The Big Freeze (Eating from the freezer for a month)

Over the last couple of months I have been trailing freezer meal recipes, after finding many pins on Pintrest about freezing a months, worth of meals in a couple of cooking sessions, I thought “I like the sound of that” however when I started on the research I found that a lot of the recipes used just weren't suitable for our needs.   For one thing a lot of the American recipes involve pasta, we do eat pasta but not in the quantities that I found on the net, also a lot of American’s seem to have no problem with defrosting and refreezing raw chicken!!  I can’t bring myself to do that either so that was out, and lastly the Americans have the “coupons” advantage (anybody that has seen Extreme Couponing, knows what I mean), this means they can go out and buy masses of ingredients in one go without needing to re-mortgage the house.   Anyway, not to be put off by these few stumbling blocks I thought there must be a way for me to manage it, I have always used my freezer for fruit/veggies, soup mixes, shepherd’s pie, meat on it’s own, but having a whole meal prepped and ready to go just makes things so easy,  research done, shopping for twice the usual meat etc, stretched over a month, the family thinking I have lost the plot cause everything is going in the freezer, I am pleased to report success!!!! We have so far enjoyed 8 days’ worth of stress free eating, I just have to get a tray etc out of the freezer in the morning (or evening if it is something for the slow cooker) and bung it in the oven, I sometimes need to do a few potatoes, on the other hand sometimes I don’t because I have frozen some portions of mash, baked potatoes, and ready to roast potatoes, anything requiring rice is sorted as I froze portions as I went along, and I have trays of ready to roast veg and bags of prepped veg ready too.   The biggest advantage to all this, isn't really to do with money (at this stage anyway, though I am sure I will be taking advantage of offers and reductions in a much better way now) it is more about the carefree meal times.   I have devised a system so that we know what is available, and if it came to it anybody in our house could sort the tea out (Wow that would be good!!!!).

I have a small ring bound note book in the kitchen, each time I prepare a freezer meal (or pudding) I write it on one page, together with how many portions (some meals are split down into single servings as sometimes we aren’t all there to eat together, in that case, say I had 4 individual portions of something, I write along the bottom of the page – 4 3 2 1), I also put any cooking instructions on the page.   When we use something, I tear the page out of the book, or cross a used portion off, that way we know what we have in the freezer and what the options are for tea!!   On the back page of the notebook is a list of sandwiches that I have made up and frozen, I have been trialing what works well with those too and we now have no worries for packed lunches or impromptu picnics, a short hop to the freezer and we are sorted (excellent in the summer when bread goes off so quickly).  I am sure that I will find more and more useful things, and although I have always managed to get 2 weeks of meals frozen and sorted for Christmas, I am determined to make this a whole year and whole month way of feeding the gang, so I will continue this another time however I am sure a quick taster of what we have available at the moment would be useful.

Balsamic roast Sausage, Balsamic and Honey Pork, Hawaiian Pork, Turkey rollups, Spaghetti bolognaise (sauce only),Shepherd’s pie, Loaded Baked potatoes, Curries (stacked together with rice portions and naan breads), Cooked chicken for super fast fajita’s, Corned beef pasties, Lasagne, Pasta sauces, Fishcakes, Home cooked sliced Ham. Potato Muffins, Mash and rice, packets of prepped soup mix, muffins and pancakes, pies and crumbles for puddings.   More research to come and a bigger freezer me thinks!!

Saving money can be done!!!

“Creatures of habit” that’s what we are and shopping is a habit that is there to be broken!!!!.  Just to say I have been there and got the T shirt when it comes to saving and achieving, My husband and I set out to pay off our mortgage…………..and we did, we paid off our 25 year mortgage in 9 years!!! We now are doing the same with a second property and planning to pay off a £100,000 mortgage in 6 years!!!.............yes we are shoveling money into it, no we are not living on stale bread and beans on toast, we have all the clothes we need and we run 2 cars, have 2 holidays a year, and we eat out so all in all life is not miserable.

So what don’t we have??

Credit cards, mobile contracts, extortionate trips to the pictures, we don’t smoke, or for that matter drink much, I don’t buy magazines, or fake tans or fake nails, and as my hair is, and almost always has been long, I don’t have massive hairdresser bills, I do get it highlighted twice a year though!!.

If you are serious about saving money you have to really want it.   Do some maths and see for yourself what your habits cost……a Coffee “treat” on the way to work at say “£2.00” a day, times 5 days a week for say 40 weeks (to allow for hols, sick not feeling like coffee days etc) means a treat of £400 pounds a year!!!!   Do that maths and much more besides and you will soon see where your money is going!   There are tonnes of hints and tips on the internet about saving money, so I am not going to go listing them all here but do think about some of the following:-

Next time a renewal letter arrives (breakdown cover is a classic!! – we have saved tonnes of money by making just one phone call a year!!) ring said company up, ask why the price increase……….tell them you are considering moving company’s as the increase is unreasonable………wait for the renegotiation!!!   This even works for TV packages

I mentioned the pictures earlier………..well here’s the thing, I USED to love a family trip to the pictures, but now it’s nothing but a trauma, not only do you pay a ridiculous amount to watch a film in a big room, that’s not even guaranteed to be warm, but you have to put up with inconsiderate rude people, who let their kids run to the toilet or concessions stand every 2 minutes whilst they use their mobiles to catch up on their social lives.   Not anymore, it’s far cheaper and less stressful to buy the DVD, make some popcorn at home, or buy a big bag if making it isn’t your thing (don’t get me started on the price they get away with charging for popcorn!!!) and get drinks at a fraction of the cost, turn off the phone……….erm yes we DO turn off the phones – all of them!!!! Draw the curtains and crank up the volume a bit, even the dog joins in which he can’t when we go out – far more cosy, enjoyable and cheaper too.

