Southwell.

Just making the most of this lovely sunny weather with a few days away in the caravan, I have been good and brought all our food from home with the exception of fresh bread and milk. We are only Having 4 nights this time and not too far from home. Back Monday for the start of my menu plan and Stretch-it-out-September.

Take care
Love Karen xx

September Meal Plan for Stretch- it -out- September plus 42 years!!

I really need to step up my game for September and use up more stock that has been laying in the cupboards and freezer for too long, I hate to admit to this but I threw away 2 Chicken Breasts the other day that didn't look very appertizing (freezer burn), the other 4 will go to my daughter in laws for the dog. I had a good rumage through the freezer and although we have been eating stuff out of here for the past month there is still plenty for September, so, thats what I have based my Menu on.

Click to enlarge

I had a sort out of the tins and packet cupboard too its looking a little sparse, but when I actually looked at  it there are a few things that will make lunches and additions to main meals.  I am getting ready for Sainsb's to send me some vouchers for £6 off a £30 so I can fill up with a sea of orange tins :-)  I have lots of flour, oils and baking ingredients in my other cupboard so all in all without doing any shopping I have the basics for my Meal Plan. Even if I don't shop at all for September we won't starve!

Freezer Contents

 The 4 baskets are almost full with Soups Roasted Veggies,Salmon, Sausages, Bacon, Vegetables and various packs of Meat.

This bit has those YS goodies bought from Asda along with HM Ready Meals in assorted recycled tubs!

Under the baskets is an assortment of cakes (left from a big baking session for a Summer Fayre) boxes of stewed fruits a big bag of  homegrown green beans, parsnips from my Dad.... I once said we liked the Aunties ones and ever since if they are on offer he fetches me a few bags....we are getting sick of them now LOL.  I also have some bought puff pastry and a couple of hm pastry cases for a quick pie or quiche...... like I said far too much stuff!!!!

I will be joining in with the Stretch it out September Challenge over on SFT's blog, you can read about that HERE, basically its 3 weeks shopping stretched to 4 by batch cooking and stretching whatever you have left over.  Thats why on my plan you will notice when I cook I am saving something towards week 4.   I am allowing a £100 for shopping, to include toiletries and cleaning products, thats half the normal monthy budget and hopefully I will have some left at the end for the sealed pot.

Do you have any plans for your September budget, will you be trying to make savings and use up what you have? You might like to join in with the challenge, its just for fun but it might give you the kick start you are looking for to save a few pennies.

I thought I would share with you that it's 42 years today since hubby and I had our first date and next June will be our 40th Wedding Anniversary...... we must have got something right!!

Thank you for popping by and taking the time to read.

Love

Lunch for 21p

That's right!! lunch for 21p :-)  I follow a blog called A Girl called Jack she is such an inspiration and so creative in the kitchen, this recipe was posted on her blog today and I knew I had to have a go.

 Cheese and Onion Drop Scones

 You will need..... 100gm SR Flour, 1 Egg, 100ml Milk, 30gm grated Cheese, half small onion finely chopped I used some snipped chives (Jack used parsley) and 4 tablespoons oil to fry them. I seasoned mine with black pepper, no salt as the cheese was extra mature and quite salty.
I softened my onion in the oil first, don't brown it just soften.  In my bowl I added the flour egg and milk and gave a quick whisk then I added the cheese softened onion and chives with a twist of pepper.  It makes a thick batter and looks lumpy because of the cheese and onions.

 Heat the oil in a shallow pan and drop tablespoons of the mixture into the hot oil, cook a couple of minutes until the bottom is golden brown and the bubbles pop on the tops, turn over and cook on the other side, they only take a few minutes to cook through.

 Drain on some kitchen paper.  Mine made 9... don't they look yummy!

 I had it with a fried egg and some sliced tomato warmed through with the egg. It was really filling and delicious and very very frugal, a great recipe for my Austerity August.

21p I hear you say!!  Well this is how I costed it out..

100gm SR Flour ...3p....   45p Basics for 1.5kg

                                              100ml Milk .....      5p...    £1 for 4pints @ Lidl

                                              1 Egg....                9p..     £1.35 for 15 @ Lidl

                                              30gm Cheese..     18p ..   £2.15 for 300gm @ Lidl

                                              1/2 onion..             5p      £1.99 for 5kg @ Lidl

                                              4 tbsp Oil..           12p      £1.39 for 1lt @ Lidl

Total rounded up = 52p  divide by 9 = 6p each  so 4 for today and 4 for tomorrow with 1 as a taster :-)

2 scones plus a fried egg = 21p the tomato was from the garden so that was free. 

 I can recommend you try this recipe, they are really tasty and make a nice change from the normal sandwich, you could always add a slice of bacon and turn it into a Brunch!

