Tagged Again

Molly tagged me again..with a different one.

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.

Each player answers the questions about themselves.

At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

a) What was I doing 10 years ago? Cleaning schools.

b) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):
1) Woke up this morning and though "thank GOD there was no white chalk mark around my body"
2) walked to the train station.
3) Put a deposit on my new fridge, thanks to the Carers bonus.
4) Bargained at the markets when buying food.
5) Looked at the bloggs I subscribe to and thought.... I so need 2 spare hours to read them all.

c) Snacks I enjoy: Chicken or cheese & onion chips. Skinny coke.

d) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1) Count it first.
2) Buy a ticket for all my gardening buddies and fly them to Luckyland for a garden party.
3) Move to Tassie and buy a hobby farm.
4) Donate half the money to charity..... by starting a foundation.
5) Set the kids up in houses and what sort of work if the want to own a business.
6) Buy a milking cow and some sheep for my hobby farm.
7) Help out pensioners as I know how much we struggle. That could be linked with #4's dream.

e) Places I have lived: Australian outback, Adelaide & Whyalla and a couple of country towns.

Laughing purple goldfish, she is in craft and recycling and has shown me how to recycle wool I have knitted into jumpers.

Lucy as she has a lovely blog.

Orchard 40, she plays so hard in her garden and its a stunning place to visit, vis my laptop.

Well I have thought of 3 people. Hope they enjoy the tag.

Until next time....hoo roo

Beef, Kidneys & Good Food

Where do you buy your meat if you are a meat eater??? I like to buy some of our meat at our local Vietnamese Supermarket.

Its so much cheaper than the stupidmarkets and also no foam trays wrapped in plastic. Though to make it even better, if I got the meat wrapped in butcher paper, I'd be even happier.




Kilo of tender gravy beef for $6.59........ way cheaper.
The 3 lamb kidneys were $0.76......

At the stupidmarket last time I paid $1.98 for 3 in a pack. Way over priced in my books.

Now the trick is to get the most out of the meat.



Beef curry and rice, two meals for me.



Steak & kidney with vegies, equals two meals for Pat.

Without including the rice and vegies, $7.35 divided into 4 meals ....$1.8375 for each meal. Can't get much cheaper than that.

By looking outside the stupidmarkets in the smaller shops and markets, there is still cheaper food to be bought.

Pat & I are on a disability pension and so we need to account every cent. So where I can help other people by sharing our shopping & kitchen skills, I will.

Also with the vegies soon to be available for harvesting in the weeks to come from our little vegie patch, it'll be even cheaper.

Until next time.... hoo roo

technorati tags: beef, food savings, rice, vegetables

1 Chicken Breast Equals 8 Pies

With meat getting even dearer time for another food tip from my kitchen. This one is wonderful and so cheap.

All you need is 1 chicken breast and making it into a pie mixture adding any vegies you like. I use the water I cook the chicken breast as chicken stock. Season to your taste.

1 0r 2 sheets of puff pastry.






My pie maker, great for those pies, made in my kitchen. Be savory or sweet.




After the pastry is cut out with the pie cutter, into the heated up pie maker. Pop on the covers and cook until pastry is brown.


That was my lunch today.

I bought 5 chicken breasts for $15.00. So that was 5 chicken boobs for $3.00 each.

By thinking what I can make with1 breast, it was made into 8 pies. As I have a shocking cold and we had 2 pies each for last nights tea. The other 4 pies I cooked for lunch today and we will eat the 2 left over with tonight's meal.

Hope that all makes sense as my head is all mush with this cold.

Until next time....hoo roo

Bum Nuts & Homemade Bread

For breakfast this morning I had 2 soft boiled eggs and a slice of toast. Nothing is nicer when having soft boiled eggs, than a runny yoke and toast to dunk into that yoke.

Eggs came from my girls and the bread I made myself.

Can't get any simpler than that and what a great way to start off my day

technorati tags: bread,, eggs, food savings

Beating The Supermakets

For people who know me through the forums I live on, my comments on supermarkets is an on going topic. I even like to call them stupidmarkets. So where I can get out of buying food at the 2 top players in this field and support the little man in this cut throat industry......... I will.

The latest find away from the stupidmarkets is cheese.

Each fortnight Pat & I travel by train into the city and visit The Central Markets to buy the foods we have found cheaper than elsewhere.

So lets take a look at our latest find.





From the label you can see its priced by weight and these weights will vary.

For $2.88 we bought 0.322 grams of cheese at $8.95 per kilo.

Comparing the price & weight to the lines carried in the stupidmarkets to the cheese we bought this week.......

I priced cheese not on special as the cheese we bought wasn't on special.

I didn't pick the dearest cheese either when pricing the brands. So the prices from the stupidmarkets are as follows.

• 250 grams........ $4.00
• 500 grams........ $6.50
• 1 kilo......... $10.50

The cheese we bought is as follows.

• 250 grams...... $2.24
• 500 grams..... $4.47
• 1kilo........ $8.95

So you can see, the cheese we bought is much cheaper than the 250 gm cheese in the stupidmarkets.

The cheese we bought is an almost local cheese as its a Mt Gambier cheese.For people overseas, Mt Gambier is south of Adelaide.

With the other items we buy at the markets and the cost of the train ticket and our time, we are out in front. We are also supporting the small business man and keeping the $$$$ at home in Australia.

I hope this gives you an idea that the stupidmarket isn't the be all to end all place from food shopping.

Until next time....hoo roo

technorati tags: cheese, food savings

Garlic Bread

Using garlic from my garden I made a loaf of garlic bread for the first time today. Boy it sure is yummy and the house smelt of garlic bread cooking away in the bread maker. I won't be buying garlic bread down at the shops anymore.




750 gm loaf cooked on a medium crust. Good size shape when sliced.



Then I just sprayed each side with olive oil and toasted it on my cast iron grill. I just ate as it came off the grill, no butter added.

I'll slice the loaf up in thick slices and freeze. Then when needed it can be grilled.

Until next time....hoo roo

technorati tags: bread, garlic

Chinese Beef.

This is an easy meal, really tasty and a bit on the spicy side.




Pound about a kilo of rump steak thin and cut into bite size pieces. Place in a dish and add the marinade. Let this marinade for minimum 2 hours to overnight in the fridge.

Marinade

2 tablespoons soy sauce
salt & pepper
2 teaspoons curry powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons dry sherry
2 tablespoons oil



These capsicums are from my garden and these are cut into pieces along with a large onion.



Pop some oil into a wok and when hot start cooking the meat in small batches. Don't over crowd the wok. Drain on kitchen paper.



Remove any left over oil and add the capsicums, onions & sauce. Cook until the sauce has thickened.

Sauce.

1 tablespoon cornflour
1 & 1/2 cups water
1 beef stock cube
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons dry sherry
1/2 teaspoon sugar.



Serve with rice and enjoy.

technorati tags: capsicums, onions, beef, rice

From My Kitchen

With the temperature dropping from 39 degrees down to 20 it was a great day for the kitchen.

I made a batch of hot cross buns.




Bread rolls to go with our meal tonight. The left overs will be frozen for future meals.



Also a loaf of bread for tomorrow. Nothing like fresh bread toasted for breakfast.

technorati tags: bread

Those Capsicums In Oil

Well I have tried the capsicums in the oil I did the other day.

God, what a yucky taste it was in my mouth. Also the contents in the jar seems to be brewing....

So either ( more that likely) I did it wrong.

Bugger

Back to the drawing board on this subject.

Until next time....hoo roo

technorati tags: food savings, capsicums

Hot Cross Buns

Do you own a bread maker? Have you ever made hot cross buns in your bread maker?



Today is the first time for this Easter season I have made them. Unlike the supermarkets who had them for sale, so close after Christmas. I waited until Lent to start making and eating them.

I can't remember the last time I bought hot cross buns and after eating home made for years, I can't see me starting either.

I haven't worked out the cost of them comparing to the shop ones. There are 16 lovely size buns per mixture when made.

If you haven't tried making your own, give it a try.......

Until next time....hoo roo

technorati tags: sweet buns

Roasting Capsicums.

With the capsicums starting to turn a red colour, today I thought I'd try my hand at roasting 3 of them as a trial run.

If I like what I have done and the taste is good, I'll do some more with the next flush of red coloured capsicums I pick.



I washed and dried the capsicums and placed them on a tray. They were then placed into a oven with the temp set at 200 degrees.



Once they had started to blacken and the skin bubble off the flesh I removed them from the oven.



I then covered the capsicum with some gladwrap and left it to sweat for 10 minutes.



I then set about peeling the skin from the flesh after I had sliced and removed the top and seeds. Capsicum pieces were then popped into a sterile jar, with extra light olive oil and the lid firmly closed.



End result. Maybe I could have used a smaller jar but it was a trial run and now I have more of an idea of what I will be doing next time round.

Not sure how long to leave the jar before I sample the end result. Here's hoping its as yummy as it looks.

Until next time....hoo roo

technorati tags: food saving, capsicums, vegetables

Tomato Sauce

I'm kicking myself as I didn't think to take a photo of all 6 kilo of tomatoes I was given yesterday from a friend. The closest I have come to home grown tomatoes this season, my plants are not producing much fruit. To the stage I have given up on them, so when my friend called, I said thank you and yes to the tomatoes right away.


These few left over tomatoes will be not wasted, into the freezer they will go for use in the winter months.


4.5 kilo of tomatoes, 680 grams of apples and onion won't fit into the largest saucepan I had in the house. So to start off I had to use 2 saucepans.



Once the cooking had reduced the volume size into the biggest pot and away went the cooking.



Just about ready for the ezy-sauce, sugar and salt.



All cooked and ready for the stick mixer to blend to a smooth mixture. If you use a stick mixer, just watch the wrist action...... sauce can splash over the wall near the stove. This will result in rude words and extra cleaning up after the sauce is bottled.




All finished and bottled. The jar at the front is for our friend who gave us the tomatoes. She's not a big sauce eater and said only a small jar would be enough for her.

The recipe can be found here.

technorati tags: food savings, tomato, tomato sauce

Fruit Loaf.

Even though I dedicate this blog to recipes that will use up your garden extras, I also like to show off other food ideas.

I make my own bread with a bread maker and one of the loaves we love is a rich fruit loaf. This loaf was made yesterday afternoon and we are having some for breakfast.



Besides the spices I use, I also add mixed peel, sultanas and glazed cherries. After making our own fruit loaf, bought fruit loaf seems to lack flavour.

Do you own a bread maker? Have you even made your own fruit loaf? A bag of bread flour can make a lot of bread and its a good way of saving money and also you get to pick what goes into that loaf.

technorati tags: bread, food savings