Some time ago I wrote a couple of blog posts revolving around feeding a family on a budget.

I received more interest and comments about the recipes that I posted than any other blogging before or after. Even now, almost two years later, people still ask me about it and so I’ve decided to take the plunge and write an e-book.

If you would like to have one of your recipes included in the book,  you can email me at dalyandie@gmail.com

The recipes have to be cheap to produce and be vegetarian.

I look forward to reading all your ideas and suggestions.

Right…getting back to some normality now the summer holidays are over.

The summer was brilliant for us, we got into camping and visited lots of great UK holiday destinations. We’d like to think that we’ve given our kids a summer to remember, the sort of summers that we had as children.

Youngest and middle had adventures and made lots of new friends. Eldest shocked himself when he spent four days in a tent with no TV, no PS3, no internet and found that this didn’t cause him to combust into a heap on the tent floor.  At a push, he might even say that he’d enjoyed himself!

So now the summer is officially over and it’s time to get down to serious work.

BeingaMillionaire is still going from strength to strength but pretty much looks after itself and now that toddler is at playgroup three days a week, I find that I suddenly have time on my hands. Better start a new business!

So it’s with great pleasure that I can now introduce Two Cousins Bakery,  a joint venture between myself and my cousin.

Despite ‘Bakery’ in the title, we currently only offer cupcakes, but who knows, that might change?

We’ve only just begun, but are already getting orders and enquiries which is very exciting.

So why not become a cake ‘fan’ and join our facebook page so you can look at all our lovely cake, just try not to drool over your computer! http://bit.ly/bkLvri

A bit of a strange one this as it involves Weetabix, which is fine, except it makes the whole crumble taste like…well Weetabix! However, it’s  cheap, easy to make, satisfies sugar cravings and makes great comfort food on a cold winters evening.

2 cans of fruit of your choice. (I used prunes and  pears..weird but nice)

4 Weetabix. Sainsbury’s basic 75p per box

500g Porridge oats

4 Tbsp brown sugar

1tsp mixed spice

100g melted butter

Place the fruit in an oven proof dish

Crumble the weetabix and add to the porridge oats, melted butter, sugar and spice and sprinkle over the fruit.

Dot with butter and place in the oven at 190 degrees/ gas mark 5 for 15 minutes.

I serve it with custard or Greek yoghurt..tastes yum and the kids love it!

The whole dish would cost around £1.50 to make depending on what fruit is used.

Continuing in my occasional ‘How to feed a Family of 5 on £20′ series, I’m going to introduce you to a recipe that is so easy to make, even your kids or Other Half could make it! To prove this I asked my OH to make the pie and see what he thought of it.

Full credit for this recipe goes to Carolyn Humphries of as it is she who set me off on my quest to feed my family healthily and well on a limited budget.

This was the second time we’ve made the pie and this time we used genuine leftovers from a rather large Sunday dinner the day before, though you can easily cook up some frozen veg to go in it.

The Day-After Pie:

Cooked leftover veg.

1 can baked beans (Sainsbury basic 29p)

3 slices of bread crumbed

2tbsp Marmite

30ml Boiling water

1/2 tsp mixed herbs

Salt and Pepper

1lb Mashed potatoes

Knob of butter

1. Mix the veg, beans and bread in an ovenproof dish.

2. Blend the Marmite with the herbs, Salt and Pepper and boiling water

3. Top with the mash and dot with butter

4. Bake for 30mins at 220 C/gas mark 7 until golden brown.

It’s so incredibly easy and tastes fab!

If using left-overs the cost is minimal. Easily less than £2 per pie and it fed all five of us plus baby and I had some the following day for our lunch.

My OH’s verdict. He thought that it was incredibly easy to make, though he admitted to adding some extra spuds in the mash and would top it with cheese next time before putting it in the oven.

Way back at Christmas last year, my cousin bought me a Murder Mystery game.

On Saturday evening I finally got around to organising it. I invited my cousin and her husband, my brother and his girlfriend and of course there was myself and OH.

I’d sent the invitations out the week before so everyone knew who their character was and what they were supposed to be wearing.

