Last Saturday I was up early braving the rain to go to Lyttleton market with my $50 grocery allowance for the week. This was gonna be a challenge, feed the 5 of us for 1 week on $50!
A quick reminder of the rules is that I can use any pantry staples and produce from my garden or that I can forage on foot from home.
I returned from my shopping trip armed with a few filling veggies I haven’t got in the garden, some yummy cheese, a bag of soup bones, a large steak that was on special offer and milk. It came to $49.30. As I unpacked my chosen items back home it didn’t seem like much. Was a really going to be able to stretch this out? Feed us all with this? What was I going to give the kids for their lunch boxes?
However, on the whole I enjoyed the week, it sparked some creativity in the kitchen and everyone seemed to be interested in what was going on and enjoying the food.
The kids swapped their normal sarnies and chippies for a more varied and healthy lunch. Homemade bread and cupcakes, carrots, boiled eggs, fried rice, popcorn, apples (mostly foraged off a local tree). I didn’t get any complaints and the boxes were coming home empty and of course there was always something fresh baked waiting for them when they got home. Of course they didn’t mind starting the day with a warming bowl of porridge sweetened with honey.
Now dinners! We had homemade pasta with simple homemade sauces, omelettes and two beautiful stews. One stew costs $4 for the 5 of us and there as a good serving left over here is what I did:-
Ingredients
Stock
2 soup bones (buy a bag cause you’ll need more for the stew)
1 onion
1 carrot roughly chopped
1 stick celery roughly chopped 2
cloves of garlic – bashed
¼ cup soy sauce
Tbs fish sauce
Stew
4 soup bones (or whatever is left in the bag)
1 onion sliced
3 carrots chopped
1 stick celery thinly sliced
1 leek sliced
2 turnips peeled and chopped
3 potatoes peeled
and chopped my last two tomatoes – chopped.
• Put all stock ingredients into a large saucepan and cover with water at least 3 lt. Bring to the boil then simmer for at least an hour.
• Strain off stock into a casserole dish.
• gentle soften the onion, leek, celery, garlic and seasoning in a little oil, add to the stock then add all the stew ingredients and cover with a lid
• Place in a low over (around 125deg) for a few hours while you get on with other stuff.
• 20 mins before serving take out of the oven and removed bones to a plate – let cool.
• The meat left on the bones should easily fall off the bones – remove and add back to the stew.
Now I have learnt one thing about blogging this week. And that is more people read it than I thought and I am being watched!
Early in the week I popped into the local shop for a paper and a new cleaning cloth. As I passed the counter the lady behind it piped up “I hope you’re not buying food”. I was politely informed that she was watching me this week to see if I blew my budget. I wondered if she would notice one little bar of chocolate but decided to stick to the deal.
Now here I do have to admit some failure in my challenge
On Thursday this week, I decided to take a friend up on what I saw as her starting a new trend. No more would I spend a whole day board on my own trying to get back on top of the slightly out of control house! No I had found a new way. What you do is you call up a friend, in this case the lovely Christy Gardner, you get together mops, buckets, cloths, cleaning products in hand, music up- loud and the promise of a glass of wine on the way. Then you hit that house right the way through. I had a great day. We got the whole place ship shape, we chatted, laughed, even sang along to the stereo at times. The day went fast and the jobs disappeared. I now plan to do this on a monthly basis, of course offering my services back to my helper. When we were done we treated ourselves to a long cool drink satisfied with our girl power.
Now I was also planning to go to my local that evening for “ladies night” and I was reluctant to use my now spit and polish shiny kitchen or to have to do a sink full of dishes before I went out. So, Im sorry everyone, but I cheated! I went to get fish and chips for the kids! And I would of got away with it too if it wasn’t for those pesky local readers (love you all really). As Kate punched the charge into the till she commented “did you budget for this in your $50?” I was sprung!! Kate was very good and said she would keep my secret but I feel I have to be honest so......
Im proud to say I feed my family for a week on $60!
I also realised that I don’t need to spend as much as I do and so from now on my new weekly budget for groceries will be a nice comfy $100.
WORKSHOPS
We had a fantastic day on Saturday with our June Pig in a Day Workshop. A lovely mix of people that I really enjoyed meeting. It was lovely for the weather to hold out and we managed to eat our home grown home cooked lunch outside in the sun. The feedback was great, here are some of their comments :-
“Thanks so much – a really excellent practical day and also quite inspiring”
“Had an absolutely great day, have learnt a lot and can’t wait to try it out at home”
“wicked views and relaxing......lunch was fantastic and tasty”
“Thanks for the confidence boost, I needed to do this”
We have a few spaces left for our next workshop on the 24th July.
Kids in the Kitchen
A workshop to inspire kids in the kitchen.
Tuesday 28th July EGGS!! Help me collect the eggs in the morning from the hen house. Then come inside and learn how to make fluffy French cup cakes and pasta. The watch a demonstration on how to make a quick pasta sauce and enjoy it with your mornings work.
Wednesday 29th July. BREAD! Best thing since slices bread! Why not learn to make your own? Have flat bread flying out in no time, learn to make chocolate cinnamon swirls and flat breads. Enjoy some of your creations for lunch.
Workshops run 10am – 2pm. ONLY 6 PLACES PER DAY. $30 per child per day, includes light lunch and refreshements. Workshops situated in Purau, Diamond Harbour. For more information call Anna on 0212686483
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