This recipe is part of Take the Pantry and Freezer Challenge series on this blog, and I made this in Week 3 of the challenge.

This is a recipe I often make. It is fairly inexpensive if made plain but with additional variations (see below) it can cost you a bit more. We like the Millie meal and Polenta bread plain. We usually have it instead of regular bread with just about any serving of meat or vegetables. During the Pantry and Freezer Challenge we had it with Beef stew, for example. The Millie meal and Polenta Bread can also be enjoyed on its own, with a knob of butter spread on a warm slice of this delicious bread with a hot cuppa!

My husband’s favourite is to enjoy a slice of Millie meal and Polenta bread instead of plain toast with fried eggs and tomatoes for a hearty, absolutely delicious breakfast.

Ingredients:

3 eggs

½ mug Oil

½ mug Milk

500 ml. Buttermilk (or Maas or Plain Yoghurt)

4 small cups* Cake flour

3 small cups* Polenta

1 small cup* Millie Meal

2 Tsp. Baking powder

Spray ‘n’ Cook

*I use small espresso cups.

To make this recipe even cheaper, you can choose to use 4 small cups of Millie meal instead of a combination of 1 cup Millie meal and 3 cups of Polenta. We just prefer the soft, moist slice when made with a combination of the two so I’m willing to spend a tiny bit more when making this recipe.

I also find that using Buttermilk gives the Millie meal and Polenta bread a much creamier texture. Using Maas is the cheapest option though but to be honest, I use whichever one – Buttermilk, Maas or Plain Yoghurt – I actually have in the fridge at the time (there are no extra trips to the shops for just the Buttermilk!).

Method:

Place all ingredients in a large bowl. If you are using any variation ingredients (see below) add those at this time as well. Use an electric mixer to mix all ingredients well, about a minute or two.

Spray a 20x30cm pan with Spray ‘n’ Cook, pour the batter and bake at 180 C° for 40 minutes, or until the bread comes away from the sides. Remove the pan from the oven, cover with a cloth and allow to cool completely. The Millie Meal and Polenta bread can keep for a few days but leave it covered with a cloth which will help retain some of its moisture. It can be enjoyed cold or heated up for 30 seconds in the microwave if you like.

Variations:

You may choose to add any of the following to your batter before baking:

• 100gr. crumbled Feta cheese.
• A handful of chopped Olives and 1 Chouriço sausage.
• A cup of finely chopped, steamed Spinach.
• A cup of finely chopped Chives.

Enjoy!

If you’ve enjoyed this blog post, please share it with others!

You can also find Frugal in SA

on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or subscribe to my Weekly Newsletter.

The post Millie Meal & Polenta Bread appeared first on Frugal in SA.

This recipe is part of Take the Pantry and Freezer Challenge series on this blog, and I made this in Week 3 of the challenge.

There are many reasons why I love Semolina Cake:

• A slice of this simple, yet moist and fluffy Semolina Cake is very refreshing on a hot summer’s day.
• The ingredients cost about R35.00 (can you buy a whole tray of dessert anywhere for so little these days?!).
• It is sweet but not that sweet.
• Preparation is minimal and there is no mess!

Ingredients:

7 eggs

12 Tbsp. Semolina

6 Tbsp. Cake Flour

5 Tbsp. Sugar

2 Tsp. Baking Powder

1 litre Milk

1 cup Sugar (or a bit more, if you prefer)

2 Tsp. Vanilla Essence

Spray ‘n’ Cook

Method:

Bring the milk and 1 cup of sugar to boil, remove from the stove, stir in the vanilla essence and set aside to cool completely.
Separate egg yolk and egg whites. Whisk egg whites until the mixture is firm, and if you turn the bowl upside down the egg whites won’t fall out. Continue to whisk the mixture adding the sugar, egg yolk, semolina, cake flour and baking powder. Your mixture should have a creamy yet fluffy consistency.

Lightly oil a 20x30cm pan with Spray ‘n’ cook then pour the batter. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 190 C° for 45 minutes, or until the cake comes away from the sides and the cake springs back when you touch it lightly. Remove the cake from the oven. Use a ladle to immediately start pouring the cooled milk mixture evenly and watch the cake absorb all the liquid.

Refrigerate the Semolina cake for at least 2-3 hours before serving. Even when cooled there will be a tiny bit of milk left over here and there at the bottom of the pan and you will see this as you slice the cake. Slurp it up – it tastes good. Enjoy!

If you’ve enjoyed this blog post, please share it with others!

You can also find Frugal in SA

on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or subscribe to my Weekly Newsletter.

The post Semolina Cake appeared first on Frugal in SA.

This recipe is part of Take the Pantry and Freezer Challenge series on this blog, and I made this in Week 3 of the challenge.

As with most recipes I’ve featured during the Pantry and Freezer Challenge, I often use this Beef stew recipe. I do have several types of recipes that I like to use for this dish, but this one is by far the simplest and takes the least amount of effort. It is a very economical dish too and for about 2kg of stewing beef I can make at least 10 servings each for 2 adults. A meat dish doesn’t really get any cheaper than that!

How to choose the right cuts of meat

There are always plenty of specials on stewing meat at both supermarkets and butcheries. When choosing where to buy, or what cut of meat to buy, I find that the usually cheaper cut of beef Shin has the most flavour and tends to be the juiciest and softest when cooked. I also prefer to choose packets of meat that I can see have recently been cut and packaged (as opposed to thawed) and those that have the richest, reddest colour to it (never pale red or with a greyish tinge to it).