I bought my costume from the British Heart Foundation and after a good wash (it was a bit smelly!!!) it ended up looking OK.

I then had to sort out the food and obviously being the frugal person I am, wanted to do it on a budget.

Sorry Sainsbury’s but I decided to visit my old favourite Aldi. Aldi is brilliant for party goodies like salami, cheeses and nibbles. At OH’s 40th last year I made huge platters of cold meats, cheeses and olives and they looked very expensive. The guests couldn’t believe I’d done it all from Aldi. So, I decided to take a leaf out of my own book…

We  started with an anti pasti of bruschetta topped with cream cheese and smoked salmon, Italian breadsticks, salami and German sausage, olives stuffed with cream cheese and I threw in some nuts and crisps for good measure.

The whole lot was washed down with a nice sparkly Pinot Grigio. This is where it started to go wrong for me. The sparkle went straight to my head and I started feeling very tipsy! Ooooohhhh!!

On with the game. We all introduced ourselves as our characters and sat down at the table.

The theme was Paris in 1900 so I’d tried to dress the table accordingly. My cousin lent me a candleabra which had belonged to her grandma, and I added some purple candles.

For the main course I made an old favourite of ours from Jamie Oliver… salmon roasted with cherry tomatoes and green beans served with new potatoes. Really easy and very tasty!

Mmmm!! Lovely main course which went very well with a cold Sauvignon Blanc…starting to feel a bit giggly!

Earlier in the day I’d made another fave from Linda McCartney… chocolate mousse. This is a great recipe that easily makes enough for six and worked out fairly cheap, it also went well with a cheeky little rose wine. No idea what it was called…hic!

The guests had been quizzed, we all played our parts and now it was time to reveal the murderer……over cheese, biscuits and some red wine….hurray!! The murderer was…well, that would be telling and anyway I wouldn’t want to spoil it if you end up playing it.

Everybody had had such a great time we didn’t want it to end…out came the Prosecco…. I vaguely remember the rest of the evening, there was a lot of costume swapping, loud music playing and laughter!

My final memory was OH making me go to bed at….what!!! 3:30am!!! Oh no!!

The next morning I woke at 11:30am….. fine if you’re a teenager, not so fine if you’re a responsible mum of three kids. At 11:45 they all ran into my bedroom looking like feral, gypsy children. Youngest was only wearing pyjama bottoms and his nappy was dragging on the floor….OH was supposed to be looking after them. Ah well, now and then doesn’t hurt. All in all we’d had a great night and can’t wait to do it again!

Can’t promise I’ll be posting a new recipe every day, but while I was in the mood I thought I’d make some of my kids favourite flapjacks and as you can see from the picture, they don’t last long!

They are very simple to make and are another recipe that can be thrown together anytime so long as you keep the essentials in the cupboard. What I also like about this recipe is that it’s eggless. If there is one thing we run out of it’s eggs…oh and cereal..and then there’s milk….and butter too…well you get the idea!

Frugal Flapjacks.

75g Butter

1tbsp Sunflower oil

100g Brown Sugar

2 tbsp Golden Syrup

Large banana mashed

50g Mixed Fruit (Sainsbury basic 65p)

275g Porridge Oats

Beat together butter, oil, sugar and syrup until smooth.

Stir in the remaining ingredients and press into a greased baking tin.

Bake at 180/gas mark 4 for 25 mins until golden

I cut mine into squares before it goes cold.

Easy Peasy, and look…I even managed to get a photo of the next batch I made before they were devoured!

Changing the subject back to supermarkets own and discounted brands. A few week ago I was chatting with  my cousin about saving money by buying own brands.

We both agreed that there are a number of products that just don’t taste the same as the real thing.

This is the list we came up with. Do you agree? Is there anything else you would add to the list?

Heinz Baked Beans

Heinz Tomato Ketchup

Baileys Original Irish Cream

Kellogs Cornflakes

Tate and Lyle Golden Syrup

Can you think of any others?

