Not Forgotten!
By · CommentsI’m still alive and kicking and haven’t forgotten about being healthy or frugal. However, I have been busy. Busy trying to save money so that we can eat. Busy trying to create a successful online business so that I can go to my employment tribunal as a successful mompreneur. Busy creating fantastic educational resources for my new education website and then (I still can’t believe that I am actually doing this!) giving them away for FREE. Yes, you read it after spending hours and hours creating lots of fabulous resources worth well over £49.99 I’m actually giving the majority away for free to new members who join My Personal Tutor for… FREE.
The front end My Personal Tutor site is up online and live (not the MPT created resource shop though – that opens Monday). The free to join membership site will be live later today (it’s just going through its final checks). Anyway I need a favour. Please spread the word about My Personal Tutor. Join. Take part in the forums. Enter the giveaways. Download the free resources. Sign up for the newsletter (and get more free stuff). Check out my sponsors. Hey, you could even advertise on the site if you’ve something of interest, or become a sponsor or supply something for me to review and giveaway.
What this means for The Healthy Frugal Home is that I will be able to start posting and upload the free breakfast recipe book in the next few days. I will also be sharing how I am cutting my grocery budget drastically plus lots of other delicious recipes, frugal tips and… (you’ll just have to wait and see what’s in store;-D)
Chocolate Brownies
By · CommentsChocolate. Say it, feel it, smell it, see it and taste it. Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. I LOVE chocolate.
Anyway the recipe I’m sharing today contains chocolate. It also contains sugar which sadly doesn’t make it very diabetic friendly or diet friendly but since I cut them up into small brownies I can allow myself a brownie as a treat when I’ve been a very good girl.
These brownies are so quick, simple and foolproof that you can make them when you’ve slept in (a bit) and still get them into lunch boxes without your son missing his train to London!
Now I know all the recipe books tell you to use the best, highest cocoa content plain chocolate which if you’ve got the money I’d say go for. However, I don’t have the money so I use the cheapest plain chocolate I can find. Morrisons do an ideal bar at 23p.
Chocolate Brownies
Ingredients
1 100g-150g plain chocolate
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups plain flour
2 cups sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
1 cup (8 oz) butter or margarine
Method
Melt the butter/margarine with the chocolate broken into pieces. You can do the slow melting over a pan/bowl of boiling water or simply stick them in a large bowl and heat on high for 60-75 seconds in the microwave (this works for me every time).
Whisk in the sugar really well.
Add the eggs and vanilla. Whisk well.
Whisk in the flour.
Pour the batter into a well-oiled or lined 9×13 inch pan.
Bake at 180C for 20 minutes or until firm to touch.
Let them cool long enough to be able to touch them before you start tucking in. I cut them into 24 perfect brownies. They are delicious hot, warm and cold. Note when cooled the are slightly crispy on the top and deliciously squidgy inside (perfect) it’s just that sometimes you can’t wait for that amount of brownie perfection and just need to eat one.
Frugal Hints and Tips
I use the cheapest flour e.g. supermarket’s own budget brand, whatever margarine is on offer or best value at the time, homemade vanilla essence, freshly laid eggs from my chickens, sugar I’ve managed to get either in bulk or on special offer and the cheapest plain chocolate.
I’m having issues posting photos at the moment but as soon as I can I will upload photos of the latest batch of brownies.
Menu Plan Monday: Grilling
By · CommentsBy now you know that not only am I into saving money and eating healthily but also simplicity. This week simple means grilling and depending on the weather that will either be indoors or outside on the BBQ. Of course, there is a method in this as we have leftovers from the weekend’s birthday celebrations when we had a BBQ for Matt’s 19th. I also have some BBQ bits in the freezer so it’s time to get grilling.
Breakfasts
Oatmeal
Banana breakfast cake
Yoghurt and fruit
Breakfast smoothie & toast
Lunches
Leftover grilled veg & ham, fruit
Cous cous salad, muffin, fruit
Chicken salad sandwich, carrot & cucumber sticks with cherry tomatoes, mini orange cakes
Bacon and mushroom quiche with salad & new potatoes, fresh fruit
Pasta salad, fruit, mini orange cakes
Dinners
Gammon steak, salad and lattice potatoes, plum crumble & ice cream
Burgers & chips with salad, rhubarb compote with creme fraiche
Mini ribs, pork kebabs, steak and onion sandwiches with salad & lattice potatoes, low-fat Eton Mess
Mushroom strogonoff with vegetable rice and green beans, muffin
Cous cous stuffed marrow topped with mozzerella, salad, rhubarb crumble & creme fraiche
Moussaka with salad, chocolate brownie
Snacks
Fresh fruit
Yoghurt
Smoothie
Courgette soup
Muffin
Banana breakfast cake
This week’s shopping list:
Skimmed milk
Fruit: bananas, oranges, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, plums & cherries
Flour
Tinned tomatoes
Frozen mixed veg
Rice
Pasta
Frugal Living Tip: Saving Without Tears
By · CommentsI have NEVER been good at saving money as in putting money away for a rainy day. Or so I thought. However, we’ve been saving money with little or no effort. How?
We have a large container (it originally held 5kg of rice!) with a lid. It sits in our home and every time we empty our pockets or purses we put our loose change into it. Generally, we just put the small denoniminations such as 1p through to 20p coins. Once the container is full we spend time sorting the different coins into money bags so that we can take them to the bank to be converted into notes. However, many supermarkets have wonderful machines that let you tip the coins into them and then issue you with a voucher that you take to the information desk to exchange for cash.
It is amazing how much money you can accumulate this way without actually missing it. Yes, because we are talking about small change it does take time but it is so painless and simple without you missing the money from your budget.
Crisis!
By · CommentsLast week my girlies (Maisy, Mathilda and Martha) didn’t lay many eggs. Now don’t get me wrong there was at least one egg every day but I was baking a lot and so the egg bowl was never in danger of being full. So towards the end of the week I was having to conserve eggs.
Millie was NOT happy as she loves to have an egg when I collect them and so it wasn’t a daily occurance. Sulky puppies are not good company.
So this week to try and tempt the girlies back to full production I’ve been supplementing their diet with berries, greens, kitchen scraps and mealworms in slightly larger quantities than normal. Happily egg production went back up to normal levels.
Imagine my surprise when instead of having 8 eggs in my egg bowl and another 3 due for production yesterday. I found myself with 4 eggs in the egg bowl and none laid. I had big plans for those eggs. I was thinking blueberry muffins, brownies and a Victoria sandwich with eggs to spare.
I have a birthday cake to bake on Sunday. I need eggs. I have a son who craves home baking for his lunch boxes and who has patiently and stoically gone without this week.
So where did 4 of my eggs disappear to? Dan’s tummy has 3 of them as he did himself a fried egg breakfast yesterday! The other one? I’m guessing that as no shell was left for me to clear away (in the house anyway) that Millie had an egg as a treat.
Needless to say to stem this strike on my girlies’ part I fed them LOTS of treats and goodies yesterday and I’m hoping to see 3 gorgeous eggs in the nest box when I check later. I did explain how upset I was as it was the first time in over a year that we’ve had a day without even a single egg laid.
I’ve got raspberries that I may bribe them with today.
Menu Plan Monday: Saving Time and Money
By · CommentsI think frugality is not just about money but also about time. I need to save money. I need to save time.
Now, I’ll grant you it is a tad cooler here but it is still humid at times. Too many times. Hot too. I’ll confess I like cool, breezy and sunny. I also like rainy after all it saves me going out and watering the veg by hand!
I am inundated this week with work and other business. Yet I need to appear perfect. I need to be the perfect wife, mother, businesswoman and homemaker. If I can’t be perfect then I need to APPEAR to be perfect.
So this week’s menu is not just about being frugal with our meagre finances but also frugal with my time. I not only want us to live well on less but to eat well on less and to have enough time to get all my work complete.
One incredible weapon that I intend to use in my saving time and effort arsenal is my CROCKPOT. I love my crockpot. It was sent to me by one of my dearest friends and her husband as a gift after she’d read about my craving, my longing, my desire for this wonderous kitchen implement. I have to confess that with each dish I grow even more dedicated to this marvellous creation.
Anyway without more ado here’s this week’s menu plan designed to save me time and money.
Breakfasts
Porridge (I make it now in the crockpot and it is amazingly easy)
Breakfast cake
French toast with mushrooms and tomatoes
High fibre muffins
Lunches
Ham salad sandwiches
Med veg stew & cous cous
Pork & stuffing sandwiches
BLT
Pasta salad
salmon, salad & cous cous
Jacket potato & topping of choice
Plus selections from Victoria sandwich, muffin, breakfast cake, piece of fruit, veg sticks
Dinners
Crockpot roast pork, stuffing, roast potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli, turnips & carrots, crispy crackling
Spaghetti and meatballs with salad
Steamed salmon, potatoes & salad (my steamer is my 2nd favourite kitchen gadget!)
Jacket potato bar with a variety of topping choices
Pasta bake with salad
Med veg stew topped jacket potatoes & salad
Mushroom strogonoff with seasonal veg
Desserts: fresh fruit, sugar free jelly, yoghurt with fruit and honey, rhubarb compote
Snacks
Peanut butter sandwich or on toast (homemade peanut butter!), fresh fruit, houmus & veg sticks
Muffins that Taste Like Donuts!
By · CommentsOr yet another donut muffin recipe. Can you tell that I’m rather fond of donuts… and muffins? I’m also partial to experimenting and this recipe came through via RSS feed from The Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen.
The Muffins that Taste Like Donuts recipe. I’m going to make this version tonight for dessert as it’ll give me something to put in lunch boxes tomorrow as well. I don’t know that they’ll want delicious, chewy, chocolatey brownies two days in a row (though they might if there are any left as these ones are seriously delicious) – I was on a roll at 6.00 am this morning! I’ll also let you know what you can do (if anything to make them healthier and/or more frugal).
I’ll add a photo of my donut delights later when I’ve made them (providing they don’t all disappear suddenly;-D).
Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to post a recipe and pics on Tasty Kitchen. After all I am a member;-D
Frugal Living Tip: Stretching One Meal into More
By · CommentsTimes are hard here at the moment so I’m trying to feed us well on what we have already.
In the garden I had a rather large round yellow zucchini (courgette), a few Chantenay carrots and turnips. I had a bag of baby new potatoes indoors, some onions and a bag of very cheap chicken pieces (frozen). I also had herbs, spices, stock cubes and pearl barley.
Having put on my thinking cap I decided to turn to my trusty favourite kitchen aid, my crockpot.
I chopped up the onions, turnips, carrots, courgette and potatoes and put them into the crockpot. I then added black pepper, white pepper, mixed herbs, paprika, garlic, a touch of chilli powder and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce. Two chicken stock cubes melted in boiling water and a good sprinkling (probably a cup) of pearl barley. On top of this I laid 3 chicken quarters and two drumsticks (from my cheap chicken pieces bag). Topped up with more water and turned the crockpot on to high and left it to cook all day.
The smell was scrummy and the boys were eagerly anticipating their dinner. Yay! However, Dan developed a migraine and spent most of the day sleeping. To cheer him up I decided to turn the casserole into a pie.
When everything was cooked we stripped all the meat from the bones and it was so tender that we managed to get every single tiny piece off! The skin and more grissly bits went to the cats and the dog who were all milling around tempted by the gorgeous aroma.
The meat was mixed back in and the gravy thickened with cornflour.
We put a large amount of the mixture into a dish and covered it with a homemade pastry lid. The one pot meal pie was then baked until the crust was golden brown. Delicious. It was also a HUGE pie! Way more than enough and would feed 5 or 6 people with some extra vegetable sides.
Even better was the fact that we got four (4) individual containers of the casserole (a complete meal in itself) for the freezer (and they were full to the brim). Of course it would also make another family meal if I’d had a large container available.
Voila there you have my Crockpot Chicken Dinner in a Pie.
Frugal Shopping Tip: £5 Voucher
By · CommentsIf you shop at Morrisons or even if you don’t but want to save money on your shopping then you need to buy a copy of The Sun each week for the next six weeks. Why? It’s simple really. Inside The Sun each day you will find a voucher worth £5 off against a £40 spend at Morrisons. The Sun only costs 20p so you are still saving £4.80 after deducting the cost of the voucher.
I’ve got my first voucher to use off my next shop at Morrisons. Don’t forget to get yours.
Donut Muffins
By · CommentsOr if you’re in the UK, doughnut muffins.
These are really scrummy treats. Delicious for a snack, tea, dessert or even breakfast.
Donut Muffins
(Makes 2 dozen)
Ingredients:
2.5 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar or sweetener
2 Tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil (or shortening melted)
1 egg, beaten
1 cup natural yogurt
1/2-3/4 cup cold water
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinammon
Topping (optional): 2 Tbsp low fat spread/butter melted, 1 dsp granulated sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinammon
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.
In a large jug mix egg, oil/melted shortening, yogurt and cold water to make liquid to 2 cups.
Mix liquids into dry ingredients quickly. Don’t overmix. The mix will contain lumps and that’s fine!
Put 1 dsp of mix into each muffin case.
Bake 12-15 minutes until risen and golden. They will be spring back when pressed.
Remove from oven and leave to cool for a couple of minutes.
Brush tops of muffins with melted spread/butter and sprinkle with sugar/cinammon mix.
Slimming Tips:
Use low or no calorie sweetener suitable for cooking if you wish.
Leave off the topping for lower calorie treats.
Use a mix of wholemeal and white flour to create a healthier muffin.
Frugal Tips:
I make 24 because they last well in an airtight container and I use them for snacks, treats, desserts and even, breakfasts during our week.
I use silicone muffin cases as they last and don’t need to be thrown away once the muffin is eaten or removed for storage.
Freeze excess muffins (untopped) and you’ll have a quick snack or breakfast without needing any preparation beyond removing from the freezer and defrosting.
I buy my flour in bulk when I find a fantastic offer or whatever is cheapest at the supermarket.
I make my own natural yogurt to keep the cost down.
These are one of my favourite muffins of all time. I’ll post the pics of my last batch later;-D
