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Slow Cooker Tomato & Chilli Chutney

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I hate waste. We were recently given a lot of tomatoes from a family member and as well as making Sundried tomatoes I decided to give Slow Cooker chutney a whirl.

I love chutney, I’ve made it several times on the hob and it’s always delicious. I really wanted to try and make some tomato and chilli chutney as it’s my favourite but I didn’t have the time or the energy to spend standing at the stove so I decided to give it a whirl in the slow cooker and woohoo it worked. Now I don’t normally abide by strict quantities for making chutney but I wrote down what I used this time and you can probably be a little flexible with it. This makes a fairly sweet chutney perfect for pairing with a strong cheese or in a nice ham toastie. Next time I make some I will change to red wine vinegar instead of sherry for a milder taste. You could also increase the chilli content for more of a kick – this is quite a subtle heat.

Slow Cooker Tomato & Chilli Chutney

You will need:


2 large red onions diced
750g of tomatoes, roughly chopped ( any variety you like or have a lot of)
3 apples, peeled, cored and chopped ( I used Gala)
1 cube of frozen ginger or an inch of fresh ( the frozen dissolves but fresh needs to be diced)
200g dark brown sugar
200g light brown sugar
175ml sherry vinegar
1 small dried or fresh chilli diced finely or 1/2 tsp of chilli flakes
150g of sultanas diced

Place all ingredients into your slow cooker and stir well. Place the lid on and cook in high for 5 hours. Don’t peek. Open up and stir again and leave on low for 8-10 hours. To thicken it more you can leave the lid off for last 30/40 mins of cooking but otherwise just spoon into jars leaving most of the liquid in the slow cooker. This made 2 large jars of chutney and it’s absolutely delicious.

You can eat it straight away as it’s a slow cooked chutney but it will be even better after storing for a few weeks.

I re use my jars so I wash thoroughly then sterilise in a hot oven.

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These would make fabulous Christmas gifts..if you can keep your hands off them for that long!

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And So This Is Christmas..

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Sorry. No really I’m sorry. Posting about Christmas in October? I am really sorry.

Go away now if you aren’t quite ready yet. I won’t be offended.

Arrgghhhhhhhh where did you all go?

Last week I asked on my social media channels if people were ready for some festive posts and I was surprised. A few of you said woah there but most of you are more than ready for a glass of baileys and Fairy tale of New York. I went with the majority..

Ok so I’m excited about Christmas this year. More so than last year.

Izzy is at the absolute best age for Christmas. Three years old.

Full of wonder at everything and still too young to doubt Old Santa Claus.

I’m already planning EVERYTHING I want to do with her and Chloe.

Chloe will be too young to participate in a lot of things but I’m excited to see her face around the Christmas lights and at the carol concerts – she loves a good singsong.

It’s also something positive, something fun and something to aim towards. I need this.

Not at all scary that I will be back in work then. No not at all. Really. Hmmmmmmm.

So you can expect lots of Christmas on the blog this year.

Recipes, Gift ideas, crafting fun.. Thrifty DIY hampers.. Festive photos and more….

I’ve nearly finished my Christmas present shopping for my (rather large) family. Now onto planning our Christmas menu. The best part hey?

And I’ve already made the chutney 🙂

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Have you started planning Christmas?

Slow Cooker Chicken- Part 2 Noodle Soup

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You may remember that a few weeks ago I posted a recipe – well less of a recipe and more of a how to on how to cook a whole chicken in the slow cooker. You can find that post here.

As I’ve said before it’s not as golden and gorgeous to look at as a typical roast but the flavour and succulent meat is worth it.

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We enjoyed it so much that we have since made it several times and we manage to make about 3 meals out of it.

First of all, you will need:

1 medium chicken and veg cooked via the method in the post above ( with addition of celery and sweet potato)
1 cup of frozen peas
An additional 150ml of hot water
Black pepper
Dried spaghetti – about 100g broken into smallish pieces
*You could add salt if needed but we didn’t due to young baby

Last night I slow cooked a medium whole chicken following pretty much the same guide as in my last blog post but adding sweet potatoes and long strips of celery and I didn’t add any olive oil – purely because I didn’t want an oily stock. I also forgot to add any herbs which hasn’t affected the recipe I’m about to share. So I cooked the chicken for 5 hours on high then removed it and left the veg/juices/stock of which there were a lot to cool. Once cooled I placed in the fridge and this morning I skimmed off the fat.

