A bit thrifty

I was inspired by reading a friend's interesting post today on Food Waste, and how it is a really serious issue, and it got me thinking again about how much I waste...  I try not to, but with life being pretty busy, and with two rather time-consuming little ones to watch, I start off with good intentions and then get lazy.

Today I resolved again to work on cutting the amount that we waste, both to be more environmentally friendly, and to help the old bank balance.

So, we had a dinner comprised of lots of bits and bobs that needed eating up... Some delicious carrot and coriander soup (carrots were not going to last much longer, and a friend had a surplus of coriander in her garden!) to which I added more potato than in the recipe to make it go a little further.  Some bread (made using our wonderful bread maker) and butter, and some cous cous salad, using lots of odds and ends of salad vegetables that we had in the fridge.  This was topped off with a lovely rice pudding (not using anything up per se, but a delicious and very thrifty pud!).

To follow in this vein, I then made some breadcrumbs from some stale bread that was lying around... (into the freezer, and then I'm nice and organised for macaroni cheese)

And had another go at jam making with the left over strawberries from our PYO session on Saturday.  Again, I think it was a success... Thanks Delia!

On a non food-related note, I had a bit of mending to do for a friend.  She had a couple of bags that needed a spot of sewing.  One was a doddle- just a strap that needed machining back into the bag.  The other was less easy to figure out what to do with- the very pretty fabric had totally worn away and been ripped in places, leaving only the lining visible.  I wasn't so sure how to fix this without it looking like a very obvious patch-up job, but a suggestion from a friend was that I just add a panel to the bottom in a heavy-wearing fabric.  This worked very well, and I used an old pair of jeans that have been in the fabric stash for a while.

How very satisfying!
Any thrifty/ food saving ideas/recipes to add to the mix?

Happy Friday everyone (nearly!)

C x

Cinnamon and raisin bread and potato rosti- the recipes

Thanks to those people who asked for the recipes I mentioned in my last post.  The recipes are as follows:

Cinnamon and Raisin Bread  (recipe as given in the Morphy Richards Fastbake bread maker manual)

Recipes are for 11⁄2 Ib loaf or 2 lb loaf

Water 11⁄4 cup or 11⁄2 cup
Skimmed milk powder 3 tbsp or 4 tbsp
Sunflower oil 3 tbsp or 4 tbsp
Sugar 2 tbsp or 3 tbsp
Salt 11⁄2 tsp or 2 tsp
Cinnamon 3⁄4 tsp or 1 tsp
Strong white bread flour 3 cup or 4 cup
Fast action yeast 11⁄2 tsp or 2 tsp
Raisins* 5⁄8 cup or 3⁄4 cup
Use setting 1 Basic on Morphy Richards Fastbake bread maker.

The "cup" measurement is equivalent to 8 fl oz, and the tsp/tbsp are regular measurements.
The * beside the raisins is for adding into the mix (for bread makers) once the beeps sound, so that the raisins don't get chopped up by the earlier mixing process.  If you're making by hand, you can add them whenever!

I'm guessing I might be making more of this pretty soon, as it's not lasting very long in our house...!

Potato Rosti
Potatoes (enough for the number of people eating!)- peeled and par-boiled.
Eggs (at least one per person)
Pesto
Onion - grated
Butter - about a tbsp
Emmental - 200g (ish) - grated

I also like to add:
Salami/frankfurters
Green Peppers
(I think it makes the dish more Spanish-feeling)

Par boil potatoes, and then grate into a bowl with grated onion (very eye-watery!)
Beat eggs with about 2/3 tsp pesto.
Add egg mix into potato/onion mix, and also add in green peppers.
Melt half butter into a large non-stick frying pan.
Add half of potato mixture to pan, and press down.
Fry gently for about 15 mins, being careful not to burn.
Turn first half of rosti onto a plate, and melt second half of butter, and do the same with the second half of the potato mixture.  This time, sprinkle the emmental (and salami) onto the top of the pressed down rosti, and then place/flip the cooked half of the rosti back on top of the cheesy rosti.  Again, cook for about 15/20 mins.

Either turn onto a plate and serve, or slice up in pan, and serve onto plates.
Great with salad, and tapas-type things!

(Note- if in a hurry, you can do both halves at the same time if you have 2 similar sized non-stick frying pans.  Just pop the one with the cheese under the grill for a minute or so to make sure that the cheese melts nicely, and then just sandwich them together at the end)

Delicious!
I hope you enjoy these! Let me know if they work for you...

Cinnamon and raisin bread and sticker charts.

Today I had my first resounding success with our new bread maker.  A friend recommended cinnamon and raisin bread (thanks Mel!) and since I am finding it hard to think of things I'd like to eat in the mornings currently, I decided that might be a tempting breakfast choice.

It smelled absolutely fabulous as it was rising and then cooking away, and it tasted delicious both plain with butter (says Al) and toasted with butter (says me!).  Sort of like hot-crossed bun as bread. Yum.

The other thing I discovered was that some of my lack of success had been due to the type of yeast I was using- not "fast bake" but one that was more suited to hand baking rather than bread makers.  Can it make much difference? It turns out the answer is YES, given that this one rose to about twice the height of my previous attempts!

Lots of my life at the moment revolves around spending time with my toddler son.  He's amazing, and a huge amount of fun to be with, but is also going through that (totally normal so I hear!) phase of pushing lots of boundaries.  It's quite full-on working out on a case by case basis how to respond in a loving yet firm way.  Today we decided to give stickers a try, and (although it's early days) the idea of a sticker reward for being well-behaved at the dinner table worked very well.  We'll see how this carries on.  He certainly pointed out his two hard-earned stickers to Daddy with pride upon his return from work.

We had potato rosti for dinner tonight.  I don't know if you have a good recipe for one, but I got our one from the back of an emmental cheese packet about a year ago, and we've been enjoying it ever since.  If you've not tried it before, then do! It's delicious.  If you don't know of a good recipe, let me know, and I'll post one.

Right.  Off to bed for me now.  I hope your week is going well.

Bread Makers

This was the lovely sight which awaited me in the kitchen this morning...

A Bread Maker! After wanting one for a really long time, and searching Freecycle to no avail for ages, I hit on the idea of looking on Daily Info- a brilliant Oxford-based website which happens to have listings of "wanted" and "selling".  I found a Bread Maker in great condition for a very bargain price which my lovely Husband and I went halves on!

Today I had my first go at using it (despite having some of that lovely fresh loaf from yesterday still to eat!).  My first attempt was cut short upon realising that we had no Skimmed Milk Powder, but after a trip to our local shop, that was rectified.  We then very nearly went rather wrong when I was measuring out the flour (all quantities given in "cups" and we did not have the original measuring cup that came with it), and put in four (what I thought were) cups (but were actually "half cup" measures).  Luckily I was watching through the little window in the top, and puzzling over the unusually 'sloppy' texture when the penny dropped!

So. After rectifying the said mistake, the Bread Maker got down to business, and the first loaf worked.  However it was fine, not good.  It was a little dense (possibly not helped by my brief pause of the cycle to add more flour!) and I think it tasted a little too sweet.  I know that sometimes the recipe books that come with Bread Makers aren't the most wonderful, so if anyone has a fail-safe recipe for lovely bread that works in a Bread Maker, then please do let me know!  I shall have a trawl on-line shortly.

In the meantime, the loaf from yesterday is fab...

And today we had an extra treat at breakfast- our Lodger had a lovely batch of Croissants left over from a breakfast he attended yesterday, so we had a rather luxurious first meal of the day- YUM!

In other news, I have just finished 3 matching towel and flannel sets for my Mum...

And Al, Elysee and I just had a lovely candle-lit dinner! Who says kids can't share in a little romance?!

Right. Now to get the active toddler into his PJs.  Enjoy your evening whatever you are doing, and do let me know if you have a good bread recipe!