Frugal Cooking

After a morning of ironing, my least favourite household chore it was time to decide what to cook for tea. I'd defrosted some mince the day before but hadn't used it so today it was going to be chilli for tea. To save a few more pennies and make the weekly food shop go further I've started to divide my 500g packs of mince in two before I freeze them so we now get two meals for the price of one. I made my normal chilli receipe but packed it out with veg, courgette and carrot.  It looked and tasted delicious. Enough for six portions.

I also had some coffee butter cream to use up so made some butterfly cakes.  When I ran out of the cream I just used icing sugar and sprinkles.

Next to be used up were some dates left from Christmas! The next one will soon be with us. I used my trusty old Dairy Cook book to find a recipe.  Sunshine Bars it was. Dates, cinnamon and a whole chopped up orange go into them but no sugar! I was a bit sceptical of no sugar so sprinkled a little demerara on top during cooking. Well I have to say that they did taste great. Lovely moist pieces of orange.  I served it warm with a little custard for our pudding. The dishes were empty so that's a good sign.

A Nice Stroll

Sunday we got up and drove to the Wrekin in Shropshire.  Took us about 45 mins to reach the top. What a great view from up there.  Would have been even better if the weather had been brighter. Don't think I would have wanted it much warmer, I sweat enough getting up there. 

I've Found Blogger

Well it's been quite some time since I posted.  Been doing other things, not much crafting, plenty of cooking though.  I've been trying to get our weekly food budget down. I've found some great recipes on the net and that's what has bought me back to blogger. @queen_frugal has been a great inspiration.  She really knows how to stretch the pennies. I also purchased a copy of Jack Monroe cook book, now that's what I call living on a budget.

Hopefully I'll remember to take photos and write a few posts to let you know how we are doing. Doing this post off my phone, how blogger has changed since I last used it!

Busy Day

Well what a busy day I have had today. I have managed to hoover and polish all the way through and do a spot of cooking. I have been inspired by some of the very lovely blogs I read, everyone seems to be saving the pennies and using up all the weekly grocery shop so I thought I would too. I do try to make a meal plan every week but some weeks just don't go to plan. For tea tonight I roasted some of the leftover veg that was lurking in the bottom of the fridge then popped it on a sheet of puff pastry along with some chorizo and cheese. Served with salad  I must say I rather enjoyed it.

For our pudding I made a lemon tart. This was very tangy but very nice. First time I've made sweet shortcrust pastry and it wont be the last. 
Still got some left over veggies so think tomorrow will be a soup making day. Got to go to the train station now to pick up dear daughter then its back to watch The Paradise which we recorded from last night. 

Rainy Day

Been a bit of a grey wet day here so decided to make a cake. Used the spooky sprinkles I got with last weeks shopping. Hope it tastes good with a cup of tea.

Happy Birthday!

My Dads 65 today!

Christmas is a Coming!

Well it was a very quiet in our house today, there's only me and hubby until  the weekend when Soph will come back from Uni to stay. I kept myself busy though, making my Christmas cake and finding out the Advent candle I bought a few weeks ago. Once this was out it made me realise how close Christmas is and how much I have to do. We began decorating our bedroom in September and I still have to make the curtains! Well I'm sure everything will get done in time but what the heck if it doesn't.

Once it was dark we lit the candle and also the fire, its so cold tonight, looks like Jack Frost is going to pay a visit.