Blog One: Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog! My name is colleen and I would like to share the "ART OF COOKING CREATIVELY ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET" with you. The recipes contained in this blog may even help you impress friends and family and will contain helpful hints and tips around the kitchen.

From an early age, I used to love faffing around in the kitchen, sometimes much to my mother's horror! But she always had the time to show me how to do things properly and without criticism. By the time I was 13, dinner would be ready and waiting when my mother got home from work. We battled in those early days, just my mother and myself; my father having passed away when I was 7 years old. We had to make do with what we could afford and being imaginative, often really cooked up a storm!

In my first year of high school, I took cookery lessons, unlike my classmates who did ballet or played the piano. I felt that by doing cooking, it would benefit me later in life; I could definitely NOT imagine myself in a tutu prancing and twirling around to "Swan Lake", or banging away on a piano with a teacher who resembled "Mev Rottenheimer" in the tale about "Heidi" - NO WAY!!

Cooking and being creative in a kitchen has always been my forte, and as jobs are so scarce - especially when you're over 40 - my current boyfriend and I decided on home cooking as a source of income. With him also having a creative mind, we put our thoughts together and would often come up with a 'masterpiece' - original, not just out of any old recipe book. I have started my own little enterprise, with help from my boyfriend (when he has a gap, as he has his own property website: www.durbanvirtualproperties.co.za) and named it "COLLEEN'S COMFORT FOODS". The meals are carefully packed and frozen in aluminium containers, the punnets are 400gr and cost R25 each.

Our range includes:

• Spaghetti Bolognaise
• Cottage Pie
• Mild boneless beef curry with chunky carrots
• Chicken Supreme
• Spicy Beef and Noodles
• Hawaiian stirfry

and many more...

Some of the recipes are "old school", which have been slightly changed, but most of them are based on thought and creativity, taking into consideration meals for the elderly, as many older people find tough meat difficult to eat.

With the cost of living being as high as it is, the main aim of this blog is to share our knowledge and what we continue to learn with others, so by keeping an eye on our recipes and costings you will find it is possible to create a super meal for a family of 6 for under R50 - now that's not bad going is it?