Thursday 20 February 2014

Day 20 of Extremely Frugal February - Coconut and Mango Ice Cream.

Day 20 of 28 - Past 'Best Before' Bargains!

Pitta Breads at 10p per pack of 8
Whew! Escaped another day without having cash prized from me by way of bills, bank or beguiling bargains. The food supplies are still plentiful and I was having a think about what others must think in lieu of what some have said! I am not poor and I am not proud - I simply hate waste!

Is it really so peculiar for frugalers to make the most of past 'best before' dates? I don't give a stuff what date or time a shop needs to clear its shelves and I don't give a stuff if my packets, tins or jars in my cupboards have dates from many months, or even years, ago, as long as it isn't fresh produce or past 'use by' dates. So, if you are offended by the prospect of eating meals created from such ingredients, look away now. :)
 
Pitta breads with chopped tomatoes and cheese
I know I keep harking back to Approved Food but I promise they aren't paying me to mention them, even if I do make a small bit of store credit when someone new signs up through my friend referral link and places an order. However, I need to mention them yet again after buying ten packs of pitta breads for £1.00 The packs are 6 + 2 free, so when I discovered that the first pack I opened contained 9 individual pittas, I was over the moon! I made H an extra mini frugal pizza!

Frugal pitta pizza with pickle
I used a full tin of chopped tomatoes (Co-op 33p) and half a small tin of 25p cheese along with a spoonful of pickle. It means that each pizza cost less than 20p.

Homemade ice cream from a packet (6 packs for 99p)
Did anyone make the most of the coconut milk powder offer? 300ml pack for 50p some time ago, so I got my 2 for £1.00 and this is what I used to make tonight's ice cream experiment. One tablespoonful into 150ml of cold water and then whipped up with the 17p ice cream mix. I added in a heaped tablespoon of desiccated coconut, so this is going to be fairly tropical.
850g of mango pulp at 25p per tin

 Now for the mango! 4 large tins of fruit pulp for £1 and I used about 100g, so a matter of pennies to add an extra tropical zing to my frugal ice cream. This is sweetened, so keep that in mind. Mango ice lollies could be on the go soon.

Homemade coconut and mango ice cream
 
And now for the final product - this was it before it went into the freezer after I stirred through the mango pulp. A sneaky taste tells me I'm going to like this!

Enjoy experimenting with fruits, nuts and all sorts of other flavours if you manage to get hold of some ice cream mix. I can confirm that coconut and mango tastes delicious. :)

14 comments:

  1. Loving all these inspiring foodie posts. I dont really give a fig about sell by dates, if it looks ok and smells ok then chances are it isnt going to poison me. I added the mango pulp to my basket the other day and then couldnt find enough to make the minimum spend I will have another look, the Ice cream looks amazing with the mango, I bet it will be nice swirled into the cheesecake mix too.

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    1. Mango cheesecake does sound rather nice! So many choices! I really, really need to get out for some exercise soon! :)

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  2. Your ice cream mixtures are just wonderful! wish we had Approved Foods here in the states, I would like to give them a try. Love your blog, read it everyday.

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    1. I'm sure there will be equivalent products available in the US and there is my ice cream recipe on here for making it from milk - have a look through the index at the bottom of the page for 'ice cream' and it should come up in the page. I did ice cream and cucumber & mint sorbet. :)

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  3. Both the pitta pizzas and the ice cream look yummy! People just need to be smart about foods. Best by dates are clearly different than use by dates. And IMO the government is leaving in a little buffer because most people are well...can't think of the polite word. Let's just say that a government food agency is always going to allow a little time so as to not poison populations who may forget or eat something a day after the "use by" date. Personally, there are just somethings that I am hesitant about (e.g. dairy) because something bad can make you really sick. I hate waste too. Having said that I had some this week :-(
    ~ Pru

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    1. Pru, the sheer fact that you have been aware of waste is what makes the big difference. We don't need to look far to see a whole bunch of wasters who are completely oblivious to it - I'd love a look at what gets wasted by the Government officials who make vain attempts at telling the nation we need to implement austerity measures. :)

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  4. I enjoy your posts, don't go changing anything about the way you live; as long as you are happy who cares what other people think!!

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    1. There is absolutely no chance of that ever happening, Gill. As far as finances and lifestyle are concerned, I am very, very much my own person and no amount of money will change that. :D

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  5. My husband was telling me that we are getting something like Approved Foods here in the States.....must find out the details..

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    1. Good luck with that, I hope you can make the most of it soon. I'm sure there must be clearance outlets somewhere but we have landed lucky in that we can have the orders delivered right to the door. With no car, no buses and no supermarkets around, I can't imagine being without these companies now.

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  6. Oh my goodness, I can almost taste that ice cream! It looks blooming lovely! :D

    I too ignore best before dates. I smell, look n taste. If it's all ok, we eat it!!

    Don't change anything my sweet. You do what you do. I know you will anyway!
    Have a great weekend.
    Rw

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    1. Thank you, RW :) I won't be changing anything other than trying even harder to cut costs further as a very basic lifestyle continues to increase in price. Without that challenge, where would I be? LOL

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  7. Thank you for your earlier blog reminding me about approved foods....I too now have mountains of pitta bread and bought the mango pulp - do you have any more ideas what else to to with the pulp?

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    1. I bought the 4 tins for £1, so these will be getting used through summer for making drinks, ice lollies, sorbet, ice cream and I suspect it may make a nice truffle filling. Someone suggested swirling it through cheesecake plus it might be good for drizzling over pancakes of for making a cooking sauce for something like chicken or pork. I'll be blogging anything I come up with for this and please feel free to post any other suggestions in the www.frugalforums.co.uk

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