MOO Celery Salt!
Use those Celery Leaves! I love celery salt and use it a lot. Instead of discarding the leaves, place them onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake in a gentle oven for a few minutes until the leaves are dry and crumbly. When cool mix thoroughly into a small pot of salt. You can use a mortar and pestle if rock salt, or a small grinder if you prefer. From the Tip Store: Cooking: Ingredients
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I love these little tarts, and I'll let you in on a little secret - I keep a packet of Aldi scotch finger biscuits cases in the freezer just for making these! Why the freezer? So the fridge fairies won't find them and devour them of course!
They're so quick and easy to make, perfect for unexpected visitors or when a quick dessert is needed. Ingredients: 1 pkt all butter shortbread biscuits (or frozen tart cases) 125g butter, melted 2 pkts vanilla instant pudding (or MOO equivalent) 2-3/4 cups cold milk 300ml cream, whipped Method: Line a 12 cup muffin tin with cupcake papers. Crush shortbread biscuits into fine crumbs, about the texture of brown sugar and mix with melted butter. Spoon crumbs into cupcake liners. Press firmly on the bottom and up the sides. Mix pudding with milk according to directions on packet. Spoon pudding into crusts. Top with whipped cream. Keep chilled until ready to serve. One of my biggest bug bears is wasting food.
When you throw food out, or even put food in the bokashi, you are throwing your money away. We have pineapple with our salads, and one tin does two meals for the five of us. When I open a tin, I take out the four slices we need, then tip the other slices and juice into a container and put it in the fridge until the next night. The Aldi pineapple rings in juice are what we like. They are bought in bulk when I replenish the stockpile each year. After I use the remaining pineapple slices, instead of drinking the juice, or worse, pouring it down the drain, I make a quick marinade with it. I add a slurp of vegetbable oil, a dash of soy sauce and a pinch of garlic and give it all a shake. Then I plan chicken for the next night, take it out of the freezer and pour the marinade over. Let it marinate overnight in the fridge and then it can be baked, fried or barbecued. And nothing is wasted! Nuts’n’Bolts
Ingredients: 500g Nutrigrain (generic equivalent works just as well) 375g salted peanuts 375g pretzels (broken into small pieces) 100g pumpkin seeds 1 packet Cream of Chicken soup mix 1 packet French Onion soup mix (generic works just as well) 3 tsp curry powder Pinch chilli powder 1/2 cup currants (or sultanas) 3/4 cup olive oil, heated Method: Combine all ingredients except oil in a large bowl. Mix well to make sure everything is coated with the seasonings. Warm the oil and stir through the dry ingredients, making sure they are all coated completely. Store in a large, air tight bowl. If you are going to jar it up for gifts, wait two days. Stir the mix completely each day then on the third day pour into jars and label. This mix looks great in nut dishes on the Christmas table too. If you don't have all the ingredients, don't stress. Add what you have, and substitute the rest. This makes a HUGE batch, so great for a few gifts, with plenty leftover for your Christmas snacks. Package it in jars or cellophane bags to give. Easy Rocky Road
Ingredients: 1 x 250 gm packet snakes 2 x 200 gm blocks milk chocolate, melted 1 x 100gm packet mallow bakes (mini marshmallows) 1 cup roasted unsalted peanuts, toasted 1 cup desiccated coconut Method: Grease an 8 cm x 26 cm bar cake pan; line base and two long opposite sides with baking paper, extending paper 5 cm above edges of pan. Using scissors, snip snakes into 2-cm lengths. Combine snakes with remaining ingredients in a large bowl; mix well. Spoon mixture into prepared pan, pressing mixture firmly with back of spoon. Cover refrigerate several hours or until set. To serve, stand for 10 minutes at room temperature before cutting into slices. I have also put some mixture into patty pans and once set turned them out and placed them upside down on a plate put some ice cream on the top for children who would not eat plum pudding at Christmas time. We call this Almost Instant Fudge because it's really quick to make and has just two ingredients - yes, just two ingredients. To present this as a gift I like to repurpose a gift box or a pretty jar. Just recently I picked up Moccona jars for 50 cents each from the op shop, and they are perfect for packaging treats, including fudge and even Grandma's Shortbread Almost Instant Fudge Ingredients: 2 packets choc melts 1 tin condensed milk Method: Combine the choc melts and the condensed milk in a microwave safe bowl. Cook on HIGH in 30 second bursts, stirring between each burst, until the chocolate has melted and is completely mixed into the condensed milk. Pour into a well buttered 20cm square pan. Let set about 10 minutes, then carefully mark into squares. Place in the fridge to set completely. You can add chopped nuts or dried fruit to the fudge after cooking. You can also trim the cost by using MOO Condensed Milk. I buy choc melts on sale all year round and keep them in the freezer ready to use. This hamper comes complete with the ingredients for MOO Pancake Syrup, MOO Hotcakes and the tip sheets with full recipes in a neat gift hamper making it portable, the ideal gift for the family heading off on holidays.
