Catríona Redmond: Warm up with these slow-cooker pulled beef and black-bean enchiladas
Pic: iStock
All eyes are on next Friday. Depending on which school of thought you come from you are either thinking about the General Election or Black Friday which just happen to occur on the same day. Perhaps you’re interested in both.
For the uninitiated, Thanksgiving occurs on the last Thursday of November, and therefore Black Friday happens the following day.
If you thought this sounds like an American occasion, you’d be correct. The practice of heavily discounting products around this date has transferred to our side of the pond and it can be an opportunity to pick up essential items and Christmas gifts for a song.
Likewise, Cyber Monday occurs the Monday after Black Friday. Keep your eyes peeled if you’re looking for a bargain on an electrical item as you might nab a better price by holding firm for the next 10 days.
If you thought all these named days sound a bit excessive, you’d be right. Discounted products are available every day of the year and you don’t necessarily need to purchase on the last Friday of November to bag a bargain.
I’m a bargain hunter to the core and if I think I can get a product for cheaper than the recommended retail price (RRP) then I know that it’s good value.
Here’s the problem though, it’s only good value if I have enough money to pay for it, without going into debt or borrowing from another fund – for example the holidays.
Every time I go into the shops, I’m playing mental Jenga with the different things I need to save for.
You could call it a mental load; I call it brain acrobatics. It’s a form of gymnastics without the chance of physical injury, although it involves plenty of mental torture.
When it comes to shopping online, I find that items seem to fall into my shopping basket incredibly easily. It’s the paying part that I find the hardest. I think we all do.
I’ve taken on a habit of sitting things in my virtual basket and walking away from the computer. For short term sales though it’s difficult to walk away from a temporary discount and that’s the time I have to remind myself of a difference between what I want and what I need.
I had a very sobering experience earlier this month when I visited a waste facility on a college field trip.
It really made me realise how much filling our wants rather than needs is contributing to waste.
The number of things we all buy for a quick fix and then throw away is not worth it.
You will know you have managed to save a bundle if you buy something that you needed, at a lower price than you were prepared to pay for it.
Mind you, if you buy nothing at all you might have nabbed the biggest bargain of the lot. Remember, the money is better in your pocket for another day, or maybe another bargain.
Some shops offer free shipping if you purchase over €50, others require a minimum purchase of €100, and most supermarkets have charge for delivery which ranges depending on the day of the week, time of delivery, and time of year.
Regardless of where you order from, a delivery fee can cancel some, if not all, of your savings. As those pesky charges are added at the end of the purchase journey, we all often forget about the delivery when we are figuring out how much we have saved.
The most obvious way to save on deliveries is to pick an item up yourself or get a friend to collect it for you.
Many Irish stores with online services offer a click-and-collect option which will save you money, so before you check out, see can you benefit.
My favourite way to save money when shopping online is crowdsourcing items. I pop a message into the family WhatsApp, saying that I intend to buy X from Y and seeing is anybody else looking for something from that shop.
By joining up with family I can either avoid paying for delivery altogether or split the cost between two of us.
Either way it’s a win-win situation, and the bonus is that the delivery truck only has to make one journey rather than two.
Slow cooker pulled beef and black bean enchilada
A classic meal, for slow-cooker chefs
Servings
4Preparation Time
20 minsCooking Time
6 hours 0 minsTotal Time
6 hours 20 minsCourse
MainIngredients
750g stewing beef, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 onions, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tin of black beans, drained
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 vegetable stock cube, crumbled
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
For the enchiladas:
6 medium tortilla wraps
200g grated cheese
To serve:
Salsa and sour cream
Method
Combine all the slow cooker ingredients in the cooker bowl. Use a large spoon to make sure that everything is well mixed. Put the lid on the slow cooker and set to high for 5 hours.
After 5 hours, turn off the slow cooker. Use a fork to pull the beef into strands inside of the slow cooker. With a slotted spoon, fill each tortilla wrap with plenty of beef and vegetables, then roll into a loose cigar shape. Set the filled wraps onto a plate until they are all full.
Gently lift all the filled wraps into the slow cooker so that they are submerged in the remaining cooking liquid/sauce. Sprinkle grated cheese on top. Rest a tea towel over the top of the slow cooker bowl and place the lid on top of this. Set the slow cooker to high for an hour. After 1 hour, remove the lid and tea towel then serve the enchiladas with a fresh salsa/sour cream, and chopped coriander.
