Friday Food for a Fiver (or Less)

Food for a fiver this week, is a yummy post, mini Victoria Sandwich bites.

Kids love them, I love em, hubby loves em from 1-101 they are a sure fire winner.

Ingredients:

4oz self raising flour 45 (smart price 1.5kg)

4oz butter/margerine 44 (Asda best for baking 250g)

4oz sugar 87 (silverspoon 500g)

2eggs 91 (Asda smart price 6 eggs)

Icing sugar to taste 1.05 (silver spoon 1kg)

Jam any you like 38 (smart price jam)

paper cases 49 (Asda own)

Total 4.59 - prices as of Asda website 15th Jan

You can put all of the ingredients in a blender and mix but I always like to do it the long way round.

pre-heat oven to gas mark 5 180C

Soften butter, mix in with sugar with wooden spoon until blended, whisk eggs together and add to butter mix bit by bit.

Fold in sifted flour bit by bit with a metal spoon, gently to keep as much air in as possible.

divide between paper cases, and put in oven for 15-20min

to check if cooked top will spring back if pressed

leave to cool

for butter cream, soften the rest of the block of butter/marg and add sifted icing sugar to taste (it will probably be about 6oz of icing sugar) add more or less depending on how sweet you want it. add a TINY bit of water just to lighten the mixture.

cut the top half of the cooled cakes off spread jam on 1 half and a spoonful of butter cream, put the top back on the cake and sprinkle with icing sugar.

dont forget the prices are for whole packs of ingredients assuming that you have to buy everything from scratch, but most of these items are store-cupboard staples which will bring the costs down, or you will have enough ingredients to make a MOUNTAIN of cakes !!!

Many many calories, but ideal as a treat or for kids parties !!

BONKERS !!

BONKERS!!

Just a quick one before I go - speaking of my little man - for some strange reason he is LOOPY at the moment, every night he has taken to stop eating his dinner and start singing at the top of his voice - all of the family around the table and he just bursts out with 'Some people think I'm Bonkers' (yes I know the words are wrong but thats all he knows!) day before it was 'Bad Boys' in Asda it was NKOTB 'Tonight' (although this may be my fault because I am a HUGE NK fan and play them all the time) so I'll keep you posted to what little ditty he comes out with over the next few days, Ive got a little performer on my hands - he's only 2 !!

Walkabout Wednesday

Back to it now - no posts yesterday Internet off - one of those things you dont know how much you miss it until its gone, not bad considering it is only a relatively new technology, which reminds me I heard on the radio yesterday that during a sermon the pastor asked everybody to put their mobiles,blackberrys etc up in the air during the service and pray for technology! I know I'm attached to my laptop but enough !!

Anyway onwards - back to Walkabout Wednesday, found two great blogs this time, one is www.livingonadime.com I have been following the website for quite a while now but either the blog is new or I havent been reading the newsletter properly ( I know which one I would go for !!) and I know that some of the information is not relevant to us in the UK and you have all the conversion stuff to contend with, but I love it, I find it reassuring that if I find myself slipping back into old habits then to nip on here and it puts me back on track, they also have a great e-book to download on money saving recipes, and another offer at the moment of a budgeting spreadsheet which I am doing my best to get .

The other one that I have found is www.amothersramblings.com title says it all really! its written by a mum and quotes the funny conversations that goes on in her family and other tit-bits all very well written, some very cute pictures x

and so for today this is all I have because my little man has just woken up,

take care until next time x x

Friday Food for a Fiver (or Less)

I thought that I would share a recipe on a Friday with you, yes I know it has been done before for a £5 or less , but for a family of 5 that works out to £1 p/head and more often than not in our house when you have padded the recipe out it actually feeds us for the meal and enough to either freeze or for leftovers for the following day.

One Moan though to get it out the way, it annoys me so much (dont know about you ) but when you do get a great recipe and it promises to feed a family for £5 then,

1, It is for a family of 4
2, They are more often than not smaller portions which for a postman who is walking 7-8 miles a day in alsorts of weather needs more than sparrow portions

And 3. which for me is my biggest bug-bear

3, Yes it is £5 but that accounts for cost per amount of ingredient (ie 4oz of cheese etc) and doesnt take into account that you have to buy the WHOLE packet just to get the 1/2 oz that you need - which doesnt help one iota when you are trying to budget for family meals

So I promise you that any recipe that I use it is £5 to buy all the ingredients which means that if you have to buy a packet of onions for 89p for example and only use one the 89p is accounted for, which means that you have the rest of the packet for other meals throughout the week without any additional cost

So....

Todays recipe is

BOSTON BEAN BAKE

1 onion 78 (Asda smartprice 2kg)
200g ham cubed 1.24 (Asda premuim lean ham 200g)
1 can tomatoes 35 (Asda smart price )
1 can baked beans 40 (Asda own - not smart price)
125g mushrooms 77 (Asda Smartprice 400g)
1 x 15ml spoon pickle 25 (Asda smartproce pickle - Jar)
1.5 x 5ml spoon cornfour 75 (Asda)

Total £4.54 (all prices as of asda website 8.1.10)

Saute onion and ham in a pan for 2-3min, add tomatoes,baked beans, mushrooms and pickle stir well and simmer for 15-20min

thicken with blended cornflour if needed


you even have enough left over for some lovely fresh crusty bread for the ultimate comfort food !

obviously this is my recipe, please use, and adapt to your own tastes, you will probably find that you tweek it to suit your own family and dont forget the list of ingredients are for whole packets of food so the if you like it the only think you will only need another tin of ham and you already have the stuff left over for another go so that would be another meal for £1.24 - the cost of another can of ham or another idea if you can afford it buy 2 tins at the same time and then make double the amount and freeze, its no extra work because its all in one pan !

Hope you enjoy x x

Today should be follow Friday !!

WOOOOOO !!!!!!!

Im in double figures I now have 10 - - yes 10 followers and am officially in double figures, so thank you to all my new friends

x x x

Thrifty Thursday

This morning I was going to start from scratch on the Thrifty Thursday tips, but I got to this afternoon and we had an unexpected surprise.... we recieved free tickets to the panto for this afternoon- and I love the panto, so off we went, it was Owens first experience of panto season and he was up and clapping along - for those readers abroad that dont know what a panto is it is an English institution !! it is basically a fairy tale but with men dressed up as women, the hero, the heroine, the love lorne friend, and the villain. The whole audience participates, the banter between the actors and the audience- 'He's Behind yoooouuuuuu!', it is an experience and until you see one you cannot appreciate the fun. so that was a great thrifty day out.!


So for today Thrifty Thursday, as I said I was going to go right back to basics, and that is the rule that I think should be top priority is to look after the things that you have, by all means declutter and organise to your hearts content but if you take care of the things you have and maintain your household correctly then it will be cost efficient in the long run as you wont be replacing lost, broken items saving you pennies right from the start.. more tips next week x x

Wonderful Wirral Winter Wonderland !!

Instead of walkabout Wednesday today I thought I would do a Walkabout Wirral.

Where I live, the Wirral is tiny a little tiny peninsular (meaning we are surrounded by water on 3 sides) nestled inbetween the Irish Sea and the hills of Wales on one side and the River Mersey and Liverpool on the other and to be honest the majority of the time because of our sheltered area we plod along weather wise, the rest of the country are either snowed in or are experiencing a heatwave, but this week that ALL changed - BRING ON THE SNOW !!!! the kids have a snow day in school today and tomorrow so are happy as larry to have an extra few days holiday, so for today thought I would do a short post and let the pictures do the talking - cos Im off to play in the snow again ............... x x