimate comfort food thanks to the carbs, but not as cheap as it used to be thanks to the supermarkets.  

The supermarkets cottoned on that you can sell spuds for £1.29  but big baking potatoes can be sold for £1.75 for the same size pack.  Then there are the ready cooked frozen variety - why spend valuable time and fuel cooking baked spuds when you can buy them ready cooked and ready to eat in minutes; all at the heady price of £2.50 for four thanks to McCain.  The packs of four baking potatoes still work out cheap for 15-20p each at this time of year.  Seasonality is a thing though so the prices do go up across the year but this is the time when you can score with the normal sacks of potatoes hiding some of a decent size for baking.  I was hoping that my own garden crop of spuds would yield some nice big ones to use but unfortunately we had to harvest earlier than I expected due to pests and although we had a fine crop of potatoes in terms of number they were new potato sized, gorgeous for home made potato salad but not for baking.  Maybe next year.

Jacket/Baked potatoes take approximately an hour in my oven - the soggy offerings that come out of the microwave do not, IMHO, taste anywhere near as good but in these days when we are all trying to reduce the amount of fuel we use both for the sake of cost and for the sake of our carbon footprint is it time to say goodbye to the humble jacket spud?

Thanks to The Batch Lady I discovered this way to make in advance and freeze, best bit they only 15 minutes in the oven en masse and then 15 minutes on the day so I can fill the oven to make the best use of the fuel.

Of course you can just dollop the filling on top (I am afraid I am so lazy this is what I tend to do!) or scoop out the potato and mix with the filling ingredients, pile it back into the skin and flash under the grill or back in the oven ("twice baked potatoes").  Either way gives a great gluten free carb hit designed to fill you up.

Now what to top them with:

Grated cheese

Tuna mayo either plain or with extras like chopped spring onion, cucumber, sweetcorn, chives

Coleslaw with or without cheese

Cauliflower Cheese

Beans with or without cheese

Pesto and cheese

left over curry (meat or veggie)

left over chilli (meat or veggie)

left over bolognaise (meat or veggie)

egg mayo

coronation chicken

Prawns in mayo or rose marie sauce

sweetcorn and cheese

Sardines and chilli flakes

bacon spring onion and cheese

peppers, garlic mushrooms and cottage cheese 

smoked haddock and cheese

cottage cheese and pineapple

cheese and onion

bacon brie and cranberry sauce

sardines coleslaw and cheese

bacon and egg

ham cream cheese and cress

chicken sweetcorn and kidney beans

tomato and mozzarella

bacon and beans

houmous (beetroot or otherwise)

ratatouille

meatballs - if Subway can do it in a sandwich why not on a jacket potato?

mushrooms and blue cheese

and the list goes on and on.....

 

Ditch the ready meal! Chicken and Bacon Pasta Bake\Mac and Cheese - more post furlough/student food

 So what do you do when you leave home for the first time and discover that you all those Food Tech lessons you did at school proved that you can design cool packaging but don't know how to make the contents.  For many the fear of cocking up and ruining food (which we now know for the first time is EXPENSIVE) means that they bolt for the ready meal aisle.  All the supermarket have them and they lure us in with Instagram quality pictures and the promise that it will be a delicious meal ready in minutes.  What is not to love?  Well the cost for one and the fat/salt/preservatives for another and did I mention the plastic pollution...

For an example I chose Chicken and Bacon Pasta Bake which is common to ASDA, Tesco and Morrisons and varies in price from £2.65 to £2 a time.  Now no-one wants to eat the same thing day in and out but if you rely on ready meals only for your evening meal that sets you back £380-£500 a year just for term time just for that one meal a day.  So 1) how much can you save on this one meal and 2) how easy is it to make?  The answer is that with a bit of organisation you can easily half the cost and it is easy to make, honest!

Chicken and Bacon Pasta for 1

You need two pans - one for pasta, one for the sauce

In the pasta pan add water from the kettle and a pinch of salt (the salt raises the boiling point of the water slightly so the pasta cooks a bit faster - clever huh!).  Add 75g of pasta (about a double handful if you do not have scales). Stir and leave to simmer for about 10-15 minutes whilst you make the sauce (water should be bubbling gently).

For the sauce take a couple of teaspoons of butter/margarine and melt it in the pan.  Do this gently, you do not want it to go brown as it will be bitter.  Add a dessertspoon of flour and stir to make a thick paste.  Keep it over the heat and keep stirring for about a minute to help cook the flour (this will improve the taste later).  Take about half a standard mug of milk and add to the pan a dribble at a time, stir in between to get rid of any lumps (if you do add too much by mistake then you can use a whisk to rescue it).  Stir gently and continue to heat the sauce until it starts to bubble.  Add grated cheese (about enough to cover you palm, somewhere around 25-50 g) and allow to melt then taste to see if it is "cheesy" enough, if not add a little more.  Stir in cooked shredded chicken (as much as you can spare a whole breast is too much) and chopped bacon (1-2 rashers).  Taste again - it may not need extra salt as both the cheese and the bacon will have salt in them.

By now the pasta should be cooked, taste a piece and if it is soft then it is cooked.  Drain the pasta and put back into the pan.  Pour the sauce on top and stir to coat the pasta.  Serve.

The hardest part of the whole of the cooking is that you cannot walk away and need to keep stirring the sauce to keep it from catching on the bottom of the pan- but it only takes the time it takes the pasta to cook.

Cost : Depends on where you get your chicken from.  If you buy cooked chicken in small packets like these 

then you are going to struggle (packet above is £2.50 for 180g and would make about 3 servings).  By the time you add bacon (£1.95 for 10 rashers) this would make the cost over £1 just for the meat alone and the entire cost approximately (20p for milk+8p for pasta+12p for cheese+5p for butter+3p for flour) £1.51 (assuming that you can use a grater to grate your own cheese, you're not going to fall for that one are you!).  Better than £2-£2.65 (if you did a similar thing every night for a week this would be a saving of £3.43-£7.98)  (Over a 38 week year this is £130.34-£303.24 or for us in the real world with a 52 week year £178.36-£414.96) but you can shave the savings down to be better - how? cook your own chicken breasts.