Enjoy your weekend

Love

Shopping Day...again!!

 First of all a big welcome to my lovely new followers, I hope you will stick around and leave a comment from time to time it will make me a happy girl x

A big thank you to everyone who wished me well last week, I had a really horrible week when my Crohns reared its ugly head!! Back to normal now though :-)

It's soon got round to shopping day again and I was thrilled when Lidl put a £5 off a £30 shop  voucher on their facebook page all ready to print off.  I made a very careful list after checking through cupboards and fridges  so I would only buy what is necessary.

We are trying the Cien Pure soap, its 89p for 4 bars, can't see there being a problem with that unless it stinks or we break out in sores lol.  The batteries are for the tv remote, we won't be going out much next month so the tv will be useful !

The healthy bit. I still have salad and some potatoes in the fridge and bits of produce from the garden.There should be a bag of oven chips on there but they were whipped out of the bag and put into the freezer.

Hubby couldn't wait to get the biscuits open with his cuppa, only 30p a packet...bargain!

As you can see from the till receipt I went a bit over the £30 limit but I'm very happy with that and quite a few items will last well into September.

We called into ASDA so hubby could get some fuel and I really needed to buy a colour for my hair, today they were on special at 2 for £10 these will last me right up to and maybe beyond Christmas, it depends how quick the grey comes through!! We are having lovely homemade crumbles with the apples from our tree and this week we ran out of instant custard, we have tried all the basic ones and like this the best so I stocked up with 10 packets @ 15p per pack... it doesn't seem that long ago they were 6p!!  Toilet rolls were getting a bit low so I stocked up with those and then I went for a look in the reduced fridge after my little haul of yellow stickers last week....disappointed..... nothing reduced enough to tempt me just these little picnic eggs at half price, we had some with our salad at lunch time...marks out of 10....3... not very good won't buy them again.

If I exclude my personal spend of £10 then the spending this week amounts to £35.42. plus £4.10 for a big bag of organic homegrown potatoes and beetroot from my friends allotment. After being on holiday for the first week of this month I set my target at £100 for 3 weeks, I have only just scraped through with 16p change which has gone into the sealed pot.

Dinner this evening will be Bacon Chops, new potatoes, cauli cheese and of course more green beans from the garden and if I get off my bum there will be homemade apple crumble and custard for the hubby!

I will be back tomorrow with details of a new challenge for September,my poster is in my side bar :-)  it's linked with SFT's new challenge all about stretching 3 weeks to 4.  You can read about that here and maybe sign up for the fun. I'm off to tweak my Menu Plan now for September and will post the outcome.

ETA>  Sue just asked me if I was good with numbers or took a calculator shopping ..... its just scribbled down and added up in my head as I walk round. A hard backed book is great for shopping lists, plenty support for adding up, I added little plastic wallets to this one to keep vouchers in.

Take Care

Whose a clever girl...

Willow came to stay for the day yesterday so we thought we had better make a cake for tea, she did everything herself except the oven.  The weighing and mixing had been done before I thought to get the camera out!!

 Caught ya!

 Poser!

 The butter cream was a bit sloppy but we ran out of icing sugar  so couldn't rescue it, tasted good though.

Victoria Sponge   oven 170*c fan
2 x 8" tins and liners
225gm Margarine
225gm Caster Sugar
225gm SR Flour
1 +1/2  teaspoon Baking Powder
4 beaten eggs

Willow used my Kenwood Chef.  Cream the margarine and butter until pale in colour add the eggs flour and baking powder and give a good mix until all ingredients are combined and a soft dropping consistency.  Divide between tins and bake until golden brown.  Sandwich together with jam and butter cream, spread a little butter cream on the top and sprinkle with coconut..... Delicious and light as a feather and enough for 10 slices!!

Feeling better now so back to normal.  Thank you for all your well wishes xxx

£5 off Coupon for Lidl

Didn't want anyone to miss this, its a £5 off a £30 shop valid from Thursday to Monday. You can download the evoucher from their facebook page today.

Hope that helps someone.

I have been a little under the weather for a few days, hope you are all well and I will be back soon.

Love

Banoffi Mush and Sausage n Mash

Iced Banoffi mush.... the other day Sue over at Our New Life in the Country was using up some over ripe bananas by blending them and freezing them to make a sort of frozen dessert, so I thought I would have a go as these bananas were rapidly getting past their best. Sue stirred a toffee sauce into hers and I didn't have any so used this bar of Caramel.

 I mushed the bananas and melted the chocolate in the tub I was going to use for freezing.

 All stirred up and I'm not quite sure about it.

 Frozen SOLID, I had to microwave it a bit to get it out of the tub!

