Quick Rice Patties

The one expense we have complete and utter control over is groceries. 

We choose how much we spend and what we spend it on. Sometimes we can spend within our budgets, sometimes the budget just isn't enough.

Right now, everyone is searching for cheap, tasty meal ideas. Between shortages, inflation, and rising interest rates, grocery budgets are taking a beating.

This recipe is one my Mum made for us as children. It's one of my very favourite meals, and now my own family loves it too.

Good hot or cold, quick rice patties are tasty and cheap.

I hope you enjoy them as much as we do. 

Quick Rice Patties

Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 cup rice
1 tsp Marmite/Vegemite/Promite
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 egg
good pinch mixed herbs

Method:
Cook the rice in boiling, salted water. Drain well. While the rice is still hot, add the Marmite, peanut butter, onion and herbs and mix well. Stir in the egg. Take tablespoonfuls of the mixture and shape into patties. Fry in shallow oil until lightly brown and golden on both sides. Drain on absorbent paper.

Alternatively, for a low fat version, spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and bake the patties in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes, turning halfway through.

This recipe is a part of the $2 Dinner Recipe File on the Cheapskates Club website.

Back to Basics Make It: How to Make Pancakes

There’s nothing quite like fluffy pancakes from scratch for brunch on a weekend morning or for an afternoon tea treat.  We even have them for lunch when there is no bread. Here’s a recipe to help you whip up some great comfort food for breakfast. These don’t include a lot of sugar because the addition of syrup as a topping adds plenty of sweetness.

Ingredients:

2 cups SR flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
1 ¾ cups milk
¼ cup vegetable oil

This recipe makes approximately 14 pancakes.

Step 1: Preheat Pan or Griddle

Preheat your pan or griddle to medium high heat. If it is not non-stick, add a little butter to keep pancakes from sticking.

Step 2: Mix Dry Ingredients

Add the flour and sugar to a large bowl. Whisk until well combined and lumps are removed. 

Step 3: Mix Wet Ingredients

In a medium bowl, whisk the  eggs, milk and vegetable oil until fully combined.

Step 4: Combine Wet and Dry Ingredients

Add the wet ingredients to the dry.

Whisk until combined, but don’t worry about removing all the lumps as this will cause you to over mix the batter.

Step: 5 Time to Cook

Using a ladle, spoon about ¼ cup of batter per pancake on your pan or griddle.

Your pancakes are ready to flip when they become firm on top and lots of bubbles appear.

Once you’ve flipped your pancakes, they will only take a minute or two to be done. Make sure you don’t over brown them.

Serve the pancakes warm and top with MOO pancake syrup, butter, stewed fruit or whatever suits your fancy.

These pancakes freeze well and are a nice addition to lunchboxes. Butter them and spread with jam or lemon butter and sandwich two together, wrap in clingwrap and freeze. Then just pop one or two into lunchboxes, straight from the freezer. By lunchtime they will be thawed and just right for eating.

My Take on Deconstructed Pavlova

Well we still don't have a working oven. We won't until towards the end of January, but that's OK, so far we're managing.

And I made Christmas cakes in October so we have our fruit cake to enjoy. Joy gifted us some melting moments and afghans (they were SO good), and the no bake slices have kept everyone's sweet tooth happy.

I made one pudding this year. Wayne and I are the only ones who eat it, so it will be enjoyed on Wednesday, then the rest will be frozen for through the year. It always feels a bit special to have Christmas pudding in the middle of winter, with lashings of custard and cream for a treat.

But the kids don't like Christmas pudding. They usually have the custard and ice-cream, and my aunty always makes the most magnificent pavlovas.

Exept this year. They're away with their kids (my cousins in Vancouver), so the pav falls to me. 'Cept we don't have a working oven.

And then I saw a post on FB about deconstructed pavs and thought "wow!, I can do that".

Aldi kindly supplied me two packets of mini pavlovas for the grand sum of $4.99 each. I'll whip the cream. Slice some strawberries. Drain some of the mixe berries in the freezer. Grate a Crunchie bar (they're on sale at Coles for $1 this week). Slice some kiwi fruit. Thaw some of the passionfruit in the freezer and dump it in a little dish.

And to present it all I'll use my white china, sectioned dish for the toppings, with the cream piled in the centre, everything else around, and put all those mini cheeseboards I scored last Boxing Day for 50c a set to use by putting a mini doyley in the centre and placing one of the mini pavs on it.

