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...]
Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Bubble and Squeak….
Did you know that in the UK every year we waste around 15 million tonnes of food every year? To put that into context, the average British family wastes around £700 a year on food that they're throwing away instead of using it up.We've reduced our food waste massively over the years simply by meal planning, using our freezer more and getting creative with our leftovers as I know lots of you lovely people have done too but there's clearly still a long way for us to go as a nation!That's why Sainsbury's have started their clever 'Waste less, Save more' campaign. They want to help … [Read more...]
My secret to writing our meal plan in half the time it used to take me….
What if I told you that I had a way that would help you half the time it takes you to meal plan every week? I bet that would interest even those of you who don't do meal planning, wouldn't it?Well, you're in luck because I have a new method of meal planning that took me an hour to set up before I started and it's really working for us! I've been trying it out for the last month or so and it's made it so much easier and quicker for me when I'm writing out our weekly meal plan that I thought I'd share it with you today. Your Initial One-Off Meal Planning Session Sit down with a notebook … [Read more...]
Warming split pea and ham soup….
My Nana used to make the BEST split pea and ham soup in the world and almost every time we visited her, there was a bowl of her special soup simmering away on the stove with some delicious dumplings in it, just waiting for me.I must have watched her make it at least a hundred times and I remember all of the ingredients as well as if she were here making it with me today. What I don't know is how much of everything she used to add because she never used her scales to measure out the soup ingredients - it was always a bit of this, some of that and a dash of this. No matter how many times I … [Read more...]
Halloween Pumpkin Peppers….
I'm not normally one for making food look pretty but last week I spotted some lovely looking orange peppers in the reduced section at the shop and as soon as I spotted them, I knew exactly what I was going to make with them - Halloween Pumpkin Peppers!And I don't even care that there's still a month left until Halloween!Halloween pumpkin peppers are so easy to make and they can be prepared in advance of when you want to cook them which makes them even better in my eyes. I made these guys when I was on a late shift at work last week and left them in the fridge for Mr Frugal and the kids … [Read more...]
