Sunday 29 September 2013

Doing things my way!

 Inspiration has been running low in the ipie household and to be honest am just fustrated at having nothing to show for stretching the pennies except for paying off a couple of debts. So I have decided to start saving. Now I know this goes against the whole pay your debts off first then start saving due to interest on the debt being etc. But the only debt that there is interest on is the credit card which will remain a priority and regular additional payments will be paid as well as the minimum payment. And am not talking about saving huge amounts of cash just a little each week as am sure this will mount up,So that's my new plan i think this will be a bit more inspiring than just plugging away at the debts and help to keep the whole family focused on our ultimate goal . Hope all my blogging pals are keeping well x

 catch ya later

Sunday 15 September 2013

I am finally mastering this cooking lark!

 As some of follows may know that am not really much of a cook and have been attempting to develop my limited cooking skills so here are a few of my  recent achievements .


 Am really please with this one took seconds to make and only half an hourr to cook am not sure what its actually called but its so yummy the kids scoffed the lot . I just tipped nearly a whole bag of spinach into a cooking dish chucked on  fve of aldi's finest chicken breasts and painted them in aldis stir in pasta sauce chucked them in the oven for half an hour on 190 and volia it was done i served this with homemade wedges and sweetcorn. Though unfortunately i cooked it for a few minutes too long  ( still yummy though) think 25 mins next time . Once served it was gone in a few minutes I didnt even have a chance to make it look nice for the finished photo
  DS1 was convinced he had super powers from the spinach and who was i to argue , Overall a big hit with the kids.

 Another thing i have mastered recently is a Roast chicken so when I found one whoopsied to just £3.00 I thought heres my chance to have a try with one. (hope your proud Sian) it already had seasoning on it  and i may over roasted it slighly

rots
 The little darlings polished this off too am definatley on a roll with this cooking lark ! And last but not least here is my version of sausage casserole as everyone does it slightly differently. One pepper any colour sometimes two halves of different colors if we have had pizza early in the week. A load of mushrooms one onion and here is the cheating bit a packet of  Aldi sausage casserole mix . Now i know that its not exactly cooking from scratch but baby steps and all that.  
 Had chance to arrange this one for the photo check out my specially arranged carrots. Hope all my blogging friends are okay and karen i will defo get a photo of my lasagne especially for you!

Wednesday 4 September 2013

Change for Life on a budget!

 Good afternoon my blogging friends. Well the little darlings went back to school this morning and I have signed all of them up to the Change for life Smart Restart.  One of the challenges is to have a totally healthy pack lunch you can choose often you want to participate in the challenges ( there is  all diffrent ones) we opted for 5 times a week. I feel this is really important especially as there all so fussy and will become less active as winter approaches.
  So Can I do it and stay within budget . So off I pop to my fave supermarket Aldi which is totally ACE. Its really reduced my food bill shopping here and they have such fab stuff too. Now once a month usually towards the end a national newspaper  has £5 off a £ 40 shop voucher for Aldi  which lasts for a week well I cheat a bit and buy two papers then the following week do my top up shop a  day early > Now £40 for a top up shop may seem a bit high for some of my readers but I am feeding a family of 8 and that dosen't come cheap.

So here is what I bought today
 
 That came to a grand total of £61.88 reduced to £56.43. I love food shopping and have been enjoying the whole food budget challenge. I think the most expensive thing is the chicken  i tend to buy breasts to save messing about butt one kilo costs £6.89 Now I know that is cheap  but Tesco have 3 whole chickens  for a £10 . So I think I best try some of these at this price I can use it to fill out the sandwiches add to pasta and salads and in the evening meals too. Now those of you that follow my blog know am nit much of a cook and I am embarrassed to say I have never cooked a whole chicken before so will have to do a bit of research. So any tip readers on how to stretch a chicken readers/?( And Karen if your about  how to cook it too)

bye for now

jx a

P.s Bought a few jars of baby food  a standby  I do normally make all baby Ipie meals .