I've even cleaned Mum's silver cake forks to use.

Then they can all make their own pavs to their hearts' delight and Christmas Day dessert is done!

Microwave Jam Making

We've been away for a week, and although we weren't due home until tomorrow, circumstances made it so we came home early.

Thank goodness! I am convinced it was my guardian angel that gently steered us home a couple of days early because there was an almost disaster waiting for me.

On Wednesday we had some electrical work done, and the electrician unplugged the big freezer, and then he obviously forgot to plug it in again. I'm grateful that the kids didn't need to go into it, it stayed closed until Saturday morning when Hannah opened it to get bread out for me.

And promptly yelled that the freezer wasn't working.

Those are words that strike fear into my heart.

Anyway, only the top two layers were partially thawed. That meant I spent time cooking up a storm and then packaging meals to freeze, but I'm not upset. Having ready-to-heat meals in the freezer is my idea of bliss, especially coming into the heat of summer.

But all my packages of berries had thawed - around 5 kilos of fruit.

So I put them in the fridge until this afternoon, when I spent a couple of hours making jam. Now there is strawberry jam and raspberry jam and blackberry jam, enough for the hampers and hopefully most of next year, done and cooling on the bench.

Jam making isn't hard, you just need to be careful because melted sugar burns!

My basic jam recipe is simple: equal quantities of fruit and sugar, and the juice of a lemon. Put it in a pot, bring it to a boil, stir until the sugar has dissolved, then let it boil (remember to stir it so it doesn't stick and burn) until it sets. This takes between 20 - 40 minutes, depending on how much fruit and sugar you are cooking and the fruit. I start testing for setting point at 20 minutes, then test every five minutes until some of the jam on a cold spoon forms a skin and doesn't run straight off the spoon. It will thicken and set as it cools.

I prefer to have it just a little runnier than overdone. If you do overcook it, don't worry. It will still taste good, just be a little more like a fruit paste than a jam. If the jam is a little runny when it cools you can recook it, or just use it as a sauce over pancakes or waffles or drizzled over a sponge cake or muffins. Or add it to milk to make ice blocks. It's still good.

Today though I was busy doing other things as well so I chose the microwave method of jam making.

Again, equal quantities of fruit and sugar and the juice of a lemon, into a big, microwave safe, bowl. I use a 3 litre Pyrex bowl. Cook on HIGH for 10 minutes. Stir. Cook on HIGH another 10 minutes. Stir and start your testing for setting point. Continue to cook on HIGH in 5 minute bursts, stirring and testing, until setting point is reached. You can pretty much eyeball it by looking at the bowl as it cooks. If the jam is frothing up and looks like it will overflow, it's probably ready.

To dissolve the froth on top of the jam you can either skim it off with a strainer, or add a teaspoon (no more) of butter and stir into it.

Now you've made your jam you'll need jars. You can reuse jam jars you have recycled, no need to buy new jars. Just make sure they are clean and the lids are intact and clean. Although, you don't really need a lid. Not so very long ago, jam was covered with clear covers, dampened and stretched over the top of the jar, then tied off with string or a rubber band. You can still get them at the supermarket - they're not expensive, Coles sell Folwers Vacola Kleerview Jam Covers for $1.60/pack 24 (7c each).  I do suggest that for jams, you use only lids that have originally come from jam jars. The rubber seal around the lids can hold the scent or flavour from what it covered, so if it was a pickle lid, you could end up with strawberry pickle flavoured jam!

While the jam is cooking I have the jars in the oven sterilising and keeping warm. Only every add hot jam to hot jars - hot jam in cold jars could cause a very nasty explosion. As soon as they are filled, I wipe around the rims with a wet cloth and put the lids on. Then let them cool. As they cool you will hear the lids seal - there is a very distinctive "pop" as the seal is formed. Let them cool completely then they are ready to store in the pantry.

I listen with bated breath for that "pop" and then grin when I hear it - that is a sound that really makes my heart happy!

Happiness Homemade

Last weekend Australian Butcher Store had regular mince for $3.99/kg. Now this is the cheapest it has been for years, so of course I thought about it, checked the slush fund and the meat fund and toodled off armed with cooler bags, Hannah and Thomas (they do the heavy lifting for me ). Twenty minutes and $109 later we left with beef ribs, mince and chicken filets (they were down to $5.99/kg), enough meat to make 58 meals. That brings them down to well under my $5 per meal meat price, averaging just $1.87 per meal.

