No shampoo! Or, Another revelation.

I decided this week I would try out a method of hair washing I had heard about a number of times recently.

This method involves no shampoo, only baking soda, water and apple cider vinegar.

If it were to work, I would be able to cut my $20 bottle(s!) of shampoo out of the shopping budget, AND, I would stop lacing my scalp with a mixture of Sodium laurel sulphate, Methlyparaben and Ethylparaben, to name but a few of the less desirable ingredients.

I'm a bit particular about my hair, it's dark, longish and wavyish and I like it.
(Ok, this is an old photo, this lil guy is 5 now, but my hair is largely the same.
Umm, just more grey.)

Usually, I like it.

But not right now because I'm sporting a REALLY BAD HAIRCUT which I detailed here.

However, a really bad haircut combined with nasty looking greasy hair would be much worse, so I decided the time is right to try this new method, as I am not working outside the home. Mostly.

The worst that would happen is the lifeguards at the pool would reel back in horror and the other mums in the playground would keep their distance.

So try it I did.

And it works!

My hair is just as it should be, apart from the bad haircut of course.

It's not greasy, or too dry, or heaven forbid, smelling of vinegar.

And a big positive, my scalp is much less itchy than it has been lately, I have a feeling all the nasties in my expensive shampoo where drying out and irritating my scalp.

Here's what to do if you would like to try it:

Wet your hair. Duh.

Make a thickish paste of baking soda with a bit of water.

Massage the paste onto your scalp.

Rinse it off well.

Mix about 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar with 3/4's cup of water. More or less.

Rinse your scalp and the length of your hair with this.

Rinse with water. Or not. I did.

Dry as normal.

How easy, and cheap, and environmentally friendly is that???

I love it!

Homemade chicken nuggets - yum yum yum!

Do your kids love chicken nuggets? Do YOU like them too? 

Well if you'd like to see what's in a McD's chicken nugget, have a look at this post on cheeseslave.com.

Not something you really want to feed your family is it, but there are times when you want something fast-foodish and tasty that you can whip up in an instant.

Try out this recipe, it's pretty simple though not quite instantaneous, but it can be frozen in advance.

Chicken nuggets

(or strips or bites or whatever you want to call them)

• Slice 3 chicken breast fillets into 1cm or 1/2 inch thick strips. Now you can either leave them long or cut them into shorter pieces, I tend to leave them long.

• Marinate them in yoghurt or kefir for a couple of hours. 

• Prepare a plate of breadcrumbs (homemade from the dry ends of the loaves work a treat).

• Add some salt and pepper to the crumbs, and a pinch of paprika. You could actually use any combination of spices you like. Mix.

• Roll each strip in the bread crumbs, then lay them out on a greased tray.

• Bake in a pre-heated oven at about 200c/400F for approximately 20 minutes.  

Dipping sauce

(I am not a fan of sweet sauces, but I imagine if you are, a sweet chilli sauce would work well with these.)

This is the sauce I made: 

• sour cream
• milk
• garlic
• spring onion
• salt and pepper

• Chop the garlic and spring onions very small - DON'T use too much garlic, raw garlic is pretty strong.

• Mix everything together with just enough milk to get the sauce to a consistency you like.

Notes: 

I bake these rather than fry them because if I do fry them I tend to leave the breadcrumb coating stuck to the bottom of the pan...

And the oil spits, which I really don't like.

You could probably use other cuts of chicken successfully.

You can dredge the strips in flour rather than crumbs, but my family prefer the crunch the crumbs give.

If you want to prep these in advance, freeze them individually on a tray while they're still uncooked.

Then bag them up in usable portions.

And if you can, use pastured chicken, like these happy gals below.

Happy eating!

Bake Your Own Bread

I've been making all our bread for a while now, but the latest,

and by faaaaaaar the easiest bread I have tried is Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a Day.

This is a no-knead bread, which is why it is so quick and easy.

You quickly mix the dough in one bowl, then keep it in the fridge, taking a chunk out and cooking it whenever you need some bread.

And just LOOK at the results...mmmmmmm...

It looks tasty,

It slices well,

(well, it would if you could wait until it cooled to start hacking it up...)

And the whole family liked it.

Ticks all boxes.

There are a few benefits to making your own bread, and cost savings is only one of them.

Although you can often get fairly cheap bread, sometimes day old at the store or corner bakery, you'll find it's nowhere near as fresh (obviously, right?), or healthy, as your own home made bread.

