Pumpkin Arancini Recipe

One of the dishes we cooked in the Food Academy at the Abergavenny Food Festival was Spiced Pumpkin Arancini. The reason I love this recipe is because it's easy, incredibly filling and cheap. The Food Academy was sponsored by Organic Centre Wales so we had great quality organic ingredients, but you could certainly make it using supermarket brands and still enjoy a delicious meal. I've never made arancini before but growing up in Australia meant I had a copy of the Woman's Weekly Italian Cookbook (all households are required by law to have at least one Australian Woman's Weekly cookbook) which featured a recipe for suppli that is very similar. Basically both are fried rice balls with some sort of stuffing in the centre.

Don't be be put of by the length of the ingredients list from the recipe supplied by Organic Centre Wales. It's actually pretty simple even if it's not that fast.

Ingredients:
50g unsalted organic butter
450g arborio rice
splash of organic white wine
2 litres of warm organic vegetable stock (I used chicken)
1 small organic pumpkin 100g organic peas
125g freshly grated Y Fenni cheese (a gorgeous blend of cheddar with mustard seed and beer) I used mozzarella 
salt and pepper to season
organic plain flour for dusting
1 organic egg, beaten
100g organic breadcrumbs
1 litre vegetable oil for frying

Method
1. Chop pumpkin in half, deseed and slice into wedges. Rub with a little oil and roast for around an hour until flesh is soft. Cool, then scoop out flesh and put aside 2. Melt butter in heavy based saucepan. Add rice and cook 2-3 minutes on low, stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick or colour. When it starts to go translucent around the edges add wine and cook for a further minute. 3. Add ladle full of warm stock and stir gently until absorbed. Add another ladle full and stir... repeat until all stock has been absorbed and the rice is cooked. Stir in roasted pumpkin, peas, and grated cheese.

While the recipe here calls to add grated cheese here, I chopped my mozzarella into cubes to add to the centre of the ball. You could skip the filling and add grated Parmesan and/or cheddar at this point.

2. spread the risotto on a tray and leave to cool.

3. Shape rice into orange sized balls, roll in flour, egg and breadcrumbs (I always egg and breadcrumb twice for a nice crunch) then shallow fry until golden. Drain cooked arancini on paper towels and serve with salad.

Needless to say, my fussy kids weren't impressed but my husband was and cleaned his plate. 

Do you want to save more and waste less?

Who doesn't want to save money on their grocery shopping? I am not (too) ashamed to admit that I love the TLC show Extreme Couponing and rarely miss an episode. My youngest is almost as addicted as me and we furtively watch it together, fast forwarding to the bit where you find out how much they saved on their 15 trolleys of kitchen towel, soap, and bottled water. The love of a bargain speaks to the soul of most people so I am happy to share with you my latest find: Approved Food. Just so you know, this is not a sponsored post in any way, shape or form. I am just spreading the frugal love!

Approved Food (www.approvedfood.co.uk) is an website where you can buy super cheap products that are near to, or just past, their recommended best before date. I have absolutely no qualms about using something past the date printed on the box. I am sensible enough to be able to tell if food has turned and the lure of being able to stock up on things at super low prices (hello? 80% or more off, anyone!) was too good to pass by.

You don't have to worry that I will become a hoarder or even create a stockpile as I simply don't have the space, but Approved Food is fab in that you can buy a single item if that is all you need. I wish I had taken a photo of my delivery before I put it away but here is a list of what I bought: 

