Food & Drinks

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Some Things I Know For Sure

15 Comments Posted on November 17, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

Travelling across the interwebs, I sometimes stumble on a Thing that makes me want to rant. Today, I am feeling ranty about grocery shopping. I will like to share a few things I have learned in my 39 years here on this planet with you –

The Less Often You Go, The More You Save

Unless you are incredibly determined and motivated, most grocery shopping trips will result in one or more “impulse” purchases. You’ll see something you had no intention of buying on special and put it in the trolley. For me it is usually crumpets, Starburst Babies, potato chips and dips. So if you go once every fortnight instead of once a week, less impulse purchases will = more $$ saved..

Junk Mail Is Useful

Those catalogues most of us get every week from the supermarkets – you can sign up to receive those via your email now, or you can view them online. Why would you want to do that? Because you can suss out the specials before you even leave home. If something is on super special at one place and you need to restock it, you can find out via the catalogue, and go in there with a very strict list of things you need.

In Australia? Here are links to the email sign up pages for – Woolworths – Aldi – Coles (view online only) – IGA (view online only)

Saving Can Be An Effort

There have been fortnightly shopping trips where I have been to IGA, Aldi, Coles *and* Woolworths, all in one day. Why? Here’s a hint. Supermarkets make more money because in general, people only want to go to one place to shop. The big specials are designed to make you pick their store that week, because they think you’ll buy everything else there once you get in the door. They even have a term for these specials – a Loss Leader.

Don’t play by their rules – there is nothing saying you have to do all your shopping in one place. If you will save significant money purchasing items you regularly use across two or more stores, then do that. :) I’m lucky where I live because Coles, Woolworths and Aldi are right next to each other.

Buying Many Can Save You Headaches.

Buying several of an item you regularly purchase can be a great idea, especially if the item is on special. If you know you use certain tinned items or items with a long shelf life regularly, it makes sense to buy those things in bulk when they are on special. You will buy them eventually anyway, having them on hand means less trips to the supermarket.

Buying In Bulk Can Save You $$

This should be obvious. I think anyone who has ever done a price comparison of things is well aware of this fact. I will like to talk specifically about some ways we use this in our household. I bulk buy things that I know we will use eventually and store them well, so they will be there when we want to use them.

Chicken Roasters

We like a Lenards chicken mini roast once a week, but the nearest Lenards to us is a 100km round trip. So when we go, I will pre-order 8-12 chicken roasters and bring them home in insulated bags with ice packs. We have a Foodsaver, and they go into the deep freeze. They cook up beautifully even after being frozen *and* I usually get a discount for buying them in bulk.

Toilet Paper, Paper Towel, Tissues, Anti-Bac Wipes

These are things I use regularly. I’m going to continue to use them regularly. I will be spending money on these things no matter what, so it makes sense to buy them in bulk and save the $$. Plus, there is nothing worse than Running Out Of Toilet Roll As A Surprise To Yourself.

Buying Cat Related Bulk Items

Cat Food

I have seen no signs that my cats plan to stop eating anytime soon. :) They will always need food. If I buy it in bulk from our local pet store, this is good for two reasons – it supports a local business *and* it is cheaper than the supermarkets. We save over 20 cents per tin of food, which is $20 per 100 cans. Plus, we buy kitty litter and chicken food there in bulk.

Kitty Litter

I *hate* running out of kitty litter. With 2 indoor only cats we use plenty of kitty litter. Recently we have discovered a new brand at our local pet store called Trouble & Trix Lavender Litter. This stuff is amazing. The cats really like it, when they bury their doings or you scoop it instead of bad smells, a lovely lavender scent is released into the air, and the litter clumps, which means it lasts a lot longer with regular scooping and just the occasional top up. We’re down to changing it once a week at most, which saves us money. Plus, this!

Meats In Bulk Can Be Good, Too

The Other Half is the cutter up and Foodsaver of meats – in particular chicken – in this house, however, having to do this job regularly leaves him irritated and annoyed. If we buy 5-6kg of chicken breasts in bulk, and I ask him to do the chicken cutting up job once in a blue moon instead of regularly, then we freeze the results, it could be 2-3 months before he has to do this job again.