Heating (ours is gas)……….now this is a biggie, we have a log burner in our living room so we use our central heating as little as possible, even in the winter……….we have 2 teenagers and all their lives we have encouraged family time, so actually, they are happy to spend time in a room with us.   The heating isn’t on during the day on week days (even though I am home 2 days a week………..I just get layered up if it’s cold).   We have a 3 oil radiators, and draft excluders for every door (Old house with chimneys), blankets   we warm the house up for going to bed, use hot water bottles and wheat bags in the beds and within reason do all we can to keep the costs down whilst keeping everybody happy

DRYING CLOTHES OUTSIDE IS FREE!!! – sorry to shout but I know so many people who now just shove everything in the dryer….I have solar panels and still dry outside!!!!

Plan your menus, make a list, and stick to it!! Fresh food is cheaper than ready meals……….Get a slow cooker and use it, cheap to run, meat falls apart and is delicious and juicy, and it’s ready when you get in from work – no brainer!!!

Don’t go shopping!!!...........unless you really need to!   money stays in your purse a lot longer if you aren’t near a till!!! – If you are really bad at adding extra things to the trolley that you really don’t need, shop online, yes you pay for delivery but you don’t end up spending money you didn’t intent to………and you don’t have all those extra calories hanging around the house that now need eating up!!!!!

Internet/ebay, look there first before you pay shop prices…….market stalls don’t have massive overheads – check out the fruit and veg, not only is it cheaper than the shops but often fresher too, as stall holders don’t have massive great warehouses to store stuff.

Lots have people say it but how many do it…………Ask yourself “Do I need it” before you buy……….be honest, if you are really serious about saving money, you will know what is needed and what is a waste.

OK lecture over……….relax!!

Salad Days (A quick tip for an easy summer)

As I was preparing tea last night I thought it would be good to share my super easy salad days tip……….a perpetual salad bar!

We are big salad eater’s in summer so I keep a constant salad bar going in my fridge over summer.

I have a set of stacking boxes that fit in my fridge and a couple of other plastic boxes, during the summer I keep a constant supply of salad options in these boxes. The secret to this system I have found is to do small quantities on a regular basis, so the boxes all have smaller boxes and dishes inside them with.   For me/us this system is a boost as all I need to do is get the boxes out and my crew can help themselves to most of their meal, it also means that there is a selection of sandwich additions ready to hand at any time. Some of our staples are chopped celery with mandarin oranges (from a tin, without the juice) and a scattering of sultanas, grated carrot, sliced peppers and sliced red onions another favourite is jellied beetroot……for this I buy ready cooked vacuum packed beetroot, then make up a raspberry jelly with a generous half of boiled water and a skinny half of cider vinegar, chop the beetroot and put it in a dish, pour over the jelly and leave to set (this is great for parties by the way), I also buy bags of grated cheese, or gate my own, put a small portion in a tub and either refrigerate the rest or often just stick it in the freezer in a tub!!

It’s as easy as that…………….come home from work, take the chicken etc out of the slow cooker, open the boxes and voila, tea in a jiffy!

Cutting it Fine (Or at least that’s the plan!!!)

As always I am striving to have a beautiful life on the cheap, so I am going to attempt to grow as many flowers to cut for the house as possible this year.   I am lucky in that we already have a well-established garden that provides some flowers and usually enough foliage to get me through, however an act of generosity, has presented me with further opportunity, friends of ours have offered us a large strip of their land to garden and grow what we want. Win, win for all concerned as they are advancing in years and finding it difficult to do it all.   I thought documenting my efforts might prove useful to likeminded people.   I have made a start in our own small produce plot at home, the new “allotment” has meant that we have been able to plant our potatoes elsewhere so I have sown a couple of rows of Larkspur  2 weeks apart, to hopefully give me a few good pickings.   I also have 60 Gladioli bulbs that I plan to get in the ground this weekend, again I might stagger the planting though it is getting a little late to get them in this year.   Seed shopping is on the agenda for this week, Scabiosa tall double mixed (reputed to have a 7 to 10 day vase life) Cosmos Purity, Cerinthe major, multi head sunflowers and Bells of Ireland are on the list.

I will be keeping an eager out in the charity shops for suitable arranging vases/pots etc. I already have a few nice things that I have collected and keep in my shed but hey there is always room for more!!