Since writing my blog post ‘How to feed a family of five on £20 a week‘, I’ve received some great comments as well as some emails asking me for regular tips and recipes.

So, I’ve decided to do just that. I want to stress though that I am a total amateur and didn’t really cook or bake properly until a few years ago! In fact it was my OH who encouraged me and I’m so pleased that he did because I thoroughly enjoy it.

These cookies are so easy to make and so long as you make sure you have the ingredients in your cupboard, you can rustle up sweet treats whenever you want them. I usually make them for the kids lunchboxes as well as for something us grown ups can have with our coffee.

They are incredibly cheap to make and if you master the basic recipe you can add all sorts of things to them. Our current favourite is dark chocolate and coconut. A bounty bar in a biscuit!

A few years ago I invested in a Kenwood Multi-Pro. That and my breadmaker are the two best kitchen things I have ever bought. I wouldn’t be without my Multi-Pro now, it makes things so easy. You can just throw all the ingredients in and in 30seconds it’s done!

Ok…so here we go. Next to the ingredients list, I’ll make a note as to whether it was from the Sainsbury’s basic range.

200g Butter (Sainsbury’ s basic. 75p each. Always buy 6 per week)

150g Self raising flour (Sainsbury’s basic. 43p. Buy one bag a month)

Half teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

75g Porridge oats (Sainsbury basic. 1kg around 75p)

125g light brown sugar

Mix together the butter, flour baking powder and porridge oats until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Next add the egg and sugar and mix well.

Once everything is well mixed you can add some of the following:

Crumbled Dark Chocolate. (Sainsbury’s basic 150g bar. 27p Buy 2 per week)

Crumbled milk chocolate. (Sainsbury’s basic 150g bar. 27p Buy 2 per week)

Ground mixed nuts

Almonds

Dessicated coconuts

Mixed fruit

Raisins

Take a tablespoon of the cookie dough and place on a baking tray. Space well apart. Gentle press down on the dough with the back of a spoon.

You should get about 18 cookies out of the mixture.

Place in an oven at 180 degrees centigrade (gas mark 4) for 15-18 minutes or until golden on top.

Allow to cool and serve.

Brilliant!!!

Tomorrow……Frugal Flapjacks!

My kids enjoying their tea

I’ve recently been watching a new TV series on BBC2 called ‘Economy Gastronomy’. If you’ve not seen it before, the idea is that these two top chefs take a family who are spending stupid money on food each week and show them how to halve their bills. One family in particular was spending £400 per week for 7 of them and they managed to get it down to £200 by using up leftovers, shopping smart and cooking from scratch.

Not bad, but I can do better. (Not sure why the beeb didn’t ask me, to be honest!) I usually spend around £75 per week, though when things have been a little tight, I’ve got it down to £35.

Last week we discovered to our horror that we only had £20 available to spend on food for the coming week.

I immediately put my ‘Super Mum’ costume on and sprang into action, racing to the supermarket only to return 45minutes later with £20 worth of food and do you know what…it lasted us for the week. Not only that, but all the family agreed that they had eaten well and didn’t feel hard done by.

This is how I did it:

To make this work, it’s important that you do/have the following:

1. Be prepared to make your own bread/cakes/biscuits/scones. As I always say, if the kids get hungry I can lob a scone at them.

2. Have a moderately well stocked cupboard containing things like basic herbs, marmite, soya sauce and flour.

3. Grab yourself a copy of  by Carolyn Humphries. I saved even more money here as I picked mine up for 50p from the second hand shop.

4. You will have to eat veggie for a week. It’s not THAT bad and can help you lose weight.

5. You have to shop at Sainsbury’s and buy their basic range. I consider myself a bit of a supermarket bargain range connoisseur and Sainsbury’s is by far the best for quality and the range of products that they do.

6. Prepare a weekly meal planner, write a list and STICK TO IT!!! No matter what, do not stray. If you have to buy toiletries etc. put them on the list too.

7. Erm…that’s it!

So, where you can, buy from the basic range. Most of the stuff is fine and I’m sure you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference if it wasn’t for the packaging. You can get a big box of cornflakes for around 47p and OK, they may not be Kelloggs but hey, it’s only for a week.

