The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

mcculloch29 · 12 April 2017 at 12:58AM

Using GP's phrasing, Mr Al's Super 6, 29p this week, had carrots, leeks and parsnips at 19p in my store. From the signage, it's nationwide. Does this help you GP? I'd stopped buying fresh potatoes weekly in favour of tinned, but at 29p for 2.5kg....!

Greying_Pilgrim · 12 April 2017 at 9:11AM

Good Morning :hello:

Yes, mcculloch we will try to snaffle some of the mrAl's offering before the weekend. I had bought carrots and parsnips from mrL for 29p, before I knew MrAl were undercutting them. Still, the MrL parsnips were delish (had some for tea last night) - the carrots less so, they have that bit of 'chemical' tang to them. Never quite sure if it is what they are washed with or left over........ don't want to think about it....... Thanks everso for mentioning it here though

So, tea last night ended up being a riff on Y0tam 0tt0lenghi's Broad Bean Kuku. I used cranberries rather than barberries, didn't add in cream and used the spices and herbs that I had. Tasted fine

I baked some of the little King Edward tatties that I got from mrL for 29p, and roasted a couple of parsnips. The broccoli was frozen from h3ron. Picture here;

The picture is the first tea of the year taken in natural light :jThe oven is beginning to cook a bit hot again - probably on its way out

And also there were eggs from garden chickens as well as half a pot of skyr in the dish, so plenty of fat/protein content to react to the heat.

There were 2 portions of kuku left over for another day, so into the freezer they went, all veg was scoffed.

Tea tonight will be a bit of a mystery, as I forgot to put some beans on to soak overnight :doh:and it appears that these beans (mrW 10 bean mix) don't respond well to short soaking, so I'll leave them for another day.

We've got bananas, but I picked the 'ripest' that m&$ had on offer and they are still green as a field of grass and rock hard

Don't think that I'm going anywhere today that would have some ripe ones - and I refuse to buy bagged bananas - rip off!

I had meant to say that pre-grating cheese for DH for snap, from the mrL block is proving to be the best thing for cheese management in this household

It helps that currently I still have some of the m&$ bargain cheese in the freezer which tops each pizza, but the block cheese is definitely lasting longer, as DH seems better able to portion up ready grated cheese. So that's :money::D

Right, best shift-a-tail-feather

Greying X

greenbee · 12 April 2017 at 9:22AM

GP - my oven has never been right temperature wise (it used to belong to my mother, and we just assumed she was hopeless at cooking using an electric oven in the brief period when her aga was off, but turns out the oven is useless). It's roughly 20-30C out at any given point. As I'm still waiting for a new kitchen, I'm not buying an oven yet, so last year I finally invested in a digital oven thermometer and can now live with it. It might be a good investment for you if it gives you a bit longer with the current model to save up and wait for a good offer on a replacement.

hex2 · 12 April 2017 at 10:15AM

GP - I thought it was just me with the bananas but they have been very green in the three different shops I have been in. The ones I bought on Friday still are not ripe.

greenbee · 12 April 2017 at 12:02PM

Try our village shop... they are always over ripe (low turnover...). probably a bit of a long way to travel though... I've started buying them when they're reduced (all of them) and freezing.

Greying_Pilgrim · 12 April 2017 at 12:44PM

greenbee wrote: »

Try our village shop...

Ha ha, as you say greenbee, bit of a long way to travel, just for bananas....

However, it would appear that mrW have all the ripe bananas in Greying Town, in their 'single banana' bucket for people who can still afford to buy their lunch. Luckily for us, everyone must be on hols with their kiddies, as the bananas were reduced to 10p each. Careful selection yielded 5 good bananas that wouldn't have cost any less sold as a bunch........

