Help me and hopefully help others too

[ImFab]

I love cooking and baking. My children love eating. I have food issues from not being fed so love to feed my kids. My kids are fantastic eaters and will eat almost anything and enjoy healthy stuff as well as cakes, etc but I think sometimes 2 puddings might be a bit much (fruit, yogurt, or home made biscuits or muffins.) All after a good dinner. Maybe kids are just hollow )

Tiny bit confused about what the question actually is? Are you asking if 2 puddings is too much? A piece of fruit and a yoghurt or muffin is ok, I would have thought, as long as you are all a healthy weight?

I realised I hadn't posted a question but had to put my new muffins in the oven .

The kids will think it is the end of the world if they don't get fruit and then something, apparently fruit isn't pudding!

They are all very healthy and 1 and 2 are skinny really.

I need to cut down on what I spend without my kids saying they are starving.

What kind of flour, sugar etc are you using? Would it be anathama to go down to Value flour/sugar for baking and use (e.g.) cheap fruit from market (if you have one) for stuff like banana bread?

Posting in Feed The World as well might elict some more ideas?

Own brand usually but not the value stuff. For no other reason than I wasn't sure on the quality.

Is Feed The World a topic on here?

Rice pudding and semolina are cheap to make, and go well with fresh or dried fruit or jam.

I used to always make rice pudding when they were small. Just got out of the habit but I have 2 bags of pudding rice in the cupboard from last time i realised I had to spend less. I blame not thinking of making it in time but I have a recipe that makes it in less than an hour so no excuse really.

I have never made semolina but will give it a go.

For economy reasons I always use value flour -at the moment it is the sainsbury's one and it is fine, I use the self raising for sponges and as long as you sieve it is great. I have used Mcdougalls or whatever three times the price flour as had to get from Tesco metro late one night and can't tell the difference. However I do have a decent mixer and I think that makes more of a difference tbh than the flour.

Sugar is expensive and I always cut down a bit on it, makes the recipe healthier too, also if really skint will make cakes with granulated (don't tell Delia). You can tell the difference but it is still better than shop bought and if it is the difference between having a cake or not then I'll take a slightly heavier cake!

You can get bags of granulated sugar in poundland and whizz it in your food processer to make it finer. I've baked with granulated and I just mix it for longer. I use value flour too.

I also use value dried fruit. Bread and butter pudding is really filling and so cheap to make.