He cuts breast chicken into steaks – for me to eat when he has a red meat steak – pieces – for our regular Honey and Mustard chicken tonight dish which we enjoy – slices – for chicken and bacon pasta or stir fries.

Next time I am hoping to up the amount of chicken to 8-10kg and then we might go 4-5 months without a chicken cut up session. I’ll let him play some music while he does it, which will make him less irritated and annoyed. Happy times for all!

Pantry Staples Are Important

Right now I have everything I need in this house to make 2 weeks of Pizza. If we leave out the bases -I get a killer woodfired herby pizza base from Aldi and normally I buy 4 at a time because they are vacuum sealed and keep for ages – I have everything we need to make 5-6 weeks of pizza. I’ve got everything I need to make at least 8 recipes we regularly eat right here at home.

Sometimes Fresh Is Best

Sometimes you want something fresh cooked special. For me that is usually crumbed chicken with potatoes. I don’t like to use frozen chicken for that recipe, though I certainly could. There is something about the entire process of making crumbed chicken from fresh ingredients which is comforting to me, probably because my Grandma and I used to make it together a lot.

Also, you have to use fresh meat in the slow cooker. Those recipes get made close to shopping day, for obvious reasons. Which leads us to..

Meal Planning Is Awesome.

Sitting down and coming up with a list of meals you would like to make for the next week or two weeks seems like a daunting concept, until you do it. And once you do it, you’ll likely want to keep doing it. But this does not mean you have to eat all your meals on a set day. It just means those meals which you need super fresh ingredients for are best planned for cooking right after shopping day.

Regular Set Meal Days

Some people like to regularly meal plan a roast on a Sunday, or Pizza on a Friday. We’re not quite that regimented around here but we usually do eat pizza and a roast sometime around the weekend.

Things You Wouldn’t Usually Buy

This week I bought a large bag of red capsicum (bell peppers to some of you :) ) – they were on special, they were *not* on the meal plan, and suddenly I had visions in my mind of a roasted red capsicum and potato soup. The other half looked at me weird, when I picked them up, and he said wow, that is a lot of red capsicum. I’m about to go roast it in my new roaster, with some potatoes, and then make it into a soup. I’ll share the recipe! ;)

What do you know for sure about grocery shopping?

Share it in the comments! :)

food, kitties, life lessons, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014, shopping

Salted Caramel On Icecream

10 Comments Posted on November 14, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

You may remember our Salted Caramel Sauce from Monday.

Alternatively you can make your own.

This is a quick one. Pop a spoonful of the Salted Caramel sauce into the microwave for 30 seconds or so –

I always put in some water in to microwave as well to prevent the sauce getting too hot. You could always nuke it for less time..

Drizzle some ice magic – if you have it and like it – as well as the salted caramel sauce – onto icecream. Super simple but extra tasty. :)

food, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014, recipes

Salted Caramel Coffee Milkshake

4 Comments Posted on November 10, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

This is what you need to start your week. If you want salted caramel in a convenient form that you can keep in the fridge, Run, don’t walk, to your nearest Woolworths, and grab this –

Woolworths Gold Salted Caramel Dessert Sauce. Or make your own. Yum!

The Woolworths version is not really in a sauce form, not sauce as we know it, however you can spoon some into a plastic container, whack it in the microwave for 30 seconds or so – best to put in a small container of water as well, and keep an eye on it because it can get very hot very fast – then it will assume sauce form.

Once you’ve done that put some sugar – I used coconut sugar but you use what kind you like – into a cup. If you have a coffee machine that will do an espresso shot, put an espresso shot over the sugar, add the caramel sauce, and stir well to combine. If you do not have a coffee machine but would still like coffee in this shake, use instant coffee and add hot water.

But ohhh wait, this is a milkshake, why use hot water or a hot espresso shot? You want the ingredients to dissolve, so you need to use hot. But to cool it down fast once the ingredients have dissolved, use a couple of ice cubes.

