I am an active member at my local WI and, can you guess? I do the catering at our lunches. Were you surprised 😉
I recently saw a Freegle post offering 30 Gu ramekins, which I picked up. I thought they would be perfect for WI lunches, I have asked our members for some more as I will need 45, or even 50 for a lunch. I’ve had a few donations and I’m up to 41 now. They are pretty little pots, sturdy and, I’m sure, versatile.
Muscovado Cheesecake
I shall do the Muscovado Cheesecake the first time I use them. The cheesecakes have a great many variations, they would be lovely with rhubarb compote on top for instance. I only think of that as my rhubarb is peeking above the soil now and won’t be long before we can pick some, the first of the year. Then other ideas are some kind of citrusy, lemony, pudding, possibly individual crumbles, or a sponge base topped with cream and fruit, a mini trifle, maybe salted caramel and chocolate etc etc
I have been musing on other uses for them and had a little Google. Some of the ideas I have seen include these
Delia Smith’s Potted Cheese. I have tried this in several different variations and it is smashing as a sandwich filler or with salad
Home made pate
Creme brûlée
Mini Christmas puddings or cakes for Christmas hampers
You could use them for serving the mackerel pate
Found this description of a favourite pudding. A few frozen raspberries in the bottom, topped with greek yogurt and some brown sugar. If you leave them in the fridge for a while the raspberries melt and go all ‘saucy’ and brown sugar melts and goes all fudgy … yum
One of the things I like about the idea of using them is the automatic portion control
I did read about decanting paint from the large squeezey bottles for children when painting, but I’m not sure about that one because of the possibility of breakage
Putting bicarbonate in and leaving them in places that are a
little whiffy, as an air freshener
A very creative idea for using them is to feed the birds with fat and seeds
Freezing small quantities of food
You could use them for small pots of jams and jellies for gifts, singly, as a hostess gift say, or in hampers. You could cover them with cellophane and some kind of pretty top with an elastic band, raffia or something. I’m thinking pretty fabric, wrapping paper, brown paper and string even
Make candles in them by suspending a wick and pouring in melted wax
Decorate them with some kind of glass paint and use for tea light holders, as gifts etc
As I will shortly have lots of these little pots. Do you have any other creative ideas for using them? We have a small table for donations of books, plants and unwanted gifts at our WI meetings to raise funds. Are there any ideas where I can use some for that purpose?
That sounds wonderful!
The raspberries topped with yogurt and sugar is a lovely dessert called Barbados cream… an old recipe that is delish! My gran used to make it.
It is very important to never store or wrap food in any plastic unless it is certified as food grade quality.
There is considerable difference between the chemicals of industrial vs food grade plastic and the possibility of toxins leaching into food is a real danger.
Hi Lesley,
Thank you for replying 🙂
Re the chocolate I managed to bag a right bargain at out local sweetshop yesterday, 20 x Freddo Bars for £1 so going to chop a few up and use them but have ordered the basics chocolate in this weeks shopping 🙂
Our best buy so far on Approved foods has been a 3kg bag of pasta for 99p (we ordered 2 and split them between us with recipes – what a bargain! Another thing we also do is find a “family favorite” i.e spag bol and we each have an ingredient that we purchase – then I normally cook it all up (great thing to do with kids during holidays) and then pop it in containers for everyone to pick up and take home – that’s why I was asking about the containers (my nan brought me up as “make-do,mend and re-use were ever possible) thus why I’m so loath to throw them in the recycling lol.
I also have a recipe for a budget rice-pudding that my nan taught me – but I haven’t had time to cost out all the ingredients. It will feed a family of 4 easily:-
1 mug of smart price rice
1 carton of UHT milk
2 caps of vanilla essence
10 sweeteners
few dots of marg
Mix all ingredients together, keeping a 1/4 of the milk back for the end. My Nan used to use a casserole dish so as to keep a tight seal – pop it in the bottom of the oven whilst you are cooking other things and just give it a stir every now and again. Use the rest of the milk at the end if it becomes a bit dry but Hey presto a low calorie, creamy rice pud and if you can purchase the UHT milk in an offer can cost just a few pennies to make (I’ve put this in yogurt pots with a dollop of jam for my other half’s lunch box and the only complaint was could he have 2 the following day!!)
Also been thinking about other uses for your ramekins and in Primark this week they had two white wicker baskets, fully lined, 1 large and 1 small for £3. what about making a spice hamper for a raffle prize or gift for a fellow cook/baker?
Take care x
What a good idea to get together for an Approved Food order, you could really take advantage of the best offers that way. I’m going to see if there is anyone who wants to share with me.
Re the choc chips, have you tried the Basics type chocolate? It’s only about 30p/100g and tastes pretty good, especially in cooking. I made some muffins today actually using a bar of dark chocolate chopped up,into chips with a handful of raisins. Super nice warm from the oven when the
chocolate was still soft.
Re the washing liquid containers, I haven’t used those and have no knowledge of what they are like. Anyone got any suggestions?
Hi Lesley,
Firstly can I say that I am loving everything that you are doing on your blog – although I think my other half is getting fed up of me keep saying “I do that” lol but hey he’s getting fed some great tasty cheap meals so shhh now! I love cooking but baking is my passion and wanted to let you know that last week I made over 50 muffins by using your basic recipe at a cost of just under £3.50 (biggest expense was G & B chocolate for the chips) and although I wanted to freeze some I didn’t get the chance as the love of my life took loads to a dart match and now I have requests to make more. I also agree with you that Approved Foods is a great website and one idea that other readers might want to consider is form a group and order together (we currently have 6 in our group, 2 single mums, 2 on DLA, and 2 on JSA). We all get together, test recipes and ideas and then pool our money in our budget and then place an order (makes sense if you only have £5 in your budget and saves loads on posting). Maybe this is something other people could do?
The other reason I am getting in touch is to ask what most people might think as being a bit silly – but could really do with some feedback. I use liquid tablets in my washing machine and one draw back is I have ended up with loads of the containers (yes I have used them to put crafting bits in and other half doesn’t need any more for in the shed) so I was wondering if, after giving them a good scrub could I not use them as freezer containers – has anyone else done this??
Finally, as an afterthought, if there are any dog lovers/bakers out there – I used the basic muffin recipe and added chocolate drops for dogs and sunflower oil and used smaller cases to make doggy muffins for Abbey our Bull mastiff as she has just had to have a course of antibiotic tablets and the muffins were a great way of hiding the tables and giving Abbey a treat – A WORD OF WARNING – remember to inform the hoovers/other half’s that you are making them or the poor dog might miss out lol.
Keep up the great work hun
xx
Mmm, that sounds good
Lemon Posset. Makes 6 ramekins. 2 lemons zested and juiced , 4oz sugar, large tub of creme fraiche
Gently heat creme fraiche with zest and sugar, gently boil for 5 mins, then stir in juice. Put into ramekins for a soft set. Delicious Goes great with homemade ginger biscuits, very thin and finger shaped