Skint Week – saving money on your food shop in the week before pay day!

This week were having another, what we call, “Skint Week” where I am trying to not spend any extra money on food during the week. I do a main food shop once a week spending between £30 and £50 depending on whether we are eating in over the weekends etc or not and so often I end up having to buy bits and bobs over the course of the week as well. Either because I forgot something or because I hadn’t planned well enough.

Every now and then we have a few weeks where I refuse to buy any extra’s and instead I substitute the usual ingredient for something we have in the house or we get creative and just make up a side dish/ pudding using store cupboard ingredients. This often means varying the recipes I am following which can sometimes be a blessing in disguise and sometimes it’s just a flat out disaster.

I thought I would share some of the things I substitute in these Skint Weeks. I apply this theory when doing the actual food shop, I spend a lot of time looking at the prices of various produce and if something seems more expensive than usual then I will swap it for a cheaper alternative.

Potatoes:
They’re not exactly a break the bank ingredient but I find them boring and they don’t freeze well in bulk meals  so if I am cooking a lot of recipes in a week which call for potatoes or root veg in general then I tend to look for an alternative.

If being mashed or roasted then potatoes can be swapped for any root veg, look out for deals on parsnips, turnips, carrots, sweet potatoes, celeriac, butternut squash and even cauliflower!
Sometimes I will find a bag of mixed root veg often marketed as “casserole mix” on sale and I use this instead of potatoes for mash or roasting them as a side dish. Any Leftovers I chuck in a soup with some lentils, canned tomatoes, herbs and vegetable stock to create an easy soup which will be my lunch for the week.

I have noticed that the price of butternut squash goes up and down frequently in my local supermarket, sometimes over £1 for a small sized squash so I often substitute this for sweet potato, especially in dishes like chilli, stews, soups and enchiladas.

If making a Jacket Potato then you would probably want to stick to a traditional potato so look out for deals and also I find that buying loose potatoes can be much cheaper than the packets of 4. Although if you eat a lot of potatoes then bulk buying from a farm shop (a good ole sack of potatoes) is your best bet…then you can flip the whole exercise on it’s head and use normal potatoes instead of other root veg to use up the abundance of potatoes you now have.

Shallots/ Onions:
Again, not an expensive ingredient but my point here is that whenever I see the word ” diced shallots” in a recipe I just use a finely chopped onion. I hardly ever see shallots that you can buy loose, they are always in a bag of around 20 shallots for £1.50 etc so I buy a single 10p onion..ta daa!

Greens/ Spinach:
I am always finding loose chard on sale in the supermarket, either because it is not a widely recognised vegetable in our supermarkets or because it’s in and out of season, however this is a great alternative to spinach in a dish because it wilts like spinach and it is very good for you.

You can also swap greens like spinach for kale, dark spring greens and even savoy cabbage if it’s cheaper in the shop.

If I am making a stew/ soup etc and it asks for lots of greens I have been known to skip a lot of the ingredients if I know I have a bag of frozen spinach and frozen peas at home. As long as there is something green in the dish that’s fine by me! If the main ingredient is spinach in a recipe such as “Spinach and Ricotta pasta” then you can still add alternatives but you may just want to use spinach.

Grains:
I usually have a tub of grains in my cupboard whether it is cous cous, quinoa, barley or even rice. Don’t be afraid to just use what you have in the cupboard when a recipe asks for something different. I often swap cous cous and quinoa around in salads or I serve cous cous instead of rice along side a curry or stew.

Rice is mainly a side dish in my house I would rarely eat a rice salad however sometimes if I don’t fancy a rice along side my main meal then I use up things like quinoa salad which may be in the fridge from lunches.

Meat/ Fish:
I know this is a vegetarian blog but I do still buy meat for Scott on a weekly basis. If a recipe asks for chicken breast I usually find it cheaper to look for turkey or even pork. I often swap beef mince for quorn mince and I look for whole chickens which have been reduced which I can carve up and freeze on the same day!

I always buy organic free range meat for Scott so sometimes to reduce cost I will make a big one pot meal and mix the meat with beans or vegetables to make the meat stretch further. Plus I feel like I’m giving him a much healthier meal!

Keep it Personal: A guide to food gifts on a budget!

In an earlier post I told you about the time I was at university and I didn’t have any money so for Christmas I made my family food gifts. I made cookies, bread rolls, ginger snaps, chilli oils and basil oil.

Now I was only just starting out in the world of cooking then and I think I can safely say that most of it was an endearing disaster! But the sentiment was appreciated and I think that was mainly because I had put so much effort into personalising the gift and making the packaging look nice!

So in the theme of “saving money at Christmas” I want to share a few tips on how to make your gifts really special without spending too much money!

• Think about what they like:
  I know this seems like an obvious one but it really does make a difference! Don’t give chocolate fudge brownies to your fitness guru cousin, or bread rolls to a relative who can’t eat wheat. By thinking about what they will really appreciate and use in their everyday lives you will be giving a better gift. It also means nothing will get thrown in the bin and wasted!
• Think about how you are going to package the gifts:
  A cake wrapped in tin foil may be practical but it doesn’t look special! You can often pick up some cheap flat packed cake boxes online or in local art stores (or go to your local bakery shop and see if they have any spare). Why not paint these with bright colours, put your relative’s names on the packaging, or make them look festive with ribbons and bows! 