Now, before you cringe and think we're not eating enough meat, you need to know what meals I made with what I had, and understand how the meat component was stretched for each meal. Protein comes from the meat (obviously) but also from the ingredients used as "stretchers".

I made pasta sauce, taco sauce, hamburgers, porcupines and meatballs from the mince.

I made pie filling, enchilada filling, chicken schnitzels, apricot chicken, satay chicken and curried chicken.

Adding extra veggies, baked beans, black beans, oats, rice or TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein - from health food stores), depending on what I made, stretched the recipes, giving extra meals.

The ribs were given a dry rub and put into the fridge overnight, then on Monday morning they went into the slow cooker with barbecue sauce and cooked on low for nine hours (it was meant to be eight hours, but I was busy!). They went under the grill for a few minutes to caramelise the sauce, then into the fridge to cool. I packed and sealed them on Tuesday morning, before putting them into the freezer.

Annabel over at The Bluebirds are Nesting wrote earlier this year about using our "handmaidens" to their full potential. Well, on Sunday afternoon my handmaidens, or rather my pressure cooker, slow cooker, food processer, vacuum sealer and electric frying pan all had a good workout.

Everyone pitched in with peeling veggies, chopping chicken, making bags for the vacuum sealer and cleaning up, so all the cooking was done in just a couple of hours. Making use of the appliances in the kitchen, getting all these meals prepared was a breeze. Some of these appliances may not be used every week, but they are used regularly and turn big jobs into manageable tasks.

Cleaning up was a breeze; I make it a habit to clean as I go, so the sink is always full of hot soapy water for washing up, bread boards, knives and benches are cleaned between each step, rubbish is taken out as soon as the bin is full (rubbish to the bin, veggie peelings etc. to the compost). This means that as soon as the last bag goes into the freezer, the cooking session is over and I can relax, no messy kitchen to clean up.

Everything was portioned into meal sizes, including meals for just two and three for while we're away, and then neatly stacked in the freezers.

Bulk cooking is a fabulous way to fill the freezer with ready-made meals so you don't need to cook every night. You don’t need to have a marathon cooking session like I did on Sunday, simply double whatever you're cooking tonight and put half in the freezer for later. Do this every night this week and you have seven ready-to-eat dinners in the freezer. Do it for a month and you can skip a month of cooking!

All you need to prepare are the sides - veggies or salad, and these can be done while the meal is heating. Dinner can be done in under 30 minutes - who needs take-away when it's this easy to eat homemade?

Be A Collector of Skills

"Be a collector of skills" was a phrase I read recently on a blog I follow (Frugal Measures) and it has stuck in my mind.

As a Cheapskate, my focus is often on saving money, and the many, many ways I can do that without compromising our lifestyle. After all, that's what started me on this journey: the need when disaster struck to stretch our dollars till they screeched so we could maintain our standard of living.

I had to learn to do so many things that were completely foreign to me. I had to develop hobbies I had into full-blown, usable, practical skills, then use those skills to feed us, clothe us, keep us dressed, give us presents and holidays and so much more.

Looking back, I became a collector of skills.

And I'm still collecting skills.

Some of the skills I've collected include:
Knitting
Sewing
Embroidery
Darning
Cross-stitch
Tapestry
Quilting
Patchwork
Dressmaking
Pattern making
How to sew on a button
How to take up hems
How to put in a zip
How to work buttonholes by hand
How to work buttonholes by machine
Using an overlocker
Making patterns from ready-made items
Paper making
Card making
Scrapbooking
Photography
Hair cutting
Gardening
Seed Saving
Pruning fruit trees
Sharpening shears, knives and axes
Firewood collecting (yes, it's a skill - not all wood is good firewood!)
Bottling/canning
Freezing
Jam making
Sauce making
Pickling
Smoking meats
Bread making
Soup making
Making yoghurt
Vinegar making
Dehydrating
Fruit growing
Composting
Car repairs
Tyre changing
Oil changing
Fuse changing
Soap making
Lotion making
Using essential oils and herbs to make medicines
Cooking over an open fire
Making washing powder
Making laundry soaker
Making window cleaner
Making all-purpose cleaner
Using a haybox cooker
Knowing how to use the chainsaw safely
Knowing how to winch safely
Knowing how to drive in low range in all types of country and weather

Some of the skills I'm working on include:
Making sourdough starter
Pressure canning
Making wicking beds for the garden
Knitting socks

Disaster struck, and at the time it was an absolute disaster.

