Hello Dear Reader,
I've had a lovely day. I was asked to come and talk to the ladies breakfast at St. Austell Baptist church. I told them about my journey from debt, to debt freedom, reducing my mortgage and continuing to live well beneath our means. I was made really welcome and I really felt I came away having made new friends. The talk was followed by questions and answers and then sharing between everyone on how to make a pound do the work of a fiver. So many families are struggling and yet, so many of them are finding new creative ways to live as best they can with the resources they have.
I spent all morning there and came home to have lunch in the garden with Dearly Beloved before spending the afternoon walking through some nearby woodland with the dogs.
Supper tonight was venison meatballs. I think venison is a really under rated meat which we often see in our local butchers as sausages, meatballs or burgers. We buy all three versions at some time or other. I have quite a few meatballs in the freezer as they were for sale for 99p for 12 and they were a BOGOF. I will explain this, shops and supermarkets have really good offers some times of Buy one, get one free. A BOGOF. So, I bought several packs and they actually cost me 50p for 12. At that price, I would have eaten them everyday.
Here's what I did.
In one shallow pan, I cooked the meat balls in a little oil with the pan lid on. They took about twenty minutes in all.
The barbeque sauce.
1 onion - finely diced 5p - large bags are on sale in Aldi for 39p a bag.
30ml of olive oil - 9p - Aldi
1 tin of chopped tomatoes - 31- Aldi
50g of demarera sugar 8p - Aldi
50g of Brown sauce - 3p - Tesco Everyday value
50g of Ketchup - 3p - Tesco Everyday value
15ml of soy sauce - 6p - Aldi
4 crushed garlic cloves - 10p - Tesco
1 teaspoon of paprika - 5p
Cheesy parsley mash
Instant mash (Why? I had some that needed using up and no fresh spuds left) 40p
50g of finely grated mature cheddar - 25p - Aldi
1 heaped tablespoon of dried parsley - 5p Aldi
12 venison meatballs - 50p - Tregeagles - Liskeard.
Total supper cost - £2.34 - There was enough for three portions, neither of us can eat six meatballs! I put a portion of mash, meatballs and sauce into a lunch box and have frozen this as a 'ready meal' for when one of us needs it.
The portion price of this was - 78p each!
Whilst the meat balls are cooking, in another pan saute the onions in olive oil.
Next, just add all the other ingredients and simmer for fifteen minutes.
Tip the sauce into the pan with the meatballs and it 'de-glazes' the pan and picks up all the meat juices.
Make up the mash and stir through the cheese and parsley. This would work equally well with sauted or steamed finely sliced leeks.
Serve the meatballs and sauce on a bed of parsley mash.
Perfect autumn food.
Over to you Dear Reader, what would be the perfect easy weekend meal for you as the nights start to get cooler?
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxx