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Hello me and the boy
What a lot of brilliant tips! :D Thank you. I hadn't thought of freezing peppers (I did have the pre-frozen ones but didn't like them but I bet this would be much better) also frozen mushrooms...I am always throwing half-used packs away cos they go manky.
Yesterday I had some frozen haddock, I don't mean the breadcrumb sort ;) I mean actual white frozen fish pieces, a big bag from M will do several meals. As it was all tail pieces there won't be any bones either :D
Louise
Ooh thanks for that about the salmon Anna!
If you go to the supermarket beginning with I (the one with the adverts feauturing a former member of Atomic Kitten. =] ) you canalways get bags of Quorn mince, chicken style pieces, and veggie sausages for a pound.
My little brother stays with me often and he's a steadfast carnivore can't tell the difference when I make his tea. =D
Wow £1 from I? thats amazing! We always have quorn too, not too keen on the sausages tho, but I always think it is a bit dear.
By the way I love your tips too! What do the frozen mushrooms taste like?
We get through peppers, but what bugs me is that they are also really expensive, don't you agree?
I also wonder why passata is SO much cheaper than a tin of tomatoes? I love it, its so handy and tasty and useful!!!
Keep your useful tips coming please!
I have bought a huge bag of frozen mushrooms today for only 99p and will report back......
Sorry in advance for the long post!! ....
If you are putting the mushrooms in dishes rather than cooking them alone then they taste like the normal ones you'd buy (and waste half of). The boy isn't a lover of them but i love them and have them in almost everything!
I know peppers can be expensive at almost 70p each but if you go to asda or tesco then they do a pack of 3 for about £1 - £1.50. But then you'd waste them anyways because of being too many .. hence the freezing! I also chop some up into big pieces for my extra cheap and simple mediteranian chicken! I should have mentioned that yesterday but here goes ...
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees (i have electric sorry all you gas users!)
Chicken thigh pieces (however many you want)
1 courgette - peeled, cut in half lengthways and chopped into pieces
1 red onion sliced into chunky pieces
A few garlic cloves chopped (not diced)
A mixture of chunky peppers
Ground black pepper (or stuff in a pot)
500g tub of pasatta
Put all the veggies into a bowl and mix together with a drizzle of olive oil / spray of fry light
Grind the pepper over the top depending on your tastes
Put half the veggies into the bottom of a casserole dish
Place the chicken pieces over the top
Add the rest of the veggies
Pour over the pasatta
Put in the over for 30-45 mins depending on the sizes of your chicken
Take out and enjoy!!
We generally have jacket potatoes with our so throw them in a little bit before the main dish.
Even the boy likes this dish and he's playing the fussy toddler at the moment!
Just a thought. One of our local primary schools runs a "food co-op." It's all arranged by the kids with regards to money etc. For £5 a week I get one bag of fruit and one bag of veg, this week I got a small punnet of strawberries, 2 peppers, half a cucumber, lettuce, 2 large tomatoes, 2 baking potatoes, a small punnet of raspberries, 2 apples and a banana. Ours also accepts healthy start vouchers. Maybe its worth enquiring into that and if you can't find any primary schools that do maybe you could suggest that they start? Apparently it teaches the kids business skills and how to handle money and things.
Me and the boy, that sounds lovely and very easy to make (more to the point! ;) )
Ifyouseeher, the food co-op sounds great. When I was a kid there was just a poxy litle school bank where I saved a shilling a week......well, I am 103 :lol: Actually as well as money and business skills it is a way to teach them about healthy food, and what a variety of different fresh food there can be.
BTW, Has anyone ever seen fresh broad beans in the supermarket? I always end up buying frozen
That's partly why i love the chicken dish and just in case anyone is on slimming world (like me) it's completely free on red days :D
I'm sure i know lots more recipes .. will have to find them out fom the back of my head. Very tired and stressed today so will let you know another day xx
Ooh, please do I look forward to hearing some more, yum yum!
I'll just add more as i remember them ...
Yummy Trifle ..
1 pack value jelly
1 value swiss roll
1 value tin of fruit
1 value tin of custard
1 value pot of double cream
Some left over chocolate
Chop up the value swiss roll and line the bottom of a deep glass dish
Make up the jelly mix
Pour the fruit over the swiss roll
Pour the jelly over the top
Leave to set
Pour the tinned custard over the jelly once set
Whisk the double cream up and pop it over the top of the custard
Grate over the chocolate and pop in the fride until ready
Tastes lovely and is a bit less than supermarket ones. The best bit is that you can make it with the little ones and know that they will appreciate it more!
I can imagine that would be great at a birthday party and how fab that the birthday boy/girl can say "I made that!"
You can put various toppings on the trifle if your child isn't a chocolate lover or has a favourite sweet!
Another tip i have is instead of buying a birthday cake or buying a novelty tin to produce a cake see if you can rent one from a local cake supply store.
I have been and pre-booked a thomas the tank engine cake tin for the boys 2nd birthday and can't wait to say in front of all my two-parent-family-friends who buy the most expensive novelty pre made cake (which is full of E numbers etc) that i made that by myself in amoungst doing everything else :D
The tin was £3.50 for a week so saved me £15.00 on buying the tin and probably £6.50 on an actual thomas pre-made cake!
Gosh I would lurve to see their faces when you say it is homemade! 8-)
BTW I had some of those frozen mushrooms in risotto the other night and they were delish :D
Love the trifle recipe, I suppose it is obvious really, but I think children would love to make that, it is colourful, fun, got yummy swizz roll in AND fruit! Great!
When you make your Thomas the Tank Engine cake, please take a picture of it and add it to our Family Quilt to show off your expertise! (For some reason today me and the boy, I seem to asking you to do lots of things, sorry, its just you have some great ideas and qualities that need sharing!)
I always make my daughters cake, (but trust me, I am no kitchen queen!). A couple of years ago, she wanted a Doctor Who dalek cake - WHAT A DISASTER! :oops: She loved it, but it looked absolutely rubbish, the plan in my head was great, but the end product was a mess!
Why do people buy those supermarket made cakes :?: they taste rubbish, the icing sugars rubbish and they cost a fortune - boring! although I have to admit for my mums birthday once I bought a big chocolate square cake from supermarket and decorated it with silver balls and those sugary flowers, it looked great and only cost about £3.50!
Once i have made it then i will post a picture.
What else can you put on the family quilt?
I make lovely cakes! I am officially fantastic (according to the 14 people that ate my scones at the weekend on my rare day out without the boy)!
You can put anything on the quilt! Well nearly anything!!
You tube videos, photos, pictures, stories, poems, anything you are proud of, or that your children have done. Have a look at it and see what others have done :)
BTW, Has anyone ever seen fresh broad beans in the supermarket? I always end up buying frozen
Do you mean runner beans? If yes our tesco has had them in lately but only pre-prepared. 3 packs for £3.50 but other veg in selection too :)
Oh thanks, I think have seen fresh runner beans some weeks. Broad beans are about the shape of kidney beans only bit bigger (and green! :mrgreen: )
Eeuuuwww, broad beans! I can say that on here as my daughters not listening. I hate them! I never get to say stuff like that, because I am always telling her just to try things and nothing is that bad,but broad beans, I just can't do them!! Sorry! :|
Do you have a local farm nearby? There used to be broad beans and peas and strawberries etc to pick at a local farm when I was small. :?:
Funnily enough...... :lol: I have just been to M...and they had some! But they sell them still in the pod so they look like very fat runner beans
New potatoes / Jersey Royals are on offer quite a lot at the moment.
Try boiling them crushing them with a fork, drizzling olive oil over them, putting them in a wok / frying pan, adding garlic / salt / pepper / herbs and cooking until they start to brown / crisp. Voila .. you have yourself some fancy crushed potatoes :)
They also make lovely potato salad. Cut potatoes into chunks, boil and leave to cool completely, chop a red onion into pieces, chop some fresh chives. Put the pototoes into a big bowl, add the onion and chives. Put as little / as much mayonaise as you like on the top and mix well. YUM YUM!
They also make lovely potato salad. Cut potatoes into chunks, boil and leave to cool completely, chop a red onion into pieces, chop some fresh chives. Put the pototoes into a big bowl, add the onion and chives. Put as little / as much mayonaise as you like on the top and mix well. YUM YUM!
I do that one from time to time.
Something to go with it could be a finely grated carrot and cheese salad with lots of black pepper and those cherry tomatoes cut in half with a bit of sea salt sprinkled over them.
I recently went to someones house and they made me a spicy chick pea soup and it was delicious, I shall have to ask her for the recipe when next I see her, it was really very nice, served with home made flat bread filled with cheese.
Now I feel hungry.
When I make potato salad, I always make it with equal quantities of mayo and salad cream, um ummm!
Yeah bubblegum, rumbly tummy! Please do get the recipe, not only for the chick pea soup, but the cheese filled bread too. Who is this culinary queen, anyone you would like to share with us??! 8-)
I know the weather is too hot for soups at the moment, but I've found two ways to make tasty, cheap full pots...
2 leeks, 2 potatoes, some bacon bits, onion, 1/2 pint of milk, and pint of stock - simmer, then whizz....works every time.