This will not take very long. This photo was taken maybe 30 seconds after the first one. The cup you saw with normal sugar and the brown stuff is Milo, which the other half wanted instead of salted caramel. So you can tweak this shake to fit everyone. ;)

Now you want to ice cream it up. Vanilla is fine but you could use chocolate or even a salted caramel ice cream if you have it. Add ice cream to the cups you are planning to put your shake into, as well as into the blender with your mixture you have created. If you like it super cold, add more icecubes as well.

Now you are ready to blend. I have a knock off magic bullet which I got from Homeart for cheap which is super handy for making drinks like this, it came with 4 different drink cups, but you can use any blender you have access to.

And serve.

Now, if you made too much of the liquid mix? You can pop some alfoil on the top and put it into the freezer to add to your next shake. Even if I froze some, I always use some of the “hot” then iced liquid when making this shake because I find the flavour distributes through the shake more evenly that way.

So, how did I nearly set the microwave on fire heating this sauce up? Well, our microwave is an LG Solardom which is a microwave, grill, and convection oven. Somehow, one of the little plastic feet on the metal tray had worn away, and so when I was heating my sauce using the microwave function, it was metal on metal, and sparks flew all over the place.

I was watching it – I usually do if it is just a quick thing and I had put this on for 30 seconds. So I stopped the microwave right away and we worked out what happened. But even if you do not have this kind of issue, you want to be careful with caramel in the microwave, it can get super hot very fast. :)

Later this week – another way you can use this sauce.

food, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014, recipes

A Cup Of Tea

12 Comments Posted on November 3, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

Do you like a cup of tea?

Snoskred loves a cup of tea. Bizarrely, her favourite brew was invented by Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister and foreign minister of Australia. Dude can’t delegate work to others or run a country without getting backstabbed by his own political party, but boy can KRudd blend a tea. He won a competition back in 2011 for his tea blend..

Originally meant to be a limited edition for just 12 months, the Australian Afternoon Tea proved so popular that it is now a permanent member of the Twinings range.

I am not a fan of KRudd at all, but I love this tea blend, and I recently picked up 100 bags for an insanely low price which will last me quite some time.

When and why?

I do not drink tea daily. On a day that I drink it, I will usually brew a cup mid to late afternoon. Rainy or cold days are more likely to result in a cup of tea.

What else do you put in it?

I like honey in my tea as the sweetener. Something magical happens when you combine honey and tea.

For some teas like the Australian Afternoon Tea and various forms of black tea I will use a dash of cream if I have some, milk if not.

For teas that are more herbal in nature like the Madame Flavour range, Cinnamon and Orange, Lemon Ginger, green tea or fruit flavoured teas I will only add a touch of honey and no form of milk or cream.

Here are some of the teas in my tea cupboard –

Overseas readers – want to try the Australian Afternoon Tea?

Shoot me an email to snoskred {at} gmail {dot} com or contact me via the Contact Form with a postal address – don’t leave it in the comments for safety reasons – and I will send you a sealed Australian Afternoon Tea Twinings tea packet, from their range where you buy 10 foil sealed teabags in a box! Make sure to include your blog address if I don’t already read your blog, so I can add you to my feedreader.

Do you like a cup of tea?

Leave a comment to let me know -or write a post on your blog and link to this post. :)

About Snoskred, Aussie Culture, food, NaBloPoMo, NaBloPoMo 2014

Cinnamon Crumble Muffins & Iced Tea

3 Comments Posted on October 27, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

My Cinnamon and Black Cherry muffins are well known in this part of the world. I have taken them to my workplace(s), where my parents work, and to family and friends. People really lose their shiznit over these muffins, they act like I am some kind of baking genius. I suspect it is the Streusel topping, which, in reality, is just cinnamon and sugar.

I am so, so, so so not a baking genius. But the folks at Betty Crocker are, and I can follow the recipe of their Cinnamon Crumble Muffins. And so can you. Especially considering the hardest part of this recipe is buying the packet mix from your local supermarket. You’ll also need –

The eggs were fresh from my girls – we have a broody at the moment who is keeping them warm from when they are laid to when I collect them. You will notice the mix is a strong shade of yellow – the yolks of our eggs are such an amazing colour! Plus, there is a lot more yolk than white with our girls. You can use coconut oil for this recipe as well, though it will work best if you warm the coconut oil to a liquid state.

