Trash Talk

Is your pantry like mine the days coming up to payday? Empty of all things deemed yummy by pantry stalkers? Mr nunde has an ongoing joke now because when it gets close to payday and the convenient food is all gone I go all Chef like and cook like I should cook for the entire fortnight. This is when mr nunde expresses his joy at the food he is presented with by saying "Oh, It must be close to payday" and depending on what kind of mood I am in he could be either eating or wearing that plate of delicious food.

Budget

We work to a budget you see. I am very strict about it so if the pantry is bare then I have to get creative and I hate waste. I have tried hiding food but they find it and upon discovering food deemed edible by children they must consume it all with in minutes because rationing isn't in their vocabulary. So like most households, the food just doesn't make it the whole term it was budgeted for unless you apply a lock to the pantry and that might not work either because my teenagers know where the Bolt cutters are.

Ingredients

These are the ingredients I used. Some are modified for 2 reasons a) short supply of said ingredient. b) some old recipes are heavy handed with sugar and butter and this has been reduced where possible because it is better for me and my kids. The taste is just as great I assure you.

Scrounged from the depths of the pantry

2 expensive cereal packets with a bowls worth of product left in each but no one will touch them because it seems in our house you might die if you ever ate the last thing left in any packet.

2 Apples that will never be eaten because mother nature allowed a blemish and in our house, clearly you can die if you eat apples with blemishes.

remnants of choc buds for cooking, yes, even the choc buds can kill you if they are the last few in a packet. 3 rejected packets were found on this occasion.

A packet of frosting - no idea where that came from, I hate frosting.

cream - I cant even remember what I bought that for and I have lost my fortnightly menu (yes, I write a menu, I am Virgo OK and apparently I am supposed to do things like that) I also list it and my fortnightly ingredients on a spreadsheet with cost of said ingredients are stored and totalled. Are you rolling your eyes yet?)

Spring onions roots?

Recipes

Click on pictures for recipes

Custard Cupcakes

Irish Apple Cake

Modified chocky rock (delicious and healthy)

The Homestead Scones - sorry, that recipe is a secret.

The mess

If you buy Spring Onions from the grocer like I do, don't throw the ends out. Plant them! They are awesome and will just keep producing. Great experiment for kids if you cant be bothered.

So there you have it. I have saved money, used up scraps to reduce landfill/compost and provided fresh cooked food for the family. I can hear my mother now...literally because she just said it yesterday,"Melanie, you know you are becoming just like me" to which I argued "I am not, stop saying that" but really I knew I was........ On ya mum!