Saturday 7 November 2020

Inexpensive Chidren's Bedroom Ideas

A big financial challenge when raising children is keeping up with their interests and, dare I say it, 'fads'. It's not unreasonable to expect a child to go through their interests quite quickly, as they change from being little children to almost-adults in a few short years. There's a lot of pressure from their peers, too, so subjects that were once everything to them can suddenly seem babyish and uncool. So how do you create a bedroom that will stand the test of time without needing completely revamping every time they go through a new phase? Having raised a couple of teenagers now, I've put together some inexpensive children's bedroom ideas to keep things current without breaking the budget or creating a lot of work for yourself. 
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Thursday 21 September 2017

Free Printable Student Recipes: Easy Special Fried Rice


Cooked Special Fried Rice in a Striped Dish
This is the last in our series of easy student recipes and it's a favourite in our house. It's been a bit difficult to make into a recipe, actually, because I'm so used to just throwing things in, I had to really think about the measurements! It's another recipe which is great for using up leftovers and the ingredients are very flexible. Try adding pineapple, or peas, or you could replace the bacon with ham, or make a vegetarian version by leaving the bacon out and replacing the chicken with quorn. It's a great opportunity to experiment and make this dish your own. I hope you've enjoyed our fun recipes, click the link to try our Easy Stuffed Peppers. 
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Thursday 14 September 2017

Free Printable Student Recipes: Easy Stuffed Peppers


Stuffed green pepper on a bed of salad.
Moving day is fast approaching for students all over the country, and I'm still digging through the archives to find the best easy, low cost recipes to help them on their way. Today's recipe is number five in the series and is vegetarian. I didn't think it would be possible to improve on the simplicity of the last recipe, but, believe it or not, this one contains just two ingredients. That's right, two, but it's such a big cheat, it looks like it took lots of effort and is also pretty nutritious. If you are not vegetarian, you can serve these as part of a ham or chicken salad, but they make a pretty yummy lunch as well.
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Sunday 10 September 2017

Free Printable Student Recipes: Easy Cheesy Pork Steaks


Pork steaks with apple sauce and cheese
Day four of our student recipes, and they are getting even easier! If you haven't been keeping up, I have been making some of our easiest recipes into easy to follow recipe cards, that students can take with them as they embark on their new chapters. Hopefully it will lead to a less noodle-filled existence! This recipe only has three ingredients, and requires very little preparation. It takes half an hour to cook and is really delicious. It is a clever twist on what would otherwise be quite a boring meal and can make you look like you really know what you are doing with this cooking lark, even when you don't! Recipe 3 is here
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Thursday 7 September 2017

Free Printable Student Recipes: Easy Corned Beef Hash


A cooked Corned Beef Hash dish, straight out of the oven. Day three of our student recipes and this is one of the first recipes I learned to cook. It's a real comfort food favourite and there are variations of it around the country, including this Panakalty recipe from Sunderland. Corned beef isn't nearly as cheap as it used to be, but is a handy tin to have in the cupboard, in case you can't get to the shops and is often on offer in some of the budget shops that are all over our high streets these days. This recipe shows how to transform a simple tinned meat into a delicious, home cooked dish, using just four additional ingredients. The uncooked mixture can also be folded in pastry to make the most delicious Corned Beef Pasty too, if there's any left over. Recipe 2 is here.
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Tuesday 5 September 2017

Free Printable Student Recipes: Easy French Bread Pizza


Cooked French bread pizza with ham and pineapple. Day two of our student recipes and this one is particularly popular with young children too. It's very cheap to make because you can use food you have in the house for the toppings, even your fridge leftovers. Vegetables, cooked meats, even fruit, you can let you imagination go wild! It's a great way of finding out what you do and don't like on a pizza and to ensure all your leftovers get used up, saving you, or your student offspring, money. Baguettes and French sticks are often reduced to clear in supermarkets towards the end of the day, so there is more potential to save money, and you could even go for a flavoured bread for an added twist. Recipe 1 is here.
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Monday 4 September 2017