Almost 25 years on, I can look back and see what a blessing it was (could've done without the "disaster" disguise), and how it has enabled me to care for my family and my home, and extended family, over the years on a sometimes almost miniscule budget, without compromising lifestyle.

The skills picked up over the years have saved us money, time and energy, and formed a collection I am proud to own.

Don't Stress about Christmas Dinner

It's just one meal, on one day of the year.

Christmas Dinner is just one meal during the year and yet if we let it, this one meal can cost
us the equivalent of a week's grocery budget.

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and I love Christmas Day and having the whole family together, and I love Christmas dinner. I just don't think it has to be hideously expensive and that includes Christmas Dinner.

Having strong English and Scottish roots, we enjoy a traditional hot roast for Christmas dinner – despite the fact that it can be a blazing 40 degrees!

I've done the sums and walked the supermarkets to check the prices and this year our Christmas dinner will come in at under $50 again, including some treats and nibblies.

We'll be having Golden Roast Chicken with gravy, glazed ham, Potato Bake, honey carrots and peas and corn. I bought the chickens last month when they were on sale for $2.99/kg and put them in the freezer.

For dessert we'll have Ice Cream Christmas Pudding (my own easy version), steamed Christmas pudding (my mother's recipe), custard and cream. My Aunty Hazel always brings the pav. She makes the most amazing pavlovas, and decorates them so beautifully, it's almost a shame to cut into them. I can almost hear our arteries hardening.

We'll have bowls of lollies and of course our traditional scorched almonds (bought a couple of months ago on half-price sale at Coles) on the table. And I'll make a couple of dips to have with carrot and celery sticks and Shapes – Barbecue, Cheese and Savoury. Shapes are a Christmas tradition for us, so when they're on half-price close to Christmas, I buy them and put them away.

Of course for afternoon tea, which we include as a part of our Christmas Dinner, we'll have cake and Royal Puddings. It's just not Christmas without Royal Puddings. I've already begun searching for spearmint leaves. Since Allens's stopped making them, they've been hard to find. Last year I found then in a $2 shop, here's hoping I find them there again.

If you're thinking that our Christmas Dinner is just a standard roast and dessert – you're right! It is. 

What makes it special is the way we set the table and the way we serve it, and of course by sharing it with family and friends.

I use my best dishes and linen, including my favourite tablecloth and real linen napkins, to set the table, decorating it with a small musical Christmas tree centrepiece, bonbons and candles. Everyone gets a crystal wine glass, including the littlies. They love it, and not one glass has been broken in all the years we've hosted Christmas dinner. 

We're eating with people we like, the table looks lovely, we have food we all like and best of all we've spent less than Christmas dinner for one at a restaurant. 

With the menu being so simple, and familiar, there's no stress. All the ingredients are regulars on the shopping list, and things that I make often. 

This one meal, on this one day of the year, will be special. It will be extravagant. It will be delicious. And it will be stress free.

If Christmas dinner is already stressing you out, remember it's just one meal, on one day of the year. And plan accordingly.

Yes, you want it to be nice. 

You want it to be special.

But this one meal, on this one day of the year, shouldn't put you into a nervous collapse. And it shouldn't break your grocery budget either. 

Think about where you're going to be eating that meal. Will you be at home? Will you be at another home? Will you be travelling or camping or going for a picnic at the beach? 

Then think about who'll be eating that meal. Just your immediate family? Extended family and friends? Older folk or lots of children and babies?

Next, what would you like to have for Christmas dinner? Turkey and roast veggies may be traditonal, but you can make your own tradition and have something else. We always have a roast for Christmas dinner, but we don't like turkey, so it's chicken, potaotes, sweet potato, onion, cauliflower in cheese sauce, beans and peas. And gravy (you've gotta have lots of gravy). For dessert we have Christmas pudding, custard, ice-cream and pavlova. 

Think about these things, because they are the things that will decide your Christmas dinner for you.