In advance buy something like these chicken breasts

At £3.30 for about 450g , much cheaper per gram.  So how do you cook it? Using foil make them into an enclosed parcel and cook in the oven for about 25 minutes, leave to cool then shred - the resultant meat can be used for recipes like this or sandwiches, wraps, added to mayo for baked potatoes, the list goes on and better still if you divide it into smaller portions (I would divide this into about 9 portions of approx. 50 g each), it will freeze for about 6 months, just pop in the fridge the morning of the day you want to use it.  This brings the cost of the bake down to £1.05 per portion.  About half the cost of even the cheapest option ( £7.35 per week rather than £14-£18.55).  If you use "cooking bacon" - this is packs of mis-shapes from when the bacon is sliced- then the cost dips below the £1 per portion mark.

Of course if you really want to drive the cost down ditch the meat and the recipe above becomes mac and cheese (also sold as a ready meal for  £2-£2.65 but costing you a massive 48p on average).

Potentially hundreds of pounds of savings over the course of a year - isn't that worth a little effort?

Lunchbox Hack: Snacks and Treats

 So, if just making your own lunch of sarnie, crisps and drink can save you nearly £500 per person per year (see this post here) what else can you add to save?

This post looks at the snacks and treats we pop into our lunchbox as well.

1)We have already partially covered crisps -single pack  v. multibag is 70-80p v. 25p per bag for a branded crisp (in this case Walkers as this was the one on the online Tescos groceries site).  Had I sprung for own brand variety crisps this would have dropped to a multipack of 30 for £2.99 i.e. 10 p per bag or a further saving of  £36 a year per person.  As always it depends on personal taste - try the generic brand you may find you can't really tell the difference and compare supermarkets and special offers.  For instance we do not like the Co-op own or Morrisons own brand ready salted crisps but Tescos own brand are fine so I buy a months worth at a time in Tescos and then ration them out (no unauthorised snacking allowed!) but if a brand/flavour we also like is on offer and the cost per bag is still less than 13p per bag  (Tescos own ready salted crisps are 77p for a multibag of 6 so this is my benchmark) then I will buy some of these instead.

2) Raisins

These often creep in as a little cardboard box into school kids lunchboxes. These little boxes have to be the most expensive way of buying dried fruit on the planet.  On the Tescos site costs vary from £2.50 for 12 boxes (each only 14g) at the most expensive  top brand to £1.30 for 12 (each only 14g) for Tescos own.  So what is the big deal - if you bought the Tescos own brand it works out 11p a box, even the top brand is only 19p a box, surely that is a good way to get kids to eat something healthy? Well yes until you look at the price you are paying per kilo. The top brand is a massive £13.28 per kilo; even Tesco own brand is £7.74 per kilo.  It is by far cheap to buy raisins or sultanas in the baking section and add to a plastic tub.  At £1.98 per kilo if you stuck to 14 g portions then it would be the equivalent of 3p a portion. If you did this everyday for a year for just one person this would be a total of £6.66 v. £50 for the top brand or £26 for Tescos own brand.

3)Biscuits and chocolate bars.

One chocolate item was the rule for my kids primary school (although I think they are trying to ban that these days).

Again an area where own brand v generic comes into it's own, and look out for special offers - they are not always a saving when v. generic brands

For example McVities Penguins

usual Tescos price = £1.39 for 8 bars (about 18p per bar)

On offer this week only = £1 for 8 bars ((about 13p per bar)

but Fox bars are 89p for 7 normally (same price per bar as special offer but all the time)

and Tescos Miss Molly's brand are £1.20 for 18 bars (£1.20/18 = 7p per bar)

Even if the Penguin bars where on offer they are not as cheap as the generic ones, but that's assuming my kids like the generic ones!

The potential saving over the year would be £41.70 v. £16 if we could use the own brand, even if we were forced to use mid brand the cost would be £30.52 so still over £10 saved per person.

3)Fruit.  The more socially acceptable snack instead of chocolate.

Don't buy the prepared chopped/packaged/sealed with inert gas packages.  Fruit pots from Tesco are £2 a pot.  Use whole satsumas/bananas/apples at between 30p and 50p each and instead of £10 a week or £480 a year you are looking at £1.50-£2.50 a week £72-£120 a year per person.

4) Don't stick to sandwiches.

The best thing you can do if you have access to a microwave is to make planned leftovers and take those in.

If you cannot do this then think about something like soup.  Easy to make and can be frozen (see previous post here) this is the cheapest option.   If you cannot use homemade then use supermarket own brand tins (25p-45p depending on flavour) rather than fresh soup which can be up to £2.50 for half a litre.  This means that (tinned) soup and a bread roll can set you back as little as 50p per day.  How's your £3 a day meal deal looking now?

Post Furlough/Student Food: Cauliflower Cheese Pasta Bake

 Pasta is one of the staples to be found in virtually every storecupboard up and down the country.  Even those who cannot eat gluten have their own verison (at a pretty price too).  It is also (in it's dry form) one of the things that my teenage son (who is autistic) likes to nick straight out of the packet for a snack.  This recipe is one which came into being when I did not have enough pasta for pasta in a cheese sauce (on it's own) and only had a small cauliflower so that was not going to do it on its own either.  The resultant recipe is cheap, can be prepared in advance and reheated in the oven, and can easily be varied/tweaked/adapted to include a few extras to make life seem less stringent. Winner winner no chicken for dinner.

Cauliflower Pasta Bake (Serves 4)

1 small cauliflower

150g (pasta shape except spaghetti)

25 g butter

25 g flour

250ml milk

120 g cheddar cheese, grated

Breadrumbs and extra grated cheese for topping.

Chop the cauliflower into florets, stalks, leaves and all.  Steam until tender.

Boil the pasta in salted water until cooked.

Make the cheese sauce.  Melt the butter in a small saucepan and then stir in the flour.  Keep stirring to prevent lumps forming and allow the flour to cook for 2-3 minutes (this gets rid of the raw flour flavour).  Switch to a balloon whisk and add the milk in a thin stream whilst stirring all the time.  Bring to the boil and the white sauce should thicken.  Add the grated cheese and stir until melted.

Combine all the ingredients and pour into a casserole dish.  Chill until needed. Top with breadcrumbs and extra grated cheese.  and cook in a medium oven until the top is brown and the sauce is bubbling.