For example, if you live in Australia, nearly all bread you can buy in the store has been fortified with various things, the latest being folate. (See my rant on that here)

And the long-term effects of extra folate on people who do not need it.....meaning anyone who's NOT pregnant.....are unknown.

So, making your own makes sense all round.

Buy your flour in bulk, either in the store (though check if it's had folate added) or online to keep costs minimal.

To store it, a bayleaf in the bag will keep bugs away, but try and find a lidded container for storing large amounts. Sometimes you can scrounge these sort of containers from delis or bakeries, where they may have stored yoghurt, pickles, jams or something similar.

Ask around.

Try out some of the different types of flours available. I use spelt flour, spelt being an ancient grain, higher in protein and lower in gluten than wheat flour. You could also try kamut flour, or experiment with gluten free bread. Or buy and grind your wheat, maybe sprouting it first.

The possibilities are endless.

And it makes the house smell so good!

Home made sausage rolls - sort of

I made my own sausage rolls today....well, sort of. What I actually did was squeeze the sausage meat out of the grass finished beef sausages I get from the farmers market and made my own pastry. Now, I wouldn't do that with regular old supermarket or corner butcher sausages, but I've spoken to this farmer and his family and know where the meat is coming from and how it's raised.

If you happen to live in Victoria, Family Farmed Meats turn up at farmers markets to the South and East of Melbourne and you can actually place an order online and pick it up at your nominated market. Love it.

And I just noticed on their website they will home deliver in Metro Melbourne and regional areas too. Get together with a friend or two and do yourselves a favour by ordering some healthy meat.

Once I'd finished squeezing out my saussies I had a duh thought and rang this farmer up. I asked if they could prepare an un-sausaged pack of sausage meat for me to pick up at my local market. Of course they can, no problem at all.
Did I say I love it?!

Ok, back to my sausage rolls.
I pulled my pre-rolled pastry sheets out of the freezer (yes, I do still have the odd instant, ready-made indulgence) and then had a thought to check the ingredient list. Oh yuck. Darn, there goes that time saving ploy.

Next time saving idea: can I make pastry in my Thermomix?
Yes!

This is how:

120grams butter
80grams lard
100gms chilled water
250grams plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Put flour in TM bowl and turbo for a few seconds to sift.
Cut butter and lard into walnut sized pieces, add to bowl along with salt, lemon juice, and most of the water.
Knead for 10-20 secs on interval unitl it forms a rough dough. You may need to add the rest of the water.
Turn onto lightly floured board and pat gently into a log shape.
Roll out to a long thin strip, approx 40cm x 12 cm.
Fold into 3 by folding the bottom third up and the top third down over that.
Turn so that folds are at the sides. Roll out again.
Repeat this 3 more times.
Cover and leave in fridge till ready to use, at least 30 mins.

Sooo easy!
I didn't have lard so used all butter (although I'm finding out lard is not as bad as we've all been led to believe so may ask my farmer about it) and it was easy to work with and tasted delicious.

Here it is ready to be fridged:


And here's what was left of the finished product after the men in my house had been at them:

I'm sure you could adapt the above method to a food processor with probably no adaption needed at all and I'll experiment with freezing next time. These would be great to have on hand for just about any occasion, so a stash in the freezer would work well.

Delicious, and I love knowing exactly what's in them.


(I can't believe this is the first time I've made my own puff (sort of) pastry. Shakes head at self....)

Hot weather - make your own icy poles

Well the recent bout of hot weather has seen me digging for the icy poles that are buried in the depths of my freezer.
Icy poles, or popsicles as I've known them in my previous life in NZ, give me a reason to be outside when it's too hot. The kids need to be outside and for my sanity, I need the kids to be outside. And, there's no way I'm letting them eat icy poles inside.

So we all head outside, the kids run round madly dripping everywhere while I languish in any small patch of shade I can find.

BUT, I don't want them ingesting large amounts of sugar, colourings and flavourings every day, nor do I want all the individual packaging that goes along with store bought icy poles.

Solution?

I made my own of course.

I used these molds
but mine are the same size and shape as the store bought variety.



You can also get rocket and star shapes if you want to get fancy, and I have since got some of the cheaper molds with built in straws as well.
They're smaller so better for my lil guy and deal a bit with the drip issue.

Now the possibilities are endless!

I've made blueberry ones



Milo ones



Coffee ones for my hubby

and lemon ones made with homemade lemonade syrup.

And orange ones, pureed oranges with extra oj for some liquid.