It's Time for a Pantry Challenge

November may seem like a strange time for a pantry challenge, but I think it's the perfect time.

For most of us, we need to make room in the pantry, fridge and freezer for the Christmas and New Year grocery shopping. I need to make sure there's room for the yearly stockpile shopping, as well as the extra Christmas goodies.

I've already started the stockpile shopping, trying to get a head start, and I have a few non-perishable Christmas goodies stashed in my wardrobe. I still need to make room though.

The meal plan for November is done and on the fridge, so I'll do my best to stick to it. If there's something we don't have, I'll hunt around for a substitute.

This week is baking and cooking week - or the planning thereof - if you're following the Own Your Christmas Countdown.

 I still need to make the puddings. This is something I always did with Mum, but she's no longer able to help with this family tradition, so Hannah has taken my place and I've become the teacher of the cake and pudding making for the family.

The baking list is long, it always is at this time of year:
Christmas cakes - large
Christmas cakes - small
Christmas puddings - two
Shortbread
Fruit mince pies
Fudge
Christmas Snickerdoodles
Cranberry Hootycreeks
Lemon Cheesecake - two

With all the baking and cooking to be done, we need room in the pantry for the ingredients and the fridge and freezer for the finished products.

And that's why I've given myself a pantry challenge.

Are you going to join me? Do you need room for all the Christmas food? Have you thought about the money you'll save by using up what you have (I have - it's going straight to the holiday fund for our trip next year!)? Have you started your Christmas baking? Have you finished your Christmas baking?

Fluffy Rice - Perfect for Frying

For plump, fluffy, clump-free  rice every time simply rinse the dry rice before cooking.  I worked with a lovely Chinese lady way before I was married (turned out her husband was one of my Year 12 teachers), and she used to give us single girls cooking lessons at lunchtime. This is how she taught me to prepare rice, and its never failed me. So thank you Mrs. Wong!

Rinsing takes the starch off the grains. Place the rice in a bowl of cool water and swirl around with a fork or your hand (make sure you wash first) until the starch makes the water cloudy. Drain and repeat until the water stays clear. Then cook as usual. The grains of rice will be perfectly fluffed and separate.  Excess cooked rice can be frozen for the future.

I cook rice in the microwave. It isn't any faster than on the stove, but it doesn't boil over and the pot is easy to clean. I simply measure one cup of rice to two cups of stock or water, add just a splash of oil and microwave on HIGH for 15 minutes.

The result is perfectly cooked rice. I fork it over as soon as it's cooked, and if it's to be used for fried rice it goes into the fridge overnight.

Easy!

After the grocery shopping yesterday (fruit and veg from Pellegrino's) Hannah asked for fried rice for lunches. That's why I was cooking rice, and what prompted me to share the how to and my recipe, or at least how I make fried rice.

I start with diced onion, sliced spring onion and sliced celery and some frozen peas, carrots and corn. They are sauteed in a pan with a little hot vegetable oil, until clear. Put them aside and cook 2 or 3 beaten eggs. Either cut it into strips when done (if you're being fancy) or shred with a fork.  Add the veggies back to the pan, along with some diced, cooke chicken. Now I season. I add ginger and garlic to taste and stir through the veg. Stir the rice through in stagesd, just so it all combines neatly. Heat through, watching so the rice doesn't stick to the pan. Just before serving sprinkle with a little soy sauce and stir.

If we have mushrooms, I'll add them. We don't often have bean shoots, but when we do I add them with the veggies. Sometimes we don't have chicken, so it's a vegetarian fried rice.

It's flexible and everyone likes it. It makes great lunches. It goes well as a side to grilled meat or chicke. It goes with stir-fries.

It's not at all authentic, but I never meant it to be. This was a made-up on the go recipe I created when money was tight and ingredients were few and basic. It's stood the test of time, still one of my most made recipes.

White Chocolate Lemon Shortbread Bars

This is today's recipe from the Cheapskates Club. Hannah and I made it on Sunday for Father's Day afternoon tea and it disappeared in quick time. We all loved it, and it will go into my recipe book as a keeper.

I used lemon juice and zest from the freezer, and white choc melts bought earlier in the year on half-price sale, which helped to keep the cost down.

