Organic peanut butter recipe

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As I’ve posted before, we love peanut butter! We we spread it on toast, dollop it into morning porridge, dip carrot and apple sticks into it and even eat it by the spoonful.

I usually buy Whole Earth Organic Peanut butter which is £3.19 a jar. Yet we can sometimes get through a whopping 3 jars a month! Seeing as we’re trying to feed our family for just £100 this month, I thought it high time I attempted my own. The results were outstanding! Delicious liquid gold! I have sworn never to get shop bought peanut butter every again.

Peanuts are rich in energy and contain many health benefiting nutrients, minerals, antioxidants and vitamins.

They contain sufficient levels of mono-unsaturated fatty acids especially oleic acid which helps lower LDL or “bad cholesterol” and increase HDL or “good cholesterol” level in the blood.

The kernels are a good source of dietary protein; compose fine quality amino acids that are essential for growth and development, and the husks are a fantastic source of fibre.

Research studies have shown that peanuts contain high concentrations of resveratrol and other poly-phenolic antioxidants, thought to have a protective function against heart disease, stroke, cancers and Alzheimer’s. Roasting or boiling apparently enhances the antioxidant bio-availability in the peanuts.

Peanuts also score well on vitamin and mineral levels containing good amounts of vitamin E, B complex vitamins and folic acid. 100g of peanuts provides about 85% of RDA of niacin (B3), which contribute to brain health and blood flow to the brain. They are also are rich source of minerals like copper, manganese, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, and selenium essential for bone health.

The recipe couldn’t be simpler:

Roast some skin on organic peanuts in a hot oven for 10-15 minutes until you see a sheen of oil appear on the dark skins. Place the nuts into a blender (I used a Kenwood) and blend for 5-10 minutes. Firstly you’ll see the peanuts blend into a crumb, then after a few more minutes the oil will start to ooze and it will become more liquid. Keep going until you have the consistency you require. I added no salt or sugar – it simply didn’t need it.

Supermarket nuts can be expensive. I buy kilo bags online from places like wholefoods online. 1 kg is about £4 and 5 kg is £17. If you’re able to buy in bulk you can save a fortune. this recipe also works well for cashew and almond nut butters – deliciously healthy.

Waste not want not

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As we approach the end of our first week of eating on a budget, I take a look in our fridge and it is beginning to look bare. My first thought is ‘what are we going to eat over the weekend’? We usually have plenty of options to choose from. This thought however, is closely followed by the realisation that for the first time in a long while, I don’t have lots of food that has reached its sell-by-date, or is going mouldy at the back of the fridge and needs to be thrown away.

Almost 50% of the total amount of food thrown away in the UK comes from our homes. We throw away 7 million tonnes of food and drink from our homes every year in the UK, and more than half of this is food and drink we could have eaten.

Wasting this food costs an average household £470 a year, rising to £700 for a family with children, the equivalent of around £60 a month.

That’s over 50% of the entire budget we’re aiming to meet for January 2015!

There are two main reasons why we throw away good food: we cook or prepare too much or we don’t use it in time. The foods we waste the most are fresh vegetables and salad, drink, fresh fruit, and baked items such as bread and cakes.

Yes our meals this week have been a little less exciting, and we’ve often eaten leftovers for lunch that we haven’t really fancied. But on the plus side we HAVE LESS WASTE!

I’ve noticed myself scrimping on every item. I’m using less butter and oil when I cook. I scrub carrots instead of peeling, so as not to waste the skins. I’ve even thought of 3 different things I can do with a humble cabbage! Yes we’ve eaten cabbage 3 times this week, and have I had any complains? No, because locally organic produce tastes great! Plus, I’ve valued my vegetable more than normal and treated it with respect. I’ve tried to be imaginative with what we’ve got, and yes it’s taken more time and energy but if that’s going to improve our health and finances then it’s worth it!

I’ve noticed my daughter who can be fussy, eating well this week. Perhaps it’s because she’s back at school and hungry, but maybe it’s because there are none of the usual snacks she might fill up on. I’ve taken a ‘this is it, or there’s nothing else’ approach and it seems to have worked. After all, not liking certain foods is a 1st world problem. You wouldn’t hear a child in Africa complain that they didn’t want to eat the dinner their mum had prepared.

We’ve all become too choosy, too wasteful, and that includes me too! If there’s something I’ve been taught this week, it’s that we can eat less and not want for more.

