Chicken And Leek Pie

I love a good pie and Chicken and Leek is always a favourite in our house.  I normally make it after we have a roast chicken and have eaten roast for a few days.  My method is made up as I go along but follows a similar process every time hence the recipe below has no quantities.

Chicken and Leek Pie

Pick off all the meat from a leftover roast chicken and set aside.  Place all the bones in a pot and cover with water, bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer to create a stock.  Drain the stock and season with salt and pepper.  Thicken with cornflour to make a thick gravy.

In the meantime dice and onion and a leek or two and cook until translucent.  Once the onion and leek mix is cooked I stir in some frozen peas and let the heat of the onion mix defrost them and in turn they cool down the onion mix.

Mix the chopped leftover chicken, the onion, leek and pea mix with the gravy and when cold add to a pie dish and top with pastry or go for a pastry top and bottom then bake.  Or as I did above and just create a pastry base pile the thick mix on and top with another piece of pastry pressing down the edges.

We love this served up with mashed potato and corn on the cob with lashings of butter.

What is your favourite pie to make at home?

Easy Chicken, Ginger and Lemongrass Soup

With the cooler weather upon us we have been looking for warming and nourishing foods that are quick and easy to make and leave you with that warmed through feeling.
This is a recipe I have adapted as the original was heavy on the chicken and light on spice and the filling factor.  This version makes one chicken breast feed 4 people which makes it much more frugal and we never feel like we are missing out as I cut the chicken into thin strips then into sections so they fit on a spoon.

I always have home made chicken stock frozen in 500ml lots in the freezer and this is a great way to use some of them up as I tend to make about 8 litres of stock at a time.

Easy Chicken, Ginger and Lemongrass Soup

2.5 L Chicken Stock
10 cm Thumb of Ginger
3 Lemon Grass Stalks
5 Coriander Roots (See Note)
6 Cloves of Garlic
6 Kaffir Lime Leaves
1/2 Long Red Chilli (optional)
2 Tsp Fish Sauce
1 Lg Chicken breast
2 or 3 bunches of Bok Choy
Dried Egg Noodles of your choice for 4 serves
Coriander leaves, extra chilli and bean sprouts to serve

Place the stock in a large pot and add the peeled and sliced ginger, the lemon grass stalks that have been bruised and cut length ways, the coriander roots, crushed garlic, the kaffir lime leaves, and the half red chilli thinly sliced.  Simmer for 30 minutes then add the fish sauce and chicken that has been thinly sliced into bite sized pieces.  Simmer for a further 10 minutes then pick out the lemon grass stalks, coriander roots and kaffir lime leaves (we leave the ginger in but you could remove this too if you do not like eating it).  Add the dried noodles (I have not specified a specific type as I tend to change it up every time I make it) and cook as directed on the packet adding the bok choy for the last 2 mins of the cooking time.
Serve into bowls and garnish with fresh coriander leaves, more chilli if you like or bean sprouts.

Note:  Using Coriander root.  If you have never used coriander root here is a basic guide on line.  My method was learnt in a Thai cooking class and differs lightly.  I leave about 5 cm of stalk  attached to the root and when I say root I mean the whole big long hairy white bit so you need to look for the clean rooted bunches.  Basically you want to lightly scrape away the outer skin and remove any gritty bits.  If you can't get it just use the thick stalks from the bottom of the bunch as they will still give you lots of flavour.

Pizza Puffs

In your world these might also be Cheese Puffs but I call them Pizza Puffs as I like to include more veggies.  I often add odds and ends from the fridge too and things that go well are diced olives, corn, diced mushroom, left over meat, feta or anything else that is not too watery.

Pizza Puffs

1/2 cup milk
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 cups cheese grated
1 cup self-raising flour
2 bacon rashers diced
3 Spring onions chopped

1/2 Capsicum finely diced

pinch of salt

Ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 200C.
Combine eggs and milk in a large bowl.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
Line a baking tray with baking paper and drop golf ball size blobs of the mixture onto the tray.
Place into oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until slightly golden on top.

Healthy And Fugal Dips For Summer

During Summer we tend to have more BBQ's, more gatherings of family and friends and lighter meals with more snacking.
These two dips are easy to make, frugal healthy very tasty.
You will need a food processor for the carrot dip but could get away with a stick blender for the bean dip.

