Well, I am officially back guys! After a long absence, I have decided to reignite my love of food. So, with a quick redesign and a fresh start, here I am all over again!
This weekend has been spent making lovely soft-yet-crunchy peanut butter and chocolate cookies, based on this recipe from the queen of all bakers, Joy.
I have also made rather delicious and (if I do say so myself!) somewhat perfect coffee cupcakes/muffins. So dense and sweet and deliciously moist! The recipe is from my coffee cake one here, which I actually think works better as a little cake.
It is all very well and good eating healthily. But sometimes, you have to through caution to the wind.
This week has been tough. Very tiring, very hard, very stressful, and full of more tears than I want to admit. I’ve been good (excepting two salads…), but yesterday, having finally got some good news with Ben’s job too, we went out for dinner.
£24 for two people, at a delicious and rather lovely Indian restuarant.I do not regret this wayward spend of money for a minute.
Essentially, I suppose I am trying to make the point that whilst budget eating and eating well is very important, it should never be detrimental to your life. If you can afford it and you really fancy it, going out and eating is the treat you can spend your saved money on. Being happy and satisfied comes in many forms.
Tips
A couple of general budget eating tips I have come up with this week though…
- Remember lunch. It is easy to plan ahead in terms of dinners - I found that in a major lapse of judgement, I only thought ahead for lunch for the first 2 days! Brain freeze!
- Don’t slip into the habit of cheaper food meaning larger portions. Day 4’s dinner (I’ll write about it tomorrow) cold have happily only used half our sausages between us. We used the whole packet. For the record, this is entering the realms of gross overeating!
OK, challenge is going well so far.
For day two, I had the same lunch as Tuesday – three tiered supermarket pate with cranberry, on crusty bread. My only complaint is that the bread always seems to be a little stale. I think I should go for crappy fluffy bread next time. ops, probably not meant to say that on a blog about managing to eat well a cheaply. It’s my weakness though!
Dinner for me was BBQ, which was free. But not very well cooked, so not worth mentioning.
More relevant was Ben’s dinner, Pork risotto made with the yummy real streaky bacon. Simply glaze the rice with butter and fry the onion and pork. Then it is a matter of slowly adding the stock. The Best description I have ever read is in Georgio Locatelli’s Made in Italy. It literally takes you through a lovely description of the point of risottos, as well as the method.
Day 3: Carbonara
I forgot to bring or prepare lunch. You see, it is hard to motivate yourself to be sensible and prepared when very stressed at work. I did my best to fix a bad decision though, and bought a salad from the sandwich shop. Low on lettuce, high on other ingredients and plenty of tuna. Very yummy! Adds £3 on the weekly bill!
Dinner is carbonara, although streaky chunky bacon doesn’t work that well. This is always a cheap fall back of mine, although personally I feel you need peas to make it an good, and we didn’t have time to nip out and buy some to top up our supply.
So here is how to make pea-free carbonara!
Ingredients:
-
Spaghetti
-
Butter
-
Flour
-
Milk
-
Pepper
-
Bay leaf
-
Onion
Method:
At the same time, gently fry some onions (and mushrooms if you desire) with the bacon. When fried, set aside.
Make the sauce as follows. On a medium heat, melt a quarter of a pad of butter. When melted sieve in plain flour, string constantly. When the paste reaches a smooth paste, stop adding the flour. Stirring constantly, add the bayleaf and let it heat through thoroughly to cook the flour, else your sauce will taste nasty! Then gradually (never stopping stiring) add the milk, a splash as a time. Season with pepper and salt, and stir in the bacon etc (reheated). Oh, and you will need the spaghetti cooked too, I forgot!
Serve with pepper and maybe a fresh spring of oregano. Yummy! You could add white wine to the sauce too if you have some spare.
I am out to prove that eating on a serious budget can be fun, healthy and successful!
The rules:
- One large shop a week
- Everything bought must be reduced in in a sale
- Exceptions: Basics/everyday items, and specific necessary items with only one option
- If top-up shops are needed, they just come from the reduced section of my local supermarket!