	Price	Quantity	Total
Kelloggs Coco Pops Jumbos 375g Best Before: 31st Aug 2013	£0.99	3	£2.97 You saved £4.80 ( 62% )
Kelloggs Mini Max Original 560g Best Before: 29th Jul 2013	£1.49	3	£4.47 You saved £3.60 ( 45% )
Kelloggs Rice Krispies 510g Best Before: 14th Apr 2014	£1.99	1	£1.99 You saved £0.80 ( 29% )
Kelloggs Rice Krispies Squares Totally Chocolatey 36g Best Before: 9th Aug 2013	£0.20	10	£2.00 You saved £3.50 ( 64% )
Best Mex 8 Flour Tortillas 320g Best Before: 4th Jan 2014	£0.80	2	£1.60 You saved £2.38 ( 60% )
Birkel Penne Pasta 500g Best Before: 5th Jul 2015	£0.50	2	£1.00 You saved £1.98 ( 66% )
Batchelors Golden Super Rice 120g Best Before: 30th Jun 2015	£0.50	2	£1.00 You saved £1.00 ( 50% )
Vanish Oxi Action Fabric Stain Remover Powder 500g	£2.99	1	£2.99 You saved £1.61 ( 35% )
Sun Dishwasher Cleaner 1 Dose 40g	£0.25	6	£1.50 You saved £4.44 ( 75% )
Battleship The Chocolate Combat Game Best Before: 31st Dec 2013	£1.99	1	£1.99 You saved £3.00 ( 60% )
Typhoo One Cup 100 Round Teabags Best Before: 29th Feb 2016	£1.49	1	£1.49 You saved £0.70 ( 32% )
Allinson Wholemeal Self Raising Flour 1kg Best Before: 30th Sep 2013	£0.69	1	£0.69 You saved £0.81 ( 54% )
Canderel Granular Low Calorie Sweetener 75g Best Before: 31st Dec 2015	£0.50	2	£1.00 You saved £3.50 ( 78% )
Swish 4 in 1 Lemon Dishwasher Tablets 20 Pack	£1.49	1	£1.49 You saved £1.50 ( 50% )
Dr Scholl Party Feet Best Before: 30th Apr 2013	£0.50	2	£1.00 You saved £6.98 ( 87% )
Keep It Handy Dehumidifier 2 in 1	£0.99	2	£1.98 You saved £0.02 ( 1% )
Cadbury Crunchie Biscuits 130g Best Before: 17th Aug 2013	£0.89	1	£0.89 You saved £0.90 ( 50% )
Keepers Choice Jaffa Cakes 400g Best Before: 5th Jan 2014	£0.99	1	£0.99 You saved £1.00 ( 50% )
SPECIAL OFFER Beechams Ultra All In One Hot Lemon Menthol 5 Doses Best Before: 31st Aug 2013	£0.20	5	£1.00 You saved £13.95 ( 93% )
	Basket Price		£32.04
	Delivery		£5.25
	Sub Total		£37.29
	Discount		-£0.89
	Total Discounts		-£0.89
	You Pay		£36.40

I saved £56.47 on the RRP of these items, which is around 63%. Delivery was by courier and cost £5.25 - so about the same as a peak time grocery delivery - and arrived in less than 48 hours. You can see that most of these items are well within date and the ones that aren't, like the cereal, are still perfectly fine. I know it's a bit of a random shopping list but I wanted a range of products to test it for the first time.

It's time to organise my kitchen cupboards because doing a big shop at Approved Foods every month could work out to be a great money saver for me based on my normal shopping habits. 

Have you tried Approved Foods or a similar site? If so, please share your experiences in the comments below.

Tighten your belts! It's Sensible Spending September

After seemingly hemmorrhaging money over the past 2 months I can feel my mindset naturally clicking into frugal mode. It's time to tighten my belt, cut my coat according to my cloth, insert parsimonious cliche here. I am far from a spendthrift but living frugally is not something I can do for a long period of time. When the need comes naturally like this (as opposed via a nasty bank statement shock) it's a great feeling. It's like a spring clean for the soul as I sell things we no longer use and generally have a good declutter. Clean house + growing bank balance + virtuous feeling = how can you go wrong?

Sensible Spending September has arisen from my love of cheesy alliteration and the need to feel like I'm in control of my bank account again.

If you're of a similar mindset I enthusiastically recommend A Thrifty Mrs, and my ongoing amour Pinterest.
Rachael Blogs did a great post on Groupon recently. And don't forget sites like Quidco. As long as you're not spending money for the sake of saving money, they can be really useful.