The meat should have some fat on it as this is what helps give the beef stew its flavour, but you don’t want it to have too much fat, so choose as best as you can according to what you can afford. I’ve never in my life bought beef fillet and tried to make stew with it precisely because it has no fat on it, and even if I could afford it I’d still think it would be a waste of money trying to cook beef stew with it, to be quite honest! Cheaper cuts of meat stewed for several hours are soft, tender and juicy and never chewy.

Ingredients:

2 kg Stewing Beef, cut into 3-4 cm cubes

4 Onions, finely chopped

2 Carrots, grated or thinly sliced

2 tins Tomato & Onion mix

2 tins Whole Tomatoes

(You can substitute both tomato & onion mix and whole tomato tins with the same amount of homemade Tomato Sauce).

2 Sachets Tomato Puree

2 Sachets Spicy Beef Goulash spices

(You can substitute this with 3 Tsp. Paprika, 2 Tbsp. Aromat, 2 Tsp. Crushed Chillies or Cayenne Pepper, 2 Beef stock cubes, 2 Tbsp. Meat Spice)  

½ mug Sunflower Oil

Royco Beef Stew mix to thicken, and for extra flavour

(You can use Maizena or Cake Flour to thicken instead)

Salt and Pepper to taste

For this amount of stewing beef you will need to use a large pot or you can split all the ingredients above and cook the beef stew in 2 smaller pots at the same time.

Method:

Place the stewing beef on a large oven tray and brown the meat in a pre-heated oven at 180 C°. The meat should be done in about 20-25 minutes. You might need to turn the meat over once or twice during this time. The meat will release its own rich gravy which will add to the flavour of the beef stew.

Heat the oil in a large cooking pot and sauté the onions. Add the grated carrots and sauté for a few more minutes. Add the meat with all the gravy to the pot, mix well and continue to fry on high heat for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Then add the tomato & onion mix, whole tomatoes, tomato puree and all the spices. Continue to fry on high heat for another 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add as much hot water as you’d like to have and don’t worry that the whole mixture seems very diluted at this stage – it will thicken as it continues to cook. Bring the stew to the boil then reduce heat to moderate and allow the stew to simmer for about 3 hours. You will probably need to top up with water every now and then but be sure to use hot water to do that.

Use the Royco Beef Stew mix to thicken, following the instructions on the packaging. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve the beef stew with your choice of staples and vegetables. This recipe will freeze well. Enjoy!

If you’ve enjoyed this blog post, please share it with others!

You can also find Frugal in SA

on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or subscribe to my Weekly Newsletter.

The post Beef Stew appeared first on Frugal in SA.

Welcome to the Pantry and Freezer Challenge Week 3 update! Last week was an easy week in our kitchen. In fact, it was a bit of a lazy week as I made only one large batch of one of our favourite meals and a few smaller meal portions as I continued to use up the items in our pantry and freezer.

Once again for breakfast during the week, we had Melba toast with homemade Marmalade. The Melba toast is now finished and the last jar of marmalade is almost finished too. So we moved on to the one packet of Millie meal porridge in our pantry for the next couple of days. Over the weekend I once again whipped up one of our favourite and very quick, cheap and filling breakfast meals – baked beans with fried eggs on toast (you can find my recipe for Baked Beans & Eggs here) and I used up the last 2 tins of baked beans in our pantry for this.

The one large batch of food I made was beef stew. I made 2 quite large pots of Beef stew in one go and for this recipe I used up the 2 kg stewing beef we had in the freezer, which yielded about 10 meal portions extra for freezing and will last us a while. I also used the 2 packets of Spicy Beef Goulash seasoning as well as 1 tin whole tomatoes, 2 tins tomato & onion mix and 1 tin my homemade Tomato Sauce in this recipe. You can find the Beef Stew recipe here.

As the beef stew is such a versatile recipe and can be enjoyed with a variety of staples and vegetables that one can almost never tire of all the possible combinations, I decided to use ½ packet of polenta to make Millie meal bread for us to enjoy as our staple with a portion of beef stew during the week. You can have a look at this super easy Millie Meal & Polenta Bread recipe here. Preparation time for the Millie bread is minimal, all the ingredients are mixed together at once and it bakes in about 45 minutes, ready to be enjoyed straight from the oven!

We also had another go at making the 2^nd packet of Prawn Crackers which we nibbled on here and there. I also managed to use up the hake fillets we had in the freezer as well as the fish batter which was enough for 2 meals during the week with potato salad and some greens. The fish batter powder has been in the cupboard for quite a while now so I’m glad we’ve finally managed to use it up!

And finally for dessert I used up ½ packet of semolina and made Semolina cake which we enjoyed during the week. This recipe, again, is a really quick recipe of about 5 minutes preparation time! While I enjoy cooking and baking, having a variety of tried and tested recipes with minimal prep time is an absolute life-saver for me on a very busy day during the week. You can have a look at the Semolina Cake recipe here.

What did you prepare for lunch, dinner and dessert last week? I always love to hear from my readers.

Stay tuned for Lessons Learned from the Pantry and Freezer Challenge!

This post is part of Take the Pantry and Freezer Challenge series on this blog.

If you’ve enjoyed this blog post, please share it with others!

You can also find Frugal in SA

on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or subscribe to my Weekly Newsletter.

The post The Pantry and Freezer Challenge Week 3 appeared first on Frugal in SA.