Homemade Marshmallows

This is another recipe from my Dollars and Sense cookbook. I have tried making marshmallows in the past with unsuccessful results. Mr 14 gave these a try and they are perfect! This recipe makes over 40 fluffy marshmallow squares for $1.45. I will never buy them again! they are also delicious floating on a cup of hot chocolate

2 c white sugar
3/4 c hot water
1/2 c cold water
2 TBS gelatine
1 tsp vanilla

Put the sugar and hot water into a medium sized pot. Boil until it reaches 230 degrees if you have a sugar thermometer. If not, it needs to reach the soft ball stage which is when you drop a small amount of the sugar mix into a dish of cold water it forms a soft ball.

While the syrup is boiling, measure the cold water into a small bowl and add the gelatine. Stir to combine.

When the sugar mix has reached 230 degrees or the soft ball stage, remove it from the heat and add the softened gelatine and vanilla. Stir until the gelatine dissolves.

Cool the mix down by standing the pot in cold water.

when the pot is cool enough to be able to put your hand on the bottom of the pot, start beating the mixture with a rotary or electric beater. Add food colouring now if you like.

When the mixture is very thick, pour into a buttered or sprayed 20- 23 cm square tin.

*I actually used a silicone slice tray which does not need greasing. This worked very well.

Chill overnight before removing from the tin. Cut into cubes and roll in cornflour (cornstarch) or coconut and store in a sealed container in the fridge.

My Frugal Tasks 14/7/16

It has been really cold and rained here most of this week. I used this opportunity to catch up on some housework as well as some indoor jobs done. This helped keep me warm! Thank fully yesterday was a sunny day so I did heaps of washing.

We also had a few strange things happening with our power. Our upright freezer had started making a loud grinding noise so we decided to turn it off and transfer everything into our second freezer. I was pretty annoyed about this because this freezer was bought second hand last year. We rely on our 2 freezer alot for stocking up when items are cheap. Then the TV and lights in our games room were flickering, which made us worried because the same thing happened a few months ago just before our neighbours house caught on fire.

Yesterday morning the boys were watching TV in the front room because they were worried about using the other TV and we heard a loud bang and the power in half the house was out. Hubby checked the fuses- we have the old ceramic ones- and that wasn't the problem. So we have an electrician coming out on Monday. We have run extension leads so we can still keep our fridge and freezer running. Hopefully it doesn't cost too much to get fixed!

Here's this week's frugal tasks.

-Cleaned the oven with bicarb and vinegar and soaked the racks in the bath tub. They did clean up pretty well, but not perfect.

-Cleaned the shower and bathroom.

-Hung washing indoors on clothes airers. Only used the dryer for 30 minutes to finish off our sheets.

-Turned the heater on only in the evenings to warm the house up.

- Ran out of stain remover so made another batch.

-Found a free double bed mattress on Gumtree for Mr 14. Now I'm looking for a bed base.

-Mr 10 has is in another play and has rehersals at our local community theatre . Instead of dropping him off, I saved petrol by waiting there and took sewing to keep me busy.

-Tried Aldi teabags and we did not like them at all! I took them back for a full refund.

-Made vegetarian pizzas one night for dinner, with the free pizza bases we got last week.

-Lots of baking here! Mr 10 made a chocolate fudge self saucing pudding for dessert one night, we also baked a batch of gingerbread and a gingerbread Parthenon. I defrosted a loaf of banana bread that was in the freezer. Mr 14 made some homemade marshmallows, they turned out great and were really yummy. I'll share the recipe soon.

-Only ran the dishwasher a couple of times on big baking days.

-I still had $25 of grocery money left from last week so used it to buy some potatoes, onions, cabbage, capsicum, broccoli, carrots apples and bananas. I also stocked up on Bushells tea bags which were on sale at Coles this week.

-Got some more free crackers from the op shop.

-Made up more hot chocolate mix. With the cold weather we've been drinking quite a lot!

-Found some meat when cleaning out the freezer. Because this takes up a lot of room, we decided to defrost this in the fridge and cook it up to use over a few nights. I used up a few prok fillets we had and made steamed pork buns.

-Received some muesli bars, biscuits, chocolate and tomato relish from a lovely friend.

-Mr 14 made bread and jam at Youth Group.

Fruit and veg shopping.

Steamed pork buns.

Mr 10's gingerbread Parthenon.

Hot chocolate mix.

Bread and jam made by Mr 14.