Author: Cath Armstrong

White Chocolate Lemon Shortbread

ingredients:

• 3 cups plain flour
• 1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar, divided
• 2 tbsp grated lemon zest
• 375g butter, softened, cut up
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 90g white chocolate

instructions:

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line two lamington trays with baking paper. Whisk flour, 1 cup of the sugar and lemon zest in large bowl.
2. With pastry blender, butter knife or the tines of a fork, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in lemon juice and vanilla. Divide dough in half, and press dough into prepared pans; sprinkle the top of each pan with 1 tablespoon sugar. Mark into fingers with a butter knife.
3. Bake 20 - 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack.
4. Meanwhile, place chocolate in microwave-safe bowl. Microwave until melted, stirring every 30 seconds until is melted and smooth. Drizzle over bars.

Making Meals Cheaper - One Pan Dinners

French Shepherd's Pie

When time is poor and the budget is tight, my go to dinners are simple one-pan meals. I love them.

Almost a whole meal is done in one pan - only one pan to wash! That really makes me smile. Only one burner on the stove = less gas used, a slightly cheaper bill and that make me smile too. Or just the slow cooker or pressure cooker is used - both of them pretty much set and forget cooking and I smile when I use these "handmaidens" because they free me up to do other things.

But what I really like about one pan dinners is that they make meals cheaper.

One pan dinners often use very little meat. Think Tuna Surprise is another budget winner, coming in at around 60 cents per serve (depending on which tuna you buy and whether you MOO the cream of chicken soup or buy a tin). It's simply a tin of tuna, a tin of cream of chicken soup (or the equivalent of MOO Cream of Chicken Soup), 3 cups of cooked rice or macaroni and then whatever leftover or sad veggies you have. I often add frozen peas and corn, grated carrot, diced onion, sliced celery, shredded silverbeet or spinach, and grated zucchini depending on what is lurking in the fridge or freezer. To keep the cost down, instead of grated cheese, the top is sprinkled with MOO breadcrumbs that have been mixed in a little melted butter. This is delicious with salad, hot or cold and it freezes and thaws well.

Tonight we're having French Shepherd's Pie for dinner. Yes, I've rearranged the meal plan yet again - it's not set in concrete. After a club dinner at the weekend we were gifted the leftover roast lamb, roast beef and roast chicken, as well as peas, corn, carrots and a big tub of gravy. There was enough for at least five meals for us, and that's an enormous blessing.

It was all immediately packaged into meal portions and put into the freezer, but when Hannah realised there was some lamb, she requested French Shepherd's Pie.

French Shepherd's Pie uses as little as 200g of leftover roast meat, some mashed potato and a few herbs and can easily feed six people for under $3 - that's just 50 cents a serve and a definite budget winner. And tonight's dinner will cost under $2, with leftovers for tomorrow's lunch.

I love one pan dinners, especially when they're almost free. Even when they're not, they save so much time and energy I try to have at least one on the meal plan each week.

Yield: 6Author: Cath Armstrong

French Shepherd's Pie

This dish uses the scraps of lamb left from a roast. You don't need a lot of meat to make a hearty dinner, full of flavour, that everyone will love.

ingredients:

• Leftover roast lamb or beef, about 200g OR
  200g mince
• 1 large onion, grated
• 1/2 tsp mixed herbs
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 4 large potatoes, peeled and boiled
• 1 beaten egg
• Olive oil for frying

instructions:

1. Oil a lasagne dish well. Cut lamb or beef into 1cm cubes or brown and drain mince. 
2. In a large fry pan heat a little olive oil and fry onion until transparent. Add garlic and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
3. Add meat and herbs, mix to combine.
4. Mash potatoes and stir through the meat mixture. 
5. Pat the potato mixture into the lasagne dish. Run a fork over the top of the potato to rough up. Brush with beaten egg.
6. Cook in a moderate oven for 25 - 30 minutes until heated through and top is golden brown. Serve warm.