Raw Carrot Hummus and Garlic and White Bean Dip

The raw carrot hummus is an Anabel Langbein recipe that you can find it here. Unless you are having a big party a half batch is plenty.  It is so tasty and improves with a few extra hours so make it a bit ahead of time.

Garlic and White Bean Dip

1 Tin of Cannellini Beans
1 Head of Garlic - Pre Roasted and peeled
1/4 Cup Chopped Mint
2 Tbs Olive Oil
2 Tbs Lemon Juice
1 Tsp Ground Cumin

Drain the can of beans and add all the ingredients to a food processor and blend.
Allow flavours to develop for at least an hour before serving.

NB I roast a few heads of Garlic when I have the oven on and then peel the cloves and store them in a jar covered in olive oil in the fridge.  They are great added to all sorts of dishes where you want some garlic flavour without the sharpness.

Changing The Way I Shop - Update

At the end of May I posted here about how I was going to change the way I shopped in order to reduce our spending due to me cutting back on my work hours so I could go back to uni.

Some things have worked well, some areas have been adjusted and there has been the odd overspend but all in all I am so far happy with how things are progressing and will continue to refine the process.

Things that are working well:

• Checking what is in the garden on a daily basis to see what can be added to a planned meal, can have a future meal built around it or can replace a planned meal so that it does not got to waste.
• Using any gifted or traded food in the same ways mentioned above.
• The new separation of "This Week" and "Future" on the white board has meant I know what needs replacing at all times but can make a judgement on the urgency of that replacement.

Things that have been adjusted:

• The budget has been increased to $70 per week.  This is now made up of my $50 a week plus and additional $20 a week for hubby to spend buying what he likes to take for lunch each day and to top up his milk supply during the week.  Most weeks this consists of 1 kg carrots, 2 kg bananas, 2 kg apples, 6 litres of milk (additional to the 5 litres I buy each week as he drinks over  litre a day) and a bag of some type of nuts.
• Making one of the planned meals each week a meal from the freezer.  This allows me to have at least one night off cooking a week, means nothing needs to be purchased to create the meal which means if we have more left overs than expected that we could create an additional meal from or there is a change of events for the week, we automatically have a meal we can drop from the menu plan with no waste created or budget overspend.
• I have discovered that tracking when I shop is also important as it means I do not end up with any 5 day weeks and know when I can spend a little more if it has actually been 2 weeks since I shopped.

Things that have not worked so well:

• For the first month I did not track when I shopped which meant that there was actually 5 shops in just over 4 weeks, this has now been addressed.
• I over-spent on the budget picking up vegetable specials one week.  Although they were good value that "special" impacted on the budget, meant vegetables in the garden did not get used and other items that were already planned to be used were purchased as well meaning they were not as fresh when they finally got used a could really have been put off until the next week.
• Just having a shopping list and not having a over view of the meal plan for the week with me when doing the shopping meant that I was not able to adjust my meal plan to take advantage of specials as I mentioned above.

Home made Salmon Flan using lots of eggs, silverbeet, spring onions and dill from the garden.

I am generally happy with the new system and these few refinements are making it easier each week that passes but I will continue to look out for other refinements that need to be made.

Have you changed how you shop?

What strategies do you use to stick to a meal plan or budget?

Using Up Left Over Roast

With our freezers full of beef we have quite a few different types of roasts including topside, rolled brisket, blade and rump.  Regardless of what type of roast you cook you are often left with a few bits and pieces that are not really a tasty appealing looking meal in themselves, a bit of over cooked meat, some gravy and a few odd veggies.   So what do you do with these roast odds and ends?

I think the best ways to use up these odds and ends is to make a pie filling.  To do this  I dice and remaining meat and veggies and set aside then I take the left over gravy and re-heat it in a saucepan. If there is not a lot of gravy I add some beef stock to the pot and then more cornflour to thicken it, Finally I add in all of the chopped up meat and veggies often some frozen peas and herbs like parsley and thyme.  I stir it all together and either use it straight away or freeze for later use.
You then have the option of making a pie at the drop of a hat topped with pastry, mashed potato/sweet potato/pumpkin, a crumble topping (try this one it is really tasty) or even dumplings.

This can be applied to any type of roast and is a really frugal meal option.

How do you use up left over bits from a roast?

Changing The Way I Shop To Manage The Budget

I have previously posted about  how I use a small white board on the fridge to not only plan our meals each week but also our shopping.

In the past I have always just added items to the list as they ran out, as they were required for meals or as desired by the two of us.  The problem with this strategy is that I end up replacing things that I do not use that often and may not use again for a while.  This has meant that there have been some weeks where we spent more than we needed to get through the week.

So I have come up with a new strategy.
I have divided the shopping list into two sections. 'This Week' for the items needed for this weeks meals and 'Future' which is a list of items to be purchased in the future, that have been used up or are close to needing replacing.
This means that each week when I go shopping I am only buying what is required for that week yet I am not loosing track of what needs replacing.
If I know that the weeks shopping list is small and will not exceed our $50 budget I can add a few extra items off the 'Future' list.  Otherwise they will get purchased when they are actually needed for the weeks meals.

This week for main meals we are having:
Thai Beef Salad - Nothing needed as I substituted some of the ingredients for  others.
Devilled Sausages, potatoes and Broccoli (nothing required)
Spinach and Salmon Flan (nothing required)
Lamb Neck Casserole with Polenta (nothing required)
Chicken and Olive Tagine (tomatoes needed)
Pasta (tomatoes and tomato paste required)

So the food items on this weeks list were: tomatoes, tomato paste, bread, carrots, milk, cream, 00 flour, apples, peanuts and bananas.  Total spend $39.86

There are plenty of breakfast items on hand including cereal, toast and eggs.  For lunches Hubby takes leftovers plus carrots, apples and nuts and because I work from home I can have leftovers, salad, eggs on toast or what ever I feel like.

Our pantry is already bursting at the seams well stocked so we are in a really good place to be cutting back quite significantly on our grocery spend and I am looking forward to sharing with you some of the frugal meals I will be making.


What are you having this week?

Getting Tough On The Grocery Budget

As I mentioned yesterday I am in the process of making some changes to our budget to accommodate my changes in lifestyle (going back to Uni) and the reduction in my income, and one of the areas where I think I can make quite a bit of savings is the grocery budget.

Now for the purposes of this post our "grocery budget" includes all items purchased at the green grocer, supermarkets, markets and butcher but excludes dog food. 
As I have mentioned in my posts about beef we also have hundreds of kilos of beef to eat but we sometimes want a change so there is an occasional purchase of other types of protein.  I also work from home permanently and Hubby takes his lunch every day so there is almost zero spend outside of the "grocery budget" on other foodstuffs.

If I look back at our spending habits we have been spending between $70 and $120 (more often at the lower end of the scale) per week for the last few months.  Now while that is not a huge amount of money I believe that we can really cut back on that amount because we rarely need to purchase meat and have a bit going on in the garden.

We also have a well stocked pantry and when I say well stocked what I really mean is bursting at the seams.  
You see when you are bit of a mad keen foodie like me you tend to have ingredients from many different cultures and many types of a single product. Take vinegar for example I have at least ten different types....yep ten. But I do use them all and they do not go off.
However if I am honest there are a few spur of the moment purchased items that have been sitting in the pantry for a while and it is time they saw the light of day.

So where to from here.

Well I am going to set a maximum weekly budget of $50 and I am going to get very strict with my menu planning.
I have previously posted about how I menu plan using a small white board on my fridge and while I have been using this system for a long time I have often decided what we are eating then organised ingredients which means I often buy things just for that meal.

So from now on I am looking at:
What need using up?
What has been in the pantry for ages?
What do I have multiple of?
What is in the garden?
What can I substitute?

I will then plan our meals based on the minimum number of additional items I need to purchase.
Now while this makes perfect sense it is easy to fall in to bad habits when you are tired or rushed so I will also be making sure I have a good stockpile of prepared meals that can be heated up in just a few minutes.

Wontons can be made and frozen to have on hand for a tasty and quick meal

The other thing that I know is important to get the buy in of Hubby, is that there are enough "treats" or "not home made" things so that he does not feel deprived.  This means that I will buy an occasional bag of chips/crisps, cordial (yuck) and salted peanuts.

So each week I will be posting about my menu plan for the week and how much I spent.  I will also be posting recipes for fugal meals that make the most of what is in season and good value for money.

How much do you spend per person each week on groceries?
What tips and tricks do you use to stick to your budget?

Fat For Flavour

I am in my mid 30's and when I was a child my mum always kept a enamel mug of fat in the fridge that she used for cooking.  It was generally fat that had been drained off a roast and it was then used for other cooking.  I remember having bread fried in this fat as a treat some Sunday nights alongside grilled tomato, bacon or sausages and eggs.