Packet of value cassorole veg, pint or so of stock, and any bits of frozen veg left at bottom of packets - simmer, then whizz again. Add some grave browning if you have a liitle one (like mine) that prefers dark soups (as they do).
Hope it helps someone cos it's easy peasy!!! :D
Gazpacho is a traditional Spanish soup, and as unappealing as it may sound it is in fact incredibly refreshing and delicious, wonderful when it's hot and sticky and you just want something cool and refreshing.
There are many slight variations but this is a good recipe.
And! having just written this post and started thinking about it, it is exactly what I am going to cook this evening, and despite the recipe above using actual tomatoes, tinned ones will do, or if I'm lucky there will be a load of those vine ones reduced in my local CooP.
Later.
Hi all went to sainsbury this morning and they have 10 x milk rocket lollies for £1! The boy quite likes them as i just found out :)
Also i can't remember who asked about broad beans but they are £1 in their freezer aisle too :)
Gazpacho is a traditional Spanish soup, and as unappealing as it may sound it is in fact incredibly refreshing and delicious, wonderful when it's hot and sticky and you just want something cool and refreshing.
There are many slight variations but this is a good recipe.
And! having just written this post and started thinking about it, it is exactly what I am going to cook this evening, and despite the recipe above using actual tomatoes, tinned ones will do, or if I'm lucky there will be a load of those vine ones reduced in my local CooP.
Later.
Oh I love gazpacho, me and my mother used to make it when I was younger with tinned tomatoes and she'd let me get messy while I mulched them with my hands. I wouldn't do it now but I used to adore getting messy and helping out in the kitchen with silly things. I think I may make some today just thinking about it.
Hi all, I have just been told about this website, it gives yourecipes and ideas for left overs, or recipes from scratch depending what you have in your fridge. I have just had a look and really like it, if you use it let us know!
On the BBC Recipe page you can search by up to three ingredients, so you could for example search for 'lentils tomatoes garlic' say, and you would get all these : )
So you could look in the cupboards and see what you have and go from there : )
We don't get left overs in my house as I tie my kids to the kitchen chairs until... ok no I don't, we have a large German Sheppard and she gets all the left overs, she eats anything, I had this chap from France stay with us a while back and I told him she eats anything, he didn't believe me and spent his time feeding her stuff to see, she even eats cucumbers, she loves melon skins, she is totally omnivorous.
Thanks, for the recipe links, guys :D I am going to do some home- made soup this weekend.
Bubblegum I had to laugh about your dog. My friend has a dog like that and his name is.......Hoover!
:lol: :lol:
My dogs the same, she even ate some lettuce the other day!!
When I was in work the other day, I was eating toast, I got to the corner crust and :? had to eat it :? . Usually I fling it to her, but I looked around automatically, but she wasn't there! :)
Anna it would be even more worrying if you had flung it and one of your colleagues had caught it! :lol:
Did soup yesterday. Cooked a few green lentils separately then drained and rinsed them. Sweated 2 onions and 2 cloves garlic then added a bit of celery and some very thinly chopped carrot and some cherry tomatoes then two chicken gel-stock portions and water, black pepper and a good pinch of chili powder, simmered for an hour then stirred lentils in to re heat them. My son and I both loved it and there is enough left for me for tomorrow.
Also we both felt very smug yesterday as just with this soup we had four of our "five a day"......oh why oh why isn't there a smiley with a halo? ;)
There should be a smiley with a halo. You definitely have earned one!
I'm going to be encouraging my lot to go for the Chefs badge for the Cubs and Scouts - I can sit down even more then and just direct.
The soup sounds excellent.
yes :lol: get them, cooking all your meals, sparkling!
When mine were in Cubs, my friend and I took the whole pack through their cook's badge. That meant cooking spag bol EVERY WEEK with different cubs for a whole term :shock:
My boys are pretty competent now. The elder one cooks and irons like an angel. His wife will thank me one day!
:lol: You are funny!
We must introduce my daughter to him, she only likes to cook enchiladas from the packet and doesn't even know what you do with an iron! :D
My boys are pretty competent now. The elder one cooks and irons like an angel. His wife will thank me one day!
How old is he? =D
Lol he has not yet twenty summers on his brow....
Seriously I think it is great when they can learn a few basic tasks, makes it easier to look after themselves once they fly the nest
:shock: Absolutely Louise you are right. :shock:
(That's my serious look!)
Practice makes perfect, that's what I say ;)
Lol he has not yet twenty summers on his brow....
Seriously I think it is great when they can learn a few basic tasks, makes it easier to look after themselves once they fly the nest
Ah well I'm only 19 (I'll be twenty in a few weeks =O) send him my way. =D No, I'm only joking. I'm quite happy on my own right now to be honest.
