Dairy free pizza and other baking bits

Further to my last dairy free post, where you’ll remember I moaned that everything contains dairy, I set about creating a meal plan for the week (having seriously lost my mojo with the whole planning thing since going dairy free) and hit a bit of a stumbling block when I realised that both of my usual pizza dough recipes contain milk. I’ve not yet figured out if it’s safe to replace milk with water in most recipes or indeed which of the fake milks are stable enough for baking – I can’t help but feel it’s easier to just avoid the typical dairy things altogether.

Anyway, pizza. We have homemade pizza most weeks so had a bit of a googley for a new recipe and found a good one that is so easy — ridiculously simple — I made Karl make it. Look at his hairy hands:

karl-kneading-dough

This one is for you if you want dairy free pizza (we’ll get to the dilemma of the toppings shortly) or if you don’t know how to make pizza dough. Of course in hindsight it’s a basic bread recipe and I’ve not the foggiest why I’ve not done similar before given that I make bread fairly frequently. Mega props to Elaine from Mortgage Free in Three for her idea of using a terracotta plant pot saucer as a bread / pizza stone – mine was cooked to perfection.

While on the bakingmad site I found a bunch of other recipes for kids including a pretzel one which I’m thinking of making with Izz as she loves helping me and I love pretzels. Win win. (I really should post some of the baking adventures we get up to.)

Anyway, back to the pizza: the big issue was not the pizza dough but the toppings. How on earth do you make something worthy of being called a pizza without the cheese? General twitter consensus was that this is a futile task but I’m up for the challenge. Ended up with very thinly sliced potatoes, courgettes and a drizzle of olive oil; I am sure I read this suggestion on a food blog somewhere. It was fairly pants as pizzas go. Topping suggestions on a postcard…

Posted on: April 19, 2013 · Category: Home & Garden 14

DIY & meal plans 15th-22nd

We had some sunshine here in jemjabella-land today, so despite the chill in the air, everyone was wrapped up warm and shoved into the garden (and as such both kids were asleep for 6:30pm despite Oliver having late nap!) I’ve re-potted my strawberry babies from the runners last year into their allotted tyre and did some more weeding. With the garlic planted a week or so ago, I’m already on my way to a self-sufficient(ish) summer of veg :)

Karl and I also tackled a spur of the moment DIY project this morning: dragging the horrible cupboard carousel out of our big corner cupboard and replacing it with a proper shelf. It’s one of those crappo kitchen gadgets that looks ingenious but in reality takes up more space than it gives in storage. Having removed it we’ve managed to put loads more stuff away and made a heck of a lot more room for tins and bulk food bits.

Anyway, here goes, meal plan for more of the month (including the days I’d missed):

  • 15th: Pizza night
  • 16th: Toad in the hole
  • 17th: Leftover sausages, homemade chips
  • 18th: Tuna pasta bake
  • 19th: Swede & bacon pie
  • 20th: Broccoli soup & homemade bread rolls
  • 21st: Use-up-the-veg frittata
  • 22nd: Use-up-the-frittata fried rice
Posted on: February 17, 2013 · Category: Budgeting, Home & Garden 3

Easy Peasy Frugal Fish Pie

This has been sat in drafts for so long, I figured I’d get it fixed up and posted otherwise it’ll never see the light of day! This is my easy “pea”sy fish pie recipe (it’s a pun, I’ll get to that shortly ;))

For the record, I make my recipes up as I go along so the amounts are never entirely accurate. Don’t be afraid to add bits in / take bits out to suit your taste, it’s what I do! This fish pie happens to be really simple and tasty, but if you want to make it more complex by adding different fishes, that’s totally your prerogative.

Ingredients

3 x defrosted pollock steaks (from ‘Sainsbury’s MSC Pollock Steaks 520g’) It says you’re not supposed to defrost them but as long as they’re cooked properly I don’t see the big deal.
1 x Sainsbury’s Smoked Salmon Trimmings, Basics 120g (in other words, lots of flavour but really cheap!)
1.5 tablespoons butter
1.5 tablespoons plain flour
1/2 pint milk
Handful of frozen peas (preference – petit pois)
1 Knorr fish stock cube (optional but adds flavour)
Half teaspoon of paprika
3 x Medium-large potatoes
Handful of grated cheese

Method

Peel the potatoes and chop into roughly equal sized pieces – size up to you but obviously the smaller you chop, the quicker they cook. Put in pan, cover with water, add a pinch or two of salt and bring to the boil. Once boiling, turn down to simmer for 15-20 minutes (dependent on size!)