              When I gave my gifts all those years ago I was studying Lingerie design at university so I decided to come up with my own brand called “Pants at baking”. My labels were all shaped like knickers and it was a play on the fact that I couldn’t bake! Why not play around with your own branding to make the gifts unique, personal and funny!

              This year I will think of new branding for my own gifts, so I’ll let you know once it is designed! 

• Recycle everyday items:
  If you are going to make things like chilli oils/ sauces/ chutneys then keep any small jars from foods you have bought, wash them and put to one side! You can replace any labels with your own and it means you don’t have to buy new jars for your gifts.

              You can also recycle old cards/ wrapping paper and use it to decorate your packaging without having to buy new things. 

• Put some of their personality into it:
  A great idea is to make a big batch of cupcakes or cookies and then personalise the decorations you use. By making a big batch of something you do not have to buy loads of different ingredients (one big bag of flour will make a lot of cakes!). Decorate them with stars for your nephew who loves astronomy, music notes for that Rock n Roll uncle and even a poem for your grandma. No one will mind that everyone also got a batch of cupcakes because you have made it special to them, and you have saved money by bulk buying ingredients.
•  Think about ingredients you have around you:
  I have unlimited use of a few apple/ pear trees, a freezer full of blackberries from the late summer, a huge batch of walnuts from my mum’s tree in France, loads of crystallised ginger from a recipe I made earlier in the year and also ALOT of dried fruit and cheese left from the wedding so I plan to use these in my food gifts. By thinking about what you have in the house/ garden you can save money and also people will appreciate it more if they know that the ingredients are from a tree instead of the supermarket. You could play on this in your branding – “Nice n Natural” or “From my garden to you”.

I hope this has helped inspire you to give some personal home made gifts this Christmas! Add a  few little twists to make a batch of bread rolls become a really thoughtful and unique present.

What would your branding be?

The Pay day count down…

The dreaded end of the month again!

Ok so 6 days until pay day and £10 left in the bank… fridge contents include 1 carrot, 1 bag of spinach, 1 small cabbage, 1 leek, 1 potato, celery, 2 green peppers, 10 mushrooms, ½ butternut squash, 4 eggs, ½ load of bread, 6 bottles of beer (husband bought those!), butter, Philadelphia, soya milk and the usual array of condiments.

I think that’s the most I’ve had in my fridge at the end of the month so I’m feeling quite confident I can make some good meals without having to spend much more money! In fact this doesn’t really reflect a true end of month panic but I will still share my end of the month food week with you.

In the freezer I have two Pieminister pies (bought at borough Market and tucked away for when I’m feeling I deserve it, and for the record that’s not in the near future), stuffed peppers,  grated wedding cheese, 2 bags of peas (one was tucked away and I didn’t see it before buying a new one grrr), lemon and cranberry cookies and half a tub of ice cream…..yum!

I should also point out that I have cupboards crammed with lentils, pasta, flour, beans ETC.

So meals I can make are (successful recipes to come soon):

• Open mushroom lasagne (so easy just layer up a mushroom sauce with cooked lasagne sheets)

• Cabbage leaves stuffed with butternut squash and served with spicy potato wedges: I tested this last week hence the leftover vegetables and it was delicious.

• Calzone filled with a bit of everything probably! (and some wedding cheese from the freezer), served with peas!

• Spinach pancakes with a Philadelphia filling

• Fried egg sandwich – aye why not!

Only things I’ll need to buy are………wine selection to accompany :)

What do you have left in your fridge to use up before payday? x

 

Why waste when you can taste?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2062078/Householders-throw-20-cent-food-buy-costing-12-billion.html

Every now and then I see an article or a story that simply insists I voice an opinion on it and post a non recipe blog post! Well ta da here is a fine example of such time! The government have guessed we are throwing away too much food and I think they are probably very accurate! I am guilty of throwing away food because I wasn’t sure if it was ok to eat or I wasn’t sure if I’d use it but I haven’t done this in recent times. I’ve been very conscious of only buying what I need (see my earlier post about creating a shopping list of exact ingredients and also buying loose fruit and veg so that you buy the correct quantities -http://veghotpot.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/surviving-the-supermarket/), using everything I buy, freezing leftovers and being creative with scraps!

I read this blog http://throughafternoontea.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/waste-not-want-not/ and It inspired me to be much less wasteful and to think about some advice and ideas we can all follow to waste less food. So here are a few pointers which I will be trying to follow and it may inspire some other people to do the same

• Do you really need to peel your veg? I don’t think I’ve peeled a potato, carrot, parsnip for months unless it had been in the fridge too long and the skin really was just too tough! Give your vegetables a good scrub under the tap and then keep all that goodness intact. I even leave the skin on for my mash now and I haven’t had any complaints.

