Any thoughts on how to handle this one?!

Jesscat · 2 September 2006 at 1:07PM

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions :j

Happyidiot would love your recipe but is it veggie?! Afraid i dont do meat!

Jx

scheming_gypsy · 2 September 2006 at 1:09PM

They're your friends so they expect you to be honest with them.
You need to do 3 things:

go with them
invite them round for a meal / drinks
tell them you're too skint to go but maybe next time.

if you do feel like going out then go out but tell them you can't afford to go in a round. Drink at your speed to what you can afford.

If you invite them round yours everytime they invite you out then they'll do the same thing you're doing now. They'll run out of excuses, sometimes they'll want to go out, to the pub, round town etc. When they run out of excuses they'll stop asking you.

If you're on your !!!!!!, just tell them so. If they do say they'll pay then occasionally it doesn't do any harm. They want you to go out cos you're all friends and they want you to be there, sometimes accept their offer and the other times tell them you'll be fine, you've some stuff you need to do anyway.

Emmzi · 2 September 2006 at 1:09PM

A fab lentil lasagne costs about 3 quid tops

Jesscat · 2 September 2006 at 1:10PM

tesuhoha wrote:

I tried saying that I couldnt afford to go to the staff social event this summer and I was accused of being anti-social and mean. I ended up going because I felt that I did not want to be labelled.

Crikey, your supposed to be trying to cheer me up, your right you are made out to be anti social if you say no all the time!!!

Dan2779 · 2 September 2006 at 1:25PM

I have a high life diners card, although there is an annual fee of about 40 pound, everytime I use it I get a meal for 2 half price at loads of top restaurants usually saving about 25 quid each time!:T
Its really good to go out with friends to restaurants that we wouldnt usually go to because of the cost, without it costing a small fortune!:o

jiblets1 · 2 September 2006 at 1:31PM

How about going out but driving? (Providing you get free parking). You can go out for the cost of 2 cokes and a little petrol then??

HappyIdiotTalk · 2 September 2006 at 2:08PM

Jesscat wrote:

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions :j

Happyidiot would love your recipe but is it veggie?! Afraid i dont do meat!

Jx

Errrmmm kind of. My wife eats it and she's a veggie too. However it depends on your veggie-ness as its got salmon in it - Salmon And Courgette Tagliatelli.

Ingredients
========

1 500g packet of Egg tagliatelli (about 70p from Morrisons)
2 or 3 skinless salmon fillets (about £2.50)
2 Courgettes (30p?)
1 pot (284ml) of single cream (60p-ish)
1 tablespoon or so of olive oil
salt and pepper

How to make it
===========

The slowest part is waiting for the water for the pasta to boil so get that onto the stove first (your largest pan or a pot). And while your waiting for that...

Chop up the salmon into bite sized pieces. And slice the courgettes into discs 3-4mm thick or as you like them.

When you estimate that the water only has 7 minutes left before coming to the boil put a frying pan onto a medium heat. And when its hot add a bit of olive oil and then the salmon. You want the salmon to sizzle gently but not so furiously that its spitting or anything like that. Give it a stir around and sprinkle in a little salt, dont go mad as you'll be adding more later (this is called layering). Stir occasionally.

When the salmon is cooked to a uniform light pink (about 5 minutes) add the courgettes and a little more salt and some pepper. Get the pan back up to a gentle sizzle, cover, and contine to cook for two or three minutes more.

By this time the water for the pasta should be boiling so drop in the pasta and cook as per the instructions, usually 3 minutes once the water has returned to the boil.

When theres only about 1 mintute of cooking time left for the pasta, pour the cream over the salmon and courgettes. You only want to warm the cream through so a minute or so is all thats required (but it doesn't matter if it bubbled up a bit). Check the seasoning and add more if required.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain it quickly by giving it two or three quick shakes in a colander to remove the excess water. But dont allow it to dry out or it'll spoil it. Return it to the pot and pour over the salmon and courgette sauce, stir to mix and serve!

Thats it!

Delicious! And easy! Its hard to mess this one up, but things to look out for are over-cooking the salmon, you just need to cook it though - if you brown it then only brown it lightly. And dont cook the courgettes too long as they'll go soggy, and you want some bite in them. And dont over drain the pasta because if it goes dry the sauce wont be enough to restore it - but this is the same for all pasta so if you've cooked it before you'll know what I mean. Just get rid of the excess water so its not dripping. I estimate that when I drain pasta its only in the colander around 5 seconds and gets 2 or 3 firm shakes.

Good Luck!

lightatendoftunnel? · 2 September 2006 at 3:51PM

this is a hard one, i use to make excuses then some of my friends just thought i was ignoring them. So I was brutally honest, so as my friends were concerned they stopped asking me so as not to put me in a tight spot. They thought they were helping my not asking all the time thus i wouldnt be fed up when i couldnt go. But this led to me never been asked anywhere anymore!! So I told them again that as long as they understood if i said no. to keep asking me and the times i could i would. Honesty is the best policy as when i kept making excuses they got sick of asking as they thought i would just make an excuse. So now they ask all the time, if i say no they dont badger me, they also know if i say no its for a geniune money reason. So now we are all back to being happy and chilled. This is for my close friends. Wider friends and work collegues i just say no as its none of their business any way!!

Jesscat · 2 September 2006 at 4:04PM

Thanks for the recipe sounds great and I eat fish (but dont tell anybody

)

carrottopsuk · 2 September 2006 at 4:29PM

Emmzi wrote:

A fab lentil lasagne costs about 3 quid tops

Emmzi

Do you have the recipe for this?

Thanks

Any thoughts on how to handle this one?!

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