So you just put a tablespoon of the mix into each muffin pan.

If you like, you can special up these muffins with various fruits, if you so desire. My Mother makes this packet mix too, only she adds slices of apple from a tin. You could use any kind of fruit you so desire – the back of the packet has a banana and raspberry version. Me personally, I do not like raspberry unless it is a strained coulis – I’m not a big fan of the seeds, sadly.

I like cherries in mine but the other half likes his plain, so using these gorgeous gingham patty pans, I can easily know which ones have cherries. Pink for mine, Black for The Other Half. Before this recipe, I would put a tin of cherries in the fridge until they were icy cold, and have just cherries and icecream. Cherries are the perfect fruit addition to this recipe. You could also use fresh cherries, strawberries, blueberries, well, just about any fruit you like!

Into the pans that will have cherries, you add 2-3 pieces of chopped cherry. I like to cut mine in half and make sure there are no pits left inside – one too many pit accidents. But if you like, you can leave them whole.

Then you add a little more muffin mix to cover the cherries, and then the streusel topping which is provided in a separate packet to the muffin mix.

And then you bake them for a bit, following the instructions on the pack.

This is how they look without cherries –

And this is how they look with them –

Now, if you are like me, you’ll bake these after dinner, and make them into an awesome dessert, by cutting them in half while still hot, popping them into a bowl, and adding icecream. So awesome!

Now, onto the Iced Tea. I have never made this before but I am always willing to try new flavours to go with my soda water. I used the Australian Afternoon Tea by Twinings which is one of my personal favourites. Simply brew up a cup of tea the way you usually would, with boiling water.

To provide a little sweetness, I added honey while brewing the tea. You can use any sweetener that you prefer – coconut sugar would be my second choice, and I will give that a try as well because it will provide a more caramel flavour as opposed to the honey flavour.

Place the brewed tea into the freezer for a while. I left mine in for a few hours, then added freshly charged via Sodastream soda water, ice and slices of lime.

It was absolutely delicious. Full of flavour, and low in sugar. If you like Nestea or iced tea, you absolutely should give this a try.

This post was inspired by two other posts – Fake it ’til you bake it over at Awesomely Unprepared, and How much sugar is in that? at Laughing Galah.

This is not a sponsored post – this is just stuff I regularly use and enjoy in my house. But I’d like to send a shout out to Betty Crocker – I’m more than willing to try any packet mixes you want to provide me with and blog about them here. I have tried some other ones before but it has been a while, and I have seen some very yummy new things appear which I am thinking of trying soon.. :)

cooking, recipes

State Of The Snoskred

3 Comments Posted on October 20, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

With the Berry Chicken Auction coming up next weekend, things are in a state of preparation in Snoskred Land. Painting is going on. It was such a gorgeous day on Sunday that the painting went on outside in the sun..

We are building a chicken tractor with coop for the new girls to hang out in – they will live in here for four to six weeks once they arrive. This is mostly for quarantine purposes because we love our current flock and want to protect them from anything the new girls might be carrying as a surprise, but the added bonus is, they will mow, aerate, and fertilise the lawns for us in allergy season when for us, lawn mowing is generally off the table for a bit..

If you want to know more about quarantine, here is a great post about it by The Chicken Chick. Quarantine of Backyard Chickens: When and How – and after that, we will have to introduce the girls carefully. You can read more about how to introduce new girls into a flock here. How do I introduce new chickens into my old flock?

During Quarantine they will be well protected with wire and a wooden coop section, complete with roost. We think the outdoor section touching the ground will be clear of wire at this stage, but we can always change our mind on that. We’re currently debating where the roost is and whether it might be too high with the doors closed, making it hard for the girls to get onto, so that might get moved downwards a little.

Each day, I’ll go out and sweep out the poop which will land on the floor under the roost, and pop in a large kitty litter tray of sand for them to dustbathe in. This tractor can be used long term, which is why I am painting it good. The coop and run have held up super well over the years with our undercoat and Taubmans Endure on top.