How To Make Sprouts

Sprouting seeds is really easy for anyone to do, even the kids or grand kids can do it. It is perfect for anytime of the year and produces some wonderful edible greens, for a fraction of the price of store bought sprouts. 

If you are doing a few varieties at a time you will need to use separate jars for each seed.

You will need:

Seeds for sprouting like alfalfa, mung beans, lentils or chick peas

A jar

Square of material like muslin or cotton, a hanker chief works well

Elastic band

Paper towel

Spray bottle

Fist place a couple of tablespoons of seeds in the jar and half fill the jar with water. 

Place the fabric over the top of the jar opening and secure it in place with a rubber band.

Leave to soak for at least 6 hours, then drain the liquid and rinse a few times.

Lay out some paper towels on a plate and spread the seeds out on top.

Keep the plate in a warm area and spray the seeds with water when the paper towel feels dry. 

Within a few days you will have some lovely edible sprouts. They can be stored in a container in the fridge.

Enjoy!

My Frugal Tasks 7/8/16

The bargain bed.

-I have been pricing new beds for the teenagers.  I ended up finding a double bed base and mattress for Miss 17 from Gumtree for $30. We had to hire a ute to pick it up and also petrol so with this included the bed was $90. Coincidentally the lady we bought it from had done volunteer work with my husband years ago and she kindly included and foam underlay, wool underlay, double bed sheet set, quilt, quilt cover and pillows. These would have cost around $200 to buy brand new. I also found the bed base is being sold at Super A Mart for $189 plus $150 for a mattress! We got $539 worth of goods for $90. We could have saved more if we didn't have to hire the ute. Never underestimate the savings of buying second hand!

-Made some more butter blend.

-I baked Annabel's golden syrup pudding, a chocolate cake and a berry and apple crumble using apples from the freezer and the free berries from our neighbour.

-Made all meals at home from scratch.

-Picked some rosemary which was growing in a car park. This has been chopped and is drying out to be used later on.

-Its been really cold here so I turned the heater on in the evenings. I'm making the most of it by putting the clothes airers underneath it to dry the clothes.

-Started sewing an Autumn page in the quiet book I'm making.

-Used the carpet sweeper and broom instead of the vacuum cleaner.

-Washed dishes by hand instead of using the dishwasher.

-Used up some frozen baby potatoes and cooked pumpkin I had in the freezer.

-Picked some oranges from our tree and used some for juicing. Also picked kale and silver beet.

- Picked up some free rolls and pizza bases from the op shop.

-Hubby and Mr 10 started building a frame out of free pallets for our blueberry bush. This will be enclosed with netting to keep the birds out.

-Made some face scrub for the teens.

-Went to a few op shops looking for double bed sheets

Golden syrup pudding with cream.

Free citrus fruit.

Free bread and crackers.

Apple and berry crumble with homemade custard.

Hubby and Mr 10 making the frame.

The tea towel from the op shop.

How To Whitewash Brick Walls

Our finished whitewashed walls.

Our large games room, which is really our main living space, has exposed brick walls. In all the years we have been here, I've never really been a fan of this look. I had thought about painting the walls when we moved in but hubby did not like the idea, we had talked about cladding the walls but that was going to cost a lot of money and I didn't see it as a necessary expense.

 I was on Pinterest one day, looking for inspiration and came across a lovely home with white washed exposed brickwork. I showed hubby the images and suggested we could white wash the walls. At this stage he had just repaired the ceiling and I had painted it, so we still had a large tub of ceiling paint left. I figured I would bite the bullet and start with a small area that could be covered up by furniture if we didn't like it.

I started by cleaning the bricks down with a cobweb broom as they were really dusty.

I mixed up a small amount of paint with water in an old bucket. The ratio I used was half paint and half water, then stirred well.

I started painting in the mortar first as this part was quite time consuming, you really need to get the brush into all of the gaps. Then once I did a section of the mortar, I would paint lightly over the entire brick/s.

We have four main walls in the room and I aimed to do one wall every day, or at least every few days when I had spare time. This is a huge room! I had a lot of fun doing this project and it was just so cheap. Painting is quite meditative to me.

A big tub of ceiling paint cost $45 and was enough for me to paint our ceilings and do these walls. Because our bricks are a light colour, I decided to only do one coat. If your bricks are darker I would suggest maybe two coats.

Here you can see the difference in the old brickwork vs whitewashed brick. I love it so much!

I covered up the furniture with old sheets and plastic before painting but wasn't too worried about the carpet as we were getting new flooring soon anyway.

Since doing this project, I have seen white brick wall paper at Masters with quite a high price tag.