Free Printable Student Recipes: Easy Sausage Casserole


A plate of cooked sausage casserole on a bed of rice. If you have students starting University soon, this may be the series for you. All this week, I will be posting recipe cards, which you can download and print, featuring some of our favourite easy, cheap recipes. You can either give them to your nest-flying offspring to take with them, or use them to teach younger children how to cook. It's never too early to learn about budgeting and cooking your own meals, and these are so easy, it's a great place to start. Children are more likely to eat something they cook themselves, so it can help expand their menu a bit too! This Sausage Casserole contains just four ingredients and takes under half an hour to make. 
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Tuesday 11 October 2016

How I Halved the Cost of a School Packed Lunch


Cubed cheese in pot, with title overlayedEveryone begins the school year with the best of intentions. Get up earlier, put clothes out the night before, locate all the shoes in good time, remember to read the newsletter, etc, etc. Not all of them will last the term, but there was one aspect of the school day that I really wanted to change this year. The lunch box. My initial thought was to try to reduce the amount of packaging we were using, but there was also an unexpected benefit too. The amount we spent drastically reduced. Happily, even a slightly fussy eater is tucking in just as enthusiastically as he was before and it really doesn't take much longer to prepare, either.

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Saturday 27 August 2016

Easy Chicken and Bacon Pasta



This recipe is so easy to make, it's barely a blog post at all! I thought it was a good time to post it, as a new batch of students are beginning to think about life at university. If you click the Recipes tab, you'll find lots of other easy-to.make recipes for practising cooking skills, most requiring just a few, low cost ingredients. Our two favourites are Easy Sausage Casserole and our Baked Salmon recipe. Today's recipe is a bit of a cheat, because it involves a tin of soup, but it's cheap and tasty, so I think it's acceptable. Read on, to find out how you can turn a tin of soup, into this...

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Saturday 13 February 2016

Carrot Soup with Asda's Wonky Veg Box!



Close up of the contents of the wonky veg box, with title overlaidFor Day 5 of Wonky Veg Week, I thought we had better make some carrot soup, as it's one of L's favourite foods. It's a great way to squeeze some nutrition into children, as it's quite sweet and a fun colour and is often a favourite for a cold winter's day. Our veg is starting to run out now, but it has lasted well and was definitely worth the £3.50 it cost for the 5kg box. So far it has made; Leek Pastry Slices, Stuffed Peppers, Spanish Omelette and has provided the veg for our Sunday roast. Not bad for the outlay and it's been fun thinking up imaginative recipes, whilst getting away from boring convenience foods. 
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Thursday 11 February 2016

Ham and Leek Pastry Slices with Asda's Wonky Veg


It's Day 4 of Wonky Veg week, where we've been trying out Asda's new initiative and seeing how far we can make £3.50 worth of vegegtables stretch. You can read our initial thoughts in our First Impressions post. We still have onions, carrots, a few spuds and a lonely leek to go. I'm feeling a bit sorry for that leek, all alone in that big box, so this is his time to shine! A great excuse for a massive pie, if you ask me! It's not really a pie, it tastes like pie, but is easier to make, as you don't need to line a tin. This is my recipe for Leek and Ham slices.

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Tuesday 9 February 2016

Leftovers Omelette with Asda's Wonky Veg Box


An Omelette with title overlaid
It's Day 3 of the Wonky Veg Box from Asda. Today we are looking at what we can do with a red pepper and some potatoes and a very small onion. There are lots of onions in the box, but more about that another day. You can see the full list of what else was in it, in my Wonky Veg Box First Impressions or have a look at Day 2's recipe; Easy Stuffed Peppers, if you fancy it. As well as the onion, potato and red pepper from the box, I also had some mushrooms and sausages to use up, so I have no idea what to call this recipe. It's a kind of Brunch Omelette, I suppose. Anyway, here goes...

