Charity Challenge Day 6 - Chocolate Brownies save the day...

The brownies arrived in the nick of time: there was a sprinkling of dissent in the ranks, and I think the eldest was on the verge of a possible muffin mutiny. It appears you actually can have too much of a good thing.

Don't think he'd ever get sick of brownies though.

I know the internet is awash with brownie recipes, but sure one more won't hurt.
I make these a lot, probably the thing I bake the most. Perfect for cheering up grumpy kids/husband.

150g dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa)
150g butter
3 eggs
225g sugar
tsp vanilla extract
90g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Grease and line a 20cm square tin (or round if you want a brownie cake) Oven 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.

Melt the chocolate and the butter together, and while that's going on, beat the eggs, sugar (brown or white) and vanilla in a large bowl. When the choc/butter has melted, let it cool for a bit before adding it to the sugary eggs - then tip in the flour and baking powder, and mix. 
Pour into your prepared tin, and pop into the oven for 15-20 mins. Cool before cutting.

As we only had 100g of chocolate, I reduced the quantities by a third, but probably could have done with a bit more flour as they're extremely gooey - not that anyone's complaining.

There has been an increase in moaning though as the week's gone on - not about what I'm giving them to eat; more about the lack of variety, and that they can't have what they want. This is no bad thing, because these moments, when the kids are thinking about not being able to have crisps or custard creams or whatever it might be; they're good times to remind them about children who never have any choices; children who are grateful for every meal and every mouthful. But not in a lecturey way, because I know they'd just switch off if I did that. It'll probably make more sense when they watch a bit of Sport Relief tonight and see where the money we've raised will be going.

For me, the Challenge has meant a lot more planning, cooking and thinking ahead - it's been good to do,  but know I'm not organised enough to keep it going. I was thinking that yesterday morning when I made the kids pancakes for breakfast with the leftover batter from the night before: they loved them and it gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling - but I'm not usually on the ball in the morning and don't need to add any extra chores. Hard enough getting them out the door by 7.30.
And remembering to brush my hair.

I used Hugh FW's drop scone/pancakes recipe, but watered down the milk to make it go further. We've done quite well making our milk supply last. I only have one milk drinker though, and he's been on water rations.

The old bits of bread mentioned last time were whizzed up to make breadcrumbs. I fried them with some butter, a splash of oil, a chopped clove of garlic, and a little rosemary from the garden (chopped so finely no child would spot it). I added a little grated cheese from the rations too, and then sprinkled the toasted breadcrumbs on our tomato pasta (popular in some parts of southern Italy as a cheap alternative to parmesan apparently).  I really liked the garlicky crunch with the pasta, and even got a thumbs up from the fusspot! But the youngest wasn't so keen - always bloomin' one, isn't there.

Anyway, they all ate it up.

I bribed them with brownies.


I'm doing the £12 Challenge for Sport Relief - if you're interested, my donation page is here.

Day One Charity Challenge - The List

Okay, so call me Norma.

No other takers for the Charity Challenge….obviously didn't make it sound remotely tempting!
Don't blame you really.

Anyway, my £12 shop took me all of 5 minutes, but planning what to buy took A LOT longer. It's all about the prep with something like this: squeezing as much as you can out of every single penny.
There was a good deal of list tinkering, calculator bashing, sighing, crossing out, cheek puffing, more sighing….

I'd have liked to try a few different vegetarian meals, but there's no point if the kids won't eat them, so I've played safe. All my groceries came from Lidl, except the tin of peaches I bought in Tesco's last week. The cheese was reduced which meant I had enough money left to buy some cream crackers…the height of excitement I know, but they'll provide a bit of variety for after-school snacks, so the kids don't tire of muffins. I purposefully haven't given them muffins for a while…or carrots. We'll be eating a lot of carrots.

It goes without saying there's nothing organic going on here...

