Scones - Quick Frugal Fodder

*I'm moving all my food recipes from my normal blog to this one - so some of these are 'something I did earlier' - excuse the duplication but we make these 15 minute scones, just about every other day. Perfect every time and a great way to use up sour milk, or excess milk. To be honest if there's a day  the milk goes over to smelling a bit funny - we make these. Or we label the going off milk as 'for scones' and throw it into the freezer for when we fancy them. Seems better than chucking milk away and they rise so beautifully with sour milk. (Fresh milk works just as nicely too).

The fifteen minute scone routine is thus:
Oven on (highest setting),
Find a bowl/cutter/cup measure/knife out cupboard,
Get a tray out too.

Ingredients
2 cups SR Flour
1 TBSP sugar
Pinch salt
1TBSP butter/marg/oil
3/4-1 cup Milk

Lob all dry ingredients into bowl** - (2 cups sr flour, 1tbsp sugar), dust tray with flour, then lob in 1tbsp butter to dry ingredients, rub in  butter, then grab butter knife and add 3/4-1 cup of milk to the dry ingredients - mix with knife until a soft dough forms, then stop and onto floured board.

Don't over mix or kneed, life's too short for rock hard scones. Minimal handling makes for better scones - lightly pat until the mix is about 1" thick, you'll thank me for it. Honestly LESS is more in this case.

Cut into shapes - a glass does the job just as well as a cutter - honest.

Lob into oven, timer on for 12 minutes - which is a perfect amount of time to tidy up and get a cup of tea ready.

After your twelve minutes - out they come. If you can get them into a tea towel in a basket or on a plate it helps to keep them nice and soft. Serve to suit we often have these at breakfast, if you're a bit pushed for time, you can always get the dry ingredients ready the night before and add the butter/milk first thing - pop into oven, get dressed and instant brekkie.......

These really are best eaten the same day - or frozen once just cold and used as you like. We never quite get to the 'freezing' stage in our house. 

Perfect frugal fodder for breakfast, elevenses, lunch, tea or supper.

 

Cost - if using 'value' flour roughly 20-30p a batch.

 

Like they ever get to supper........

 

Until next time - if you've got some milk that's on the turn - why not think I've got 15 minutes I'll just make some 'scones'.

 

Happy Scoffing.

 

** this recipe is adaptable to add fruit/cheese/herbs into your scones. You would normally add flavourings after the rubbing in stage at the start and before you add the milk. Obviously if they're a 'sweet scone' keep the sugar. If savoury omit it, just saying.........

Raw porridge - AKA HM muesli

Breakfast. Oats, seeds, nuts and coconut shavings. All from the stores. I love DIY muesli, less sugar, more variety and pretty frugal.

 

Porridge for brekkie has been inspired by both my £50 quid September budget for food. And, other frugal bloggers like Essex Hebridean,  Frugaldom and many others.

 

If you've some cool hints for brekkies leave me a link to your patch!

 

 

Oats are a super food don't you know - Happy Scoffing!

Yorkies - traditional, cheap and cheerful.

*I'm moving all my food recipes from my normal blog to this one - so some of these are 'something I did earlier' - excuse the duplication! Yorkies or Yorkshire puddings are a main stay in this household. Great way to make a bit of meat go further - or to have a 'meatless' roast dinner - just make these and a pile of veggies, you'll not miss the meat. They can be a much maligned misunderstood fodder. Some folks say they can't make them. I say they can. This recipe is fool proof. I am a fool and even I can do it. Therefore 'fool proof'. Simples. Onwards to the recipe.

Dear Manchild,
As requested here's the new start of the recipes you often ask for.
As you've claimed this recipe as your own for years, I don't know why I'm even writing this down for you, you already know it off by heart. Cheap as chips, yorkies are a great fill up food which costs pennies.

If you're eating these straight away, put your oven on at the highest setting. If you're making them earlier in the day to let the mix rest (always good) then prep the mix and put the oven on to heat about 30 minutes before you want to serve these. Put oil in your tray and put this in the oven, it needs to get really, really, really hot. Or the mix won't work, simplest fact about Yorkshires is if the ovens not hot enough it won't work and look like a flopped pancake.

Ingredients

1 cup of plain flour

1 cup of milk/water or beer

2 eggs

2 tbsp oil or dripping (funny white greasy stuff you'll find in the butchers or in the chill cabinet)

Equipment

A jug or bowl for mixing

A bun tray or a large oven tray

Oven gloves

Time - 20 minutes cooking, 10 minutes preparation

Temperature - highest on oven 220 degrees C

 

Measure out ingredients into a bowl or a jug - measure flour before wet ingredients as its less messy to clean afterwards. Sour milk works as well as fresh, water does at a push, using beer is fab - but on the other hand, as a student you might want to drink the beer. Its traditional.

Thoroughly mix the ingredients. Lumpy yorkshire pudding is not your friend, its quite manly (or womanly) to use a kitchen gadget to help you to do this like a hand blender, an electric whisk or a food processor. Or, if you want to get this whipped by hand, think of something or someone annoying and go for it. The batter should be thin and free from lumps. If you're making this in advance, pop it in the fridge until its needed. If you're using it straight away make sure the bun trays/oven dish is hot, the oil wants to be smoking quite scarily.  Pour into the dishes carefully and put straight into the oven. It should take about 20 minutes and is ready when these are puffed up and golden brown.

And we all know you can drop sausages, turkey, chicken, beef or vegetables  into the mix to make many a tea.
 

Serve with mash, gravy and some vegetables, or just dunk in gravy!

One day I'll see if I can take a decent photo of my own, but don't hold your breath.

Love

Mum

Happy Scoffing.

Frugal Food - Meatballs

Now when is a beef burger, not a beef burger. When its a meatball. I often see reduced burgers in the chill cabinet - its not really my kind of food. But with a bit of TLC two beefburgers (usually with a high meat content) can be turned into a hearty meal. Simply cut up the burgers like cake segments, roll and brown in a pan. Add some stock and lots of home grown veggies to bulk it up, and thicken the stock.

Served with mash or rice or flat breads - the one time burgers make a meaty feast.

These burgers were lurking in the freezer - a reduced bargain lobbed in the depths of the kitchen ice caverns for later.

 

As its a use it up month in my house - during our £50 September grocery challenge - the stores and the ice caverns will be raided lots. You can hear more about that HERE on my 'tother long suffering blog.

 

The burgers were 74% Scots beef - its not quite been BBQ weather up here. Whilst the weathers been grim and outdoor eating not really an option, I've gained a delicious cosy supper.

 

 

Burgers 120p, veggies and tatties free.

Transformed into meatballs, tea for four folks. Whilst I know 30p each isn't as frugal as some folks can manage - I'm chuffed I took decent quality nosh and turned it into something we'd all eat.

 

This months got off to a great start.

 

My £50 quid is intact and I've made tomorrows tea :)

 

Until next time - Happy Frugal Scoffing.