Christmas Pudding

We made 2 small Christmas puddings last weekend and cooked them in the slow cooker for 4 hours. This method creates much less steam in the kitchen and also means that you do not have to be in the kitchen the whole time ready to top up the water as the pan nearly boils dry.

We first started to use this recipe when Mr Shoestring needed a sugar free, egg free pudding, now he does not have to be so careful he still prefers this lighter version to a traditional Christmas pudding. You can set it alight just the same as the usual kind !

11/2 cups of non-dairy milk

1 cup of sugar or sugar equivalent

1 cup currants

1 cup mixed fruit

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon oil

1tsp mixed spice

Mix all the dry ingredients together and add enough of the milk to make a pudding consistency, you might not need all of it. Place half of the mixture in a greased 1pint pudding bowl and cover as usual with pleated greaseproof or foil. Steam in slow cooked for 4 hours.

Frugal Halloween

Not everyone celebrates Halloween but we have always had a bit of fun the old-fashioned Scottish way. That usually means a turnip lantern rather than a pumpkin one and a homemade costume if you are a little one. Homebaked treats like biscuits and doughnuts and a few games such as doughnuts on a string and cooking for apples.

No trick or treating and no spending lots of money on sweets !

Coconut Milk Ice Cream

Master Shoestring has a new favourite ice cream, coconut milk ice cream made at home. This is the reason I am a bit late posting today as he just had to make a cookie dough version first thing this morning !

The recipe is really easy, just coconut milk, a sweetener like maple syrup and arrowroot to thicken  and then you can flavour it as you wish. His favourite so far is still the vanilla, he is not so keen on the chocolate and will try the cookie dough at lunchtime, as soon as it is sufficiently frozen !

I can thoroughly recommend it as a frugal ice cream too as even full price 500ml costs around £1.50 to make which is half the price of buying it in the shops. This ice cream is smooth and creamy and much easier to scoop than homemade sorbet,which is what we had been making !

Right, off to make mincemeat, Halloween biscuits, doughnuts, Christmas cake and Christmas pudding as back to commuting on Monday !

Blanching vegetables for later

I found a bunch of reduced brussels sprouts in Waitrose and decided to buy them to freeze for later. Lots of vegetables are quite cheap at the moment and will increase in price as we get nearer Christmas and into the Winter so doing this can save quite a bit of money.

Vegetables need to be blanched before you can freeze them and this involves adding them to boiling water for a few minutes and then cooling them rapidly. The you are supposed to open freeze them so they will be free flowing out of the packet when you need them. I never bother with this stage but just package them in serving portions for 4, so I can get a whole packet out when I need them.

Of course the best savings are with vegetables you have grown yourself, so I'll be aiming to do more of that next year !

Charity Shop Haul

I do not shop in charity shops as often as I used to as the quality has declined and the prices have increased. I like jumble sales better now but it has been half term so I have had the chance just to look through a few.

Yesterday I did really well. The first prize goes to a brand new pair of thermal capris in small mens size which will fit me fine and only cost £1. These were not only cheap but will help to save on the cost of heating during the winter !

The second prize find was a copy of this book at £1.99. I have wanted a copy for ages and have borrowed it a few times from the library. Brand new it costs nearly fifteen pounds and with so many other gardening books I couldn't really justify the cost. One 99 is much more reasonable !

The final good find was a copy of this book on jams and preserves by Val and John Harrison. It only cost £1 and has an excellent recipe for damson cheese and one for apple butter made from crab apples. We have plenty of both and I didn't fancy all the palaver of making crab apple jelly so the apple butter will make a great substitute. I have another book by the Harrisons about Low Cost Living which I find really useful so I'm sure this one about preserves will be too !

Love2Shop Vouchers

I think that I have written about these vouchers before. I got them for participating in the Royal Mail Postal Surveys. Two pounds worth were for posting a parcel for them but then I also got two lots of a £5 voucher for doing 2 Correctly Delivered surveys.

Now I had £12 worth of vouchers the question was what to spend them on to get the best value. Ten pounds was spent in Waterstones on a book I need for the course I am doing, that meant that I got the book for free ! The other £2 was spent in Robert Dyas as they have washing up liquid on special offer, so I got over a litre of washing up liquid for free.

I was well-pleased to get these items for free and if I get anymore I think that I shall save them for buying gifts as they are accepted in many, many different high street stores including Boots and WHSmith.

Buying Potatoes Locally

Inspired by 'An English Homestead' we decided to get a 25kg sack of potatoes to see us through until the Christmas holidays. Prices should be lower just now as there are plenty of potatoes and they will keep well in the garage. So we set off for the nearest greengrocers shop that we knew had them, about 20 miles away.

On the way I remembered seeing a little sign advertising local potatoes much closer to home, about 5 miles away. Off we went down the country lanes and found the farm and they had 2 different sorts of potatoes in stock. They were only doing 1/2 bags and I thought that when the farmer quoted the price that was for a 1/2 bag. It turned out that it was £7 for a whole bag or 25kg. This is 28p a kilo so I quickly changed my mind ! The farmer also told us that he knew the wholesaler and his potatoes were cheaper !

We got 25kg of 'Wilja' which is a versatile white potato that is good for boiling, roasting and making jackets so I can't wait to taste them !