 

• Has your bread gone stale? Don’t like crusts? Why not keep all the ends of the loaf, slightly stale slices, crusts and pop it in a blender then in a freezer bag and freeze until you next need fresh breadcrumbs! Great for burgers, topping on a bake etc.

 

•  Has your fruit gone a bit brown? Pop it in a pan with a splash of water and some sugar and stew it. Let it cool down then freeze it! Great for stirring into porridge/ eating with ice cream or using in a recipe later on.

 

• Never going to finish that slab of cheese? Ok I may be over doing the freezer advice here but I only recently learnt that you can freeze cheese! Grate it, slice it and stick it in a tub in the freezer.

 

• Got a few leftover vegetables which you’re not sure what to do with? Make bubble and squeak…make a pasta sauce by chopping them up and adding tomatoes…make a stew with some dumplings. Get a little inventive and think of a meal each week which can use up leftovers.

 

• Not sure if your eggs are fresh? Fill a jug with water, place in your eggs. If your eggs lay flat on the bottom they are fresh and good to use. If your eggs stand on end on the bottom, they are not quite as fresh but still good to use. If your eggs float, they are bad and should not be used. (egg advice taken from the brilliant website www.lovefoodhatewaste.com)

These are a few tips I use regularly and will try to carry on using for the future

Faux Fish Cake: Meat Free Monday

As part of my meat free monday feature I try to come up with recipes which meat eaters and vegetarians will enjoy,  its simple to make and also quite achievable on a lower budget! One recipe I used to love making is fish cakes so I decided to come up with a recipe which captured the elements of a fish cake without the fish! I think this works really well and would be great for using up left over mashed potato from the weekend! They can also be made in advance and heated up when you want them.

Serves 2

260g Potatoes
1 Egg
1 tablespoon Capers
1 pinch Garlic Powder
1 teaspoon Butter or Margarine
Bunch Parsley
1 Lemon (Zest and Juice)
tablespoon Coarse Grain Polenta (or breadcrumbs)
Spray Oil

120g Peas
1 clove Garlic
Salt and Black Pepper

Hard boil an egg and then place in cold water to stop it cooking. Once cool enough peel it and put to one side to use later.

Wash the potatoes and chop them up into small chunks, I don’t peel them as all the goodness is just under the skin but if you have a particularly tough potato you can take the skin off. Boil the potatoes untill very soft and then mash them with some salt and pepper, a pinch of garlic powder and the butter. Then put the potato to one side to cool down. (or of course just use left over potatoes from a previous meal)

Once cooled put the mash in a bowl and add the zest of one lemon, a handful of chopped parsley, roughly chopped capers and the egg chopped up roughly.

Shape the mixture into 2 patties and cool in the fridge for about half an hour to help them firm up.Make the pea puree whilst these are in the fridge (see recipe below)

Sprinkle a little polenta on both sides of the faux fish cakes and spray them with oil and then fry untill golden brown, crispy on the outside and hot on the inside.

Pea Puree: Cook the peas in a pan of boiling water then put them in a blender but reserve some for decoration. In a frying pan cook the sliced garlic untill slightly browned then add it to the blender with the juice of 1 lemon, some parsley, black pepper and a splash of water. Blend untill smooth and taste to make sure it has a nice balance of lemon and pepper.

To serve warm up the pea puree and put on a plate, put the fish cake on top and sprinkle over the reserved peas. Add a wedge of lemon and a sprig of parsley.

Surviving the Supermarket

The media at the moment have been picking up on supermarket deals and how they are often very misleading.  Asda’s roll back has been accused of putting the prices up of their products a few weeks before and then reducing it down to the normal price again as a “deal”. There have also been times where an item says it is on sale but it is never actually sold at the higher price – not really a sale then just a clever marketing tactic!

They have hyped it all up to scare us into thinking we’ll never be able to afford good food and that this is why families struggle to eat healthily but I have to say that I think that is wrong! I still manage to eat home cooked food on a budget even with the soaring prices!

The key is to stick to a list and use your imagination! I know I like to drill this point home but it really was the main turning point in my lifestyle when I needed to be spending as little as possible but still make sure we were eating healthily. By writing a list of exactly what I need and sticking to it you won’t be tempted into buying those “buy one get one free” ready meals/ curry sauces etc.
Just look at what you need and then if there’s a deal on something from your list you can decide if it’s worth it for you. I often ignore the “buy two for £2.50” when one is £1.80 because I’ve written down on my list the quantity I need and it’ll save me 70p….it all adds up!

I also try to use my imagination when in the shops, especially if something looks particularly pricey but I had wanted to use it. Think about your recipes and if there is something that can be substituted – like if making a spinach soup but spinach is looking very expensive then buy some chard or cabbage instead. Or if you are making a salad and you want some cherry tomatoes but the price has gone up then just buy some loose basics tomatoes and leave them out of the fridge for a couple of days to ripen up – they’ll be just as delicious!

Don’t let the supermarkets throw you off track and allow you to spend all of your money with their bright signs and confusing deals! Be aware of what you are buying and think about what you need or how a recipe can be adapted for your budget.