Top tips:
- Reduced sections get topped up in the evenings. Suss out the specific times for your supermarket and haunt the aisles!
- Remember sales, but don’t just go for the first one you see.
- Stock up on essentials – I buy tons of tuna when on offer, the same with jar sauces etc for uninspired nights.
- If you do need essentials and none are on offer, buy in the biggest quantities you can manage for more money saving!
Day 1
Day 1 was yesterday – as I spent £30 buying enough food to keep myself and ben going for the majority of the week.
Particular bargains:
- Pork mince, reduced. (89p!)
- Real streaky bacon, reduced (£1.54)
- Blueberries, reduced (£1.20)
I also managed to get reduced/sale juices, pate, chicken, vegetables, fruit, sausages and yoghurt. Oh, and a Burritto pack, which is great value when on offer and has the spices ready-mixed for you!
Big spends were the Apple Sourz which Ben specifically needed and which cost around £8.50 (on offer!) and the rose, which was half price. Without these big luxury items the food cost £20 for the majority of a week!
Meal one
Pork mince burritos. Simply left over sour cream, home made salsa (onion tomato and chili, all already in the fridge), mince friend with the pack spices and onion, and some left over lettuce! No photo, as it never looks great. The pork mince was such a vehicle for the spices, but didn’t add much flavour of its own.
Meal 2
Lunch today – a satsuma, then posh pate with cranberry on crusty bread. Who would have thought you could eat like this on a budget?
A bit of a catch up post here. I finally have managed to get myself interested in food again, even though it was a long time coming! It was Ben’s breakfast surprise of beautiful scrambled eggs with smoked salmon that did it – all thanks to Delia! Doesn’t it look pretty?
I also realised that this whole blog needs a bit of a rejuvenation – I simply need a new direction. So, from now on this blog is taking on a whole new theme. It will still feature the recipes and the gadgets, but on a budget theme. You see, I know that it is possible to eat well and to cook well on a real budget. So, I am planning to spend my weekly shop only buying items that are reduced or on sale (excepting basics). I will then report what I buy, and for how much!
Hopefully, I will then spend the week updating you with recipe ideas, money saving options and other such fun stuff! I’m quite excited, and it should save me tons of money!
So, I will leave you with one last expensive recipe! Here is my lovely lemon cream pasta with mushrooms.
Ingredients:
- Mushrooms
- Tagliatelle
- Lemon juice
- Basil
- Thai fish sauce
- Double cream
- Spring onions
- Smoked salmon (off-cuts would be fine)
Method:
Put the pasta on to boil, and season.
Chop the salmon. Also chop the mushrooms/spring-onion and set them aside.
Add the cream in a pan and bring to a simmer. Add a handful of freshly diced basil, and stir repeatedly to blend and flavour. Season with pepper. Add a big splash of the lemon juice and fish sauce (ignore the yucky smell), and keep stirring. Stir in the smoked salmon.
In a frying pan, fry mushrooms and half the spring onions in butter until soft and browning. Add a large splash of lemon juice and more basil. Beware, these will be very string flavoured, so only work in combination with the pasta and sauce!
Stir sauce, salmon and pasta together with some olive oil and a dash more lemon. Top with the mushrooms and the remaining unfried spring onion. Delicious!
Well I’m back guys. We have no food in the house and have yet to get organised enough to get some – though I have been tempting myself with this summers Feel Good Food edition.
To keep me going, however, I have been feasting largely on simple pasta dishes (can anyone tell me why pasta, mayo and tuna is so darn satisfying?!), and on work I have been steadfastly devouring the doughnuts! I’m sure my waistband will hate me for this, but in between getting back and heading north for a wedding on Thursday, this week just seems a bit of a non-entity!
I feel inspired now to make some donuts, but lets wait until I’m actually cooking properly, eh?!
The recession means that our food intake is easily limited. And whilst certain foods are always on offer, the ncer food is often the most expensive in the shop. Here is how to turn a budge mozzarella pizza into something a bit special – just using your normal store cupboard ingredients.
Take: One pepperoni pizza
Add: Cherry tomatoes, onions, extra cheese (I had mozzerela and parmasan around the house), tuna, herbs.