Bargain Saturday Brunch Bubble & Squeak recipe

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Inviting friends over for a meal can always be a challenge when you’re on a budget. But watching the pennies doesn’t mean you have to compromise on flavour. Brunch is always a good meal to have guests over for, as breakfast items are usually a lot cheaper when catering for large numbers. I thought I’d combine the flavours of the beautiful Farm Eggs I purchased from Headington Farmers Market yesterday with my budget local Rectory Farm potatoes and Summertown market cabbage to create a sumptuous bubble and squeak with a golden yolked egg on top. Here’s the recipe:

Frugal Bubble & Squeak

Take half a kilo of potatoes, peel, cut them into chunks and boil in salted water until soft. Mash with a little milk and butter, salt and pepper until they are nice and smooth. Fry an onion and some garlic in olive oil until golden brown add 1/2 a cabbage chopped into fine strands and stir. Splash in 3 tbsp of water and place the lid on allowing the cabbage, onions and garlic to steam/fry together for 5 minutes. Once the cabbage is tender, season with salt and pepper. Mix the mashed potato and cabbage together throughly. If you’ve used a red cabbage it will turn the potato a lovely purple colour. Heat some olive oil or butter in a frying pan, then add the potato cabbage mixture and pat it down. Leave to cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes until it begins to crisp up on the underside. Flip in over (don’t worry about it breaking up) and repeat on the other side. Poach some eggs until they are soft boiled and on top of the bubble and squeak. Serve with fried chorizo and beans – delicious frugal brunch for friends!

How much does this dent the Budget?

1/2 kilo of potatoes = 14p
6 eggs = £1.20
1/2 a cabbage = 50p
1 onion, garlic, butter & oil = 50p
Tin of beans = 24p
Chorizo (optional) = £1

Total for 6 people = £3.58
Price per person = 59p
Price per person without chorizo = 43p

Headington market organic free range eggs

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We popped over to Headington market this morning looking for some deals. We found these beautiful organic free range eggs. You can buy a tray of 30 medium eggs for just £6, or 30 large for £6.50 which would be plenty enough to last me the entire month – what a bargain!

This price rivals Tesco’s own free range eggs, but even better these beauties come from a local farm just outside of Oxford, and many of them will have been laid this morning! No sitting around on the supermarket shelf!

Tomorrow is the Weekend, and we have friends over for brunch. Brunch isn’t brunch without eggs and I’m planning a big bubble and squeak using my Rectory Farm potatoes, and cabbage from Summertown Market. A poached egg with a bright orange yolk is the perfect accompaniment. I can’t wait! I’ll post the recipe with photos on here tomorrow.

Kale pasta pesto

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This has got to be one of the easiest and most versatile dinners to make. You can whip it up in about 15 minutes flat.

Plus kale is a super healthy vegetable containing plenty of calcium and magnesium which are essential minerals for bone health. 1 cup of kale contains 100% of your RDA for vitamins A, C and K and more iron per calorie than beef! Iron is essential for healthy blood, the formation of haemoglobin and enzymes, transporting oxygen to various parts of the body, cell growth, proper liver function and more.

Kale is filled with powerful antioxidants such as carotenoids and flavonoids help protect against various cancers. Kale is a great anti-inflammatory food filled with 10% of the RDA of omega-3 fatty acids, which help, fight against arthritis, asthma and autoimmune disorders.

Wow what a food!

I got a beautiful bunch of black kale (cavolo nero) in my veggie box from The Market Garden at Eynsham on Tuesday (please see details of their awesome veggie box here) and I’ve been looking forward to making this recipe ever since. Here’s how it goes….

All you do is steam -fry the kale with a little garlic and olive. Basically begin frying the kale and garlic in oil but then add a dash of water and put on the lid to steam everything together.

Then blend the garlicy kale with 2 handfuls of grated cheese and 2 handfuls of cashew nuts (ground almond flour works too if your blender’s not strong). You can add olive oil or a tbsp of natural yoghurt to thin it out if necessary. Season with lemon juice and black pepper and stir through pasta. Many vegetables work in this recipe but my favourite to use are kale, broccoli and mushroom.

Is it within budget?

Bunch of kale = £1
100g cheese = 75p
100g cashew nuts = £1
Pasta = 40p
1/2 Lemon = 15p
Olive oil, garlic, yoghurt – 20p

Total = £3.50 for 4

Frugal peanut butter hummus recipe

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As I posted on day 2 of this journey I’ve come to the realisation that I’ve been wasting a whole heap of money on buying tins of chickpeas and also jars of organic peanut butter!

One 400g tin of chickpeas at Tesco’s is 55p but if you soak your own dried version the equivalent works out as just 14p.

We eat a tonne of hummus a week. It was one of the only foods my daughter would consistently eat as a baby.

