World War 2 Party!

On sunday we had a fantastic World War two party. There were lots of themed foods. Here's a list of the foods we prepared.

Mock duck - Meat
Mock Goose - Vegetarian
Mock Beef Rissoles - Vegetarian
Mealie Pudding (Donkey) - Vegetarian
Spam and mustard sandwiches
Corned Beef and horseradish sandwiches
Cheese and salad cream sandwiches
Marmite sandwiches
Pork pies
Scotch eggs
Chocolate pudding (contained potatoes)
Homemade vanilla Ice cream
Tea
Orange squash
Alcoholic ginger beer

Our friends bought along:
Potato dumplings - Vegetarian
Salad
Cherry tomatoes
German christmas biscuits
German ham
6 cans of Spam!

After dinner we then watched and took the mickey out of old 40's films with really funny stilted acting. We finished up with a friendly game of Escape from Colditz. The polish won by climbing the walls with rope sneaking out through the German quarters, the British came second by using multiple "Do or Die" cards, Dutch came third by tunnelling to safety and American's came last. It would have been tied last but one of the American's got shot by the Germans whilst trying to escape! The Germans played a very good well thought out game too!

Peanut Butter Bites.

These are fairly healthy yummy biscuits. The consistency is soft, almost cake like. They aren't exactly made to the original recipe as the bananas I chose to use were real, usually it requires banana flavouring and cooked parsnips! I couldn't find any banana flavouring sadly so real bananas had to do. You'll get the idea though.

Recipe:
1 and a half cups of porridge oats
<3 cooked parsnips with 1 tsp banana flavouring >(or 3 small real bananas).
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 apple chopped
1 tsp sugar (I used sweetner)
A third of a cup of low fat peanut butter
1 tbsp of nuts (peanuts or almonds are good)
1 tbsp mixed spice
A dash of nutmeg.

Method:
Preheat the oven at gas mark 4. Use a blender mix the "fruit" and peanut butter together with the vanilla extract.  Then add and mix in the oats, sugar or sweetner and spices. Then lastly fold most of the nuts into the mixture. Transfer to a baking tray that has been covered with greased baking paper. My bites were 2 tbsp of mixture flattened out slightly and topped with a few nuts. Put in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes or until lightly browned. 

Fish Cakes and Chips.

This was a fairly simple recipe to do and tastes really nice. It is one of my own based on what we had and ww2 rationing.

For the chips. Slice up some potatoes into chip shapes. Pop them in jug of water and microwave them for about 3 minutes before draining them and putting them on a baking tray cover them with frylight. On gas mark 7 for 15-20 minutes or until they look done and are easy to pierce with a fork.

For the fish cakes:

Recipe:
2 tins of mackerel in brine
30g oats
1 small onion
1 tbsp of vinegar or lemon juice (I used white wine vinegar)
Black pepper to season
1 tsp mixed spice or coriander.

Method:
Mash the ingredients together in a bowl with a fork.  Hold back 2 tsp of the  oats.
frylight a baking tray and place two metal pastry cutters on it. Fill the pastry cutters with the mixture pushing firmly. Top with the oats and place in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 7 for 20 minutes. (The same as the chips!)

We served ours with peas.

Meal Budgeting 101

Here's a quick example of a weeks shopping for two adults on a budget.
Our budget for a weekly shop is a maximum of £25. If we can manage to do it for less...even better!

We already had some of the items we needed.  Basics like herbs, curry powders, stock cubes, potatoes, onions, porridge,  rice etc are always handy to have in the house. With our basics and the items we bought "on the shop" we managed to make a week worth of dinners, lunches and breakfasts.

Breakfast every week is usually toast with low sugar jam, a slice of ham or marmite or porridge with low sugar jam or fruit.

Lunch every week tends to be jacket potatoes (either sweet potatoes or normal potatoes) with different healthy fillings like mixed vegetables or baked beans.

Dinners this week were:
Liver and bacon.
Cheesy leeks.
The low fat ww2 curry.
Fish cakes and chips with peas.
Sausages and mash with veg.
Leek and potato soup.
Stir fried Leek, bacon and potatoes with mixed veg. 

Oh and plenty of Tea or coffee with milk!  Remember if you want a good night's sleep it's better to have decaff from 12pm onwards!

(Please ignore the fish food! That's for our tropical fish, not the tinned mackerel!)

Cheesy Leeks

We gave this recipe a try this evening.  Cheesy Leeks with bacon.

Recipe:
4 Leeks,
2 rashers of lean bacon with all the fat removed,
Add Milk as required (see method),
60g Flour,
Low fat margarine,
60g Mature chedder cheese,
Pinch of oregano.

Method:

Top and tail the leeks then pop them into a pan with boiling water and prepare the cheese sauce. Melt the margarine in a pan add the flour and stir. Gradually add milk, whisking until you have a thick smooth sauce. Add the cheese until it's melted. Then Grill the bacon.
Place the cooked leek on the plates, cover with the cheese sauce and sprinkle with the cut bacon pieces. Season with salt and pepper.
Serve with jacket potato.

Mince Slices

A good way to use up leftovers and stretch out your mince.

Recipe:
4 slices of bread blended into breadcrumbs.
120g cooked mince
40g mashed potato (nothing added)
1 tbsp gravy
1 tsp mixed spice
1 small onion
Flour for rolling out the mixture.

Mix the ingredients in a blender. Turn out onto a floured surface and using a rolling pin, shape into a rectangle about 1/4" thick. Slice into squares and fry until browned on both sides. Serve with leek gravy, potato and vegetables of your choice. I did mash and peas.

Cheese and Bread Pudding

Here is a lovely idea for a lunchtime. 

Recipe:
2 slices of bread blended into breadcrumbs.
60g cheese.
300ml milk.
30g of low fat margarine.
2 eggs.
A pinch of salt and pepper.

I blended all the ingredients together in a blender, transferred the mixture to a greased (fry light) dish. Pop in the oven at Gas mark 6 for 40 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from the oven and serve. I did mine with baked vegetables.