I then returned the stock/veg to the slow cooker ( minus the celery which I love but my kids find a little stringy) along with 150ml ( approx) water, about 1/3 of the roast chicken which I had stripped and shredded the night before and the frozen peas/black pepper. I turned on low and cooked for about 4 hours. For the last 20 mins or so I turned up to high and added my dried spaghetti pieces. You could use fresh egg noodles which won’t require as much time. Check that the pasta is cooked and serve immediately.

slow cooker chicken noodle soup

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It’s comfort in a bowl. It’s hard to find a broth which tastes that good. It served two hungry adults for lunch, toddler and a weaning baby as well as a big tub for lunch tomorrow.

Enjoy 🙂

Saving Energy, Water and Time with Happier Homes

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I’m on the final additional unpaid part of my maternity leave right now and it’s making me take a long hard look at my budget and where I can save pennies. It’s also making me address the fact that when I go back to work I am going to be quite time poor which means household jobs need to be quick and efficient if I’m going to get anytime at all to spend with my family.

I’ve been sent some info by Happier Homes with advice on how to save energy and also how to save water – handy if you are on a water meter or if you just want to be a bit more environmentally friendly.

Some of the tips were things I had heard before but a couple of things surprised me.

Did you know that it’s better for you and the environment if you use a dishwasher? We have only had a dishwasher for about two years but I wouldn’t be without it now. I always thought that using up electricity to wash dishes meant it was a rather luxurious way to do your dishes and I actually believed it was costing me more money to wash up this way.

But no.

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* Intertek UK 2010 Washing up Study. For more details download the full findings here
** Comparison calculations assume:
One meal per person equates to one place setting washed up
Data from Intertek Study of washing up place settings by hand vs in a dishwasher
Average water and energy costs supplied by uSwitch.com

As a mum of four who cooks a LOT and uses a fair amount of dishes/pans for each meal I was astonished to find that I was saving myself nearly 700 hours a year just by not doing the washing up by hand.. And just think of the benefits to my sensitive hands too 🙂

Oh and it saves money too of course. Over £200 in fact. I easily cook a minimum of 50 meals a week. I normally cook at least two meals each day at home for four of us.

And of course there is the issue of water. Saving approximately 600litres per week. Wow.

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Does that surprise you? I wonder how many people thought along the same lines as I did and I wonder how many more people would buy a dishwasher if they knew?

Onto the washing machine..

I always knew that washing clothes at a lower temp was cheaper and obviously a bit more ‘green’ but I didn’t think about the fact that washing machines have improved so much over the years and also a lot of the washing powders have built in stain removal now meaning you can wash at 30 or 40 now and have pretty much the same results as washing at 60 would have given you a few years ago. Good to know.

One washing machine tip is to run a very hot wash every now and again to avoid a musty smell from occurring when you wash frequently at lower temps. I tend to put in a load of towels for a hot wash once a month to combat this.

I hope this informations has been helpful. Do you have any extra tips for helping to save energy and water around the home?

Here are a final few bits of advice:

*When you go shopping, take a reusable bag with you.
*Don’t leave appliances on standby
*In the kitchen, when cooking, keep lids on pans as much as you can, to reduce heat loss.
*Don’t keep the fridge or freezer door open for longer than necessary.
*Cook meals in bulk.
*Only boil the amount of water you need.

*This post is in collaboration with Happier Homes.

Meal Plan Monday

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It’s been a few weeks since my last meal plan – sorry!

We have been away and things have been just chaotic.

This weeks meal plan is going to be made up of using things up in my cupboard. My maternity leave budget is dwindling so thrifty meals ahoy.

Monday:

Burgers with homemade chips

Tuesday:

Chicken Thighs in a succulent sauce with sweet potato mash.

Wednesday:

Red Lentil Curry with homemade flatbreads

Thursday:

Spag Bol

Friday:

Veggie Soup with croutons ( using up any stale bread)

Saturday:

Cheese and Potato Pie with a giant salad.

Money Saving 2014 Part 1 – The stock take

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It’s not a resolution as such but every year I make the effort to save money. This year I need to be even thriftier than usual as for a good chunk of it I will be on maternity leave and earning a lot less.

As always I will be sharing my tips with you.

The first thing I recommend that you all do is take stock. Literally. I did this last year and it really worked so well for us. I emptied my food cupboards, gave them a good clean and repacked them but whilst doing so I kept a tally in my notebook of exactly what was in there. You could keep your results in your notebook or stick in sheets inside your cupboard doors. This year I have my new pantry so I MUST be more organised. I have no more excuses,

For example:

3 X cartons of passata
2 X tins of chickpeas
3 X pasta twists

Etc etc

You can them amend whenever you use something so you know when to replenish.

I then did the same with both my fridge and freezer. When I had finished I sat down and meal planned for the following month. I was pretty amazed at the time to realise I had enough food in my house to feed us for 20 days with just a minimal fresh food spend of £20 per week for the remainder of the month. Crazy huh?