So here are the before and after pictures. What a difference a bit of paint can make! 

Before

And after.

My Frugal Tasks- 31/7/16

Corn chowder and jalapeno sourdough for dinner.

This week has been an absolute roller coaster ride emotionally. Parenting teens can be really hard work! Mr 14 is currently grounded for lying, over a myriad of issues. Sleep has been minimal because he has been unhappy with his punishment and threatened to leave home.

Apparently, he thinks moving out of home is a good idea and had organised to couch surf at different friends houses. No amount of talking to him from hubby and I would change his mind and he had packed a bag on Friday morning. This absolutely broke my heart. My son and I were always so close and the fact he would do this felt like a slap in the face.

I ended up calling his school and spoke to the principal, who agreed he needs to just suck up his punishment and offered to talk to my son. This must have worked because he came home from school on Friday with apologies for his behaviour.

Some days I feel like we are dealing with a war and it will all be a miracle if we make it out of these teenage years without battle wounds.

Despite this, I kept myself busy around the house and got some things done:

-Used the carpet sweeper and broom on the floors instead of vacuuming.

-Made some garlic aioli. We had this with leftover mashed potato patties for dinner and use it in place of mayo.

-Baked bread and butter pudding with leftover hot cross buns from the freezer. Also a double batch of choc chip biscuits.

-Hubby told me we were out of shampoo so I improvised and went through my bathroom drawer full of samples. I poured all the shampoo samples into a jug, mixed well and topped up with a bit of water like it is mentioned by Mr Homemaker. I poured it back into the empty bottle and now have a "new" bottle of shampoo! I did the same with the conditioner samples and this led on to cleaning out the bathroom cupboards, drawers and even soaking and scrubbing the hairbrushes. I got a bit carried away! Then I checked my toiletries stockpile, which was where hubby had "looked" and I found 3 bottles!

-Gave Miss 17 a haircut.

-I started making my first quiet book pages. When finished, the book will be a gift. Hand sewing has really helped with my anxiety too. Its a win- win!

-Had a "camp out" in the lounge room with Mr 10. We watched movies, made pizza pockets for dinner and set up the inflatable mattresses and sleeping bags.

-Saved rain water for the vegie gardens.

-Picked more kale and silverbeet from the garden. We have so much this winter. Luckily we love kale and eat it with most meals.

-Printed out my $60 vouchers from doing surveys. These are for Chemist Warehouse and will be used to buy our medication and vitamins.

-Hubby picked up some free bread and crackers from the op shop.

Also the lovely Mimi at A Tray of Bliss posted a comment I wrote to her and what follows is  a wonderful post on making our days cosy, comfortable and creative. She also has some powerful advice on ways we can insource in our homes.

Hope you have had a great week. xx

Winter quiet book pages.

Homemade garlic aioli.

Using up some free samples.

Free bread and crackers.

Mashed potato patties, pumpkin and pan fried greens.

Fizzy Ginger Beer

Quick homemade ginger beer

I have made delicious ginger beer in the past by first making a plant. I use Rhonda's ginger beer from scratch recipe

 But the other day I had some lemon juice to use up and wanted to make ginger beer quickly.
 I wrote in last week's frugal tasks that I would share the recipe for a no plant ginger beer if it turned out well- and it did!

This recipe is from one of my favourite cook books from the 90's called Dollars and Cents- Eating Well For Less by Alison Holst. We use this book every week and it has lots of great and tasty recipes for cooking on a budget. I have altered the recipe slightly as the original used 1 tsp of lemon essence instead of the fresh juice. But use which one you have on hand.

Fizzy Ginger Beer

2 c white sugar
1 TBS ground ginger
1 tsp tartaric acid or substitute 1/4 tsp of citric acid
4 TBS lemon juice
6 c hot water
10 c cold water
1 tsp active yeast

Measure the sugar, ginger, acid and lemon into a large pot. Add the hot water and stir well to dissolve the sugar. You can also boil on a low heat if granules still remain.

When the sugar has dissolved add the cold water, 2 cups at a time, mix well after each inclusion.  Once you have added enough cold water so it has turned luke warm, ladel a portion out into a small bowl and add the yeast. Stir well until it dissolves then add this to the pot and mix the whole lot well.

Pour the ginger beer into clean plastic bottles- I use old soft drink bottles. Leave room at the top of each one for expansion. Leave to sit for 24-48 hours. Bottles should feel nice and firm. Refrigerate before drinking. Lasts about 2 weeks.

Enjoy!