In other news, there is a lot of fruit being added to soda water here at the moment. I bought some special ice cube trays from Avon some years ago which take a slice of lime or lemon in the middle. I found them in our recent de-clutter so I gave lime slices a try and found them to be amazing.

The thing that is most amazing.. something happens with the water once you put it with the slice – every drop becomes lime flavoured. So the moment the ice cube starts to melt, you can taste the lime.

I also have been trying some frozen fruits. They work incredibly well – they serve two functions, to cool the drink, and to flavour the drink. Mango is my current favourite but I have also been using blueberries and mixed berries.

My final piece of news today involves a lunch out with girlfriends on Friday in which I heard the awesome news that Karma has come back as a surprise to some of the work people who were involved in making my workplace somewhere I no longer wanted to go. One of them has been seriously demoted and is no longer a manager.

The other one has been seriously demoted and is no longer a team leader. I count this as a WIN for humanity, but it does not inspire me to return, as other things have gone down the toilet extremely quickly for my poor ladies who still remain there. :(

On the way home, I thought I was going to run out of fuel – my Polo has a 45 litre tank, check out how much petrol it took when I got to the station! Two and a half months out of one tank of fuel was pretty awesome, the last time I filled up was at Costco back on 31 August.

Chickens, food, Happy Snoskred

Roasted Red Capsicum & Potato Soup

1 Comment Posted on October 17, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

I’m not one to follow recipes very often. Much of my cooking is inspired by a recipe and then I go forth and experiment. Such was the case with this soup which was inspired by this post – Chilled Red Pepper Soup with Yogurt and Herbs – though what I made was nothing like the recipe.

I also like my recipes to have “offramps” – points at which you can stop and tada, it is done. This recipe has a couple of offramps..

So here’s what I did, with pics. This is super simple!

1. Chop and prepare 5 capsicums – any colour you like. I chose red today because they were on super special at Aldi. Peel some potatoes – amount is up to your preference, some people might like more potatoes than I used to roast but I knew I would be adding a couple more in at Slow Cooker Time.

2. Check in with your Kitty Supervisor to make sure you have done step 1 correctly. Set the oven to 200 degrees C (400F).

3. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil on base of roasting pan. Smoosh the capsicum and potatoes around in the oil to make sure they are covered with olive oil. Layer your items thoughtfully in your roasting pan so they will provide each other with flavour.

4. Get spicy! Add your choice of spices – you could use any you like, I chose paprika, cinnamon, cayenne, parsley and cracked pepper. Put this in the oven for 1 hour in a covered lid pan – you may need slightly longer and/or a lower temperature for uncovered pans.

5. Remove from oven. Delight in the smell.

Offramp 1

Here, you could boil the kettle, prepare a litre of stock – chicken, veg, your choice. Add the roasted items and stock to a blender, whizz, add some cream, sour cream, or yoghurt, and your soup is ready. If not, continue on with the recipe as follows.

6. Cut up one onion, one fresh red pepper, a few carrots. Saute and sweat these in a saucepan if you are planning to get off at the next offramp, or your slow cooker if you are in this for the long haul.

7. Add in 1 litre stock of your choice, extra potatoes or other vegetables if you would like. Sweet potato (yams) would be wonderful in this. If slow cooking, set for 6 hours.

Offramp 2

If you are not slow cooking, simmer soup on the stove for an hour or until everything is cooked through and mushy. Remove from heat, allow to cool a little, whizz in your blender, add some cream, sour cream, or yoghurt, and your soup is ready.

8. When your slow cooker beeps, remove the soup and allow to cool a little.

9. Whizz in your blender, add some cream, sour cream, or yoghurt, cheese if you like it, stir well, pop it back on the stove to get the soup piping hot again, and your soup is ready

cooking, food, recipes

Asian Laksa

3 Comments Posted on October 13, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

Last month our household got hit with one of the most evil flu viruses we have experienced. It was *awful* – neither of us had the energy or talent to cook.. :(

I keep some chicken noodle cup-a-soup in the cupboard for these kinds of situations, as well as cans of baked beans, spaghetti and cheese, some other canned soups and pasta bake in a jar just add cooked pasta, chicken or tuna and bake type things.