I also tried a chocolate one with the leftovers from the chocolate sorbet I made a few nights ago but ended up having to eat it out with a spoon as it doesn't freeze hard enough.

And I've got many combos of fruit floating round in my head to try out, what better way to sneak in a bit of extra healthy stuff to my little munchkins diets?

So while the molds were a wee bit excy at $15 they've paid for themselves in no time. Yay!

Homemade bagels - by thermomix or hand

Ever made your own bagels? Bagels are not that big here in Australia, at least not round my area anyway. You can get them here and there but if you want them, what better way to have them fresh than to make 'em yourself?

Here's how...

Homemade whole wheat bagels.

Now of course I couldn't just follow the recipe to the letter, so I used spelt flour instead of wheat and I used my thermomix to do the hard work for me. And the spelt flour was white, as that's all I had to hand.

If you have a TM and want to mix these bagels in it, just measure everything in as per the recipe, mix on about 6 until it holds together (about 10-15 secs), then knead for 3 minutes.

Now, the only slightly awkward part of this process was the instruction to shape them to 'resemble a bagel'...



But they turned out very well, slightly wonky shapes not-withstanding, with that chewy and dense texture bagels are known for. Although I think I could have baked them for slightly longer than the 15 minutes set out in the recipe, maybe 20 would do it, just to give them a little more colour on the outside.



Yum, I'll make these again, now I need to find if they freeze well. They were so easy to make and cook, they'd be easy to make in bulk for use later.

I'll let you know what I find out...

Homemade spelt bread, thermomix or by hand

There's nothing much better than the smell of fresh bread and that's what we've been smelling round here lately as I've taken to making my own on a regular basis.

And it's soooo good! My mum used to make all the bread for a family of eight, so I don't know what's taken me so long to get round to the idea of making my own. I do have a bread machine, but I haven't used that in a long while, partly due to now having a thermomix. The thermomix doesn't actually cook the bread for you, but it certainly does all the rest of hard work. That said, it is pretty easy to make this bread by hand, but seeing as I have a thermomix, I'm gonna use it!

Actually, the reason I now like to make my own is because I have become so much more aware of exactly what is put into our food. And why spelt? I use spelt instead of wheat for it's nutritious benefits, as well as it's flavour and texture. Spelt can sometimes be found in supermarkets, however I buy it in 5kg bags over the net and it gets delivered, just what I like.

Spelt bread by hand

1 tablespoon dry yeast
2 cups warm water
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 teaspoons salt
5-6 cups spelt flour (any combo of brown or white)

• Mix yeast, water and honey in a large bowl and let it stand for 5-10 minutes.
• Stir in the butter, salt and 3 cups of flour.
• Add the remainng flour in small amounts until the dough becomes too stiff to stir, then turn out onto floured bench.
• Knead for about 6 minutes, but do not overwork the dough. Stop when it is smooth and elastic.
• Place in a bowl, cover and let it rise until doubled in size.
• Punch down the dough, and divide it between 2 smallish loaf pans.
• Cover and let it rise again.
• Heat oven to 175c (350f)
• Bake for 20 minutes or so, until it is brown on the top and smelling done. Mmm mmm!

Spelt bread in the thermomix
10 grams dry yeast
2 cups warm water
85 grams honey
75 grams butter
2 teaspoons salt
5-6 cups spelt flour (any combo of brown or white)

• Place chopped butter in TM bowl and melt on 90c, speed 3 for about 1 1/2 minutes.
• Add honey, warm water and yeast. Mix on speed 4 for 2 seconds then leave to sit for 5-10 minutes.
• Add salt and 3 cups of flour. Mix on speed 5 for 10 seconds.
• Add 2 more cups of flour, mixing on speed 5 for 10 seconds after each addition.
• Knead in TM for 2 minutes
• Place in a bowl, cover and let it rise until doubled in size.
• Punch down the dough, and divide it between 2 smallish loaf pans.
• Cover and let it rise again.
• Heat oven to 175c (350f)
• Bake for 20 minutes or so, until it is brown on the top and smelling done.

See? Couldn't be easier.