Extras - add as many or as few as you like!

Add a tsp of mustard to the cheese sauce - not one I use personally as I hate mustard but...

Add  grated nutmeg to the sauce

Replace all or part of the cauliflower with broccoli

Add bacon to the sauce for extra flavour

Use blue cheese for the sauce, just half and half cheddar and stilton is lush and great for using up Christmas stilton

Use leftover chicken/pork/turkey/ham stirred in for extra protein

Add sliced mushrooms for extra protein.

Lunchbox: Meal deal v homemade

 As my oldest son heads back to college we are having to provide packed lunch as a part of the COVID-19 measures.  Not an issue for us really as it is something that we normally do since food can be difficult to find when you have sensory issues due to autism. (Canteens are out etc because the smell of some foods makes him feel ill).  This usually adds 25-35% to my food bill for the week (for 3 kids), not this year eldest is off to uni and youngest is not going back to school yet.  There is a whole industry worth millions of pounds that relies on the fact that these days we want our packed lunch pre-packed for us; but it costs big time. So how can you reduce some of the cost even on just the humble sarnie.

1) Make you own sandwiches.  The small businesses won't thank me but pre packed sandwiches come with a premium price for the contents. It is all too easy to grab a box and hand over the card but this can add up to between £3 and £5 a day - if you were to do this it would be £15 - £25 a week. 

For instance 1 round of smoked ham and cheddar cheese sandwich at Tesco cost £2.30 on it's own (or £3 for a sandwich, bag of crisps and drink) 

From the same shop a loaf of bread (with 20 slices) costs 59p 

butter or margarine costs 85p for 500g

smoked ham costs £2 for 6 slices

cheese - 60p for 10 slices

cost for one round :

 bread 59/20*2 = 6p

butter - say 5p

ham= £2/6=34p

cheese=60/10=6p

and that is using reasonable quality ham, sliced cheese, wholemeal bread and butter spread all of which are medium priced not the cheapest.  total for one sandwich only 51p 

or to put it another way would you rather pay £11.50 (£2.30 for five days) or £2.55 (51 p for five days) for a little effort

2) Crisps are cheaper in multipacks.  

A single pack of crisps can cost 70-80p - A six pack of Walkers is £1.50 = 25p a bag. (own brands are even cheaper if you like the taste - also look out for special offers and multibuys)

You don't even have to spend time making this one- a no-brainer surely!

3) Drinks are cheaper in multipacks too.

A lunchbox drink is included in the meal deal from most places but on it's own it is between £1 and £1.54

A small carton of juice is £1 for 5 i.e 20p each.

Just on these three things five days a week (using the meal deal)

Ready-made lunch = 5*£3 = £15 a week or £720 a year (for a 48 week working year)

(with no meal deal it is a massive £4.40 a day or £1056 a year!)

Home-made lunch = (51p+25p+20)*5=£4.80 a week or £230.40 a year

Isn't an annual saving of  £489.60 a year worth spending 5 minutes making a sandwich and grabbing a couple of things from the cupboard?

More lunchbox hacks to follow...

Cooking Hack: How to tell if an egg is fresh enough to eat

 This is a question that came up recently on a Facebook group that I have been following.  With the price of food always going up and with so many people now facing loss of income thanks to the recession following the start of the COVID-19 crisis throwing away good food is now less acceptable than ever. Did you know it is estimated that 720 million eggs are thrown away in the UK in a year because they are "out of date"?  Although chickens now seem to have date stamps attached to their bums the date on an egg or the box is the "Best Before" date- not "Use By".  This is an indication that it is safe to eat the contents a few days after this but it will not be as fresh as before and suffer from a loss of flavour/colour/quality. So how do you tell with an egg?  You do the water test.

An egg has an air sack at the rounded end.  When the egg is fresh this is small, as it ages it gets bigger.  So if you put your egg in a jug of water (see through is better) and it sinks to the bottom and sits horizontally it is really fresh and can be used in any recipe.  If it sinks but floats more vertically (rounded end nearly upright) then it is semi fresh and still good to use in most recipes. If it sinks but is now floating vertically with the rounded end up then use right away; this egg will not be as good in recipes like poached eggs or where you need to separate the egg white from the yolk as the white will be more watery and the sack around the yolk more fragile.  If it floats - bin it! 

Still not sure what I mean - the following YouTube vid shows you...

Low Cost Meal Plans-Feed four for £40 a week.

 With my daughter off to uni food is about to change in this household.  Normally we have an odd arrangement of eating - although all 3 of my children are on the autistic spectrum only my two boys have the associated sensory problems with food.  For those of you lucky enough not to be associated with this disability Autism is not Rain Man. It is where the brain is wired differently to the "norm" and this can include the communication centres (which is why those with autism struggle to fit in socially) but also the sensory centres which from a family day-to-day life point of view is far more restricting.  Someone with autism can be over or under sensitive to smell, colours, sounds, tastes, textures, and also their own body movements in space; and it is different for each and every person with autism.   Think for a moment what family mealtimes are like when one or more of your children won't eat mixed textures of food, won't eat meat because of the texture, won't eat wet foods - or dry foods because they are scratchy, won't eat dairy foods, won't eat crunchy foods, won't eat coloured food and everything has to be beige, won't eat fish because of the smell, or curry because of the spice and the list goes on.  The normal reaction of teachers/health visitors/grandparents (especially grandparents) etc is that this is just being fussy, it's not - it is literally part of their disability.  Persist and you will actually have a child gagging on the food you give them (not good when your grandparents have taken you out for a meal without mum and dad in public!).  It's like sitting someone who doesn't like fingernails down a blackboard down in a room full of blackboards and making the noise non-stop, you can't help but react violently against it.  What does this mean practically? For each mealtime I do three different meals; one for me, my husband and my daughter; one for my eldest son and one for my youngest son.  Little or no overlap.  Everyday.  