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Monday 8 February 2016

Easy Stuffed Peppers with Asda's Wonky Veg Box


Green  peppers and cous cous with title overlaidYesterday, I offered my first impressions of Asda's latest big idea to lessen waste and boost the profits of farmers, as well as providing cheap, healthy food to customers. The Wonky Veg Box is packed with imperfect seasonal veg and provides a wealth of opportunities to get creative with meals. Today's recipe will take care of the green peppers and use up the cabbage left over from yesterday's roast dinner. Stuffed pepers look quite exotic when served, but are ridiculously easy to make, as is the homemade coleslaw. It's all pretty healthy too! 
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Monday 24 August 2015

Cheesy Apple Pork Steaks


Cheesy Apple Pork SteaksDo you suffer from apathy in the kitchen? Are you bored with standard meat and gravy dishes?! I flipping am, but I also don't always have time to think up exciting meals from scratch. Wholesome homemade food is always a prefered choice, but it's not always possible to have all the ingredients and time. Sometimes, you want something almost as easy as a takeaway, but without the expense or health implications. So,  here is another of my ultra-lazy, super-easy, meal twists, to transform a dull meal in minutes. It's so easy, it doesn't even need words. It just needs:

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Wednesday 20 May 2015

Nutritious, Low Cost, Three Minute Scrambled Egg!


Scrambled Egg on Toast with Title OverlaidThe humble egg often gets overlooked these days as part of a healthy diet, but, in terms of nutrition versus cost, you really can't 'beat it' (ahem). Containing just 70 calories each, along with high quality protein, there are also a host of B vitamins, minerals and even trace elements of Phosphorus, all packed into its relatively tiny shell. There are lots of different ways to create a healthy lunch, with hardly any effort, using eggs and it's a great way to fill you up and prevent that pesky mid-afternoon snack craving. There is a recipe for  Lazy Eggs with Ham here, but today, I thought I would share with you a favourite of mine, which takes just three ingredients and literally two minutes to cook.

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Wednesday 22 April 2015

Caramelised Carrots Make Veg Fun!


This caramelised carrot recipe is very simple to make, using just a few ingredients, and is always really popular with children, due to the sweetness. Happily, it offers a good way to get vegetables into even the most reluctant vegetable consumer. However, as they do contain sugar, they are not the healthiest of vegetable options, so are probably best reserved for a delicious occasional treat. They do get children used to the texture of vegetables though, so might be one to consider if you are in possession of a really committed fussy eater.


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Thursday 9 April 2015

Why Pay More for Hot Chocolate?


Two Hot Chocolate Mugs
I recently ran out of hot chocolate and was surprised to find out just how easy it is to make a really delicious hot chocolate, using just milk, sugar and Cocoa. This particularly appealed to me, because I don't get on well with dairy and try to avoid it if I can. The shop-bought hot chocolate I was used to was one you made with water, so the milk was already added. Not only does this mean you have to suffer the dairy content, but also, like all processed foods, there are lots of other ingredients too that aren't strictly necessary. Take this example from Tesco. This is a list of ingredients for their Value hot chocolate;
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Tuesday 3 March 2015

A Really Easy Toastie Twist!


Cheese and other stuff on toast
Fed up with unimaginative cheese on toast? Here's a way you can jazz it up, with very little cost or effort! This lunchtime recipe is super-simple to make and can be adapted to use up all kinds of left overs you may have languishing, unloved, in your fridge. It's a straight forward twist on classic Cheese on Toast. All you need to start you off is grated cheese and tomato puree, the rest is up to you! Here is how I made mine, but you can add or remove ingredients to suit your taste and budget. You can also use french bread, or pitta bread, which makes it more like a pizza.

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Monday 9 February 2015

Bolognese Pitta Pocket!


Bolognese Pitta Pocket
Quick recipe for a delicious lunch! A recipe involving my favourite ingredient, leftovers!
If you enjoy a homemade Spaghetti Bolognese, you probably, like me, make far too much. I don't know what it is about anything involving mince, but I always overdo the portions. It may be because it's easy to forget how filling it is. No matter how scrumptious and lovingly created it is, you can still only cram in so much. Fear not, though, because I have a suggestion that means you can relive your favourite meal, as a delicious lunchtime treat!
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Wednesday 26 November 2014

Corned Beef Hash


Corned Beef HashCorned Beef Hash is one of the first recipes I ever learned to cook and is brilliant if you are lacking fresh ingredients, but craving something home cooked. This is another recipe that is fun to do with children, as there's a lot of messy mashing and mixing involved and it all helps towards encouraging children to try new things and be confident around food. It's not the cheap staple it used to be because, unfortunately, corned beef has shot up in price over the years, making this dish far less budget than it used to be, but it is very convenient as home-cooked dishes go and it does fill a useful gap in the menu if you ever get snowed in!
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