Home made tortillas, by hand or thermomix

Tortillas are one of those things I used to buy and keep in the cupboard until needed. That should have been warning enough, and after reading the ingredients list I can see why they keep so well.......they are barely a food at all. Well, slight exaggeration perhaps but here is what is in the ones I used to buy:

Wheat flour

Water

Vegetable oil

Humectant

Salt

Emulsifiers

Raising agents

Dextrose

Preservatives

Colour

Food acid

Flour treatment agent

Antioxidants

And this is what is in the ones I made last night:


Tortillas

320grams plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
180 grams/mls warm water

Much better for you surely, without all the extras in the list above.
And they taste sooooo good, they are well worth the little bit of fiddle it takes to roll them out.

Ok, here's how to:

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, turn out and knead for 10 minutes.

Thermomixers: throw it all in the TM bowl, mix for 10 secs to combine, then knead for 3 minutes.

Rest the dough for 5 - 10 minutes.

Enlist a helper (not strictly necessary)

Divide dough into 12 pieces

Roll each piece flat into rounds, or any odd shape, as long as it's as thin as you can get it.

Fry in a hot frypan until the upper surface starts to pucker and puff a bit.

Flip over, cook briefly on other side.

You'll be able to tell when they're done by sight, and they should cook pretty fast.
If not, turn your pan up a wee bit.
I use a scanpan, which is non-stick, so I oil it up at the start and that's it.

Once cooked, I put a teatowel inside a large ziplock type bag and lay each tortilla as it is cooked onto the teatowel in a pile. I then seal the bag while the next one's cooking. This method keeps them soft and flexible.

Do try these, you won't regret it, the taste is fantastic, there is no throw-away plastic packaging, they're cheaper than store bought and my recurring theme, you know exactly what's in them.

Homemade chocolate spread........aka Nutella

Well the Nutella turned out pretty well, if not as thick as I remember the shop bought product being. If I make it again, I would probably reduce the amount of milk somewhat to make it a little thicker.

This recipe is actually from my thermomix book, but if you have a decent blender or food processor for grinding the hazelnuts, I'm sure it can be made the conventional way. I'll convert it to how I think it will best be made without a thermomix.


Hazelnut chocolate spread

90 grams of caster sugar
(can be reduced to 50 grams, I used 60 and that seemed plenty to me)

60 grams of hazelnuts

100 grams plain chocolate, in pieces

70 grams butter

100 mls milk
(Next time I'll try about 70 mls)

• Pulverize the nuts till they are as finely ground as you can get them.
  

• Place butter, sugar and milk in a pot. Heat gently while stirring, until butter melts.

• Add chocolate. Stir until chocolate melts.

• Add hazelnuts. Cook on a low heat for about 6 minutes, stirring until mixture is a smooth consistency.

• Store in a jar in the fridge. Keeps for 14-21 days.

Tasty on toast, bread, gingerbread cookies or just on a spoon.
Those are the ways we've eaten it so far, the kids are loving it.



Just found another version of this I'd like to try, this recipe being specifically trialled by someone without a thermomix. I like the idea that the writer was able to mix it to a thick creamy texture, unlike mine which had to set in the fidge. Hmmmmm....

Maybe I'll make these with mine, Nutella Cheescake Brownies, at Alpineberry

because how good do they look??

And use that as an excuse to try another batch of nutella....shhh, don't tell!

Make your own peanut butter

In my ongoing attempt to green up my family's life and leave behind as many preservatives and additives as possible, I thought I would try making my own peanut butter. I love peanut butter by the spoonful and the kids eat it on their sammys.....not their daycare ones though, of course. But I find commercial peanut butter far too sweet and depending on what brand you buy it has various things added to it apart from the basics.

Now if you ask Master Chef Google how to do this you will come up with many similar answers.

Peanuts, oil, no oil, salt, sugar, honey........hmmmm.


Well, I did it this way:

I used my Thermomix, though I presume any half decent food processor would the job.
Into that I added 500 grams roasted, un-salted peanuts.
I blitzed these until I they were very very finely ground. At this point some of my searches had said my peanuts should turn to a paste and bind together. Well, mine didn't.
So I added a splash of olive oil - peanut is recommended but I didn't have any, and blitzed again. Better.
Another dribble of oil and blitz again.
Ok, looks good now, paler than commercial peanut butter but the correct consistency.
Taste. Hmmm, a bit.....bland?
Add some salt. Mix. Better.
Add a bit more salt. (Confession, I like my food salty, great for my health I know) Mix.
Just right.
Store in recycled glass jar in fridge, where it should keep for 2-3 weeks.

Only I'm not sure even I can eat that much p/b in 2-3 weeks.

On the left is home made nutella, which I also made today, much to my 4 year old's delight. Nutella is not something I buy, ever, but I had a recipe and wanted to try it. Preliminary tastings were promising, though it had to go into the fridge to set, so I haven't tried it out since then.

I'll keep you posted on that one....




Ha, you can now tell exactly how lazy I am, my peanut butter is labeled Archibald's honey and my nutella is some sort of mayo. I just cannot be bothered soaking labels off jars. Laaazzzy, yay me!

Make your own lemonade syrup

I saw this recipe at Red Bird Crafts a few days ago and it looked so good I had to give it a go. It was very quick and easy and it tastes divine.

Usually I keep a bottle of lemon and barley cordial syrup in the cupboard, for 'emergencies' haha, but that will now be phased out and replaced with the recipe below.


Lemonade Syrup

2 cups of sugar
1 cup water
Thinly sliced rinds of 2 lemons ( I just used the zest, not the whole rind)
1/8 teaspoon of salt (I left this out)
Juice of 7 lemons

• Place all ingredients, except juice, into a pot.

• Simmer for 7 minutes.

• Cool and add the juice of 7 lemons.

• Strain and then add half of the rinds to the syrup for flavor and colour.

• Store in a jar and place in the refrigerator.

Pour a bit into a glass and add water, and ice if you prefer.
If you wanted it bubbly you could substitute soda water instead.

And of course it has no preservatives or any of the other wacky bits and bobs that seem to go into commercially prepared food these days.

Yes I did strain it, but yes, that is a lemon pip you see floating happily at the top there. My straining technique obviously needs work. And my syrup is a lot darker than Red Bird Crafts example, ahem, because I thought I'd set the timer and hadn't. So it appears that overcooking will not cause irreparable damage.

This really is delish, and Red Bird Crafts has some very workable craft ideas over there too, worth having a look-see.

How to make your own chicken stock

Chicken stock is an ingredient in many dishes and and is readily available in stores. But, it is really easy to make your own and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing exactly what's in it. You'll get a flavour you won't find in a packet or carton and it will cost you less, as you're using bones which are usually just thrown away. And boiling the bones gets you some extra minerals too.

How do you do it?

• Pile chicken bones in a largish pot.
• Add a peeled onion, a chopped carrot, and a stick of celery. (You can also add any odds and ends of veges you have around.)
  
• Add enough water to completely cover the chicken bones.
• Bring to the boil.
• Keep it at a slow boil/simmer for two or more hours, adding more water if the level gets too low.
• Drain the solids out and refrigerate or freeze.
  

I like to freeze the stock in muffin pans, so I have convenient amounts for adding to dishes. Once they are frozen, just pop them out and store them in a ziplock bag in the freezer.



This lot was actually made in my thermomix, and the reason it's pale is the thermomix recipe only calls for 60 minutes of cooking. So if you want a darker, richer flavour, cook for longer on the stovetop.

I use the chicken bones from the roast chickens that we buy once in a while. I now buy La Ionica chickens as I've found out pastured/free range chicken is healthier and this particular brand is hormone free and not chemically processed. Not terribly thrifty I know, but I feel better if I know I'm using every bit of it in this way.

You won't want to go back to using store bought stock, this tastes too good.

Thermomix for a thriftier kitchen

Have you heard of thermomix? I made a brief reference to it in this post and you can check it out on my squidoo lens or just google it.



One of the benefits of having a thermomix is it is a time saving and money saving device. Now, I was given mine and I'm mighty glad I was as it is an expensive wee beastie.....nearly $2000 Australian.


But let me tell you a few benefits.

• It saves me loads of time when I cook or bake. It has built in scales for weighing and a built in element for cooking, so everything happens in the one unit, thus saving on dish washing, too.

• It cooks everything perfectly. Seriously, you CANNOT burn or otherwise wreck your cooking. Especially when cooking from the supplied recipe book.

• It is supremely easy to use. I can cook dinner one-handed with a cranky baby on my hip. I don't burn pots on the stove by not paying attention, I don't have to chop, stir or puree and it has a built in timer, so switches itself off when finished.

Those are the time saving factors.

If you count time as money, then you're already saving. But it does have distinct money saving attributes too.


You can...

• Make bread dough, very quickly. So buy your ingredients in bulk (cheaper) and make your own bread. Mmmmm, yummy!

• Make sorbet in 3 minutes. Hot day, the kids want to go out for an icypole/popsicle/flavoured ice? Stay home (save petrol and money) and make your own, any flavour you like, and know what's in it.