However with my daughter going off to uni it means that the main bit of cooking I will do is now just for OH and I - I am no longer bound by my daughters likes and dislikes and this gives me the opportunity to shake up what we eat on a daily basis.  OH probably will rebel but hey I think the best part of 18 years of basically the same 7 main meals week in and week out (because I can guarantee my daughter will eat them) is enough for anyone.  The Love Food Hate Waste site was one which I was prowling through in the bid to use up some veggies before they need to go into the compost. DD has been doing the shopping during the pandemic and has yet to master following a shopping list - memorable incidents include buying 6  one kilo bags of carrots one week after they had been sold out the week before, when we had no room in the freezer either. The site is great for ideas to use up leftovers, just type in an ingredient or ingredients you need to use up and they suggest recipes. Anyway, I came across the meal plans link which have been produced in conjunction with Lidl to be found here.

So what are they - four weeks of meal plans including recipes and shopping lists.  No cheating as these are a full seven days, three meals a day, for a standard family.  It even gives you tips and reminders of what to put into the freezer (or take out of the freezer) when.  They are for meat eaters only though and heavy on the bread products so if you are gluten intolerant then it may be too expensive to substitute gluten free alternatives in nearly every meal. The only thing they do not include are drinks - studies show that these take about 8% of the average family food budget; but anyway I digress.  Looking through they are not bad ideas and not too far off what the "average" person in the UK would normally eat so with a little tweaking I plan to give most of it a go for OH and I. Off the top of my head butterbeans will not go down well ☺. Although of course I am not so silly as to think if you half the people it will halve the cost - for this part of the food budget anyway. It will be interesting to compare our pre-uni spend with the normal one once my DD has gone as well as it will be four of us instead of five- two teenage boys constantly on the prowl for food may make up the difference though!  The search goes on, as always, for other resources so check back.

Post Furlough/Student food: Cream of *** Soup

 My eldest heads off to university in just over a week.  Not for her the freshers fairs and societies that everyone rushes to join and then does not go to, or the time spent with mates in the SU bar - oh no.  This is Covid safe university where she will be in a bubble of 4 for her accommodation (sharing a kitchen) and doing the majority of her lectures online with just a few sessions face to face and even then with a limited number of people all wearing masks.  ("Lectures" go to 10 pm at night I kid you not!) Meanwhile I have been trying to teach her how to shop and cook on a budget for just one which is a whole different ballgame; of course I am Mum and therefore I am too old to know anything.☺

Anyway this is my go to recipe when I want to make a soup because I need to make the most of veggies that are about to go in the bin.  The only downside is that it is better when you use a stick blender (they can be got for under £20 on somewhere like Amazon), otherwise use a potato masher to to crush the veggies, it will be a bit more chunky but just call it rustic if anyone asks...

Just a note - Cream of Tomato is not included on this list as it costs more to make than to buy a generic supermarket own cream of tomato tinned soup.  If you can stand the taste use one of these instead of making your own.

The generic recipe starts with onion, chop it and soften it in oil.

Add the chopped veggies and an equal amount of chopped potato - the potato will thicken the soup and make it creamy.

Stir to toss it all in the oil and leave to soften slightly for 2-3 minutes.

Barely cover the contents of the pan with water - add a stock cube if you have one plus any flavourings.

Simmer until the veggies are soft.

Blitz.

At this point you should have a thick paste.  You can freeze it at this point (takes up less space in the freezer)

When ready to use thin down to desired consistency with milk - regular or non-dairy either work well, heat through and serve.

Ideas and variations:

Whilst  you can absolutely use just whatever mixture you have here are some of the variations that make it sound like you planned it...

Parsnip and sage - use parsnips as your veggie and add bit of sage for flavour.

Carrot and cumin- use carrots as your main veggie and add curry powder or cumin for flavour (parsnips also work here if you need a combination as does swede), also works with ginger for flavour instead.

Leek and potato - speaks for itself but use less leek than potato for this one

Courgette and Lemon - use  chopped courgette and juice and zest from a lemon.

Mushroom - add sliced mushrooms to the onions and soften before adding the potatoes. Add a sprinkle of garlic powder if you have it (cheap from Lidl) or a sprinkle of thyme.

Potato - double up on the potatoes if you really have nothing else.  A sprinkle of thyme works well here if you have it.

Pea and mint- frozen or tinned peas can be used if you have no fresh veggies - add mint for flavour if you have it.

Broccoli or cauliflower and cheese- use broccoli or cauliflower ( or a mixture ) fresh frozen or leftover from the main meal the day before and stir in grated cheese when you add the milk.  This is our Christmas go to to use up the leftovers from Stilton.

Bean/Chickpea soup- use tinned pulses (even generic baked beans washed of their sauce will do in a pinch) add garlic and ground coriander for flavour

Sweetcorn - use a tin of sweetcorn and garlic for flavour.

Celery - just a couple of chopped stalks will do - use the chopped leaves for garnish and add garlic at the same time as the onion for flavour.

Tinned tomatoes can be used in place of all or part of the stock but this does bump the cost up for the basic version.

Leftover cooked meat can be added before blitzing for added flavour - smoked bacon is good - better than throwing it away or using it in sandwiches again...

If you want to up the protein and carbohydrate content then add some dried red lentils or yellow split peas at the same time as the potatoes 

Serve the soup with toast, croutons (toast cut into cubes basically), cream/yogurt/creme fraiche on top for extra flavour and a bit of flourish, grated cheese on top, chopped fresh herbs such as parsley, chives or coriander, chopped fried bacon for those who are not veggie.  

Part baked baguettes are also great on the side with melting butter( yum)

If you are using just a generic mixture I would steer clear of cabbage or brussel sprouts personally unless you want your housemates to complain about the smell.☺

Curry powder, chilli powder, ras-al-hanout, piri piri seasoning, cajun seasoning, sumac, pesto, dried mixed herbs have all been things I have added for extra flavour; not all at once obviously, but if you have splurged on some of these tempting little (expensive for their weight) jars and don't know where to use them this could be one of those places.  If you are adding some for flavour and you have only a single serving be cautious in the amount you add (not a whole spoonful) and taste, taste, taste- you can always add more but you can't take it out.  There is nothing worse than knowing you have just ruined your last meal before the money runs out  - or feeling that you have to force it down no matter how spicy it is because you cannot afford to waste food.

Homemade Quick Shortbread

My oldest son is terrified of birds so even though we live just down the road from a free range egg farm and they have regular sales where older birds are only a pound or so each we do not have our own chooks. This morning when I had the craving for something sweet but did not have eggs to make any muffins or cupcakes I reached for an old notebook and made some shortbread.
I think the recipe came from an old microwave recipe book that came free with the appliance which has long since been replaced. It uses just three ingredients - caster sugar, butter and flour and only takes 5 minutes to cook in the microwave.  You can also cook it in the oven - that takes a massive 10 minutes instead.  This is one area where I use butter rather than margarine because I prefer the taste, but both will work in the recipe. If I am pushed I will use half and half for the plain recipe.  As always there are variations you can do to jazz up the recipe if you have a few pennies more.   I did not have caster sugar either so gave some granulated sugar a blitz in my blender before using (old Shirley Goode tip for saving a few pennies).

Basic Shortbread Makes 8 (big) wedges
250g plain flour
125 g butter (must be at room temperature i.e. soft)
60g caster sugar
Grease and line a 20cm cake tin suitable for the microwave (I use a Pyrex one but silicon ones also work well- poundland sell them), a standard sandwich cake tin will work for the conventional oven. If you are using a microwave, and do not have a tin, I have been told you can put the dough directly onto a piece of baking paper that has been sat on the turntable.
Mix together all the ingredients to form a soft dough, I just use a big metal tablespoon.  You only need to mix until just combined - this is not like pasta dough or bread dough where it needs to be kneaded.
Press the dough into the tin using the back of the spoon (it's too soft to roll out) and prick over the top with a fork to prevent it rising too much as it cooks.
Pop into the microwave and cook on HIGH for 5 minutes.  Allow to cool in the tin for at least 4-5 minutes more- don't skip this stage as the shortbread will just disintegrate as you cut it.  Turn out onto a chopping board to remove the paper and gently cut into wedges.  Serve with a cup of tea.

Variations- use whichever your hearts desire today
If you don't have plain flour self raising will still work - they just puff up a bit
Makes a good base for millionaires shortbread, add a layer of caramel and then melted chocolate
Drizzle the top with melted chocolate and/or chopped nuts
Drizzle the top with basic white icing (icing sugar and water) and/or coconut
Add chocolate chips (or in my case chopped value chocolate bar)
Add chopped nuts
Add dried fruit and candied peel (giant garibaldi)
Substitute 25 g of the flour for ground nuts such as almonds (gives a moist texture)
Substitute 25 g of the flour for cornflour (gives a smoother texture)
Substitute 25 g of the flour for ground rice (gives a slightly crunchy texture)
Add grated zest to the dough (lemon, orange, and lime all work) I like to use orange if I am drizzling with chocolate and lime/lemon if using icing and coconut.

I believe that it should last up to 5 days in an airtight tin, but have never had the chance to test it!

Saving money on dried pasta.

Farmfoods used to send a flyer through our door once a month.  For those of you that don't know Farmfoods is primarily a frozen food outlet but it has a small selection of things like bulk packs of cat food, biscuits and crisps and other things like rice, pasta and condiments.  Not everything that is for sale is a bargain.  This is one area where you need to look at the size of the packet and work out if it really is better value,  for example the branded soup for sale is actually a smaller sized tin.   Nowadays they have started giving the vouchers that used to be on the flyer on the website as single use codes.  Although I go infrequently I usually do some research and get a trolley full of things that are better value and then I have the vouchers on top.  Definitely not (for me) a whole week shop and weirdly enough there is very rarely any frozen food in it.
Nowadays you get an email rather than a physical paper flyer and the list of bargains this week included dried pasta (penne) at 19p a pack.  I used my stocking up fund outlined here to buy 4 packs of 400 g each (again smaller pack size than for example Tescos).
Price I paid (no coupons used since I did not get to the £25 threshold) =4*19p=76p for 1600g total.
Price at Tescos is 53p for 500g pack so 1600g would have cost me (53/500)*1600=170 pence or £1.70 (rounded up to nearest penny) - nearly a pound saved but only so long as I use the same amount of pasta.  The tendency when you "eyeball" the amount of food that you cook is to use slightly more if you have more in the packet - or if you are hungry.  I always weigh out the pasta that I cook using a set of digital scales (75g per person for a main meal), even if it is just a few pence saved each time then it still adds up over the year  (we have pasta at least twice a week).  If you don't have these and don't want to spend your budget getting a set just yet then use a cup or mug to get the same volume each time (the weight will obviously be different depending on the shape of the pasta but when I am on a tight budget I don't get sniffy about which shape pasta I buy)
How do I serve it - well the most simple is referred to as Love Pasta in our house.  When my oldest kids were small they did not want Pasta with Homemade Tomato Sauce and would announce loudly that they did not like it.  The next time we called it Love Pasta (since it was made with love) - clean plates all round.

For 4 people
300 g pasta - cook in boiling salted water
Whilst the pasta is cooking in a separate pan heat up one carton of value passata and a good sprinkle of garlic powder (I buy mine from Lidl).
When pasta is cooked mix together and serve.
Variations
Loads....Try one or a combination...
Top with grated cheese before serving
Add chopped bacon to sauce
Add sliced sausage to sauce
Add mixed dried herbs (or a spoonful of pesto)
Add grated carrot/courgette to the pan to soften before adding the passata
Add sliced mushrooms to passata
Use an onion which has been chopped and softened in oil instead of the garlic.
Add  chopped fresh chilli to tomato sauce
Add sliced chorizo to sauce (good with the chilli)
Add lettuce or chard or rocket or spinach to the passata and allow to wilt before serving.
Add seafood such as prawns to sauce
Leftover roast meat can be added to sauce
Roasted veggies  (peppers/tomatoes/aubergine/courgette) can be added to the sauce.

Free Food! Blackberry season is here. Time for Blackberry Crumble Cake.

Our garden is wild but tiny and the one thing that I can guarantee is that we will always have blackberries.
Normally I fight the brambles all year (they come through the hedge from both neighbours) and have got rid of the climbers that used to cover the fences on both sides of the garden since this just gave the brambles a place to hide. But I have a patch which were just too much of a pain to get to that I have left and now they are covered with ripening berries which should keep us going without having to leave our property (shielding thanks to COVID) until the season runs down in October.  Of course I'll have to fight my eldest son off as as soon as he knows they are there he will strip the entire bush just for a snack.  I do not know what it is but I have a plant which I bought from Poundland a couple of years back which is a blackberry cultivar with no thorns- this grows stems and leaves like a weed but I have never had a single berry. The plants I try actively to destroy are the ones which give me a steady but small supply to supplement my kitchen.
The next thing is to decide what to make with them.  Not being a fan of any kind of jam (don't know why, I love fruit but don't like the taste of jam) I will not be preserving the bounty this way but prefer to freeze the berries instead.
Not enough to do this yet though so I think the first harvest (which is after all a little small) will go into my favourite blackberry pud and that is a crumble cake.
This is sponge cake on the bottom (plain or flavoured), topped with fruit in the middle and then finished off with a crumble topping. Warm with vanilla icecream (or even custard) the use of the sponge means that even for eight servings you need only the equivalent of one supermarket punnet of fruit.   Other berries and fruit can be substituted for some or even all of the blackberries.

Blackberry Crumble Cake (serves up to 8)
For the cake:
110g butter or cooking margarine
200g caster sugar
4 large eggs
2 tbsp yogurt
200g self-raising flour
 Topping
150-200g fresh blackberries (you need enough to make a single layer over the sponge mix)
Crumble topping:
100g butter or cooking margarine(the block kind), cut into cubes
140g plain flour
50 g sugar
Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180 C.
Prepare a traybake rectangular in by greasing and lining with parchment paper.
Make the sponge mixture by creaming together the butter and the sugar until creamy.  Add in the eggs one at a time, beating between each one. (If the mixture splits add a tsp of the flour and beat again). Stir in the yogurt.  Fold in the sifted flour.  Tip this mixture into the tin and smooth gently over the surface to give a layer at the bottom.
Scatter over the berries to form a single layer.
Tip all the ingredients for the crumble into the same bowl and use your fingertips to rub in the margarine.  (I find block margarine works better than the soft spread, don't know why...)  You want something that resembles breadcrumbs; it should not look like a dough, if it does add more flour.
Scatter the crumble over the fruit as the top layer.
Bake in the oven until skewer inserted into the sponge comes out clean. About 40 minutes depending on your tin.

Variations:
Add cinnamon and/or nutmeg to the sponge (1/2 tsp each)
Add 50g ground almonds in place of 50 g of the flour and add a 1/2 tsp of almond essence to the cake mix
Add cinnamon and flaked almonds to the crumble
Add replace some of the flour with oats in the crumble (take out a couple of tbsp and substitute with 2 tbsp oats)
Use brown sugar or muscovado sugar for a deeper flavour.
Change up the fruit by using other berries like raspberries or chopped strawberries as well as blackberries.  Frozen summer fruits from the freezer section work for this recipe all year round.  No need to defrost.
Peeled and chopped apples or pears also work well with the blackberries.
If you don't have fresh or frozen fruit then use jam instead - small "dollops" over the surface of the sponge in a layer before putting the crumble topping on.
Serve warm with icecream or greek yogurt/ creme fraiche.
Serve cold with a cup of tea. - this is one you need a drink with.

• 
  

Meal Planning - don't do it backwards!

There have been trillions of posts written about meal planning.  But one thing I have found that the vast majority do is start with the meals you want to make first.  Why is this the wrong way round?  It gets you to focus on what you might want to eat - not using up what you already have.  If you take an inventory of what is in your kitchen (including the fridge/freezer/veg rack/larder) you probably have food which would cost a couple of hundreds of pounds to replace like for like for the average family.  And yet we are all guilty of claiming to have "nothing in".  Cue the phone call to the local takeaway at the worse, or a trolley full of duplicates at best. (Don't believe me, go and look at just the stuff in the kitchen cupboards now and tot it up in your head).
So how to do it the "right" way round.
First work out how many meals you need to plan for - this needs to include breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks/drinks - if you eat/drink it, include it so if you know you (almost) always have a cup of tea and a biscuit midmorning include a space for those.
If you have an activity that means that you don't need to feed as many as normal (or more than normal) note these down.  Or if you won't be back until late and want something quick, or conversely need to be out early and won't be back until late this will also dictate the kind of meal you have.  For example Thursday (pre COVID) was brass band night for my son and I was the taxi service so dinner had to be done and dusted by 5.45; cue pizza from the freezer, 20 minutes and on the table with little or no supervision once it was in the oven.  Fill these days in first.
Second thing to tackle is breakfast - if this is normally cereal due to time pressures of school and work fill these days in.  Do you have fresh fruit to be used up or frozen fruit in freezer, maybe smoothies or pancakes would be good.  Oats are always cheap.  Scrambled eggs give a filling protein hit. Finally there is always toast. etc.  Go on be a devil and try a variety of ideas.
Now go to fridge and freezer and pantry and see what you have already there.  For me I look at the protein first as my husband is an avid carnivore who will pick at something and not touch it until he finds the meat.  Do I have any chicken breasts in the freezer, how about bacon in the fridge, do I have tins of tuna on the shelf? I concentrate on the fridge first as these are the things that will perish first, then the freezer, then fill in the gaps with the pantry.  Sometimes I even have a ready-made (home cooked) meal in the freezer from where I have cooked in bulk and frozen some for another day.  What I do not do (because I am rubbish with it) is have a running inventory of how many of each thing I have in stock; this means I physically go and look and being a visual person this also inspires me more than just looking at a list.  By now you should have an broad idea of what you are eating for quite a few of the main (for us evening) meals for the week, go to the cupboard and look at the flavourings etc you have to refine your ideas.  Do you have pasta but no lasagne sheets - swap pasta bol for classic lasagna.  Do you have long grain rice and cajun spices but no risotto rice, then that ham risotto from the storecupboard becomes jambalya instead.  What order do you put them in? Well if the pepper you have in the fridge is on the way out faster than the carrots then make the meal that uses the pepper earlier in the week. Obvious isn't it.   Next is lunches - do any of the evening meals offer the possibility to have leftovers the next day for lunch? Put those in. Make your challenge to not throw any food away because it is spoiled.
Next look at the website for your local supermarket for any special offers - use those as ideas to fill in some gaps only if they make a sensible choice.  (That whole salmon for £12 may be on offer but if it blows the entire budget it is a no no).
Now fill in the remaining gaps.  Less daunting than looking at the whole blank sheet isn't it.
By now you should have a list of those things that you intend to buy based on what is missing from home for your plan.  Next thing is a final check which can save embarrassment at the checkout further down the line.  Work out how much it totals out to (past receipts or a price book are useful here) and if it is over your food budget (and yes I do encourage you to make the time to do one) then adjust the meals in the plan.  Do not be tempted to be a little over with the intention that you will be a little under next week - this is more likely snowball and lead to a lot less money for the last week before the paycheck. This is more damaging to your morale than swapping chicken thighs for chicken breasts and red lentil dal instead of meat curry now.
Finally you are ready to hit the shops- if there is anything you can't get (random empty shelves have become a reality this year haven't they!) then you now have the knowledge of what is still left at home to make a substitution so you and yours don't need to miss a meal.
Confession time. Do I do this every week?  I would love to say yes but in reality with 3 autistic offspring, a job, side hustles and a husband who is MIA more often than not because it is "all too much" life gets in the way.  A meal plan isn't a contract or a life sentence it is a guide to ensure you have enough meals to prevent those top up shops which always cost more than they should.  There are no meal plan police to check that you have really had shepherd's pie for dinner today.  Swap according to your mood or go off piste with a similar costing meal if you have the ingredients in.  Sometimes this means the plan is done but not followed faithfully, sometimes the wheels have come off before the plan is written and I do a more generic shop and rough out a plan later.  Sometimes you just have to forgive yourself for falling off the wagon, you are after all a human being - what is more important is that you get back on again, no matter how many times this is.  Long term this will save you money and that will help you achieve your goals whatever they are.