Created using The Recipes Generator

Cath's Meal Plan

Next week we will be eating:

Sunday: Roast Beef

Monday: Mock chicken roast, baked veg

Tuesday: Refrigerator lasagne, salad, garlic bread

Wednesday: Stuffed chicken legs, baked veg

Thursday: MOO Pizza

Friday: Fish & Chips, coleslaw

Saturday: Hamburgers

Refrigerator Lasagne

Ingredients:
500g mince
2 tins baked beans
250g grated mozzarella
250g grated tasty cheese
250g cottage cheese
2 tins tomato soup
1 tin diced tomatoes
1 large onion, diced
1 tsp dried basil
1 clove garlic, crushed
Lasagne noodles

Method:
Brown meat, garlic, basil and onions; drain. Whizz baked beans until they resemble the mince. Combine baked beans, meat, tomato soup, diced tomatoes and simmer. Use 9"x13" cake pan. Pour just enough sauce to cover bottom of pan. Layer raw (uncooked) noodles, sauce, half mozzarella, half tasty cheese and cottage cheese until all used up. Cover with foil. Refrigerate overnight. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 1 hour. Can be frozen after overnight refrigeration.

Cath's Meal Plan

Fried Rice - a truly frugal Cheapskates style meal

Next week we will be eating:

Sunday: Roast Chicken

Monday: Curried tuna rice slice, tossed salad

Tuesday: Veggie pasta bake, salad, garlic bread

Wednesday: Wellington loaf, baked veg, gravy

Thursday: MOO Pizza

Friday: Fried rice, satay vegetables

Saturday: Fried rice, rice paper rolls, dipping sauces

WHAT WE SPENT, WHAT WE DIDN'T SPEND AND WHAT WE SAVED WEEK 25

We arrived home on Friday evening, and it's been all go ever since.

Sunset in Weipa - just gorgeous, I could've happily stayed for a month

Why is it that coming home is more work than packing to go away? It's mostly done now, thank goodness, so I can stop whining and get on with the fun stuff coming up this week.

Unpacking, checking the pantry, fridge and freezer and making a shopping list, then doing the shopping (Hannah came along to help - it was quite a large shop after seven weeks), unpacking and putting things away.

The washing machine went almost non-stop this morning. I washed the linens and all our clothes from our trip. Even though they were washed regularly while we were away, they smelled musty - I think from the humidity, they never felt completely dry unless I paid the $4 -  $6 to put them through a dryer. Over the clotheshorses by the fire they went - they'll dry overnight, ready to be put away tomorrow.

All the dishes have been washed, dried and repacked, ready for our next trip.

Family sized chocolate cake - I use my Corningware baking dish to bake these extra large cakes

While we were shopping I stocked up on whole, fresh chickens from Aldi. They are currently $3/kg - great price for stocking up. Savings (overall).

I picked mandarins from our tree for this week's fruit -they were green when we left, now they're just right for picking (and eating).

I saved the egg shells from this afternoon's baking and when they are dry I'll crush them to use as snail repellent in the garden.

Wayne lit the fire almost as soon as we walked through the door, and I turned the ducted heating down. Then we burnt timber off-cuts we were given, saving the seasoned firewood for later.

Bought oranges for 29c/kg and made whole orange cakes and whizzed then froze some for future orange cakes.

After being away for so long, there wasn't much in the freezer so Hannah and I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen and we made:

• A big pot of soup
• 2 large quiches and 3 dozen small quiche
• 1 batch M&M cookies
• 1 batch Mars cookies
• 1 Family Chocolate Cake
• 10 serves of pasta bake (enough for two meals for us)
• 1 loaf banana bread
• 1 finger bun cake (my adaptation of an Adrian Zumbo mix)
• 2 dozen Whole Orange cupcakes

I activated another 10c/litre off offer from Flybuys to fill up my car. Combined with a 4c off voucher that will bring the price down enough to fill up - saving $8.40 which has been moved to our holiday fuel account.

What did you do to save money, time and energy this week?

Remember, money isn't saved until it is safely in the bank. Until then it is just not spent - hence my "what we didn't spend" list and making sure I move money from the relevant categories into our
savings accounts.

Cath's Meal Plan Week 26

Next week we will be eating:

Sunday: Roast Lamb

Monday: Baked Honey Mustard Chicken, vegetables

Tuesday: Spaghetti  Bolognese, garlic bread

Wednesday: Sweet lamb curry & rice

Thursday: MOO Pizza

Friday: Sweet & Sour vegetables & Singapore noodles

Saturday: Haystacks

Yield: 6 Author: Cath Print Recipe

Baked Honey Chicken

Quick and easy, and cheaper than using a jar, this is a delicious way to use chicken.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup Dijon style mustard*
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 4 chicken breast fillets, skin off**

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
2. Line a baking dish with foil.
3. Whisk together the honey, mustard and basil in a small mixing bowl.
4. Place the chicken fillets into the baking dish.   Pour the sauce over the top to evenly cover the chicken.
5. Bake 30 minutes or until the chicken juices run clear when the chicken is poked with a fork.
6. Serve over steamed rice or steamed vegetables.

