Living Below the line- day 3

Was a bit of a busy one!! Brekkie was pancakes from River Cottage Everyday which is a brilliant book, full of recipes which show you how to get the best out of cheaper ingredients and live more sustainably.

Heres the recipe :

2 eggs, beaten
250g plain flour
600ml milk  ( recipe suggests whole but Im using skimmed and its fine)
a pinch of salt.

This recipe makes about 12-16 pancakes ... we had them with lemon and sugar.. I expect that probably came to about 5p out of the budget for 'extras' since I already had lemon juice and sugar in the cupboard!
I skipped lunch as I was so busy... it made me realise how much I rely on grabbing some fruit or a sandwich when Im out- I couldnt, the budget just didnt allow it! I was glad Id had pancakes for breakfast!

The kids were out with Dad for tea but Tim came up and we had mushroom risotto which was delicious :)
The recipe for that is

100g arborio rice per person.
2 cloves garlic
1 medium onion
200g chopped mushrooms .
3 spring onions.
1 pint of stock
chopped herbs(from the garden)

Making risotto is dead easy... fry off the chopped onion and garlic until they start to turn golden, add the rice and stir until well coated with oil then start to add the stock, a little at a time and stir, turn the heat down and allow to simmer stirring occasionally until the stock is absorbed. Add the chopped mushrooms and spring onions and a little more stock ( just a generous splash at a time) and keep stirring, simmering, stirring and adding stock until youve added the whole pint of stock and its all been absorbed. By this time the risotto will be creamy and 'saucey' and all the veggies will have cooked soft but not mushy. top with chopped herbs ( I used parsley and chives) and a decent grind of black pepper.
I always keep arborio rice in the cupboard, it just wont be the same if you use normal rice and it isnt massively expensive ( I think the last packet I bought was about £1) Its worth buying it in for risotto.

I think the 'extra' cost for the ingredients was about 40p
As a treat we bought a toffee apple crumble on offer in the supermarket which was 99p. 

So now the budget stands at £10.66 :) with two days to go!