It is incredibly easy to do – just add fresh veg and some stored cupboard herbs. The result – a delicious, and fairly healthy meal. Yum! Fresh tomatoes are often left off pizzas – and they taste fantastic!
Optional extras: Capers, anchovies, olives, pesto and more!
Rule number 1: Never bake cake whilst on a healthy diet. I honestly do not know what I was doing!
Anyway, my Victoria sponge was the delicious, and my own recipe. I took elements from a number of methods and it worked brilliantly. The end result was a dense yet fluffy vanilla cake with a smooth and creamy buttercream. Mmmmm…
Ingredients:
- 8oz Self raising flour
- 8oz Caster sugar
- 8oz butter
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- Vanilla essence
- Few drops lemon juice
Method:
- Cream sugar and butter together thoroughly.
- Mix in flour and baking powder
- Mix in the three egg yolks – keep the whites aside in a separate mixing bowl.
- Be sure to mix everything very hard to make it fluffy.
- Beat the egg whites until it holds soft peaks, then fold into the mixture.
- Bake in oven at 180 degrees until golden and springy, when a skewer comes out clean.
- Leave to cool.
For the butter icing:
Nice and simple!
- Beat icing sugar into butter thoroughly. The amount depends on how sweet you like your icing.
- Pour in a little milk (very cold) and beat until at the correct consistency.
- Spread the cream in the middle of the cake, with seedless jam. Fresh strawberries and strawberry jam would be an upgrade! Ice the top too if, like me, you are feeling greedy!
In the two days I have had 4 very thin slices. It could have been much worse!
Well, it’s hard to get enthused about food when you aren’t really eating it! I’m on a crash diet just for the week leading up to my holiday. Having studied my healthy food carefully, I ended up devising a very low calorie menu that at least got me plenty of nutrients. It’s mainly smoothies and yoghurt – all salt and yucky stuff has been chopped out! For those of you who are instantly going “aaarrrgghhh”, this is a temporary thing with a weekend break in the middle – I’m not starving myself!
Here is my really satisfying but surprisingly small dinner. I’m amazed by how much I like this diet – I feel energetic and completely right!
Anyway, it consisted of: 1 egg omelet with cheese (little amount) and smoked salmon . Usually it’s not got cheese in, but I fancied a little dairy today
Dessert is plain live yoghurt with honey and grated dark chocolate. Mmmmmm…
Breakfast and lunch are a smoothie followed (an hour later) by a serving of live yoghurt.
In the past week I have come across article after article, all documenting the shameful nature of using so called “cheats foods”. Aside from my occasionally bi-yearly craving for ready meal macaroni cheese, which I simply can’t explain, I can see where these articles are coming from. For me, preparing my own food is vey much a pleasure.
However, I do cheat. Occasionally there is an aspect of cooking I can’t be bothered to do. I have used jars of tomato sauces rather than tins, I actually take great please in some simple pasta dishes that don’t involve “real cooking”. I feel that if something can make your life easier, it it not the devils spawn or some equally unacceptable terminology. It is a quick fix, and can taste delicious.
Here is my example of a cheats bolognese- and what to add so that it feels like it’s all yours! This is the secret – if you feel shameful at cheating (which you shouldn’t!), just make the meal your own through adding some key ingredients. It works a dream!
Ingredients:
- Jar of tomato sauce, preferably with garlic and herbs.
- Mince
- Wine
- Fresh basil (only if the supermarket are stocking it)
- Onion
- Stock cube
Fry the meat until browned, and sprinkle over the stock cube. Gently fry the chopped onion with it until softened. Add the tomato sauce, and bring to a gentle bubble. To make this sauce yours, add a few big glugs of red wine (cheaper the better) – I used nearly half a bottle!! Finally, just before serving, when the sauce is at the consistency you like – generally not too sloppy, you really want to cook the water out of it – stir in the chopped basil (or other herb) before dishing it up.
A cheats sauce that tastes great and should have no shame. None at all.
p.s the sauce I used was bertolli it was cheaper than tinned tomatoes (at least the decent kind with lots of tomatoes in!!) at my local supermarket!