Notes:

*We prefer wholegrain mustard so I substitute it for Dijon. I buy the Aldi wholegrain mustard.
**To make chicken fillets go further, I often dice them. Two large chicken breast fillets, diced, will give six serves - five for dinner and one for the freezer - for my family.
If I don't have chicken fillets, I use drumsticks or maryland pieces.
If it is too hot to use the oven, cook the chicken fillets on the barbecue - they're just as tasty and the kitchen won't heat up.

Meal Plan, Week 25 2018

Apricot chicken with steamed rice

Next week we will be eating:

Sunday: Roast Chicken

Monday: Apricot chicken

Tuesday: Crockpot Lasagne

Wednesday: Grilled fish, wedges, tossed salad

Thursday: MOO Pizza

Friday: Salmon fritters, potato wedges, salad

Yield: 6Author: Cath

Apricot Chicken

Quick, easy and cheap - perfect for a tight grocery budget.

ingredients:

• 2 chicken breast fillets, skin off and diced (about 500g)
  
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 pkt French onion soup
• 410g can apricot nectar

instructions:

1. Melt the butter and then brown the chicken well on all sides
2. Mix the French onion soup with the apricot nectar.
3. Pour over the chicken, lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.
   
4. Serve over Savoury Rice
   

NOTES:

You can make this dish cheaper by using generic French onion soup - I use Coles brand, which I buy in bulk at the beginning of each year when I do my Once-a-Year grocery shop.

Watch the price of chicken and if thigh fillets are cheaper, replace the breast fillets with 500g thigh fillets.

Cost: $1.20 per serve

Created using The Recipes Generator

Baked Rice Custard

 Don't you just love this old enamel dish? Aunty Elaine gave it to me before we were married, and I love it (and her!) to bits. It gets used all year round in my kitchen.

Who's old enough to remember the Women's Weekly Cookery Club? The one where you sent away and they sent you a box, with dividers, then each month a new set of recipe cards would arrive in the mail? I think it was the precursor to the Women's Weekly cookbooks, and as soon as I started working I subscribed and collected those recipe cards in the neat off-white box.

I still have them and I still use them, quite often. They're over 30 years old now, and quite tattered. But those favourite recipes are much loved and guarded. One of them is the Baked Rice Custard. It was something my mother made weekly during winter as we were growing up, and we'd have it with ice-cream or a drizzle of cream when it was hot, then the next night it would be with hot custard over the top.

My brother and I would beg to be allowed to have the "skin" off the top. Mum sprinkled it with nutmeg and sugar and it was so good - worth fighting with a brother over!

Then, when we were first married I would make creamed rice or baked rice custard every week, it was one of Wayne's desserts. These days they are a treat, we don't eat dessert very often. But back then he had dessert every night, without fail. Both puddings are a great way to use up milk that is about to go off or excess milk if you have it.

Here's my easy recipe for baked rice custard - it's good hot or cold!

Baked Rice Custard

Ingredients:
1/4 cup rice
2 cups boiling water
3 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2-1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup sultanas

Method:
Cook the rice in the boiling water, about 10 minutes. Drain well. Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla, add rice and sultanas and stir to combine. Add milk and stir again. making sure rice and sultanas are evenly distributed. Pour into a shallow oven-proof dish. Stand in a baking dish and fill with water to about halfway up the side of the pudding dish. Bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes, reduce the heat to moderately slow and continue to cook for a further 30 - 40 minutes or until custard has set.

Depending on appetites and generosity when serving, this will give you 6 - 8 serves. It keeps for up to three days covered in the fridge too. I use a 1 litre enamel pie dish to make this pudding, just make sure to butter it well so the rice and custard don't stick to the bottom and sides.

Meal Plan Week 18, 2018

Next week we will be eating:

Sunday: Roast Lamb

Monday: Sweet Lamb Curry, rice, pappadums

Tuesday: Chilli Pasta Bake

Wednesday: Meatloaf, vegetables, gravy

Thursday: MOO Pizza

Friday: Crumbed sausages, vegetables

Saturday: Enchiladas