It was very very sweet and really not to my taste, hubby didn't like it at all. I wish I had made banana muffins and eaten the chocolate!!  Sorry Sue but its not something I will make again. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  But, we do love frozen soft fruits whizzed up with plain yogurt to make a yogurty ice cream.

These are the Yogurt Ice Creams we enjoy in Cyprus.... yum!!

And lastly our Yellow Stickered Sausage & Mash . The Cheddar Mash I bought yesterday was lovely and the sausages really meaty, I used a C0lemans mix for the sauce and there are enough sausages and sauce left for tea tomorrow with some new potatoes and veg.

Tonights meal worked out at 85p each excluding the beans which were from the garden.

Other jobs today included weeding the raised beds, washing and getting it dry outside as it might just rain tomorrow.  I hate to say it but, the gardens really do need it and the barrels could do with topping up.

Friday tomorrow and housework day......

Take Care and thank you for popping by

Yellow Stickers.

Thursday is our usual shopping day, but as we had been into town with grandaughter for school shoes and we were passing Asda we popped in for some milk, bread flour salad and toiletries.  I can never resist looking in the reduced fridge and today I struck lucky, it was full of lovely yellow stickers!!  I chose carefully and only bought what I know we will use over the next couple of weeks.

 2 packs of chicken with a sauce, I like fresh chicken breasts and they are usually about £1 each so these were good value and in foil cooking trays so no washing up!

 Here we have good quality Sausages £1.12 & £1.34 (£2.50 & £2.98) and I managed to pick up 2 x Cheddar Mash 55p (£1.50)so with some nice onion gravy and green beans from the garden this will make 2 lovely dinners and a couple of sausage sarnies for hubby.

sorry its the wrong way round!

 Eggs, date 29th August £1.00 for 12  free range eggs, great value as original price £2.98, only the corner of the box was damaged. Scrambled eggs, ommlettes, tortilla, or egg mayo for lunches.

 Coleslaw and Beetroot Salad 72p (£1.50) Potato Salad 21p (75p) can't make it for that price. WW Cream 37p (97p) I like this because it isn't too rich, lovely on the remains of a crumble.

 2 lots of tarts 90p & 82p (£4 for 2) We had the Feta Spinach and Tomato ones for tea with salad, delicious and not worth the effort of making from scratch.

Individual Quiches, great for picnics, regular for hubby and WW for moi, again a great saving 32p & 54p (90p & £1.50) each.

We had the Feta & Spinach ones for tea just warmed a little and served with salad and some of the coleslaw, beetroot and potato salad.....mmmm.... delicious the tart was very creamy and cheezy :-)

I also picked up a fish pie £1.78 (£4.50) for daughter in law, too good to leave behind, they had it for tea and declared it gorgeous.

Total spent on YS £13.86, full price would have been £34.28 so £20.42 saved. although I have to say I would never have paid full price for the tarts and quiches or the cheddar mash.

 So, that's lots more yummy food in the freezer for my Austerity August which is now looking like its going well into September, mmm, theres a point... we need a name for September...any ideas?

Take care

 Love

Bean Beanie, Dried Sage and Dinner

Meet Mrs Bean doesn't she look tasty :-)   This is what I have picked this morning from the garden.

Blooming Courgettes, you can pick them and as soon as you turn your back 2 more appear!!

 Lots of lovely dwarf beans, so tender and delicious.

 Stringless Runner Beans with pretty white flowers.

 More tomatoes, picked on Sunday, these are ripening nicely and will be roasted and frozen in tubs.

 And lots of tasty sage growing for all those lovely dishes of stuffing over the next year

 I took the scissors down the garden and cut a huge bunch and brought it into the house for drying.

 I always dry herbs in the microwave (see this post), its quick easy and they keep their colour.

 This is a pint glass so you can see how much that huge bunch made after drying.

I keep it in a lock down jar and it will quite happily keep until next year and I start the process again.

Hotpot sort of thingy

 I took a tub of cooked braising steak in gravy from the freezer this morning and once defrosted I cooked 4 medium potatoes and 2 carrots in the pressure cooker for 5 minutes.

 Next they were sliced up and layered ontop of the meat.

I had a knob of cheese from last week lurking in the fridge, the new pack had been opened by accident and this got left.  I quickly grated it on the micro plane grater so it was nice and fine and sprinkled it on the top.

 Because everything was fully cooked I just popped it into the oven to heat through and for the cheese to bubble, we had it served with some of the dwarf beans gently cooked in salted boiling water until just tender.

A quick and easy meal with a delicious taste.

As you can see my Austerity August is going really well, homegrown produce, dried herbs and an evening meal for around a pound each with left over crumble for afters :-)  and not a penny spent!

How was your day?