Meanwhile, make a roux in a small pan. Start by melting the butter. When melted, add flour and turn off the heat while you whisk the two up into a paste. Turn the heat back on (low) and add the milk bit by bit stirring all the time. With your imaginary 2nd pair of hands (or neglect the roux shortly, whichever) make a v. small amount of stock up using the cube and a bit of boiling water. Add to roux and keep stirring. When the sauce is ready, stir in your paprika and turn off the heat.

Chop up your fish (or pull into rough squares) and chuck in a heatproof dish – pyrex dish or similar – add your peas (hence the pun, arf arf) too then cover with the sauce.

Once your spuds are cooked, mash them as you normally would and gently plonk onto the fish sauce mix. Spread out a bit with a fork and chuck your cheese on top. Bung in the oven and cook for 20 minutes-ish at about 175-200 degrees or until it looks burnt (just kidding).

Posted on: January 20, 2013 · Category: Home & Garden 3

Under the Sofa

I didn’t think it had been that long since I cleaned under the sofa last. And yet, having just done so, I found…

  • teething toy
  • rattle
  • pair of pants (Isabel’s)
  • 2 socks (1 x Isabel’s, 1 x Oliver’s)
  • large Lego wheel
  • 8 mega bloks
  • 1 bulldog clip
  • number 3, number 8
  • 1 hairclip
  • 2 hair bobbles
  • 1 hair elastic
  • 1 mussel shell
  • 4 crayons
  • 2 wax crayons
  • 1 HB pencil
  • 1 fabric watermelon piece
  • 1 flip video camera
  • 1 cork
  • 87 pence
  • 1 piece of chalk
  • 1 mobile telephone (old)
  • a whooooole lot of dust & cat hair!

Ooops.

Posted on: January 10, 2013 · Category: Home & Garden 5

Cleaning Scraggy Old Carpets

Is scraggy a word? Firefox isn’t flashing me the wiggly red line of doom…

When we moved into this house (the ‘omg mega debt’ house) there were carpets throughout. We made the decision to rip out the carpet in the front room and replace it with cheap vinyl; we did this for two reasons: 1) because the previous owners had a dog and the carpet was thick with dog fluff and 2) because with small children, the idea of scrubbing bodily fluids out of the carpet on a regular basis left me feeling a little nauseous.

Unfortunately we couldn’t afford to replace the carpets house-wide (see above: omg mega debt) so settled for cleaning those upstairs. Except that even borrowing Karl’s mum’s mega expensive Vax didn’t do much for the ancient, crusty carpet in Izzy’s room:

Mega stainage

Ominous stain of unidentified origin

(Clearly I have no shame, sharing these with you…)

So anyway, when I was asked if I wanted some Vanish spray for carpets & upholstery to review I figured I could give it a shot. Worst case scenario I have to do some cleaning (shudder) but best case I get rid of the dodgy stains for free (and free is my favourite price).

Back to the stains… I tried to use the stain removal advice that they’ve got on site (trying to do this properly, right?) but because I am not entirely sure of the origins of the stains I wasn’t sure what to pick (and for the record, I think they’re missing a trick not listing wee / poo / vomit on the guide as that’s what I spend most of my time cleaning up, I swear. ETA: they do! Under ‘body fluids’. Nice.) Enough brackets, where am I? Oh yes, stains.

So I don the rubber gloves and equip myself with the big squirty bottle & at this point I’m feeling all Kim and Aggie but I can’t find any feather boas to stick to my gloves :(

I applied the spray, waited about 1 minute (you’re supposed to wait 5 but I don’t have all day) and gave it a quick scrub:

No more carpet grot, no more ominous stain. Of course now the only problem is that the rest of the carpet is shown up by the clean patch. I’ll just have to make Karl finish it off, and then he can use the coffee stains guide to tackle the old sofa…

Posted on: November 14, 2012 · Category: Home & Garden, Review 10