A Tale of Two Soaps

Now that we are encouraged to wash our hands multiple times a day indoors and out soap has become something that my eldest (who is doing my shopping since I am shielding) has been finding stripped from the supermarket shelves. But not once in our house have we run out, or even low.  Why? Because soap is soap whether it is labelled hand soap, baby wash, shower gel or cleansing bar - even shampoo works in a pinch.
Multiple times "soap" has been on the shopping list and they has swanned round frustrated customers haranguing frazzled staff for when the hand soap will be restocked, picked up a bottle of baby wash from the next section of shelving and said knowingly to those decades older than them - "this is still soap you know".  One of my colleagues was complaining that during the early pandemic he was buying his favourite soap online at £1.50 a bar more than the normal price, and it is just a relatively basic brand. This is someone who is an engineer with a degree and further qualifications.  Sometimes thinking outside the box sidesteps the sales patter and saves you money in the long run.  Don't keep expensive habits that you cannot afford.
In this case it was saving time and sanity running from shop to shop more than money but I was thinking about this later when stocktaking the shampoo in the bathroom.  We buy a favourite cheap brand.  I also buy it from a freezer food shop (Farmfoods) as that is where it is cheapest, not somewhere I would have automatically thought of to look.   However I am not so precious that if I see something similar on offer at a cheaper price I do not buy that instead.  Using a price list (on my phone) means I can check if I need a reminder of the usual cheapest price and I keep a separate budget for if I need to stock up.  Toiletries keep for ages so it is an ideal area to grab those savings if you can. (this post explains my system)
For use the contents get decanted into an opaque bottle with a pump both so that we do not use too much but also so that I do not get complaints that it is not the usual stuff. (In fact the only one who is bothered is my husband - the kids just call it Mum's Shampoo and quite like the fact that it might be a different smell today!) I have a second bottle which I refill with whatever I have to hand and swap when the first gets low.  No more shaking bottles in the shower to get the last dregs.  (Incidentally I let gravity do the work overnight to get the last dregs out of the bottles by balancing the part used bottle in a funnel over the pump bottle- far less frustrating.)  I do the same thing with conditioner.
Over the last year I have saved over a tenner on shampoo and conditioner alone just by shopping somewhere a bit different.  The pump bottles also reduced our consumption by about half when we started using them a few years ago. 
Will that saving make me a millionaire? No.  But it will help pay for a weeks food for my daughter as she heads off to uni in September.  It is only a tenner for what may seem like a load of effort but by equating it to something that I know I want to get (or in this case cover) it encourages me to see how little dribs and drabs make a huge difference overall when added together.
One final money saving tip for soap - if you are a bar soap user rather than liquid soap user and you use "normal" soap rather than glycerine style soap take the wrapper off the soap when you get it home and put it in the cupboard to store.  This allows the soap to dry out or cure even more and the resultant bar will not get as mushy as quickly and will last longer.
Challenge yourself to think outside the box.  What can you save?

Post Furlough Food/Student Food : Pea, Ham and Lettuce Rissotto

This year we joined the hoards of people who had the same idea and mid March decided to grow some veggies in the garden.  Normally I have an embarrassingly black thumb and can kill anything 24 hours after it is planted out but this year I researched and seem (touch wood) to have found a way that works for me using containers rather than planting in the soil in the garden.  The thing is that now I have two reused stacker boxes filled with cut and come again lettuce.  Only 3 out of the 5 of us eat lettuce and frankly there are only so many salad sandwiches you can eat so this recipe was inspired by one I remember from the late great Shirley Goode who was a TV cook who had the reputation of making something out of nothing way back in the 1980's.  Whilst she is no longer with us her blog is still around and can be found here.  The original recipe used peas and lettuce to make a soup but I turned it around to make a more substantial meal by using it for a basis of a risotto.  As always there is a cheap and cheerful basic version and a splash out a bit more cash version.  Quantities should feed 4.

Lettuce, Pea and Bacon Risotto
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp oil
1 clove garlic, sliced
2 rashers bacon, chopped (smoked or plain, I use scraps from a cooking bacon pack)
350g risotto rice
100g peas, fresh or frozen (we got to use our own)
2 litres stock (veggie or chicken, from a cube will do)
2 little gem sized lettuces or equivalent, shredded (great for using lettuce that would otherwise be headed out the door thanks to unseasonal weather)

Fry the onion in the oil until transparent but not brown.  Add the garlic and bacon and continue to fry until the edges of the onion are just starting to brown. 
Add the rice and stir well to coat. 
Add the stock a little at a time and keep stirring to encourage the starch to come  out of the rice grains. Add another ladleful of stock when the previous one is mostly absorbed.  When you add the last of the stock stir in the peas and allow to cook for another couple of minutes before adding the lettuce. 
Taste the rice  to test to see if it is cooked.