While I have not eaten fried bread since then I do still use animal fat for cooking.  When we had our cow killed I requested all of the fat to be mince which I then rendered down.  I used some of the fat for soap making and I have a container in the freezer that I can use for cooking.  Because it has a slightly beefy flavor I do not use it with poultry (I save duck fat and chicken fat for this), fish or sweets but I use it instead of vegetable oil for other meats and strongly flavoured vegetable dishes.

When ever I am cooking something and there is a bit of fat left over or floating on the surface I strain it off and store it in the freezer in plastic containers.

If I cook duck I save the duck fat for cooking roast veggies or poultry. If I cook roast lamb I save the garlic and rosemary infused fat for cooking veggies or croutons and if there is lots of fat on the top of a curry I save it and use it as the oil when I make my next curry (we eat a lot of curry).

Labeling your fat ensures you use it in an appropriate future dish.

All the flavour from the previous curry are passed on to the next one.

By using the fat this way you add a whole extra layer of flavour to the next meal and you will not be spending money on vegetable oils or using them for the majority of your cooking which may not be good for your health.  

To read more about the health implications of vegetable oils you should check out David Gillespis book 'Toxic Oil' and you can check out his interview on the ABC here or read Liz's review of the book here.

Do you save and reuse oil?
What oils do you cook with?

Devilled Sausages

This is such a tasty and frugal meal and one that I love.  In the past I used to use one of those packet mixes but then I started making this version and I will never go back as the flavour of this is so much better and it is really no more effort.

With so many sausages to use up from our cow I will be trying to come up with some interesting uses for them.

This is one of those meals that uses just a few basic ingredients and will be enjoyed by all the family.

Devilled Sausages

10 - 12 Sausages
1 Large Brown Onion, thickly diced
2 Granny Smith Apples, thinly sliced
1 Tsp Mustard Powder
2 Cups of Beef Stock
1/2 tsp Celery Salt
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Tbs Soya Sauce
1/2 Cup Tomato Sauce

Brown the sausages on all sides and then set aside.  In the oil from the sausages cook the diced onion for 5 minutes over a medium heat then add the apple and cook for a further 5 minutes stiring often to ensure the apple does not burn,  Add the remaining ingredients and stir until combine then add the sausages back in and cook on a low - medium heat uncovered for 30 minutes or until the sauce has reduced.

Serve with Mash and vegetables.

Home Made Re-fried Beans

This is such a tasty recipe and can be served as part of a meal as a side, replace the meat portion of the meal, work as a dip or a sandwich spread and even goes well on baked potatoes.

But best of all it is incredibly easy and costs next to nothing if you use dried beans.

Re-Fried Beans

4 Tbs Oil/Lard/Tallow
1 Cup Dried Kidney Beans 
2 Brown Onions
2 Cloves of Garlic
1 Red Capsicum
1/2 Tsp Ground Chilli
2 Tsp Ground Cumin
1 Tsp Ground Coriander
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Sugar

Soak you beans and then cook until soft enough to mash.  Drain and set aside.
In a large saucepan place the fat/oil of your choice and add you finely diced onion and cook over a low heat until the onion is translucent and not browned.  Once the onions are cooked add the crushed garlic and finely diced capsicum and mix well continuing to cook over a low heat with the lid on the pot.  Once the vegetable are soft increase the heat to 3/4 add the spices and cook for 2 mins stirring constantly then add the sugar, salt and cooked beans.
Mix through then use a potato masher to break down the beans a bit and cook for a further 5 minutes stirring constantly (you may need to add a little water if the mix gets too dry) then remove for the heat and serve immediately or set aside for later use.  I like to garnish mine with chopped coriander.

You can make this in much larger quantities if you want and feel free to adjust the seasoning to your taste.

Making And Using Master Stock

Master Stock is a key ingredient in Chinese cooking and this simple braising liquid adds an immense depth of flavour to meals and best of all it is an extremely frugal way of adding flavour.

Master Stock is basically a rich flavoursome stock used for poaching meat and poultry and is widely used across China.  The spices add a distinctive flavour and the soy sauce adds a deep colour.  The additional  benefit of this stock is that you use it over and over again and every time you use it the flavour will develop and improve.

It is best to use a different stock for different types of meat to avoid contamination but I mainly use mine for chicken so it is not an issue.  After you use the stock all you do is bring it back to the boil skim the surface, strain it through a fine sieve in to a clean freezer safe container.  Cool ad then freeze until you need it again.