Like oats (see our flapjack recipe here), chickpeas, are rich in soluble dietary fibre which is great for removing cholesterol from the body and keeping you regular (if you know what I mean). Soluble fibre also helps stabilize blood sugar levels, so if you have diabetes, insulin resistance or hypoglycaemia chickpeas can help you balance blood sugar levels while providing steady, slow-burning energy.

Chickpeas are high in protein and an excellent source of the trace mineral manganese, which is an essential cofactor in a number of enzymes important in energy production and antioxidant defences. Just one cup of chickpeas supplies 84.5% of the daily value of this mineral. They also contain good levels of folic acid and magnesium both essential in pregnancy, with 1/2 a cup making up around 30% of your RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance).

Chickpeas have a high iron content and therefore are an essential component to a vegetarian diet. Just 100g provides over a third of your RDA. Iron is an integral component of haemoglobin, which transports oxygen from the lungs to all body cells, and is part of key enzyme systems for energy production and metabolism.

Hummus usually contains tahini (sesame paste), but this is an expensive commodity on a frugal budget. We always have peanut butter in the cupboard, and are now making this ourselves (recipe here). So I thought I’d devise a hummus recipe that replaces the tahini with peanut butter. Here we go…

Peanut butter hummus

3 cups cooked chickpeas (made from soaking 200g of dried chickpeas over night and then boiling for 45 minutes until tender)
2 tbsp peanut butter
3 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin

In a blender combine all the ingredients and blend until smooth. If the mixture is sticking drizzle in a little boiling water until things get moving. You can then continue to add water until you reach the consistency you require. I like it to be the consistency of whipped butter. If you like it hot, add 1 dried chilli. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil. Serve with chopped British carrots (ours were from our veggie box supplied by The Market Garden at Eynsham) or on toast.

Budget

In total this hummus which is equivalent to 3 large tubs of supermarket hummus (costing £3), cost only £1 to make.

Frugal flapjack recipe

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We love oats at home and eat porridge most days for breakfast. It’s warming in the Winter weather and keeps you full until lunch time.

Oats are a modest grain yet highly nutritious! One cup of oats will supply nearly 70% of your daily needs for manganese, a mineral that helps enzymes in bone formation. You’ll also get a generous helping of vitamin B1, magnesium and potassium.

Among all grains, oats have the highest proportion of soluble fibre. This type of fibre absorbs water and substances associated with high blood cholesterol on transit in the gut. Studies show that people with high cholesterol who eat just 3 g of soluble fibre per day can reduce their total cholesterol by 8%!

Also good for digestion, this insoluble fibre in oats sweeps like a broom through the intestines, moving food effortlessly along and helping to prevent constipation. Studies show that people with reflux and heartburn who eat a high fibre diet experience fewer symptoms.

If you’re not a fan of porridge you may want to try this simple flapjack recipe to receive the benefits of oats. This recipe is super easy and can be made and cooked in under 30 minutes flat. Here’s the recipe……

125g soft butter
100g sugar
2 tablespoons golden syrup
250g oats

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Line a 9 x 15 inch baking tray with baking paper. Press in the oaty mixture until spread evenly over the baking tray. Place in a pre-heated oven (gas mark 5, 190C) for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown all over. Allow to cool before slicing into 24 chunks.

Sometimes I like to add 1 grated carrot to the mixture, it gives the flapjacks a beautiful orange colour and contributes to our 5 -a-day!

How are we doing on Budget?

Butter 125g = 50p
Oats 250g = 20p
Sugar = 12p
Golden syrup = 20p

Total = £1.02 for 24 flapjacks (4p a flapjack)

Spinach Dahl & Rice

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If you’ve not visited Tahmid Stores at 53 Cowley Road, Oxford, I urge you to do so. This independently own Indian/Bangladeshi supermarket stocks Halal meat, a huge range of ethnic groceries as well as fruits and vegetables at very competitive prices. You can tell they are passionate about food simply by the diversity of their product range and the quality of their products. You can buy wholesale items such as 20 kilos of Basmati Rice that makes small packets of supermarket rice seem extortionately priced. Whilst this quantity may take you a year to get through, if you team up with a few friends and split the cost you get yourself a tidy deal.

This family recipe that we ate for dinner last night cost less than £2 to make for 4 people, and there was enough left over the next day for my husband to take for lunch at work. Here’s the recipe:

Easy Spinach Dahl

1. First rinse and then soak 250g dried yellow split peas or channa dahl.

Soaking peas overnight in water shortens their cooking time. But soaking isn’t entirely necessary. Split peas cook relatively quickly. Unsoaked peas take from 1 to 2 hours of simmering; soaked peas take about 40 minutes.

2. Discard the water and boil the peas in 1 litre of fresh water with 1 tsp of salt. Split peas absorb lots of water as they cook, so check the soup often and add liquid as needed.