Variations:
Risotto rice is the perfect rice to use but if you don't have it and/or can't get it then long grain rice will still give you a tasty meal it just won't be as creamy. Pudding rice is also a starchy alternative.
A knob of butter added when you have fried the onion will add more creamy flavour.
Substitute a glass of white wine for the same amount of stock if you are lucky enough to have some.
Lemon zest and/or juice make a nice addition when you add the stock
Ham, gammon, pork or chicken can substitute for the bacon - excellent potential for using small amounts of roast dinner leftovers here.
Parmesan cheese or other hard Italian style cheese can be grated over the top before serving. (50g is plenty for 4 people).  Do not be tempted to buy the cheap pre grated stuff in tubs; smell and taste are quite disgusting compared to the real thing and the cost isn't that much more.
Chopped fresh coriander leaves also add a slightly citrus garnish - again we used homegrown in ours.

Post Furlough Food/Food for students: Bubble and Squeak

When I think back to times when income has been virtually non-existent for my husband and I (thankfully few) I think of bubble and squeak.  For those of you who don't know this is an English dish which is made from mashed potatoes and cabbage. which is far tastier that it sounds.  Regional names for the similar thing throughout the UK include colcannon and rumbledethumps.
At it's simplest Bubble and Squeak is mashed potato and chopped cabbage mixed together and fried in a pan. (Probably where the bubble and squeak name comes from) , it is dirt cheap, uses widely available ingredients and it is also possible to jazz it up depending on what you have available.
-Potatoes - these should be floury potatoes that mash well, use the kind often labelled as just plain "white potatoes" in the supermarket do not fall for a particular variety with a pricier tag, in the small print it could say something like "Estima", "King Edward", "Maris Piper" if you are buying from a typical UK supermarket.  The proportion of potatoes to cabbage should be about 2/3 potatoes to 1/3 cabbage but I have been known to up it in desperate times as the carbs in the potatoes is the filling bit.  Tinned potatoes do not (in my experience) work as a substitute because they are a little more waxy - they have chosen a variety that will hold together when pressure cooked in the tin rather than one that falls apart when cooked.  If you can't get fresh spuds (can't think why but the last few months have had runs on odd things in the shops...) then use instant mash - works fine.  Do not be tempted by the ready made mash, it is a rip off.
Cabbage.  Classically this would be chopped and boiled (presumably to death as this is the reputation that British cooks of the past had :)) In our house it is steamed to just tender in a metal colander over a pan of boiling water (no fancy plug in steamer used here); my mum used to cook it in the pressure cooker but again the tendency is to overcook and lose all texture, colour and vitamins.  I have also been known to substitute other brassicas (brussel sprouts/broccoli/cauliflower) instead.  If you are using a fresh cabbage then the core can be grated and used with the chopped leaves in a pinch, the same is true for the outer leaves and stem of broccoli or cauli.
Method
Simple as can be. Take your potato, peel cook and mash(with a splash of milk if you can spare it).  Take your cabbage, chop it or cut into strips. Boil or steam the cabbage until just tender.   Mix everything together. Take a frying pan and press the mixture into a layer like a frittata.  When the underneath is brown (sneak a look and then press the edge which will break apart back together again) either flip using a plate or if you can put the frying pan under a hot grill (mind any plastic handles) brown the top under the grill.   The brown bits are the tastiest bits so don't turn it too soon.  Cut into as many wedges as you need.
Variations
Many and varied depending on what you have knocking about in the fridge and cupboards, exactly why I like this dish.  Add as many or as few as your heart (or budget) will allow.
Onions- fried onion is the best basic thing to add in my opinion.  Fry the onion before adding to the potato and mix through.  You can also use chopped spring onions or chopped leeks in the same way.
Cheese - sprinkle grated hard cheese on the top before going under the grill.
Soft Cheese- Cream cheese (like philadelphia) can be stirred into the mash before frying - the herb or garlic ones are also good.
Garlic - either use fresh chopped garlic that has been softened in the pan before hand or a squeeze of the puree.  Mix into the mash potato before cooking.  If you are adding onions and garlic and frying them before adding to the mash only add the garlic when the onions are already soft.  Garlic burns quicker and burnt garlic tastes bad.
Roasted vegetables - Red pepper that has been softened in the pan can be added the mix straight away but I have been known to chop up peppers/tomatoes/courgette/aubergine/squash/sweet potato/carrots etc and roast them in the oven to fill the space and then freeze them, this is one of the dishes where I will throw in a portion to improve the flavour (they also go great in pasta sauce)
Leftover cooked veggies- the story goes that this would be made on the Monday for the thrifty cook to use the cooked veggies left over from sunday lunch.  Carrots, roasted parsnips, broccoli, green beans, peas - all have made it into my recipe over the years.  If you do not have leftovers of the cooked veggies but want to add some carrots (for example) cook them in the microwave first or in the same pan as the potatoes or cabbage.  Tinned veggies can also be used as is.  If I am doing this variation I leave off the cheese and serve with gravy (either left over or from granules)
Meat - so far so veggie but... leftovers from sunday lunch, chopped fried bacon, chopped ham (even the sandwich kind or tinned), chopped (cooked) sausages, all can be added and mixing them into the mash rather than serving them on the side makes a little go much further.  If you have a little bit of leftovers of the meat kind (not enough to freeze or justify it's space in the fridge) this is the place to use it.  Many a single sausage has been snatched from my husband just in time.  Again goes great with gravy.
Mustard - If you are throwing in sausages then a spoonful of mustard in the mash will add more flavour - personally I hate the stuff but I have known those who do this...
Horseradish - a spoonful of this lovely stuff however is one I like. Goes into the basic version or the one with meat or roasted veggies for me.
Butter - If you want a more luxury mash then add a knob of butter when you mash the potatoes if you have it.
Poached/fried egg - cook separately and serve on the top for a protein hit.
Baked beans - for another protein hit serve a portion of these on the side.