Making Master Stock

8 Cups of Water
1 Cup Soy Sauce
1 Cup Shaoxing Wine (Chinese cooking wine)
125 gm Palm Sugar
4 Cloves f Garlic
1/2 Cup Sliced Ginger
1 Carrot roughly chopped
1 Stick of celery roughly chopped
6 Green Shallots/Spring Onions roots trimmed off
4 Star Anise
1 Cinnamon Stick

Place all ingredients in a stock pot and bring to the boil then simmer for 30 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse.  
You can either cool and store until you are ready to use it or use it straight away.

The other day I used mine to poach the last of our home killed roosters and the meat was lovely, tender and moist and not at all tough and stringy.

I did mine in the slow cooker and I added another carrot, an onion and some extra ginger along with the chicken.

It was very tasty and I am sure it has added a whole lot more flavour to the stock.

Have you ever used master stock?  How do you use it?

Using Spices For Frugal Flavour

When it comes to turning a few basic ingredients into something spectacular with barely any cost at all spices are your go to guys in the kitchen.

I love all the different colours of spices

People often say that they don't like spicy food but what they really mean is that they do not like 'heat'.  
Spicy and heat are not the same thing and to say you do not like spice is almost like saying you do not like flavour.  You also need to remember that chilli's range in their heat intensity from mildly hot to off the charts hot.  Spice and chilli can be a marriage made in heaven but many dishes can be cooked with very little or no chilli at all and still be delicious.

I have a really good range of spices in my pantry and I use them for both sweet and savoury dishes.  We both enjoy ethnic foods with strong flavours from different parts of the world and are particully fond of Indian, Thai and Middle Eastern foods.  Spices are not expensive to buy and as long as you store them correctly they will last a long time (although the flavour will diminish a bit 

Some of my spices and dried herbs.

If you are new to using spices or need some tips on which spices to try with which meats here are some of my suggestions:

Lamb
For me cumin is the go to spice for lamb but you can also use coriander, sumac, paprika and cardamon as well as the spices listed in the mixes below.  There are a couple of spice blends that are great with lamb, Ras el Hanout which is a Moroccan blend and Baharat a Lebanese blend that often includes nutmeg, paprika, cloves, cassia, allspice, cardamon, pepper and sometimes mint and chilli.
Basic Spice Rub for Lamb Chops: Dry roast some cumin seeds until they are just fragrant and grind them then add some sumac and salt.  Rub into the chops and grill. You can also grind cardamon seeds with salt and use that as a rub.

Pork
Pork and fennel go hand in had but I am also a fan of smoked paprika and oregano with salt as a rub and caraway seeds add an interesting flavour.

Beef
All spice and juniper makes a great addition to any sort of stew.  Cumin, paprika coriander and ginger all add interesting flavours to steak.

Chicken
Cinnamon and allspice go really well with chicken as does fenugreek. A great marinade for chicken is preserved lemon, ground coriander and oil all mashed together and rubbed into the meat.

Fish
Aniseed type flavours work well with  fish so try fennel and star anise combined with different citrus. Turmeric and saffron and paprika all work well with fish as well as imparting their colour to the fish.

There are so many different spices out there and it is all a matter of taste so try new combinations and if you find one you like write it down so you can use it again.  

Do you have any favourites spice combinations?

How Little Can You Spend - Update

This month I set myself a challenge to spend as little as possible over the entire month and I thought I would update you on how the month has progressed.

I have found it easy to make many meals from our veggie garden, pantry and freezer with just a few editions. Breakfasts were not a problem at all and I was able to do enough baking to keep us well stocked in snacks and lunchbox extras, there were plenty of eggs and an endless supply of cherry tomatoes, silverbeet and herbs from the garden. 

Dinners were where I had to add purchased ingredients, which I expected, but what I had not factored in so much was the amount of fruit and carrots we would purchase over a month.  I am happy to eat the citrus from our garden or that I can get from a roadside tree for free but Hubby is not a citrus fan.

Every day at the moment Hubby takes 2 apples, 2 carrots and 3 bananas to work plus some leftovers, dried pawpaw or a birdseed bar and often a couple of boiled eggs.  That might sound like a lot but he works in a very physical job and works from 6 am till 5 pm so he needs a lot of food.  I am also glad he chooses to take such a healthy lunchbox too.  I work from home so I make it up on the day what I am having.

