Experiment Gone Wrong

Today I decided I wanted to make some homemade ketchup. I only ever buy the value ketchup at 30p a bottle (it was only 19p a bottle a few weeks ago). I bought a huge 3500g tin of tomato paste from approved foods which I will use for pizza's, bolognese, and lasagna but wondered if I could make a decent ketchup from it to.

I put 4 heaped table spoons of tomato paste in my little saucepan and added hot water to dilute to taste. Once the tomato paste was weakened down to suit my taste buds it was very runny so I decided to add some corn flour to thicken it up till I got the consistency of ketchup.

I then left it to cool down on the side before decanting it into an old ketchup bottle.

It is nice but very tomatoey (is that even a word). The boys were not keen on it as a ketchup so I think this will probably end up being used as a pasta sauce instead and I will add onions, mushrooms, and herbs to it. So although the experiment for ketchup went wrong I may have stumbled across a frugal recipe for pasta sauce. I will let you know how it goes next time I make something requiring pasta sauce.


I also made some homemade ice cream using the Bird's ice cream mix I got from approved foods 99p for 3 kg.

I used 400g of the ice cream mix and 800ml of semi skimmed milk and whisked with my electric mixer for a good 4 mins until I got a good creamy consistency.

I then poured into an old ice cream tub (perfect fit) and I had one litre of ice cream which is in the freezer as we speak we will have some tomorrow and I will let you know how it turned out.

The costing for this was 400g ice cream mix 11p, 800ml semi milk 34p so a total of 45p for one litre of ice cream even the Tesco value litre of ice cream is 89p so almost twice the price of my homemade. You can also use water instead of milk which would make it ridiculously cheap 11p for a litre but I like my ice cream nice and creamy so decided to use milk. I will try it with water next time and see how that turns out.


For dinner tonight we had cheese and bacon pasta bake. I used 300g part cooked pasta 15p, 200g of grated mild cheddar 85p, 1/3 of a pack of cooking bacon 27p, 2 boxes of Maggi sauce £1 (approved foods) Total cost £2.27

Add all your ingredients to a large bowl except 50g of the cheese this will be used for the topping towards the end. Give a good stir till everything is combined and pop in the oven for half an hour on 200. Ten minutes before it is due to come out add the remaining cheese to the top of the bake.

And here's the finished product. It was delicious and very filling. I fed myself and the 3 boys for dinner and have 2 portions left for mine and Lee's lunch tomorrow so 6 portions works out at 37p per portion.

Dessert was free courtesy of Brad he made a sticky toffee pudding at school and bought it home for all of us to share.

I finished watching The diary of Anne Frank last night and whilst I enjoyed it for the frugal factor I found myself crying at the end. I never studied this book at school. I had heard of it but just knew it was the diary of a young girl from world war 2. I really thought they were going to make it. It was not until the end of the film when the German police had found them and was marching them all out of the place they had called home for 2 years that it hit home that this really happened. Out of the 8 people who had survived in hiding in the secret flat for 2 years 7 went on to die in concentration camps. The only survivor was Anne's father Mr Frank who passed away in 1980. So so sad that so many innocent people should lose their lives in the name of religion.

Tomorrow the Mr and I are going to a 40's VE day celebration party at Ben's school which should be fun but I know at the same time I will be thinking of all those people who lost their lives needlessly. Ben has been chosen to put on a jazz dance to entertain the parents which will be lovely to watch. I will try and get some pictures but I am not sure on the school's policy regarding photo's

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx