A couple of week's ago we went bowling to a place called TenPin in York and treated ourselves to a cheeky burger and fries while we were there. I had a spicy bean burger and it was honestly the nicest burger I've had in a long time!I've been trying to recreate the recipe but I couldn't pin down the various different tastes and I can't find any info online so my version is very different to the one I was originally trying to recreate. It's still a lovely spicy bean burger though so I thought I'd share it with you....Perfect spicy bean burger recipe…. 300 g potato … [Read more...]
How to make homemade chicken stock in your slow cooker….
A few weeks ago, I made homemade chicken stock in my slow cooker for the first time in a very long time.It's not hard to make and the results are amazing, taking your food to the next level, so I'm not sure why or when I stopped making it on a more regular basis but now that I've made in again and realised how much better food tastes with real chicken stock in then I'm pretty sure I'll be making it again... and again...When I cook a chicken for Sunday Lunch I like to stretch the roast as far as I can which is harder than it looks when you have a family of four and the older the kids, … [Read more...]
Frugal French Dip Sandwiches….
One of the reasons I love my slow cooker is the ability it gives me to buy a cheaper cut of meat and still turn it into a delicious meal.Brisket, for example, is much cheaper to buy than a joint of beef but after being cooked in the slow cooker for the day it tastes melt in your mouth gorgeous. You'd never guess from tasting it that it's a cheap cut of meat but it costs a good few pounds less than a more expensive beef joint of the same weight. We often buy it on offer in our local Supermarket who sell it even cheaper than usual once every month or so which makes it even better … [Read more...]
Spiced root vegetable soup – just what you need to warm you up….
I love, love, love soup and this spiced root vegetable soup is just perfect on days like today (and any other kind of day for that matter).I got my soup maker a year ago now and I can honestly say that what my husband thought was going to be one of those gadgets that gather dust has turned out to be my most used thing in the kitchen!I've tried all sorts of soup recipes with varying degrees of success (FYI - Broccoli in a soup is not the way to go) and my favourite ones are the kind of soups that have a slight kick to them to warm your tummy when it's cold out.For a long time, my … [Read more...]
Leftovers Wellington….
We don't watch much TV in our house but one thing we do love to watch is the US TV show, Hell's Kitchen which is a reality show where about 20 budding chefs compete for a job working with Gordon Ramsay. It's not everyone's cup of tea I know but it's one show that both kids like watching with us and the latest season which we've just finished watching on catch up has really inspired Master Frugal to get in the kitchen and cook.One thing the chefs regularly serve is delicious looking beef wellington which always looks amazing but considering I'm trying to focus on reducing our food budget I … [Read more...]
My secret to an organised freezer….
This post is probably going to make me sound more than a little obsessed with freezer organisation but I'm not that bad, honestly. I just think that if you have an organised freezer then life is easier. ;-)I'm lucky enough to have three freezers - one as part of my fridge freezer, one under the counter freezer that we bought last year and one that we've just been given that lives in our garage. The one in the garage is pretty big and has a LOT of space over 5 biggish drawers and I was probably more excited than I should have been when it arrived a couple of weeks ago.I try to be quite … [Read more...]