And so to lunch

Greying X

rtandon27 · 12 April 2017 at 6:10PM

:rotfl:cheese rationing:rotfl:
Dearest GP - how you do make me giggle!
My OH seems to cope with meat, alcohol and treat rationing but heaven forbid we didn't have a bit of cheese in the fridge for him to nibble on!
We do however have copious amounts of post Xmas stilton squirrreled away in the freezer for risotto and omelettes so this seems to have the desired result of less of the grocery budget being spent on dairy!

Greying_Pilgrim · 12 April 2017 at 8:23PM

Good Evening :hello:

rtandon - he has only himself to blame, he didn't have to use the equivalent of the cheese allocation for a small cafe on his butties for one day........ :rotfl:

DH managed to pick up some of the mrAl S6 veg. Our store didn't appear to have the cauli and broccoli - or at least DH couldn't find them..... The carrots look better than MrL's the parsnips not as good, the leeks look OK, but DH always selects the biggest and never looks to see if the tops are turning....... But for 19p, I'm most certainly not complaining. I should have just bought the tatties from mrAl - they run rings around the mrL offering.

I now have no where to put everything :rotfl:

Tea this evening ended up being more buddha bowl than I had anticipated, but stuff is getting used up, so that is all that matters. I boiled some brown basmati rice. Made a carrot and orange salad, made a beetroot pugilese salad, steamed some green beans (in the microwave) and covered them with some of the leftover bobtie sauce and fried up the remaining veg 'sausages' that I made to make the sausage rolls we had for picnics at the weekend, and the remaining 4 lentil ba11s. Bit of a mish mash, didn't quite jel - the sauce was the wrong choice, but filled a gap and used stuff up, picture here;

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

that the rain held off whilst we were outdoors

BG snoozed which meant I could get some things done

that we've a[STRIKE] full [/STRIKE][STRIKE]rammed[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]jammed[/STRIKE] overflowing fridge full of good British produce - huzzah for our farmers :j

Ta for popping by, reading and directing me to centres of bananar-e-ness. Appreciated

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim · 13 April 2017 at 9:38AM

Good Morning :hello:

Thursday already - I think the week has speeded up in anticipation of chocolate at the weekend!

:icotbaske

We've a luverly chum to meet-up with later - looking forward very much to that

I don't think we need anything purchased from the high street, although DH will need to swing by mrL for bread, milk and yoghurt, me thinkies

I did notice elsewhere on MSE that mrAl had been unable to fulfil the broccoli offer of the S6 and had substituted with 3 courgettes for 29p (in one particular store at least) - which is a good deal, even if they will be....... Spanish? and out of season. Good if you are taking your easter lamb in a middle-eastern direction in culinary terms though, i would have thought.

I'm going to make a sort of kedgeree tonight. It normally would be buddha bowl, but as we all but had that last night, I thought that I had better ring the changes a little. It will definitely feature lentils and rice, anything else is up to inspiration and in the lap of the gods :rotfl:

I did end up throwing out some chickpea flour the other day, when I had a rootle through the kitchen cupboards. I buy bags of it with all good intentions of making interesting things and then never do. So I'll have to keep my arms firmly in my coat, next time I wander past it on the shelf in the asian grocery. I am, however, starting to feel a bit better about what we do have in stock. I'm reaching a much better place for a balance between some choice, and stuff that we will definitely use before expiry (not that that is an issue for me, but it serves as a benchmark).

Can't think of anything else MS related, so I had best shuffle orf.

TTFN, Greying X

hex2 · 13 April 2017 at 11:58AM

My local A had broccoli for 39p and 3 courgettes for 29p. Potatoes were good sized Melody. Some stupid woman banged me twice with her trolley while I was looking, and didn't so much as look to acknowledge she had done it. There was plenty of stuff, I was there before her, not blocking her, and it wasn't very busy so clearly I look like I need bashing away from the cheap vegetables. I had to leave before I beat her to death with some giant leeks.

MrM still has various veg on 3 for £1 - spring greens, onions and swede if you are after some variety in the veg mountain.

The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

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