We went to the local pet superstore today to buy another month's supply of dog food, which is again, on very special offer. I say a month's supply, it actually lasted us for six weeks. Whilst there, I couldn't help but notice the local out of town eatery's car park was packed with people who are there for Sunday lunch. I'm not decrying these places, people can spend their money as they please and the people who work there need the money. But! The sign out side 'proudly' proclaimed that Sunday lunch was £14.99 for three courses and £4.99 for children (in small print......under 10 years old) so a family of mum, dad and three teenagers would cost £75.95!!! I wouldn't part with that much money to eat if Gordon Ramsay had cooked it. My Sunday two course roast dinner was £1.37 each! A lot more reasonable and affordable. There is just the two of us so we had two lean pork loin chops which cost us 55p each, as we just can't eat a roasting joint.
I always start by part cooking the parsnips, which we prefer with our Sunday lunch instead of potatoes and then place them in our mini-oven. I even make sure I don't waste the goodness or the water and pour the water from one veg pot into the other.
I place the parsnips and the stuffing balls into a hot oven, set the timer for 20 minutes and go away and knit a few more rows of the scarf I'm knitting as a Christmas present.
Twenty minutes and a ring, ring from the timer later, I come back and turn over the parsnips and stuffing balls, put them back in the oven and get on with the huge task of making the dessert! I used to adore a dessert topping called 'Tip Top' when I was a child and we would get it on tinned fruit as a treat once in a while. I still love tinned fruit, but haven't had 'tip top' in years.
If you look in the tinned fruit aisle, you will notice that fruit in juice is often more expensive that the fruit in 'light syrup'. I won't pay more, so buy the cheaper, pour it into a sieve, get rid of the syrup and give the fruit a quick rinse under the tap and that works well for pineapple and peaches. I tap the sieve to make sure there is no water left before serving it with a long life UHT pudding. The Alpro was on offer for 2 four packs for £2, so only 25p each and a pot will easily make two puddings that extra bit special and the shelf life is months and months.
The dessert is just delicious, a healthier version of peaches and cream (we don't like cream so eat a soya alternative)..........I don't think you can get 'Tip Top' any more!
By now, I start to cook the veggies and put the chops onto the tray and back in the oven, set the timer again and go back to some more knitting............it's a hard life.
The finished result. Sunday roast of parsnips, stuffing balls, pork loin, green bean, carrots, gravy and fruit and 'cream £2.47 for the pair of us. The 'home economics' are below.
Carrots 12p + Green Beans 59p + Stuffing 30p + gravy 3p + pork loin £1.11 + parsnips 13p + Alpro 25P + tinned peaches 24p - total £2.74. We never did eat out very much and now we never do which meant I was glad we save ourselves £17.24 today and if we ate out just once a week, every week, and because we don't , we have saved £896.48 this year! Unless you are a rich as Lord Alan Sugar, there is very little justification for eating out as no body I know has a spare £896 to just spend eating nothing better than they could cook at home!
No comments:
Post a Comment