Budget food/living

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  • Made these yesterday:

    Cinnabon clones - from the recipe here: http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/4727/clone-of-a-cinnabon.aspx

    Sooo good, especially when still warm and they make the house smell amazing.

    We just used a standard icing (icing sugar, water and vanilla) rather than the one listed in the recipe - as we didnt have any cream cheese(!?)

  • Red lentils (which are actually brown lentils with the husk removed)

  • I bought a 'family sized' slow cooker from Tesco last year, I can cook a main course and get 4 meals from it - I live on my own :( It was their own brand and was less than fifteen pounds. It has high, low and warm settings. Some recipies will ask for the food to be cooked on either high or low, so this feature is useful. Slow cookers are not a 'high-tech' product so you do not need to spend a lot on one. Tesco / Argos own brand is fine.

    What wattage is your slow cooker? I recently got an energy meter so can see useag, often craping myself when I put on certain appliances. Given people have the slow cooker on for extended periods does it end up costing a lot energy wise?

  • I lived in a flate share with some friends a couple of years ago,
    some day the electricity bill went insane, but we could not really put a finger on why exactly.
    Like three months later I found a (plugged in) waffle iron from the seventies in a shelf above the door we had not used for, like, three months.

  • O _ o

  • Like three months later I found a (plugged in) waffle iron from the seventies in a shelf above the door we had not used for, like, three months.

    two too many likes, might have to put out a like dolan..

  • cheeeeep cuts stew - pig cheek + trotters, onions, carrots turnip, sage stalks, left over wine + water - simmer for 3-4hrs remove trotters - pick off good meat put back in stew, serve with mash or boiled pots - keep left over liquid and use as stock for next stew -nice cold weather scran

  • What wattage is your slow cooker? I recently got an energy meter so can see useag, often craping myself when I put on certain appliances. Given people have the slow cooker on for extended periods does it end up costing a lot energy wise?

    At worst, using a slow cooker might use twice as much energy than your oven to cook the same meal. At best, maybe half the energy. It's a complicated equation that varies depending on the size and wattage of your slow cooker, the quality of your oven (especially the insulation) and the particular meal. The slow cooker is on all the time, while your oven just tops up once it reaches the desired heat. If you have to remove the food at some stages to do something (puree, turn, whatever), the slow cooker tends to lose because it doesn't retain heat so well. On the other hand, you tend to cook all the ingredients together in the slow cooker at once,where you might have to prep some ingredients on the stove, or even have some things done entirely on the stove while the oven is also in use; in the latter cases, the slow cooker wins for sure.

    The slow cooker isn't always going to win on energy efficiency, but it often will. If you're a meat eater, there's also the significant price saving of being able to use cheaper (and tastier, when well cooked) cuts.

    If you have a good energy meter, you should be able to test this.

  • Tesco have teriyaki mackerel tins on sale in our branch- 2 for 1...
    Either way they're 95p, and combined with batch cooked rice you've already probably made, some peas and spinach(both frozen) as a v cheap and ridiculously healthy and tasty meal in 5 minutes.

  • Just got my first pork shoulder ready to slow cook. Some recipes say just put the pork in, some say with onions and some others say with stock. Any opinions here on the best way to slow cook?

    Also - what are you marinading the shoulder with prior to cooking? I bought some BBQ marinade.

  • no, do not marinade with a wet sauce

    dry rub with rock salt and your favourite spices for 12-24 hours

    you can flash sear the joint in a hot oven or on a hot pan for colour

    then put in the crock pot with chopped onion and few spoons of cider vinegar, no extra fluid should be needed

    cook for 14 hours or until the bone is ready to just pull out from the joint

    leave for a further 4 hours to cool (pref wrapped up in cling film/tin foil and in a blanket)

    now pull the meat

    the juices left in the pot (which have sweated from the joint) along with the onion can be added to the shredded meat, which will soak them up, some people whizz the juices and onion in a blender others just stir them in as they are

    you can also consider adding bbq sauce after shredding

  • Cheers man!

  • have added a few ninja edits, if you have further questions i will try to help

  • What temps are you cooking at James? Under 100 degrees to stop the water form boiling?

  • Also - what are you marinading the shoulder with prior to cooking? I bought some BBQ marinade.

    Maybe too much effort this time, but try Memphis Dust rub http://foodiesarsenal.com/pulled-pork-in-the-oven/

    I've made pulled pork using this method a few times now, and I assure you it's delicious.

  • To answer my own question, that^ article suggests that the collagen breaks down at 190 degrees F, which Google informs me is 87.7 Celsius.

    Need pulled pork now!

  • Not nearly enough love for the legume in this thread.

  • sorry, missed the questions, but yes the cooker is below 100 celsius

  • In a vague attempt to start saving for wedding tings we're getting on the budget wagon.
    Have a tenner each a day budget for trivial stuff, all change getting banked in Terramundi pot/savings cans we can't open without destroying at the end of each day. Any tips I get at work, change from grocery shopping etc goes straight in the pots as well.
    Our weekly shop has always been sub-£50 for the pair of us but will further trim if poss.
    Although we're missing out on interest by saving cash in the house, not bank, it somehow feels more inaccessible than an account that can be easily dipped into. That, and it'll be rad counting it when we break open the pots/cans to count the haul. Have seperate cans for 5p/10p and 20p/50p, coppers in a big flowerpot as not tempted to dip into the shrapnel. £1, £2 and notes go in the Terramundi pots.
    It's a start.

    It would appear we need a slow cooker to keep it realer.

  • we're missing out on interest

    You're missing nowt then.

  • Ten pounds spendies per day, each? I would struggle to spend that if I tried.

  • lump of coal you say? bloody soft youngsters, in my day...

    keeping the wedding cost down is the key though

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Budget food/living

Posted by Avatar for dancing james @dancing james

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