I was hoping to spend less than $50 for the whole month and here I what I have spent so far:

1 Cucumber:   1.20

4 x 1 kg Carrots    5.64

1 Red Cabbage 2.98

6 Free Range Chicken Drumsticks 4.52

3 x 3 lt Milk 9.00 (we used UHT milk from our stockpile for the rest of the month)

3.84 kg Granny Smith Apples 7.64

1.215 kg Brown Onions 1.93

1 Red Onion .44

1/2 Green Cabbage 1.49

Peppercorns 1.10

359 gm Mushrooms 3.15

2.45 kg Bananas 8.56

1.35 kg Potatoes 2.15

Dried Pawpaw 3.79

Total Spent so far: $53.59 and I am pretty confident we can make it to the end of the month with just a few more dollars on fruit for Hubby.

Some of the meals we have eaten during the month for dinners (and for lunches as left overs) are:

Roast Pumpkin, Quinoa, Feta and Bacon Salad

Quiche

Greek Salad

Home-made Lamb Sausage Rolls

Roast Chicken Drumsticks and Black Bean Salad

Vegetable Curry

We have really used up nearly every package of frozen meat from the freezer over the month and used up the last of our home raised beef which has allowed us to stick to our spending goal for the month.
While the challenge has helped use up some of the pantry staples that have been sitting around for some time (I used up a number of my jars of my preserved tomatoes and some preserved fruit from 2012) there are still quite a few items I have yet to use up including a heap of polenta (not sure why I have so much of it since we do not eat it that often - it must have been on sale), lots of dried beans, and things like my sushi rice and wrappers that need just a few things to make them complete.
So while I will not be repeating the challenge in the same way in September I will be focusing on using up these odds and ends and items I have lots of.

Now I guess I better look into how many ways I can use polenta.  Ideas anyone?

Tasty Mince - Many Frugal Meals

As part of the ongoing challenge of 'How Little Can You Spend' in our house I decided that some tasty mince was in order.
I used a few basic vegetable that I had on hand as well as some items from the garden and stockpile to make some tasty mince that can be eaten on it's own or combined with pasta, rice or potatoes to make different meals.
There was 1 kg of mince, 2 carrots, 1 capsicum, 2 onions (one of the ones in the photo had gone bad) some silverbeet and garlic chives from the garden, and I used 2 jars of diced tomatoes from the panty.

There was also this strange looking ball of frozen mushrooms that I found lurking at the bottom of the freezer.  Sure they were not much to look at a past their best but in a dish like this they just added to the flavour.

I also added celery salt, pepper and garlic and some red lentil at the end to thicken the mix and soak up some of the juices.

I am sure everyone has a recipe for tasty mince so I won't write one out here but I will say that my tips for maximum flavour are as follows:
Cook the onions until soft and translucent over a medium heat without browning so that they become sweet then remove them from you pan
Brown the mince in batches so that it gets lots of colour on it
Once the mince is browned add you tomatoes or liquid so that you can lift all of the tasty bits off the bottom of the pan
Add the rest of the ingredients and cook till done.

I have frozen this in smaller amounts and we will use it over the month to make a variety of meals.  It is easy to turn it into something new by just adding additional spices.

Do you make tasty mince?
How do you keep it interesting?

How Little Can You Spend - Stretched Sausage Pasta

For the Month of August I have declared it "How Little Can You Spend Month".  This basically means that I will try and spend as little as possible on all things groceries.  Hubby is less enthused about this plan but I figure if I keep baking tasty treats for his lunch and dinner he will come around to the idea.

Tonight I managed to turn some very basic ingredients ad two lonely sausages in to 4 serves of pasta and meatballs.  If you are not someone who normally uses anchovies I encourage you to give them a try like this. They dissolve way to nothing but impart a rich salty flavour to the meal.

Pasta Sauce

1 Large Onion, finely diced
1/2 red Capsicum, finely diced
6 Anchovies, finely diced
2 Cloves Crushed Garlic
2 Cups of Quartered Cheery Tomatoes
2 Good quality flavoured sausages ( I used Lamb and Rosemary)
1 Tsp Fresh Thyme

Add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a large frypan and gently fry the onion  on a low heat until it is soft and nearly translucent.  Add the capsicum and cook until soft then add the anchovies and garlic and cook for 2 minutes before adding the tomatoes and 1/2 cup of water and stir to combine.  You then need to pinch off little portions of your sausages, roll them into balls and drop them into the sauce mix to cook through.
Cook some pasta and once cooked add the cooked pasta to the fry pan with a little of the pasta cooking water, mix together and serve.