Cheapskates Hotcakes Hamper You will need: Mum's Secret Hotcakes & Moo Pancake Syrup Tip Sheet Large paper lunch bags 2 x ziplock sandwich bags 1 x 250ml glass bottle with a leak-proof stopper (an old mint sauce bottle is good) 2 cups SR flour 1/4 cup milk powder (skim or full cream) 2 tsp sugar 2 cups brown sugar 1 tsp vanilla sugar Optional - cast iron pancake pan - from specialty stores, around $5 Instructions: Print the tip sheets. Mix the SR flour, powdered milk and sugar together and put into a ziplock bag and label "Hotcake Mix". Place the brown sugar and vanilla sugar into another ziplock bag and label "Pancake Syrup Mix". Decorate the front of one paper bag with "Hotcake Mix" and another with "Pancake Syrup". Decorate a third paper bag with the words "Cheapskates Hotcakes Hamper". Place the hotcake mix and the pancake mix into this bag along with the small glass bottle. Fold the tip sheet and slip into the paper bag. Fold the top of the bag over and staple shut. Attach a gift tag. This shortbread makes a wonderful gift, on its own in a pretty box or on a nice plate, or teamed with a special tea or coffee and a nice cup and saucer. It's also gender neutral - anyone can enjoy homemade shortbread.
Grandma's Shortbread - $3.55 Ingredients: 250g butter $2.50 1/2 cup castor sugar 25c 1-1/2 cups plain flour 30c 2/3 cup rice flour 50c Method: Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift flours together. Using fingertips gradually work flours into butter mixture until combined. Knead on a floured surface until smooth. Roll out to about 2cm thick. Cut into circles or fingers. Put on buttered trays. Sprinkle with castor sugar if wanted. Prick top of biscuits with a fork. Bake until firm and light golden around edges, about 15 - 20 minutes. Cool on cake rack. Store in airtight container. MOO Butter
Ingredients: 600ml cream Pinch salt 1 cup ice cold water You will need: A stand mixer, hand mixer or food processor (all will work, the stand mixer and food processor are the easiest to use) A bowl A sieve or cheesecloth (I prefer the cheesecloth) First things first, get your cream. The higher the fat content, the more butter you'll get per litre of cream and the nicer the butter will be, so skip the reduced fat creams and go for a good pure cream, or thickened cream or a full fat whipping cream. Tip that cream into the bowl of your mixer. You can use a handheld mixer or a food processor - both will turn your cream into butter just as easily as the stand mixer. Turn the mixer to medium speed and leave it for about 4 - 5 minutes. You'll see the cream thicken, then start to curdle, then you'll notice that it is separating and there will be liquid in the bottom of the bowl. This is the buttermilk. Don't waste it, you can use it in baking in place of milk or water. The creamy, yellow "butter" will be in clumps around the sides of the bowl. Now you need to get the butter to form one clump and completely separate from the buttermilk. To do this you'll need about 1 cup of ice cold water. I usually put a cup of cold water in the freezer for about half an hour before I start butter making. Turn the mixer back on and very slowly pour in about a quarter cup of the ice cold water. You'll see all the butter will clump together and there will be even more buttermilk in the bottom of the bowl. Take a sieve and place it over a bowl. Tip the butter and the buttermilk into the sieve. Now, with clean hands, you need to pick up the clump of butter and gently squeeze. You'll see more buttermilk coming out. Keep squeezing gently, until you can't get any more buttermilk from the butter. The aim is to remove all the buttermilk as the more you can remove the better your butter will keep. Once you've squeezed all the buttermilk from the butter you're done. You have lovely, fresh, unsalted butter. To add a little flavour to the butter, stir through a pinch or two of salt. I use a fork to mash the salt into the butter. Put the butter in a dish and keep it in the fridge for up to eight weeks. Pour the buttermilk into a jug and it will keep for up to two weeks in the fridge And there you have it, fresh butter in 20 minutes. From the September 2017 Cheapskates Journal Oranges are cheap at the moment, and the quality is excellent. Don't forget to check the label to make sure you are buying Australian oranges to ensure they are top quality and of course to support Australian farmers. This cake uses a whole orange and just four other basic pantry items, making it quick and easy. Whole Orange Cake Ingredients: 1 whole orange 1 1/2 cups sugar 3 eggs 1 1/4 cups oil 2 cups SR flour Method: Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place the whole orange, sugar, eggs and oil in a food processor and blend well. Add sifted flour. Whizz until flour is mixed into orange mixture. Bake in a greased and lined loaf tin for 45 minutes until cooked. Note: Olive oil gives a very moist cake but can leave a “taste”. I like to use half vegetable oil, half olive oil. The result is a lovely moist cake without the taste of the olive oil. This is the original recipe as given to me. I have tweaked it somewhat to suit our eating habits, and the result is a delicious, moist cake, that is more nutritious. After all eating a healthy diet doesn't have to mean eating a dull diet. The recipe I now make swaps wholemeal spelt flour for the self-raising flour and unsweetened apple sauce for the oil. I also cut the amount of sugar in the recipe and replace one of the eggs with flax seed and water (a great egg substitute). The result is a very moist cake, almost a mud cake texture. I also bake it in cupcake papers just to make it go further. I get 24 large cupcakes from the recipe and they take approximately 18 minutes to cook, depending on your oven. I'd start checking them after 15 minutes. The cakes are done when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. |
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