Frugal Food Fridays, from Fuss Free Flavours!
Frugal Food Fridays are all about saving some money, whilst still enjoying great food.
To take part, blog about a food related money saving idea and add your post to the round up Linky.
Please use the logo and also link to this post.
Money saving topics could be:-
- Dishes using cheaper ingredients – cheap cuts of meat or vegetarian
- Meals using leftovers
- Meals using up the ends of packets
- Substitutions of cheaper ingredients
- Packed lunches
- Meals that use less energy to cook
- Pressure cooking
- Slow cooking
- Faster cooking – less oven time for example
- Batch cooking for the freezer
- Sustainable foods
- Food you have grown yourself
- Meals from reduced food in the supermarket
The list is endless! Feel free to suggest and I’ll add them in! My current money saving idea is to get through all my non perishable foods, and not spend more than £3 a week on anything that is non perishable.
By request I am also expanding this to include frugally styled food photos. You know – no ribbons, no baubles, no artfully placed crumbs. Just plain photos of great food.
Hopefully it will become a great money saving resource!
Anyone is welcome to host! Mail me if interested! helen at fussfreeflavours dot com
I grow my own tomatoes and chillies every year.
I started off by putting seeds from shop bought vine cherry tomatoes into a clear pot, lined with tissue and added a little water. I left them on a sunny windowsill and added water when necessary. Much to my surprise, they started to grow and and I carefully planted them in compost in an ice cream tub. They grew and grew and as they got taller, I separated them and ultimately they needed to grow in a bucket – each! The vines take up a lot of room so beware if you try this in your living room (like me!)
I tried the same thing with bird eye chillies and hey presto – my own chillies growing in my dining room! (I still have five or six plants with plenty of ripening chillies – in December)
If you feel like trying this, I’d start in February or early March. In the height of summer, they can go outside (expect funny looks when the neighbours see you taking plants for a walk!) but make sure you bring them back inside if there’s any chance of frost.
I often have a half a tomato hanging around in the fridge. They always ended up in the compost because I waited for some tomato based dish to add them to. Well, I can’t remember what I added it to first but I quickly came to realise that tomato used in small quantity almost like a spice or onion is really fabulous. It just adds something in the background that can bring a dish from OK to fantastic. So don’t throw them out, throw them in!
A great idea but with my sons enthusiasm to plant seeds we’d end up looking like Kew Gardens
Using leftover mashed potato – Much Ado About Gnocchi…http://avillagepantry.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/much-ado-about-gnocchi/
Much Ado About Gnocchi- using leftover mash potato
http://avillagepantry.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/much-ado-about-gnocchi/
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[...] « A Fallen Angel, Big Sky, A Yorkshire Church and a Bacon Butty The Ultimate Leftovers Feast ~ Bubble and Squeak » The Search for Fish and Chips and Turkey, Bacon and Leek Pie The Search for Fish and Chips and Turkey, Bacon and Leek Pie The search for Fish and Chips started just after a trip to the supermarket yesterday; having packed all the shopping away in the car, my dad suggested we popped in to the local chippie on the way home, my mum and I agreed with alacrity……and for me, it was to be my first fish and chips treat since I arrived in the UK. We pulled into the chippie car park, but something ominous was afoot though ~ the car park was empty and a desolate paper sign flapped against the door in the wind……it soon became apparent that there was to be no fish and chips as they were waiting for an engineer due to a problem with their power. We piled back into the car and remembered another good chip shop some eight miles down the road……off we set, tummies rumbling and visions of fish and chips running through our heads. Yes, there it was, the signs were out and the lights were on……..BUT, they were just closing and there was no fish left. Anxious discussions were held in the car about other places that may be able to provide us with Britain’s famous dish….but, it was now 3pm and we were in that “twilight” zone of being “between” frying sessions, most chippies close at 2pm and re-open at 4pm. So, on finally getting home, we all fell into the kitchen and devoured leftovers from a buffet from the night before; instead of fish, we had tinned salmon sandwiches, and instead if chips, we broke into a bumper packet of crisps…..this was followed by cheese and crackers and a piece of cold steak and ale pie……slices of Christmas cake were enjoyed with a pot of tea ~ it wasn’t fish and chips, but it was wholly enjoyable and by that time we would have eaten a horse and gone back for the jockey….. …………this little tale reminds me about the old opening times for Pubs; 11am until 1:30pm and then 6pm until 11:30pm……these opening hours have long since gone, so why do chippies still have archaic opening hours, for heaven’s sakes it was a FRIDAY……a traditional day for a plate of fish or in our case, a package of freshly fried fish in paper……and the moral of the tale, PLAN your fish and chip suppers carefully and in advance, OR cook them at home! Here is my recipe for Fish and Chips that I previously posted…… Fish on Friday ~ Traditional Fish and Chips in a Beer Batter ~ Leaping straight from fish dishes, here is my second leftovers recipe of the week; a post-Christmas or New Year pie……I LOVE pie, sweet pies or savoury pies, all pies ~ pies with short crust pastry and puff pastry……raised pies and mini hand pies, I LOVE them all. This is a wonderful pie full of festive flavours, an echo of fun and frivolity…..packed with tasty ingredients ~ turkey, bacon, sausages, stuffing, bread sauce, leeks and gravy…….all topped with a puff pastry lid. This was devoured by my husband and daughter, as well as myself of course! I served this with some Bubble and Squeak and it was a comforting and thrifty meal for all of us. The recipe, such as it is, is really just an assembly job with whatever you have to hand. I have just listed the ingredients that I had to hand when I made this pie, and it was a great combination……and the bread sauce was a wee culinary triumph we all thought ~ binding the filling together with flavour. Here is my method for a tasty pie, use whatever leftovers you have to hand…….chicken and ham are obvious ingredient choices too……I hope you enjoy this recipe idea, and I’ll see you tomorrow with more musings and ramblings. Karen Turkey, Bacon and Leek Pie INGREDIENTS: Leftover turkey, brown and white meat, about 450g to 600g Leftover bacon and sausage rolls (pigs in blankets), about 6 to 8, chopped into small pieces Leftover stuffing, chopped up roughly Leftover bread sauce Gravy, about 150ml Salt and pepper, to taste 2 Fresh leeks, cleaned and finely sliced 25g Butter 225g Ready-made rolled puff pastry METHOD: Pre-heat oven to 200C/400F. Heat the butter in a frying pan, and add the leeks; sauté them for 3 to 4 minutes or until soft. Add the leeks to the turkey, bacon and sausages; then add the bread sauce, stuffing and gravy and mix well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Place the pie filling into an enamel pie dish and then top with a puff pastry lid. decorate with pastry trimmings if you have any and make several cuts in the pastry lid, see photos. Put pie into pre-heated oven and bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until pastry lid is puffed up and cooked, and filling is hot. Serve immediately with seasonal vegetables and potatoes. If you have any gravy left over, heat up and serve with the pie. I am entering this Frugal leftover dish into Helen’s blogging challenge: Frugal Food Fridays [...]
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