Remoska "Aunt Bessie" style roast spuds

We normally buy our potatoes in 10kg bags and they last for a long time but on checking yesterday I found that the potatoes at the bottom of the bag were way past their best, must be the heat! So I peeled and par boiled them and chucked them into the remoska with some olive oil, sea salt and some rosemary and left them to cook for about 30 minutes. The remoska uses about 20% of the elctricity the oven would and the results so far have been lovely. We had enough for our dinner and the rest were packed into a ziplock and frozen for another day.

Today has been a catch up day, the weather has been lovely and all the washing has dried, is ironed and in the airing cupboard. Tonight we will be using the first of the pasta sauces in a pasta bake with a garden salad so very easy and cheap! Another no spend day so that makes 2/10

More Car Boot Bounty!

More spending yes! but bargains galore! I needed some flower pots, I often give plants as presents and like to put them in nice pots, our spider plants are reproducing so it became a need!

the lovely green set of 3 plant pots cost £1.50, the white pot 50p and the little red one was added in as a bonus! The large cream pot was 50p.

I had been looking for pie dishes and pots for the Remoska and got the 4 metal pie dishes for 30p total! The little casserole (an exact replica of my favourite family sized casserole) was only 20p. The large tupperware rectangle was £1 and the small tupperware round was 10p, the round floral metal dish with a lid was 50p - all for organising my fridges. 2 silver storage jars for 10p each, an Antony Worrall Thompson "Appetite for Life" flora cookbook for 10p (from the 10p box), 2 bouncing balls 50p (for the puppy) and a soft toy 10p (can't show you that as she has destroyed it! took 5 mins) completed the bargains.

Total £6.70 - £2 from a charity stall so that leaves £26 in the charity budget.

Also spent £7 in aldi on some food essentials.

I have to be very good now and keep my purse tightly closed!

Remoska flapjacks

Remoska Flapjacks

Ingredients:-

6 oz/175g butter or margarine (I used "pure" soya spread)
1 tablespoon golden syrup
5 oz/125g demerara sugar
8 oz/225g porridge oats
pinch of salt

Method:-

Line the base with a disc of magic non stick liner (I used a lakeland loaf tin re-usable liner)

Melt the butter, syrup and sugar together in a large saucepan, stir well, add the porridge oats and salt and mix thoroughly.

Put the mixture into the remoska and pat down with the back of a wooden spoon. Replace the lid, switch on and cook for 20 mins until the mix is golden brown. (I cooked the mix for 25 mins as I like the top to be crisp)

Switch off, remove the lid (carefully, it gets very hot) Using a plastic spatula (I used lakeland plastic lettuce knife) score into 12 pieces (I greedily did 8)

Leave to cool in the pan before turning out ( very important this as I tried to do this too early and they started to crumble)

Result - lovely and chewy just like the ones you buy in the shops. Fuel costs about 3p against about 20p in the electric oven.

20 days of changes!

It's been 20 days since I started this blog and what have I changed?

Well for starters I put myself on a reduced grocery budget (£150 for the month) and lived out of the cupboards and freezers. We had some interesting meals this way but at the end of the month we had enough money for me to make a bulk order (£47) on some organic beans and pulses and some oats and soya mince (all regular standbys apart from the chickpeas - have to get used to using these!) I should have enough to last a few months anyway. With the residue of what I would normally have spent I bought a Remoska which should save me 80% electricity over using the electric oven. I cooked up a (happy meat) roast chicken in it last night and it was lovely and moist, will definately do that again.

We have also added another vegetable bed and planted up some runner beans, courgettes and spinach. The digging goes on though as more beds are planned. The greenhouse is full of tomato plants with a promising amount of fruit already and Mr C has planted up some pepper plants. We are very much beginners in this field though and have much to learn.

We are using the library more and the only books I have bought were the bargain bags from the church fete which included one treasure - a 1964 edition of Good Housekeeping Look and Cook which includes the GH childrens cook book that Mum used to teach me to cook! Mainly rock cakes, flapjacks and jammy buns! Ah good memories are priceless!

I have started to knit again, easy stuff so far - dishcloths using cotton yarn from our market and charity shops, so useful and cheap. I have yet to dust off the sewing machine, that is next on the list.

Entertainment is now a 50p or less film on video (they are so cheap now) from the charity shops or boot sales, there are so many films out there that I haven't seen so this will keep us going for a while and much cheaper than renting dvd's. Barbecues in the back garden with family and friends are top of our list at this time of year and hopefully we will soon be able to provide home grown salads.

The main thing I have learned is to stay away from the shops as much as possible and to avoid shopping as a sport/hobby, I now look at what I have and make do!