On this occasion though, we ran out of cup-a-soup. When we went to Woolworths to stock up on this and a few other things.. I discovered Asian Laksa cup-a-soup.

I’m sure it has been on the market for ages and I am just late to find out about it. I bought a couple of packets of this Woolworths version as well as a Hot and Spicy Continental version.

The Hot And Spicy version cleared my sinuses out so fast, it was amazing but be aware, the Hot and Spicy is exactly that – Hot and Spicy. It is nice to have this as another tool in my sinus clearing cupboard though, as I usually use Wasabi for that and I only like to eat Wasabi with Sushi, which means a drive to the shops to get Sushi, and that isn’t possible at 3am.

The plain version is very mild and yet flavourful. For those who steer clear of Laksa due to not liking the taste of coconut, there is no need to worry here, there is no lingering coconut flavour and checking the ingredients list there does not seem to be any coconut in here. The flavour that does linger is vegetables.

Snoskred verdict? Look how many of them I bought when they were on special for $1, this might be a clue that I absolutely love these cup-a-soups.

I am fairly confident the Woolworths and Continental cup-a-soups are made by the same people, but I could be wrong. I’ll be buying whichever one is on special.

I was not sponsored to say these things, I just really like this stuff. :) You’ll find me talking more about the Woolworths Select range over coming weeks because I have found some products I really love in that range, including their amazing Salted Caramel Dessert Sauce.

I have a story about how I almost set the house on fire trying to heat it up in the microwave.. stay tuned for that one!

cooking, food, shopping

Fake Lasagne

6 Comments Posted on September 26, 2014May 31, 2015 by Snoskred

It has been years since I have made *real* lasagne. Once I found out about fake lasagne and how easy it was to make, without all the layering, I just make the fake version all the time.

So I bet you are wondering what fake lasagne is. You’re about to find out how to make it. :)

You will need –

500G cooked pasta, spread out into baking dishes.

Pre-prepared bolognese sauce – you can also use napolitana or a non-meat sauce, that works just as well and there have been times I have used jar sauce, when I am too lazy. On this occasion I made bolognese sauce in the slow cooker the day before.

To prepare the bottom layer –

Combine 6 eggs, 600mls cream, 500g tub of ricotta, whatever herbs and spices you like – I use paprika, cinnamon, parsley -in a large bowl.

Pour egg mixture over the cooked pasta.

Layer your red sauce layer on top, making sure to cover the bottom layer.

Once your layering is complete, sprinkle with cheese and place into 190C oven for 45 minutes. If you do not like your cheese crispy, make sure to cover with alfoil.

On taking out of the oven, make a small hole in the middle. If the bottom layer is still liquid, it needs more time. It should be foofy and look a bit like whipped cream, but a cooked version.

How do you Lasagne?

Let me know if you try this recipe! :)

cooking, food, recipes

Still An Adelaide Girl

3 Comments Posted on September 19, 2014June 2, 2015 by Snoskred

When I was little, my family owned a chain of electronic stores. At the main office, which was in a little cluster of shops, two shops down there was a little “deli” in the old style of delis, run by a Greek family who we were friends with..

They would take a Vili’s pasty, slice it open, put cheese in there, and then put it back in the oven for the cheese to melt.

We can get Vili’s here now and when we buy it, we do not mess about. We buy 2 boxes of pasties at a time, 24 pasties in total. They are frozen when we get them and these go into the freezer for later consumption.

I can’t eat them without cheese. I’ve put all kinds of cheese inside there – mozzarella, parmesan, American jack cheddar from Costco, vintage cheese slices, feta, it doesn’t matter what kind of cheese – though the feta was super tangy and took the taste experience up several notches – the Vili’s pasty is king of all pasties.

I hate to break it to you, Adelaidians reading this, but in Sydney they put *peas* and *corn* into pasties. What kind of wickety wack idea is that shiznit? It is wrong on so many levels!

Now, if I could just find a way to get Barnacle Bill’s here.. :)

adelaide, food, growing up