Black Bean Salad - Tasty and Frugal

I love black beans and this is such an easy and tasty salad that makes good use of them along with just a few other ingredients.  Like all meals that are made with beans this one is really easy on the hip pocket.
For this I used dried beans that I soaked and cooked my self (cost $1.50) a tin of corn (I grabbed a few of these when they were on sale for $1.00 each but normally I use fresh corn) a capsicum and some coriander from the garden.

Black Bean Salad

2 cups of Dried Black Beans Soaked and pre-cooked and cooled
3 Cobs of Corn or 1 tin
1 Large Red Capsicum
1 Bunch of Coriander, chopped
2 Cloves of Garlic, crushed
1/4 Red Onion, finely diced
2 Tbs Sugar
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
Zest and Juice of 2 Limes
2 Tsp Salt
1/4 Tsp Cayenne Pepper

If you are using fresh corn grill your corn cobs in a griddle pan until you get a light char on the outside and are just slightly cooked.  Then cool them and cut the kernels from the cob and add them with the cooked black beans in a large bowl
Dice you capsicum and add this to the bowl  of corn and beans along with your chopped coriander and mix together.

In another bowl combine the remaining ingredients and whisk together until the sugar is dissolved then pour over then bean mix and mix through.  You can eat it straight away but it is best chilled for a few hours or overnight to let the flavours blend.
I served it up with roasted chicken drumsticks.

Stuffed Mushrooms - A Frugal Dinner Option

This week we have been having some easy frugal meals with a focus on using up bit and pieces and last night it was stuffed mushrooms.

I started with large mushrooms, one for me two for hubby.

I removed the stalks and chopped them finely.

Then I added the last few pieces of goats feta and used the oil to dress the insides of the mushrooms before adding the stuffing.

I added a few steamed and chopped spinach leaves, some chopped garlic chives as well as some diced walnuts then mixed it all up.

After stuffing the mushrooms I topped them off with sliced cherry tomatoes and some Parmesan before baking.  A very tasty and frugal dinner.

The Cordial That Broke The Camels Back

The camel in this story is my poor Hubby, and perhaps after telling you all the things he eats for lunch in my last post I was inviting this to happen.  But any way this is the story.

H = Hubby   M = Me

It is a Thursday evening at the end of another long week and Hubby still has to work again tomorrow and Saturday as he is an employee Mon - Fri but still runs his own business as well.

H - Honey can you get some cordial when you do the shopping.
M - What do you want cordial for?
H - I'm sick of drinking just water it would be nice to have something with a bit of flavour when I get home since I drink plain water all day at work.  (Hubby drinks about 3-4 litres of water a day because of his physical job)
M- Ok but don't put it on the list cause we have some lemons so I will make you some.
H - No!  Just buy it. I am sick of home made everything.  Everyday it is the same healthy food in my lunch grown at home and to be honest it is becoming boring as bat sh*t.
M - Ok... but it will be cheaper if I make it and will not have artificial colours and preservatives in it, and it will be better than what I can buy.
H - Yes I am sure it will be better and cheaper but it will still be home made.
M - So what is wrong with home made all of a sudden.  Thirty years ago there was no such thing as manufactured everything, if you wanted it you made it.
H - Its just boring.  Every day the same things, fruit and veg, fruit and veg or left overs I just want some thing different is that ok?
M - Ok.  Well what would you like me to make you for your lunches so they are not so boring?  I could make some stuffed capsicums, savoury muffins, vege pasties, mini pizzas...  You tell me what you want and I will make it for you.
H - No!  I don't want you to make anything.  It's not the point.
M - But if you are bored then tell me what would be better and I will make it.
H - Don't worry about it.
M - Well you said you were bored and I want you to be happy with your lunch so I will make you something different you just tell me what you want.  Do you want me to buy you some shapes (the crackers) with the shopping?
H - No you'll get the wrong flavour
M - Well what about something else?
H - It's not the point.
M - But you said you were bored?
H - I just want to be able to have what ever I feel like on the spur of the moment.  If I feel like a hamburger I want to have a hamburger, if I want to buy a packet of chips I don't want to have to think "oh I can't have that because I don't have any money"
M - What do you mean you don't have any money?
H - The ATM at the servo wouldn't give me a balance so I don't know if that developer has paid me and I have put the rest of my money into the mortgage offset account.
M - Ok well I have some money in my wallet if you want to buy your lunch tomorrow.
H - I can't.  We are working in the middle of nowhere so I can't get to the shops and the boss has put his foot down about us wasting time stopping on the way so everyone can buy their lunch.
M - Have you checked on line to see if you have been paid?
H - I'll do that now.