I made a lovely vegetable tart the other day. I made some puff pastry, spread on some pesto leaving a cm or so border free round the edge and topped it with chopped peppers, onions, cherry tomatoes and some feta cheese. It was really nice if I may say so myself. *proudface* I just had it with a little bit of salad.
mm that sounds nice, I wouldn't have thought of pesto but that's a much better idea than tomato puree. I am going to pinch your recipe. Do you buy frozen pastry?
I did my soup again yesterday but with some leftover rice instead of lentils. Also I discovered at M.......in the salad cream section they had a tub of "onion salad crispies" so for tea today I have added them to cold new potatoes and a bit of light salad cream.
Ummm IfYouSeeHer, that tart sounds delicious! So simple, yet satisfying. I might have a go at that too!
I buy puff pastry from the refrigerated section when I shop, its not too expensive, although I am sure it would be more cost effective making our own!
I keep trying out home made pizza. My Mum gave me a recipe and it didnt turn out very well. I have bought a pack of pizza base mix from A....but haven't had the courage to use it yet. Think puff pastry would be much nicer.
I like making pizza too but i always make a scone base :D tastes scrummy!!
Thought i'd also mention that my attempt at making a Thomas birthday cake for the boys birthday today has been foiled by an outbreak of throat infections! nevermind .. he likes his Tesco cake lol
Well never mind, the best-laid plans can sometimes go wrong, He will love his cake anyway. How are you feeling now?
Well after stressing about saturday and failing with making a cake etc everything went really well although i felt awful all day. I went away on sunday morning (330am!!) to show my car at an event and didn't get to bed until 11pm sunday night so i was exhausted and felt even worse! My night of sleep was then over-ridden by a toddler who was also unwell and we spent until 4am up talking! He told me he had a nice birthday suprise and that his presnets were very cool etc so all was good! I am so proud of my 2 yeaR OLD :)
Then yesterday i thought i was going to die! So went to bed at just gone 9pm!
Today i feel a bit better again .. In need of some serious TLC i think .. The kind where you don't have to ask for a cuddle, you get flowers, hot drinks, tucked into bed, told how beautiful you are even though you know you could frighten the dead etc lol .... never mind! Tomorrow is another day ....
Hope everyone else is well :D
Hello Me and the boy
Sorry you have been so poorly (BIG HUG) :( it is always worse when there isn't anyone to look after you. I caught chicken pox when my son was three and was ill for about a month. My face swelled up like Elephant Man as well. Hope you're soon feeling better! Some sleep might help, and take it easy for the rest of the week.
Anyway you boy enjoyed his birthday and that's a really fab thing
Take care and let us know how you are....
Quorn Mussaka
cook quorn, onions, peppers, mushroons(pretty much all your left overs at the end of the week rather than throw them out) add tin chopped tomatoes, passata, soy sauce and 1 veggie stock cube cumbled over top.
Boil sliced potoatoes and then slice a caugette(can't spell)
Layer a large over proof dish with caugette then the quorn mixture then the potatoes top with 2 eggs wisked with lowfat cottage cheese oven bake gas 5 for 30 mins
Salmon and prawn quiche
Dry fry onions, red pepper until soft. Move to an over proof dish add salmon, prawns and sweetcorn.
Wisk 2 eggs, lofat cottage cheese, salt and pepper, soy sauce.
Crumble a veggie stock cube over salmon, prawns and veg then pour over the egg and cottage cheese
Oven bake gas 5 for 25mins
We love these in our house :)
Evening all ... just a few quick tips to share ..
1) I find that when i buy a pepper or peppers i always have too much left over and as i'm not a lover it tends to go in the bin. Now i realise after talking with my grandma that if you chop it up into pieces and put it in a sealed bag you can freeze it and then drop it into cooking dishes as you would if it was fresh!!
I already have 3 peppers chopped and frozen and they taste the same when cooked. Saves spending out on fresh ones or a bag of yucky pre-frozen ones :) and it saves time de-seeding and chopping when you are in a hurry.
2) To save money buying fresh garlic to make pasta sauce i buy the cartons of pasatta from tesco which already have garlic in them. Plus the fussy toddler doesn't see me chopping anything into it :) magic i say!
3) Money saving on mushrooms, Asda do a big bag of frozen already sliced ones so no need to buy ones from the shelf that look like they are sweating or have been man handled by the 100 people before you. They last me a few weeks too and are less that a pound!
4) When it's on offer in supermarkets i always buy Quorn products. Much healthier but still tastes like meat and no one ever notices it's actually just flavoured vegetarian produce! Also it works out cheaper than real meat if you get it for a pound a pack! The sausages and chicken pieces are very yummy .. mmm
Enjoy :) and sorry if anyone mentioned these before :)