<<<out of cheese error>>>

Yesterday I got some flavoured pork steak (pennies!), bit of chorizo and handful of prawns out of the freezer with a vague plan of making jambalaya but OH exercised his right of veto. He doesn't like 'stodge' or pork very much so I cobbled together a stew:

Sliced an onion and started it off in a casserole dish, added cubes of pork, chipotle chilli flakes, and lots of smoked paprika, and the peeled, used chorizo. Gave it a few minutes to brown then added a glass of wine and let it sizzle for a minute, then added a tin of tomatoes, teaspoon of sugar, a chicken stock cube, half a tin of water and some butter beans. Up to bubbling, then lid on simmer for an hour. Added sliced peppers, a tin of potatoes - chopped in half, some mixed herbs, more paprika and a pinch of saffron (not essential but I have lots). tasted it to check for more chilli flakes but it was fine. Back up to bubbling, lid back on for another half hour simmering. It made a really good deep spicy tomato and butterbean stew, and the pork was tender enough by then. It'd work well in a slow cooker I think. We had it with nice HM crusty bread.

I also made scones, but DS1 ate those. He also had three bowls of cereal, plus usual meals. Growth spurt presumably.

Freezer is scarily low, its a big six foot chest freezer that lives in the garage. There's a lot of veg in it so its not empty empty but very few meat units now. Lots of frozen white fish so need to start thinking about what I can do with that.

Store cupboards are also unusually empty - no tinned toms for example - but I do have lots of long dated barts spice paste jars from 15p shelf clearance, and some mini tins of coconut milk to go with them. No bread flour, no baking powder. A meals worth of pasta/rice/couscous.

Fridge is bad. Cheese needs freezing today. Milk may not last till the morning. Have enough butter for breakfast. Tumbleweed hides behind the condiment jars when you open the door......

Tomorrow I will crack and do a proper shop.

Today we have lamb shoulder from the freezer. No potatoes, and not a lot of fresh veg either.

mummytogirls wrote: »

Morning Redo,

The stew sounds lovely. We are not pork fans, I wonder if I could use the same base for a different meat?

You are doing so well with running everything right down and using everything up. Will you do a massive shop tomorrow?

Have a lovely Sunday xx

Thanks! I usually use chicken to make it. Doesn't need cooking for as long that way either.

I'm not sure what my plan is yet, I don't want to buy things for the sake of it, but nor do I want to end up paying village co-op prices for things I have run out of. I think I need to plan meals based on what we do have left and work from that but I hate doing it. More likely is that I will have a fit of petulance and throw everything in the trolley and then live with the inevitable regret and self-loathing .

Currently on target for trolley filling frenzy. I couldn't make the fridge/cupboard contents work for DS1 for his cooking, so had to buy Feta in the village. £1.75! Its under £1 in MrL. We usually have at least one pack in the fridge but of course I have been running things down. Anyway he is doing roasted veg (fridge bottom) couscous with chickpeas and feta, which meets the criteria. We typed it all out and then it got sat on by two wet cats in rapid succession so now reprinting a clean copy. Good job I saved it.

Took the dogs for a walk and realised the wild damsons are finally ripe, 2 kilos picked ready for jamming. Checking the fridge for emptyish jars I realised I had some sunflower spread hidden away which meant I could make some biscuits. Not enough eggs for the DS1 requested Bakewell tart so we made Bakewell biscuits instead. I think there are three left that he is saving for supper :rotfl:

We adapted bero jam blobs, adding almond essence with the egg, and some flaked almonds mixed in and sprinkled on top. Next time I will substitute some of the flour with ground almonds. A soft biscuit, half way to a cake but very nice. It also used up the last of a jar of bramble jelly which gives me another one for the damsons.

Quinoa and roasted veg salad made for packed lunches. Go me :cool:

Sorry EH - hope you found something to eat

I did do the food shopping, vague mental list, no meal plan

Need to work out the numbers and update the spreadsheet, as a lot of it was for the animals and I have split them off into their own budget this month.

No bargains and nothing bought for the freezer. Actually the fridge doesn't look much better than it did before I went in terms of obvious food. Store cupboard restocked - tinned food and baking stuff.

DS1 hates roasted veg, well, nearly all veg actually. Its lovely hidden in huge lumps in couscous apparently and he has eaten all he made as an after school snack

I'm looking at the uninspiring remains of the fatty lamb and trying to think what I can cobble together for dinner for OH and SS. Maybe shred it in the food processor and make shephards pie, or fry some cubes off in curry spices and make something biriani ish.

A whole 20 minutes of tedious done, and I need to do at least an hour of ironing. Not the most productive of days, not even sure where the time went.