H - Oh far out!  I got paid on Monday, why didn't it show up?  That stupid ATM  never shows you a balance.  All this time I did have money.
M - Ok, so do you want me to make something tonight for you to take tomorrow.
H - No don't worry I'll find something.
M - Look I'll get the banana cake out of the freezer and make you some devilled eggs and there are muesli bars in the pantry.
H - Thanks honey and could you make some cordial on the weekend, yours will be heaps better than the shops stuff.
M - Sure no worries.

So it turns out that homemade is better, and money worries can mask themselves and morph into other things.  This was a great lesson in communication for us, it took a while but we got there in the end.
We also had a discussion about how the way we live, growing our own food, making what we can where possible (like the cordial) is not the norm for most people, although I'd like to think we were getting back there.  We also talked about the pressures to conform and how it can be hard at times not to feel like you are missing out.  But in the end we came to the conclusion that we wouldn't change the way we live.  In fact we will keep working towards being able to do more for ourselves and become more self reliant. 
We do however need to make sure we don't feel guilty about not always meeting the standards we set for ourselves.

Does this happen at your house too?
Are you hard on yourself about living up to your own expectations?

The $21 Challange - Breakfasts and Lunches

Well by the time I got to the end of my post the other day I figured I had waffled on long enough.  I hadn't really thought about the fact that breakfast and lunch did not even get a mention even though they were included in the challenge and the $19.45 I spent that week.

A comment by the lovely Ali over at Mud Pie reminded me that I really should finish the story.

So to recap my shopping for the week was:
Coriander
Olives
Capers
Bread
Rump steak
Ham
Anchovies
Spring Onions

Total spent $19.45

And the Dinners were:
Sat - Pea & Ham soup (this was actually so bad it got replaced with toast)
Sunday - Home made Pizza
Monday - Thai beef salad with vermicelli
Tuesday - Zucchini slice
Wednesday - Penne Putanesca
Thursday - Chicken Stir Fry
Friday - Bacon and Eggs

So to fill in the gaps this is what we did for breakfasts and lunches on the weekend.
Sat - Poached eggs (from the chickens) on Home made sourdough
      - Left over stir fry from the night before
Sun - Porridge with sultanas
       - Toasted Sandwiches
During the week we generally have left overs for lunches and each of us has our own breakfast.  I find it far easier to cook dinner for 4 and have the option of another dinner or lunch the next day.  It also saves on fiddling with recipes to downsize them for two.

I work from home so I tend to have cereal and yogurt for breakfast most mornings.  I had cereal in the cupboard and I have an esiyo yogurt maker that I use to make youghurt using powdered milk, again this was in the cupboard.  During the day I have almonds and fruit or cheese and crackers as snacks and sometimes dried fruit but I find this quite sweet.  Lunches this week were Tuna Salad, leftover beef salad, zucchini slice for 2 days and Penne Putanesca.

Hubby gets up early and has a long day of very physical work so don't be too shocked when you read how much he eats and still manages to stay a trim 78kg. 
At 4am he has 4 slices sourdough toast for breakfast then takes the larger portion of leftovers the same as what I have.  He then adds some raw veggies (at the moment a couple of carrots, some beans, some cherry tomato's and a cucumber, it depends what is in the garden or in season) a tin of baked beans, some baking (muffins or biscuits or Bird Seed Bars) a boiled egg or two, a couple of apples and a container of dried fruit and nuts.
And every afternoon the lunchbox is empty!

This week I did a normal shop for us which is normally about $70 - $110 p/w depending on if there is anything on a bulk special and if I buy any meat.  I don't think we spend a lot on food (even though  the way Hubby eats we are shopping for three) and I don't think we are scrimping either.
In the $21 challange it talks about the average household of four people spending $320 per week on food (maybe even more) and this figure seems really high to me.  I know we have chickens and a vegetable garden and don't eat a lot of processed food but even still....

How does everyone else feel about this $320 p/w?