15 eggs                 £1.35
Cheese 250g            90p
milk 4pts                £1
butter                        98p
2xplain flour (3kg)   98p
tinned toms               34p
passata                      29p
carrots 500g              75p
sugar 1kg                  79p
vegetarian sausages   98p
tinned peaches           35p
Pesto Rosso               89p
cream crackers           38p
dark chocolate           79p
pasta 500g                 29p
red lentils 500g          89p

TOTAL               £11.95

One big advantage I have over last year is I don't have to make packed lunches. The kids now have school dinners - pre-paid - so this should take some of the pressure off, and possibly ease the whinging.  I'm thinking mainly about the eldest here - he eats more than his Dad and is permanently starving.

There are five of us to feed today and next saturday, but during the week it's down to four. I'm starting off gently with homemade bread for breakfast, and tonight, everyone's favourite - margherita pizza and garlic bread pizza. Got to keep them happy. Like I said, it's all about the prep…

I'll post the full 7 day meal plan tomorrow, and explain why I blew 79p on a bar of dark chocolate.

£12 Comic Relief Charity Challenge

..possibly a bit mad, but we're doing it again! It's been just about long enough since the last time for everyone to have forgotten what it was like...
So a quick recap if you're wondering what I'm on about - I've squeezed our weekly food shop down to  £12. £12 to feed four of us for 7 days. And that's it. Bar a few basics I have here.

Why? Well the why is for Comic Relief, because that's where all the money I'd usually spend on the groceries is going. We started on saturday - quite a good distraction because that's when my sister left for Australia - we finish at the end of the week on Red Nose Day.

I do like a good challenge and it's going to be interesting, planning, cooking and trying to keep the kids happy. But it wouldn't be much of a challenge if I raided the freezer and the cupboard for the week, so my self-imposed rules are no digging about in the freezer for meals, and no tins or packets except the ones bought with my £12 budget. I'm allowing myself to use up what's left of staples like flour, sugar, oil - and also the opened tub of marg in the fridge, tea bags, 3 onions, half a packet of split red lentils and a few wizened cloves of garlic I found at the back of the cupboard. It's not much extra, and sure, wouldn't it be wasteful to buy more when they're sitting there? Anyway, my rules and hey, it's for charity!

I think I'm pretty good at budgeting, but my grocery bills have been fluctuating a fair bit recently. The Challenge has made me take a long hard look at what I usually spend, and what goes into my trolley - as well as my rather slack approach to meal planning.
We're into our third day now, and the kids are still reasonably enthusiastic, but when they start moaning about the absence of treats and choices (and they will), it'll probably be a good time to gently remind them of the children who can never grab an apple or a biscuit when they feel like it; the children who have barely enough food to live on. Hopefully I'll get them to think about why we're doing this.

So my £12 list is reasonably similar to the one last year. I shopped at Lidl and Tesco's and bought the cheapest of the cheap. Quite a few are the same price as before which really surprised me, seeing as most of the things I usually buy are getting more expensive.

Doesn't look like much, does it..

Small chicken £3.09

milk £1.00

400g ham £1.65

cream cheese 50p

ball of mozzarella 40p

1 kg rice 40p

2x500g pasta 60p

1 kg potatoes 69p

loaf of wholemeal bread 47p

cream crackers 39p

2xtinned tomatoes 62p

passata 29p

1.5kg carrots 63p

4 bananas 32p

2xtinned peaches 58p

1.5kg flour 45p

Total £12.08

There isn't a lot in the way of fruit and veg. I'd thought about buying more instead of the chicken, but I can stretch the chicken to 3 meals, and we're only talking a week. I haven't included eggs because a very kind friend with hens has given me 8 lovely fresh ones, as well as 2 big leeks from her garden. The other advantage I have is I'm just feeding me and the 3 kids, because my husband's away. And I've only one milk drinker too, which helps cut costs.

Things seem to be going well enough, but it's early days! I'm trying to stay one step ahead and definitely doing more baking. I'll post my menu plan tomorrow so you can see what we've been eating. Some things crop up A LOT...Hard really to have much variety.

I think it would be fair to say homemade bread and muffins are the food glue that hold this Challenge together..