• Make your own sauces. Thermomix has failsafe recipes for bechamel, hollandaise and the like, so no more running to the store to buy the pre-packaged variety.

• Make your own custards and mayos. Fresh when you need them, no more expired containers lurking in the depths of the fridge, and, you know what's in them. (Meaning no artificial colours, flavours, thickeners or preservatives).

• Are you a juice drinker? Thermomix does that too, the healthy way. It completely pulverizes your fruits and veggies to an extremely smooth consistency, so you get the skin, the pulp, everything. No waste.

There are more things this wonder machine can do but you've probably heard about enough for now.

Want a demo?

Where to get one?

They are only available through tupperware style parties, you go to a demo and can order one from there. Very occasionally you see a current model on ebay, although they fetch nearly the same price as buying a new one. And you will sometimes see an older model thermomix on ebay. The older ones are cheaper, largely the same as the current model and parts are still available worldwide.


Ooh, I just found this budget busters section on the Thermomix Australia blog.


Bottom line, if you can get one of these, it's well worth it!

My thrifty exercise solution - twin baby jogger

I used to be a dedicated gym junkie, up at 5.40am 4 mornings a week. Well, since having the boys, that routine has gone south. Combine two excruciatingly early wakers with a hubby who could not drag his butt from bed in the morning if the house was on fire, and there was no way I was getting to the gym at that hour. And I never have the enthusiasm to get there in the evening. So, in an effort to get some exercise, I found this twin baby jogger on ebay, picked it up locally and wa lah, I am up and running. Well, metaphorically speaking, as I am NOT a runner. Although the kids get a kick out of me running them down a hill....little do they know I am barely in control.....

So, the gym being an expensive option, makes this my thrifty option :o)

And one other thing my sis told me, which works if you are REALLY pushed for time (and motivation) to exercise, is to walk on the spot when doing such mundane tasks as folding the washing, doing the dishes and washing your hair in the shower. Walk, or march, in place.....if you have a pedometer you can march you way to the recommended steps per day, which is I forget how many.

I have done this, though not when anyone is around, as it does make you feel just a little silly...

Cheesy crackers - great snack for the kids

,This is one of the recipes I use regularly, it saves me buying crackers from the supermarket that are full of all the things I would rather my kids didn't ingest. This recipe has all of five ingredients if you include the pepper, and the crackers can be rolled and cut into just about any shape. I do little little ones for my one year old and bigger shapes for other guy.


Cheesy crackers

1/2 cup of flour white flour
1/2 cup of brown flour (I use 1 cup of wholemeal spelt flour instead, works well)
140 grams of butter
225 grams grated cheese
1/2 teaspoon of pepper

• Put flour, butter, cheese and pepper into a food processor.
• Mix until it looks crumbly.
• Add water one tablespoon at a time until it pulls together.
• Refrigerate for 20 minutes. ( I have actually frozen the dough for around two weeks and it still comes out fine)
• Flour the bench, roll out very thin (they need to be thin to be crispy) and cut into shapes.
• Bake at 175c for about 15 minutes, or until slightly darkened. The darker they get, the crispier they are, but too dark and hubby says they taste like burnt cheese, hehe.

I store these in an airtight container in the freezer, and give them to the kids straight from the freezer. So I'm not sure how long they would retain their crispness if they were kept in the pantry instead.

Also, I make double the quantity of dough, because I am lazy and this means I just need to thaw the dough, then roll and cut the next time round.


One thing that does really help in the whole frugal/thrifty kitchen thing, is a decent freezer. I was given one as a gift, which may sound odd, but it was the best thing I could have been given....you would have thought me a few sandwiches short of a picnic if you'd seen me dancing round my deep freeze when I got it, yes, I'm a simple gal at heart. Anyway, if you can pick one up somewhere, do it...ebay, oztion, secondhand store, wherever. A good investment, methinks.

Make your own baking powder - another frugal kitchen tip

Baking powder is an important ingredient in many cakes, cookies, and other baked products. Have you ever run out at that crucial moment? Well, did you know you can make your own baking powder? Apart from the rumor that commercial baking powder has some form of aluminium in it, being able to make your own means you have it on hand whenever you need it and, you know what's in it.


Baking Powder

2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Mix and use immediately.



If you want to store it, add a teaspoon of corn starch/cornflour and mix well. This absorbs moisture and stops it reacting before you need it to. (I have never tried storing it, but this is the advice I was given)

These ingredients are available in the supermarket by the baking products. Easy!