3. In a frying pan fry 1 small onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 dried chilli and a tablespoon of garam masala for a couple of minutes.

4. Once the peas are very tender and soup like add in 300g of tinned or frozen spinach and cook for another 5 minutes.

5. Add in the fried onion and spices and season with salt, pepper and the juice from a lemon.

6. Serve with Basmati rice and a dollop of natural yoghurt.

How are we doing on nutrition?

Split peas are a very good source of cholesterol-lowering fibre. Not only can dried peas help lower cholesterol, they are also of special benefit in managing blood-sugar disorders since their high fibre content prevents blood sugar levels from rising rapidly after a meal. Split peas also provide excellent amounts of molybdenum, manganese, copper, folic acid, vitamin B1, phosphorus, vitamin B5, and potassium with one cup providing nearly 50% of your RDA for all these vitamins and minerals. Coupled with rice, split peas provide all the essential amino acids to form a complete protein. Spinach (as does all green leafy vegetables adds more minerals, this time magnesium and calcium for strong bones and iron for your blood. If you season with lemon juice, the vitamin C from this fruit makes the iron more easily absorbed. All in all, it’s no wonder that Dahl and rice is an Indian staple.

And budget?

250g Yellow split peas = 26p
1 lemon = 30p
Spinach = 60p
Garlic = 20p
Garam masala, chilli, salt and pepper = 20p
Rice = 40p

Total = £1.96 for 4 people

Rectory farm potatoes

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Rectory Farm are offering 25 Kilos of organic potatoes for just £7. If that’s too many for you, you can get 12.5 kilos for £4. The 25 kg bag is enough for 50 family meals. I bought a sack of red potatoes back in December, I keep them cool in the garage, which stops them from sprouting. They will probably last me until the Spring. Here’s the details:

Bags of Potatoes available direct from the farm.

Potatoes in 25kg and 12.5kg bags are available direct from the farm. Varieties are Saxon, Mozart (a red potato) and Wilja. Prices are £7 for 25kg and £4.00 for 12.5kg. They are available from the farm buildings, opposite the PYO entrance, Monday to Friday 7.30am until about 6pm when the farm is working and occasionally on Saturdays.

Address: – Rectory Farm, Stanton St. John, Oxford OX33 1HF

The Market Garden – Eynsham, Witney & surrounding villages

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The Market Garden at Eynsham

I drove up to Eynsham to pick up a £10 veg and fruit box from the Market Garden Greengrocers yesterday. They deliver to Eynsham, Witney and surrounding villages, but not Headington where I live.

For £10 I got plenty of potatoes, a butternut squash, Cavolo nero (black kale), mushrooms, apples, onions, garlic and an assortment of purple and yellow carrots. All the produce was fresh, vibrant and of a very high quality. The £10 was very generous with plenty in it for several family meals.

I am already planning carrot soup, sausage, mash and onion gravy, kale pasta pesto and roasted butternut salad as well as garlic mushrooms for a weekend breakfast with some eggs. If the weather remains cold I may even manage an oaty apple crumble – yum!

The shop was absolutely beautiful containing many locally grown produce at very reasonable prices – often more competitive than large supermarkets.

I met Jonathan who was extremely helpful and knowledgeable about where all the local fruit and vegetables came from. There is a wide variety of produce in the shop which is very clearly labelled with the price and source.

I couldn’t resist buying some additional cherry tomatoes which are a favourite in our household. In fact I think most of them got munched in the car on the journey home. They also sell loose salad leaves which I am told are extremely popular.

Here are the details of their Fruit and Vegetable boxes

The Market Garden at Eynsham offer £10, £15 or £20 boxes containing a selection of seasonal fruit and vegetables, with an emphasis on local and British produce.

They deliver any day Tuesday to Saturday on either a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis, covering Eynsham, Witney and the surrounding villages. Boxes can either be a mix of conventionally grown and organic or purely organic, and are tailored according to customer feedback, including any particular favourites and excluding any dislikes.

If you’d like to find out more or order a box for delivery visit their website here. Call 01865 604571 or Email: shop@themarketgardeneynsham.co.uk

Feed a Family Oxford

Promoting budget healthy eating using local organic produce

Organic peanut butter recipe

Waste not want not

Bargain Saturday Brunch Bubble & Squeak recipe

Headington market organic free range eggs

Kale pasta pesto

Frugal peanut butter hummus recipe

Frugal flapjack recipe

Spinach Dahl & Rice

Rectory farm potatoes

Bags of Potatoes available direct from the farm.

The Market Garden – Eynsham, Witney & surrounding villages