I have made a start this week, by chance I was looking for my hubby in the garden and found him cutting all the seed heads off our Hellebores, they looked so lovely laying on the grass in a big bunch, that I have snaffled them and instead of being in the compost bin, they are now adorning our hall table, I should have taken the photo before putting them in place as the hall is a little dark……….but you get the idea!! (The cream jugs, you will be pleased to note are both from charity shops, so all in all a cheap display)

How to fit a games compendium into 2 CD cases and a pill box!

A few coloured pencils come in handy too!!

Electronic entertainment is all very well and has it’s time and place, but if you are going on holiday surely it is about family time, but how do you introduce family time into being stuck in due to inclement weather, or you are delayed at the airport or even worse you spend an unscheduled extra week away when a volcano grounds flights on the last day of your hols and you have spent up!!!! (another story but boy was I glad I had the games kit with me!!!) Ok so all this came about when I was about to take my kids on their first ever holiday abroad, and therefore their first flights.   Well I wasn’t sure how they would react so I thought distraction would be the name of the game (scuz the pun) if there were any problems.   A desk calendar (the type that use CD cases) was my inspiration and so I now have a complete compendium that is small enough to fit in my hand luggage (and yes although those kids are now teenagers the games still go with us).  

The first thing is to make a template so you know stuff will fit in – as my CD case was a calendar the pieces of card with the months on were perfect so I had a ready made one.   Paper games was the obvious place to start, On my PC, I set up a naughts and crosses template, one for battle ships, connect four, and then squares oh and did a set of rules too to save the arguing!!, I painstakingly arrived at the right dimensions for everything by printing and checking against the sizing template.   My next natural progression was card games, as a family we never go anywhere without at least one pack of cards between us, so besides our usual games I thought it would be good to try some new ones, I hunted for games I thought we would like to try, typed out the rules and added them to the case, then added a few simple card tricks for good measure.   Dice games was when I came up with the pill box, because obviously dice won’t fit in the CD case……… well I had a pill box for my vitamins and when I was trying to decide where to keep the dice, thought I could sacrifice a compartment and put them in there. Thanks to the internet I found some 9 mm dice, I tend to take 6 with us as quite a few games use more than 1 die, Yahtzee being one of them, I printed the rules and set up a template for the Yahtzee score sheet, I later found a dice within a dice on a trip to London so that goes with us too. Needless to say those pill box compartments proved to be just the ticket so now I have had to move the vitamins out!!!

I then made A Ludo board, chess and draughts board, backgammon board, and Othello board(the backgammon and othello boards being done in 2 halves so the playing area is a better size), all just on light weight card that can be reprinted if they get tatty, one of those obvious things to mention here (so obvious you might not think of it!!!) is you can place the game boards so they are facing outwards from the back of the cd case, you then have a solid surface to play on and no boards blowing about!!! (I have cut the two piece boards so that the middle is right at the edge of the paper then you can use both cases together - you have to put up with a small crack down the middle but it is manageable)

 I have a collection of counters – coloured buttons for some games and small chess pieces from a cheap travel chess, the Othello and draughts caused a problem until I found a craft punch that cuts out 14mm circles, a sheet of crafts card, coloured on one side and white on the other has provided me with a stock of easily replaceable counters!!! – I guess for me the replaceable element is the best thing as the set isn’t ruined if something goes astray, everything is printable and replaceable – I had even included a set of printable dominos, then I found a set of plastic ones that are 27 x 13mm but better still I was then lucky enough to find a set of playing cards that are dominos so we have game rules for those too. We Now have 25+ games with us when we travel!!!.

Print off a few Sudoku puzzles,(for young children a couple of small pictures to colour in is useful too) and don’t forget some blank sheets for doodling and scoring!!! I guess when I get a chance I should put all the templates as PDF files on etsy, to save everybody else the trouble of setting stuff up!!!

As a note for anybody getting confused yes you have seen this before, in fact I already have 2 blogs started that I can no longer get into.............I am hoping this will become third time lucky!!!!

Soup Dragon

After much messing with a small (and very old) blender..........I have finally indulged myself and bought a brand spanking new monster of a thing with a glass jug!!! - wow the difference already is amazing and I am finally back on track with soup, just the way I like it!!   I love homemade soup but have to produce it to different requirements in our house, my son would have the juice minus the chunky bits (if that was offered as an option for him..............which it isn't!!) the kids or husband don't like it blended as I do, and I always add an extra kick to my husbands serving. home made soup has got to be one of the worlds finest things, you can use up practically anything that is sitting in the fridge and there is something so comforting about it.   I have a couple of tips that might be of interest.....If I ever drop on packs of reduced onions, celery, or leeks I snap them up as these can be frozen without any prep, simply wash chop and stick usable amounts in bags in the freezer, if you get all three together do mixed bags this can sometimes give you the push you need to get some soup on. Another little trick I used to use, is to add a small tin of butter beans before blending (I still do this if making my soup (thick blended stuff that resembles baby food!!!!) not only does this addition add extra goodness, but it serves to thicken and adds volume so your soup goes just that little bit further!! So here's to the season of soup!!