Money Saving Tips

Leftovers

I have been thinking about all the money savings tips I have picked up through the years, and since food is the main household expenditure item, one of the best ways to save money is to look at how to control the food budget. I think wasting food in a starving world is criminal and I am Proud to say very little gets wasted in this house.
As well as that now food prices seem to go up on a weekly basis, and I am always looking around for money saving tips and ideas. Last week I had a few Hot Cross Buns left over from the Easter period, which had gone stale and hard. So I decided to make a simple bread and butter pudding and replace the bread in the recipe with the Hot Cross buns, and even though I say it myself the results were delicious and well worth the effort.(you can also use stale brioche instead). Here are some more money saving tips for everyday life in this house.

Leftover Chicken

A good money saving idea for famlies is to buy whole chickens, rather than chicken pieces. I manage to get three meals out of one chicken, plus the bones make a tasty stock. I find the best way is to bone the chicken and then divide the meat for the three meals, then casserole, curry or make it into pie fillings, by adding vegetables you bulk it up, and it can serve 3 or four people depending on appetites.

The bones can be placed in a slow cooker,  with onion, the green part of a leek, carrot celery and any other scraps of vegetable you have hanging about, add a few peppercorns, a bouquet garni and a bay leaf; I pour on boiling water and turn the slow cooker on before I go up to bed, when I wake up in the morning I have a flavoursome stock ready for use. (this can also be done in a pan and cooked on a very low heat for about 2 1/2 hours.

 Ham 

 In this house there is no question of what to do with leftover ham, since my grandson loves pizza, and ham and pineapple happens to be his favourite, it normally ends up in a pizza. If we have a lot of ham leftover I make a white sauce and add some cooked chicken and ham into it then turn it into a chicken and ham pie.

Leftover Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potato can be used as toppings for pies, it can also be turned into croquettes by shaping, then dipping in flour, egg and breadcrumbs. It can also be used to make fishcakes. But the favourite in this house is potato scones. For every 8 ozs. of mashed potato I add 2 ozs. of self raising flour and a little salt, grated onion and herbs can also be added, but I like to add grated cheese to the mixture and mix it all together. Divide and roll into little round circles and cook on a griddle or dry frying pan. My ambition is to make enough to freeze some for another day, but no matter how many of these scones that I make they all get eaten within a couple of minutes of being cooked, so it still remains an unfulfilled ambition.

Vegetables

Any cooked, or uncooked vegetables that I have left at the end of the week, including baked beans usually gets thrown into a pot of soup, made with home made stock, if I have any, or else just with a stock cube. If I have any scraps of meat left in the fridge, which is very unusual I throw them in as well. If I am making it as a complete meal I usually add some sort of grain or pulse to it e.g. lentils, rice barley etc.

Fruit

Any fruit left in the house at the end of the week is usually put into a fresh fruit salad. I make a syrup with about four ozs. of sugar and a half pint of water and finely grated orange or lemon rind, when it reaches the syrup stage I add a few a few tablespoons of orange juice and some lemon juice. When it is cooled I pour it over the diced fruit. If I have any rum in the house I had 1-2 tablespoons to the syrup before adding the fruit, though not if the grandchildren are going to be eating it.

Any bananas that have become overripe I use to make a date and banana loaf. here is the recipe
Ingredients 
115 g. (4 ozs.) butter 
115g. (4 ozs.) light soft brown sugar 
115g. (4 ozs.) honey 
2 eggs beaten 
225g. (8 ozs.) self raising flour 
½ teasp. nutmeg 
55g. (2 ozs.) chopped dates 
2 large bananas 
Squeeze of lemon juice 
Preheat oven 180˚C/350˚/Gas Mark 4 and lightly grease and line a 2lb loaf tin 
Beat the butter, sugar and honey together until light and fluffy 
Sift the flour and nutmeg together and fold it into the mixture with a metal spoon 
Meanwhile mash the bananas and mix with the chopped dates, 
Fold this into the loaf mixture, then spoon it into the prepared tin, and bake for 1-1½ hours until golden and firm to the touch. 
Leave it to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire tray to cool 
*When I am watching my weight I usually replace the butter with the same quantity of Lurpak lightest, and the sugar with the same amount of Slender