This was my meal planner. I’ve only shown dinner, as breakfast was usually cornflakes or toast, lunch was toast and a scone or a biccy and then we filled up on dinner.

Monday: Pasta bake and garlic bread. (Here I buy basic half -baked baguettes, split them and spread home made garlic butter on them before baking)

Tuesday: Egg and Mushroom pie, with vegetables

Wednesday: Vegetable pie with mash

Thursday: Vegetable curry

Friday: Home made veggie burgers and salad

Saturday: Pete’s chilli with garlic bread and nachos.

Sunday: Nut roast, roast potatoes and roast veg with apple and blackberry crumble. (Blackberries from garden)

All for £20, that included nappies and baby wipes. Sainsbury’s  do value nappies for about £1.75. I may not use them on a newborn but they’re fine for my toddler.

We also have milk delivered which I haven’t included in the cost of the £20.

I’m sure that for some people this all sounds like hard work. The beauty of using this particular recipe book is that its designed for students who are notorious for having no money and no inclination to do anything. The book shows how to make cheap and easy meals. I’ve been so impressed that I may just throw my other recipe books away.

Also it helps to have kids who are willing to try new food and don’t mind veggies. My middle son is the worst and will turn his nose up without hesitation, but even he had a go and ate most of it. But I guess if you’re starving you’ll eat anything!

I’d love to know what other Mums and Dads do to save money in the kitchen as I’m always on the look out for new ideas.

I can’t help it…I love to bake.

If we want something sweet or a real treat, instead of going to the shops I now bake something.

Over the years I’ve invested in things like food processors and bread makers and this all adds to the ease of making your own stuff!

I also have a ‘baking shelf’ now,(how old am I!!) with flour, chocolate, almonds, mixed fruit, spices etc. In fact everything I need to make something at the drop of a hat!

Yesterday morning I made a Coconut cake and some cookies.

They were gorgeous!!! My 20month old baby, Isaac helped me by testing most of the ingredients and then licked the mixing bowl until it sparkled!!!

The coconut cake is a recipe from my Nan who is 86 years old!! Lives in her own home and looks brilliant at least 10 years younger!! (Must be all that home cooking!)

She got the recipe from a book she has kept since 1950 so I’m going to share it with you.

4oz Self Raising Flour
2oz Sugar
2oz Butter
1oz Coconut
1 beaten egg
2 tbls milk

Topping:
Icing sugar
1 lemon
Coconut

Beat the sugar and butter.
Add the flour, egg, milk and coconut
Bake for 30mins @ 180 degrees or gas mark 4

When cool mix the icing sugar with the lemon and sprinkle with coconut.

Yum!!!!

Here’s a photo of mine.

Here's my cake!

Our tagline at BeingaMillionaire.com is ‘Being a Millionaire, it’s more than having a Million.’

You’ll find it on our website, it’s written throughout our literature and if you’ve ever had an email from me, it’s how I sign off!’

So…my question is….if it’s more than having a Million, then what is ‘IT’?

Ok, I’ll start. ‘It’ for me is feeling good.

‘And what Andrea…’ I hear you say..’makes you feel good?’

This week, I have been feeling good about my new bread maker.

I have been banging on about having one of these for years, so last week I bought one…reduced…of course. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I never pay full price for anything. I also love telling people, whether they want to know or not, how much it cost!!

So…my breadmaker was reduced to £34.00 which to my mind was a bargain!

We unpacked it and placed it in it’s own little spot on the kitchen worktop and promptly and proudly produced our first loaf. Now if any of you out there are building anything at the moment, this loaf would have made an excellent brick! It was horrible and rock hard!!!

So there I was, straight on the internet finding bread recipes. After a week of trial and error I have found the perfect recipe that makes beautiful bread and you can find it here, http://www.carrsbreadmaker.info/recipes/wholemeal_flour.html.

If you’ve got any recipes that you think I’ll like, please post some here or email me on andrea@beingamillionaire.com.

Thanks

Andrea.