Friday's fridge...

It's a lean scene in the fridge this Friday!

There's leftover pasta, bacon, cheese, eggs, cream, yoghurt, sourdough starter, assorted spreads, carrots & some greenery!

Hmmm..... tonight the leftover pasta, tomorrow night Impossible Pie, Sunday Roast Chicken (chicken from the freezer & vegies from the backyard), sourdough Pancakes topped with maple syrup & whipped cream for breakfast and sourdough rolls for lunch-weekend food sorted!

I should make note here that I have done NO grocery shopping this week other than milk-we have been munching our way through the meals created from last Saturday's big dinner!

Thursday thrift....

I haven't "cooked" a meal since Saturday.

 How does that relate to Thursday thrift? Well...on Saturday night we had 12 people here for dinner. I cooked a lasagne, french onion slowcooker chicken casserole, homemade apple pie, bread & butter pudding and tossed a large salad.

When I cooked the bolognaise sauce for the lasagna I made extra-which has since been sighted at our dining table as Chilli Beef and Fettucini Bolognaise. The chicken casserole was also resurrected-as Chicken Crumble Pie ( sourdough crumbs and cheese sprinkled over the top and baked until crispy) and Chicken Risotto.

Leftover lasagna also went down a treat!

I had spent $8-96 on the beef mince ( 2 kilos ) and $9-20 for the kilo of chicken thigh fillets-so for a grand total of $18-16 in the meat budget I have served 22 meals! Less than $1/serve for the meat component!

The other thrifty part of the whole process is the fact that other than boiling some water for the fettucini ( the risotto used up leftover rice from Saturday night) all the cooking was done in a couple of hours!

Thursday thrift.....

Here's a way to jazz up the much maligned mainstay of broke uni students world wide- 2 minute noodles! This is a great recipe for kidlets to be involved in as well.....


Noodle Cups

2 x 85g packets of 2 minute noodles (lightly crushed or left whole-up to you)
3 cups grated vegetables ( carrot, zucchini, onion, sweet potato-whatever floats your boat!)
2 eggs-lightly beaten
1/2cup light sour cream (milk, evaporated milk or cream will work as well)
1/2 cup chopped ham ( or whatever is lurking in your fridge)
1/2 cup shredded tasty cheese.

Spray a muffin tray.

Preheat oven to 180c

Cook noodles, then drain under cold water.

Add remainning ingredients-EXCEPT cheese, mix well.

Place in muffin tins and sprinkle with cheese.

Bake for 30 -35mins.

Proof in the pudding....

Here is photographic evidence of how delectable and delicious Friday's cooking frenzy turned out to be!


The Fusion Beef in the slowcooker:

On the plate-please note that this is a MASSIVE serve for His Lordship!

Sourdough Banana & Struesel bread:

Friday's fridge....

Groceries here are usually purchased early in the week to coincide with payday; so heading into the weekend I usually have some idea of what base meals will be on offer-the decision will be how I tweak them! This morning is free for me to get organised for the weekend, so I'll be preparing as much food as I can for the weekend!


Left in my fridge this Friday are:


 lean beef sausages
 lean beef blade roast
 bacon
 eggs
last night's home made ricotta, plus some of the resulting whey
last night's leftovers-Filipino noodles ( AKA Pedro's noodles after friend who first made them for us!)
various condiments
asorted vegetables
cheese
milk
yoghurt-small tub to make some more myself
tinned apricots
sourdough starter.

My plans today are to make:
Slow cooked Fusion beef ( based on a recipe spied at Veronica's Cornucopia  -except I've used crushed coriander seeds instead of sage and dolloped honey in the balsamic, poured it over the beef and set it to cook!)


Sausage casserole


Sourdough coffee cake ( also based on a recipe from Veronica's Cornucopia)


Apple pie ( harvested the Cox's Orange Pippins yesterday)

The leftover noodles will be lunches-they are amazingly cheap to make for the quantity they provide!

That's my Friday Fridge-what's in yours?

Thursday thrift.....

No bright ideas here today-just good old fashioned planning! I see a lot of people these days rushing to and fro, wasting time and money because they haven't put any ( or adequate) thought into what they need to do.

We live some 20 kms from town; if I'm taking the time to go in then I want to get as much accomplished as possible to get value from the 40minute round trip-no forgetting the milk!

Planning is invaluable in the garden-you need to plan what to plant when and where....whether it's for vegetables ( to ensure you are growing them in the correct season!) or planning when you want ornamentals to put on their display! If you plant tomatoes in the middle of winter in our colder clime you are doomes to failure! Equally, you want to avoid gluts-there are only so many cabbages you can eat in a week! Staggering the planting means you can harvest over a longer period.

Even around the home, planning is imperative- if you wash the kitchen floor and then spend a couple of hours baking, chances are that the floor will need another wash! Better to plan on baking and THEN cleaning!

I like to set myself a mental challenge when I'm performing tasks around the house- I ask myself in what order can I do things to get the most accomplished in the shortest amount of time. By spending that couple of minutes planning I tend to get a lot done-and usually have a reasonably tidy home!

Any planning tips to share?

Deezy does denim.....

I've been wanting a new bag for work-something servicible, nothing pretentious and of a fabric that can be thrown in the washing machine easily.


Often when trawling the net I came across references to reusing od denim jeans-and surprisingly enough I have one or two pair which I have * ahem* outgrown! Even being on a bit of a health kick (read getting up at 6-30 every morning to walk dogs with husband and feeling smug for the remainder of the day for exercising!) I know that I will NEVER wear those babies again......so....... I dragged out the trusty sewing machine, pulled out the pants and slashed at them with scissors!


Now I haven't sewn regularly since our kidlets were small (said kidlets now have children of their own) and would have to be described at best as an "impatient" seamstress......BUT my mother has taught me how to use French seams and I'm sure that she will be very proud to find out that I resurrected that knowledge.....


First, cut your crotch..of the jeans that is! Keep the legs as they will become the strap....notice the bit of bling?

Take each leg and cut down both sides of one of the side seams-these pieces will be stitched together at the raw ends giving you one long piece-turn right sides together and stitch a seam ( remember that you will need to turn the "tube" right side out-so don't make it too narrow!)

The "tube" being turned:

Then if you are feeling fancy, try a little French! For the bottom seam of the bag, keep the right sides of the fabric facing out and stich close to the edge:

Then turn the bag inside out and stitch again close to the previous seam...voila! a French seam!

Attach the strap to the bag and you are set to go! You can shape the bag to suit by adjusting how you stitch the bottom seam and the bag comes with pockets for phone, keys etc....

Thought I'd throw in a photo of the workplace supervisor!