Caitríona Redmond: Beating the midterm blues on a budget - plus my beef pot roast recipe

Pic: iStock

Midterm is looming, and I have a week to come up with activities to keep the kids occupied. 

Screentime is a great distraction from me being at work but a full week is not healthy. 

I hesitate to say I don’t want them to have idle hands because I believe in letting the younger fella out to free play with his friends when the weather allows. 

The elder lemon is now a teen and freeplay is not part of his lexicon anymore. More is the pity.

When living on less, the scheduled and planned days are the ones that are easier to stick to the spending diet. 

The days where nothing has been set in the diary can rapidly descend to a binge of screentime or cost us a fortune trying to keep them amused.

There’s always plenty of food to choose from but it’s not always to their liking. We are very much an ‘ingredients household’. This can be both a good and a bad thing. 

On the one hand, we can all cobble together something we fancy from the presses and fridge. 

However, it can often mean that I walk into the kitchen and wonder what sort of wild animal wandered through the presses, leaving them all open and foodstuffs on the counter.

Therefore, in the interests of less cleaning, we will be sticking to the meal plan and discussing lunches the night before. 

On school nights the lunchboxes are assembled before going to bed which makes life very easy. 

I’m not suggesting this should still happen but I’m open to people taking initiative…

Still, I am welcoming the October midterm as an opportunity for the kids to experiment in the kitchen. 

They will test out their own recipes. I will have to loosen my apron entirely and leave it at the door. 

Relinquishing control of my kitchen (which also doubles as a workspace) does not come easy to me. 

It’ll be to their benefit in the future, even though we may end up with chaotic scenes. 

I’ll remind myself that they are making memories and hopefully learning skills for use in the future.

Come Monday week I’ll be announcing it’s ‘ready steady cook’ week and giving them free rein over the cupboards and ingredients. 

I suspect that there will be a lot of cookies and brownies made over the midterm. I may need to make space in the freezer come to think of it!

If I get too frazzled with sharing my workspace there’s always plenty of free museums to visit, so long as they take their lunchboxes and drinks bottles. I’m planning to stay on track regardless.

Home Economics

Like a squirrel, I’ve been collecting a hoard or a stash for the dark days ahead. It’s not necessarily nuts, although I can understand why you might think that I’ve gone off the deep end!

As the winter progresses, I know that my energy bills will go up and I’ll want to be saving more for Christmas and cushion myself from the eleventy-seven weeks between the last payday in December and the first in January. Those weeks are particularly challenging.

Last week I added an extra bag of pasta to my trolley, this week it was a bag of rice. 

I’ll stock up on dried beans next week; a great source of protein and fibre on a budget, I will get several meals out of 500g of dried cannellini beans. 

Next on the list is a large bag of porridge oats which is such a versatile carbohydrate, especially for breakfasts.

All of the items I’m collecting have a long shelf life. They’re what the supermarkets call ‘ambient’ foods, meaning they can be kept in a cool dry place for half a year at least.

When I reach a point in the year when my budget is stretched to breaking point, I will use my squirrelled-away stores to cushion myself from the financial blow. I’ll supplement my staples with fresh seasonal ingredients to stay on track.

It’s not about slumbering or hibernating through the Winter. It’s about being aware and mindful to keep my finances on the straight and narrow.

This week's recipes are designed to be both cooked in the oven at the same time, making it an efficient use of the oven. They’re wintery meals, that will keep everybody happy.

Beef Pot Roast

An eternal Sunday-dinner favourite.

Servings

6

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Cooking Time

 1 hours 30 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 50 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 1kg housekeepers cut of beef

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 3 large carrots, chopped

• 3 sticks celery, chopped

• Salt and pepper

• 450ml beef stock (made from cube or pot is fine)

• Cornflour or potato starch for the gravy

• To serve: Mashed potatoes

Method

1. Heat a heavy cast iron pot on the hob to medium-high heat. Heat the oven to 150oC/gas mark.

2. Season the beef well and sear in the dry pot until all sides are browned. Add the onions to the pot and stir so that they take on the beef flavours and oils for 1-2 minutes (until they soften slightly).

3. Pour in the carrots and celery, stir, and then add the beef stock. Place the lid on the pot and put the pot into the oven. Cook for 90 minutes.

4. After 90 minutes remove the pot from the oven. Place the beef on a plate and cover. Strain off the vegetables and put them to one side for serving. Thicken the remaining juices in the pot using a slurry made from 2 tablespoons of cornflour or potato starch mixed with 2 tablespoons of cold water. Bring the juices to a low simmer, pour in the slurry and stir until the juices have thickened.

5. Slice the meat thinly and serve with the cooked vegetables on buttery mashed potatoes with the gravy on the side.

Pear Pudding

The perfect dessert for a big family meal.

Servings

6

Preparation Time

 25 mins

Cooking Time

 40 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 5 mins

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• Note, there are two key sections to this recipe so the ingredients are divided that way.

• 3 large pears, peeled and chopped

• 100g caster sugar

• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

• 150g unsalted butter

• 150g caster sugar

• 3 medium free range eggs

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 150g self raising flour

• To serve: Custard or whipped cream

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150oC/gas mark 2.

2. Take a medium-sized baking dish and combine the chopped pears, caster sugar and ground cinnamon in the dish. Cover with a lid or tinfoil and place into the oven to heat through while you make the sponge element of this dish.

3. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and it has increased in volume. Slowly beat in the eggs until they are combined. Add the vanilla extract and self-raising flour. Mix again until you have a smooth batter.

4. Carefully remove the dish from the oven and uncover. Spoon the cake batter on top of the warm fruit. Return the dish to the oven for a further 20-30 minutes, until golden on top and cooked through.

5. Serve with warm custard or whipped cream.