From then I did a big shop (approx £90-100) at the beginning of each month followed by weekly fresh food only shops of £20. I saved lots of money and I found that by meal planning we were all eating better meals and wasting less. I hate waste. When I got pregnant and had really bad morning sickness it all went a bit wrong and I stopped most of my frugal ways but I am determined to do better this year.

I am going to use my slow cooker more to free up my afternoons and evenings but also so I can use cheaper cuts of meat along with the mountains of chickpeas and butter beans I seem to have accumulated.

Tomorrow I will write up the results of this years stock take and the meals I plan from it as well as my new weekly shopping budget.

I will continue to share my money saving ideas and any tips you have are gratefully received.

Join me. Save some pennies.

Lazy leftover pasta

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Sometimes it gets to that point in the week when I should really have done my weekly shop but for one reason or another I haven’t got around to it so I scrabble around in the fridge and cupboards to pull together a meal – usually pasta.

My leftover pasta dishes are very adaptable, I make a different version most weeks but this weeks was super tasty so thought I would share it with you:

Lazy Leftover Pasta

You will need:

2 sausages ( cooked and chopped or roughly chopped and cooked from raw)
1/4 of a large courgette cubed
4 shallots diced
3 overripe tomatoes chopped roughly
1-2 garlic cloves diced
1/2 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes or half a fresh red chilli diced
Crushed black peppercorns
Fresh herbs ( I used basil as needed to use it up but any you have or dried would be fine)
150ml of single cream ( to make a healthier version swap with tin of chopped tomatoes)
Olive oil
Leftover cheese (whatever you have – I had cheddar)
300g pasta ( anything you have – I used twists)

* You could add in peppers/vegetables but I only used what as in my fridge or you could use chorizo instead of sausage – I had run out and needed to use up my sausage.

Put your pasta on to cook according to packet instructions.
Fry your chopped sausages with a little olive oil over a medium heat along with your onions and garlic, when browned add your courgette,tomatoes and herbs as well as chilli flakes and pepper. Slowly cook over a medium heat until meat is cooked and everything else has softened. Reduce the heat and add your cream. Within a few seconds your cream will turn a light pinky colour. Drain your pasta and add to your pan stirring well.

Serve immediately topped with a little grated cheese and I also threw on some (slightly limp)rocket and a little more pepper. Yum.

It was delicious, slightly naughty and indulgent due to the cream and with a kick from the chilli flakes.

This served two very hungry adults ( one pregnant) and with leftovers for my OH to take to work. If you were making for children you may want to leave out the chilli flakes or reduce slightly depending on their taste buds.

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Link up your recipe of the week

How to spend less

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Last Winter I wrote 6 blog posts on how to spend less, they were really popular and have recently started receiving a lot of views again. I guess we are all trying to be more thrifty these days.

Coming up to Christmas we could all do with some extra pennies so here are the links to the 6 posts ..some maybe useful..some not so much but they definitely helped me and just re reading them today has inspired me to start being more frugal again.

How to spend less. Part 1

How to spend less. Part 2

How to spend less. Part 3

How to spend less. Part 4

How to spend less. Part 5

How to spend less. Part 6

Charity Shop Treasures

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I love my local charity shops. We visit them at least 2-3 times a month and I buy 90% of my books from them. One of my favourite shops sells ALL of their books for 10p each and although there is some trash in there ( think old Mills & Boon ) there are also some real treasures. On our last visit I may have bought 8 books.. OOPS but that was just 80p.

In my stash of books I had:

*The Good Housekeeping Cookery Compendium ( published in 1952 ) – this is amazing..so many old recipes and tips. Some absolutely brilliant adverts in there:

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*Nigel Slater “Toast” – this book tells the story of Nigel Slaters childhood and his early food memories. As a big fan of Nigel Slater I found it really interesting and it definitely got me craving some old favourites like rice pudding and good old mash.

*The Diving bell and the butterfly – this is an incredible film and I’m looking forward to reading the book

I also bought a Jodi Picoult, a Danielle Steel and 3 others whose names escape me at the moment.

That was just on one recent trip. In the past few years I’ve bought numerous baby and toddler items, maternity clothes, a stroller, a Samsonite changing bag (for a bargain £3) retro luggage, Mary Berrys first cookery books and some really cool glass bottles and wooden ornaments for the house. I often get the look of scorn from friends when I say something they have admired has come from a charity shop but you know what I don’t care. There is nothing to be embarrassed about. We regularly donate to our local shops and encourage everyone we know to do so.

Anyway slightly random post I guess but I was thinking about it the other day and wondered if my readers also visit their local shops or donate to them? Have you had any amazing finds?