Hello Dear Reader,
Tomorrow, I will be teaching some more easy, quick and economical recipes to a group of parents in Cornwall. Thanks again to St Austell Baptist Church for their hospitality.
On Sunday morning, I will be on Tracy Wilson’s programme on Radio Cornwall, sharing ideas about school holidays on a budget and preparing for the new school term. School finishes for the year on the 18th July so there’s the rush for every family to financially prepare for the new school term. There is also a half term break and the summer break to budget for. If you have any ideas to share on how you do this, then email What ideas do you have to keep the family occupied over the school holidays? Are family holidays a dim and distant memory now fines are in place for term time cheap holidays?
[email protected]
or you can phone in on Sunday morning by calling 01872 22 22 22 - you don’t have to speak live on air, you can leave a message if you please.
You may find the holidays, the cost of uniforms, PE kit, school kit, school trips and of course, the holidays, really expensive and feel free to send your message to the point too.
Tomorrow, I will be running a cookery workshop and here are the recipes if you want to try them yourselves. I will take photos of the finished lunches as I will be cooking for approx. 20 people for lunch tomorrow.
Ready for the school holidays?
Quick and Easy Cooking
Sausage Casserole – this works well in a slow cooker or casserole dish = serves 4.
Switch the oven on to 180
1 pack of eight sausages – at home, I use value sausages
1 pepper – finely sliced
1 onion – finely chopped
¼ celery – this goes into everything! Including bolognaise, stew, casserole and so on. I buy it every week.
¼ Chorizo sausage – skinned and finely diced – optional, you could use 1 heaped teaspoon of paprika instead. I add chorizo to stew, casseroles, risotto and paella. It also lasts for ages.
1 tin of haricot beans or baked beans
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 stock cube – 1 cup of hot water to dissolve
1 clove of garlic - optional
1. Put the sausages in the oven
2. Fry the onions, pepper, garlic, celery and chorizo.
3. Add the tinned tomatoes and stock
4. Combine the beans, veggies and sausages and cook in the oven, make sure it’s covered, for 30 – 40 minutes
5. Serve with rice, cous cous, veggies, bread – makes a great Sunday lunch, 2 sausages each.
Leek and Bacon Risotto – serves 4
150g of Arborio rice
1 litre of stock
150g of cooking bacon – finely diced
1 onion – finely diced
2 finely chopped cloves of garlic.
2 leeks, very finely sliced and washed – use as much as you can and don’t waste the green bits.
50g of grated parmesan cheese. This goes a really long way, I put this on top of home made pizza, on top of lasagne. It lasts for months in a sealed container.
Butter or oil for frying.
1. Fry the onions, garlic, bacon and leeks until soft
2. Add the rice and stir to absorb some of the flavour
3. Add the stock, mug full at a time, stirring continuously until absorbed and keep adding until all gone.
4. Check to see if the rice is soft, to your liking, if not, make up some more stock and keep adding and stirring.
5. Add the cheese and stir through
6. Serve with salad, cooked veggies or bread.
Lemon Curd Pudding with Custard
1 sachet of instant custard – follow the instructions
½ jar of lemon curd
2 eggs
4oz marg
4oz SR flour
4oz sugar
1 lemon – zest and juice
2 teaspoons of sugar
1. Grate the zest from a lemon – put into a mixing bowl
2. Add the butter, sugar, flour and eggs – beat together
3. Grease a pudding bowl/or small microwavable casserole dish.
4. Place the lemon curd in the bottom
5. Pour the batter mix over to top
6. Microwave for 3-5 minutes – keep checking
7. Mix 2 teaspoons of sugar and lemon juice in a cup – microwave for 30 seconds – stir until sugar dissolved
8. When pud is cooked, pour lemon juice mixture over the top, leave to sink in for 2 minutes
9. Serve with custard.
Fruit Crumble and Custard – serves 4
Heat the oven to 180
1 sachet of custard – follow instructions
1 tin of cooked apples
½ jar basics strawberry jam
Crumble
10oz plain flour
6oz sugar
7oz butter
1. Combine the apples with jam
2. Place into a casserole dish
3. Rub marg or butter into the flour
4. Add the sugar
5. Sprinkle crumble mix on top
6. Bake for 30 – 45 minutes
7. Serve with custard.
As always, it’s great to hear from you,
Love Froogs xxxxxx
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Hi Froogs,
Our long Summer holidays start in December. I have a big tea tin I throw change into throughout the year, and this funds a few treats for the children, like the cinema, over the holidays. This is especially important for us as I'm self-employed and don't take on work over the Summer so I can spend time with the kids.
I also have a fund called the 'January fund' which covers bills and mortgage for that month, as well as the inevitable school uniforms and supplies. I have to save a few thousand every school term to deposit into a high interest account in order to meet our expenses comfortably at that time, especially as it comes of the heels of Christmas.
Madeleine.x
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Hello ! I just googled those term holiday fines which I'd never heard of. As a teacher in France, I'm always shocked by the facts that some kids start school a week late in September because the return ticket was cheaper. I wish this could be instaured in France but my goodness, I can imagine the reaction; we are much too laxist here when it comes to penalizing bad behaviour !
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Froogs, I was bought a BRILLIANT book for Christmas which is called 'The Lost art of having fun' and it is absolutely full of all sorts of games you can play- word games, running games, house games, party games and I just wish I had people to play these with- they are so cool- I could imagine organising kids with these games. There are some word ones that I've discovered I can play by myself- I'm that sad- I want to play them so much I am playing them alone as my husband doesn't like word games as I always beat him!x
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We also have Christmas hols, and I always had a Xmas club at the credit union for back to school, rates and all the extra costs at that time of the year. We lived in a holiday area, so the kids used do do a lot of the free things provided by council, churches, penguin parade etc for the holiday makers.
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Hi please could you tell me where your picture is? I'm always looking for new places in Cornwall for walks. Looks beautiful thanks. Cath.
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School holidays always presented a massive headache when my three children were small. My then husband was disabled and we were living on very low income. During summer holidays I would organise baking sessions at my home on rainy days and invite my children`s friends to come along. Everyone attending would contribute to the session by bringing a baking ingredient along. We had a messy kitchen afterwards but had happy kids that were munching their way through some of their own baked goodies. On sunny days we would go rock pooling or had a swim in the sea (as we only live 20 mins walk from the seafront) and have hikes over the South Downs, taking a bat and ball as well as pic-nick along. Visits to the local park where a free playground was available also was often what we did then. But, there were also days where the kids had to visit friends for a day, or made their own entertainment with arts and crafts materials I had sourced through recycling cardboard, papers, magazines and other odds and ends.
It was difficult to always find things to do during the long summer break, and book reading as well as drawing were other past time activities my three kids had to be content with on occasions. We would also hold a disco evening on warm nights, inviting their friends to our garden where we would light candles and put their favourite music on a cassette player. Simple activities that didn`t cost me much at all were often the ones that my kids now still remember. Holidays were for making memories, not spend much money. My kids never felt deprived of anything, even so we couldn`t afford a holiday abroad. But, at the end of the summer break we all were looking forward to the return of school time as by then we had pretty much exhausted all the free activities we could come up with. I don`t envy low income families of today as the cost of living is so much higher now than it was when my kids were small. I don`t know how everyone will cope now.
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