Living richly; simply and debt-freely

Greying_Pilgrim · 26 June 2015 at 9:24PM

Upsidedown Bear - *snort* Love it!

:T

Greying x

in_need_of_direction · 26 June 2015 at 9:33PM

He's not like the orange men over here!

rtandon27 · 26 June 2015 at 11:00PM

My fella asked that I report that we had Pizza as per yer 'normal' schedule!

It was actually classified as leftovers in my book - we had a posh meal yesterday (courtesy of Mr T's coupons) at an italian chain & both ordered poncy pizza's which all alone were enough to feed a small family! The lovely waitress asked if we'd like the remainder take-away to which I grinned from ear to ear - my Mr gets overly embarassed when I get all 'across the pond' on him and ask for a doggy bag. If we don't waste at home, why would we waste in a restaurant??? - even if it was paid for with coupons!

Greying_Pilgrim · 27 June 2015 at 8:02AM

rtandon27 wrote: »

My fella asked that I report that we had Pizza as per yer 'normal' schedule!

:j - GO Team rtandon :T I feel that I have let the side down now..... :rotfl:

rtandon27 wrote: »

If we don't waste at home, why would we waste in a restaurant??? - even if it was paid for with coupons!

Too right! Plus the pizza would have gone in the restaurant bins - no matter how it was paid for. You've saved money and waste

:T

Greying x

Greying_Pilgrim · 28 June 2015 at 8:44AM

Good Morning :hello:

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend, whatever you are up to

I spent yesterday pootling and pottering.

I have done out my menu planner for July. I have taken onboard my need to be much more robust in my use of ingredients that I have in store, in relation to making meals that are satisfying and nutritious, but also that allow the budget to be utilised to the max

To that end, I have a 'rarity' for me. I have 5 'empty' slots on my planner. For every Thursday in July, there is no meal planned :eek:

Why?

Well, I'm going to attempt - and this is not new, certainly not to anyone that has ever made *bottom of the fridge soup*

- to challenge myself to make something from scratch every Thursday, with what I have left in stock/in the fridge/freezer. I had thought about doing it at the end of every week, so either Friday or Sunday. But I figured, that it was not beyond my abilities to make sure that I had all the ingredients in for what we needed on those days, and have the 'tidy up' on a Thursday. That way, if a meal ends up being a little, shall we say...... 'below par', then we've still delish meals to look forward to on Friday, Saturday, Sunday etc. So, in honour of the person who inspired them - my *bottom of the fridge soup Thursdays* are going to be referred to as *Tilly's Tiffin Tidy Thursdays*, where we tidy up the pantry and have it for us tea!

Yes, I do like alliteration.

It could go dreadfully wrong..... :rotfl:But also, it should focus my mind much more on which ingredients are used, and how. My goal is to at least come in on budget for July - anything under is a bonus. A bonus that can be put towards something that is coming up later in the year, so the incentive is there to do my best

We had a curry plate for dinner last night. I didn't take a pic, as we have it quite regularly and I've shared pics of it before. It was the Pumpkin, chickpea and banana curry from the veggie student cookbook (although I used BN squash), with lentil dhal and basmati rice. I got the bananas from m&$ who match the supermercados with price of their loose bananas at 68p per kilo (and they're Fairtrade too, I think). Anyway, I was fortuitous that there were 2 small very, very green bananas left on the shelf wanting to be homed

They were just perfect for what I wanted, firm to cut, but they cook nicely. They add a nice banana taste without being overly sweet nor too mushy as they cook in the curry. Perfickt!

Tonight - although the weather is not playing ball

- will be a salad bowl, with a couple of new to me recipes

Right, I best toddle off. To find a cup of coffee if nowt else

Thanks everso for popping in and reading. I greatly appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying x

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS · 28 June 2015 at 9:04AM

I'll be thinking of you every Thursday

although, odd as it is, I think we *think* of each other often - all of us. If I see beautiful horses in the park, I think of Alchemilla and Watty. Beautiful art/paintings/vistas I think of Fortune and you. Creatures, GallyGirl and you etc etc. Chooks, always MWC - it's odd how a virtual forum can bring support, advice and friendship.

Have a good Sunday and I hope the sun shines for your salad - not too much to ask in late June.

Best wishes Tilly x x

Greying_Pilgrim · 28 June 2015 at 9:20PM

Good Evening :hello:

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS wrote: »

....odd as it is, I think we *think* of each other often - all of us. If I see beautiful horses in the park, I think of Alchemilla and Watty. Beautiful art/paintings/vistas I think of Fortune and you. Creatures, GallyGirl and you etc etc. Chooks, always MWC - it's odd how a virtual forum can bring support, advice and friendship.

I don't think it odd at all. I wholly concur with you! I always think of gally when I spot various birdlife. I was minded of MWC when I bought a dozen eggs on our hols in April, as they were just like *the girls* lay on a daily basis, but they were a novelty to me

Whenever I'm in a fabby garden, I'm thinking, 'Pippi' would like this'. And I thought of you this afternoon, as I was reading a blog post about Goa and learnt what the word bom means

Bom, eh?

Well, today has flown.

I was rather thinking, at the start of the day, that we'd be doing well if we only had to wear our coats, sitting eating our tea, in the house!!! :rotfl: However, the weather decided to perk up, after a monumental rainstorm and we've ended the day in sunshine

Dinner this evening was a salad bowl. As it happened, I baked a small cake in the oven whilst I prepared the salads, which ended up making the kitchen far too hot - not something that I thought I would be saying about today!

I know that MWC will know about Piyaz - Sabrina Ghayour's version. I made Anjum Anand's Quick carrot salad, Arto der Haroutunian's Avocado in egozim (the link takes you to the index - scroll down to 'Avocado' and click onto the blue 80, it takes you to the recipe) and a *version* of Laura Wright's Green bean, potato and chickpea salad with vinaigrette dressing which she showed on her instagrAm account (follow the fork into the tupperware....) and which she gives details about at the bottom of the comments box. Picture of my concoction here;

If I made the Piyaz again, I would be sure to soak the onions in lemon juice/vinegar first. Although red onions are generally sweeter, they were still a little too 'raw' for my palate. Anjum's recipe is definitely a keeper, and I think is probably the most frugal of the salads - very nice for not too much money

I LOVED the avocado salad. Loved it. Just wish there had been an avocado each

And Laura's salad is another keeper. Yes, I did use tinned potatoes, but as you dress the salad anyway, I'm cool with using them. Would fresh, garden grown new potatoes taste better? Yep, naturally, but the tinned version worked

We had apricot 'coffee' cake for afters, with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. The recipe is endlessly adaptable, it's one of Leanne Brown's recipes - out of 'Good and Cheap' (pg 156), and I used some YS'd apricots I got in mrM today and put some ground mixed nuts in too. Nice

No pic I'm afraid - we just scoffed it! (there is cake left, just in case you were wondering though

)

Right, I've had a wonderful day. Grateful for many, many things. So I'm just content to count my blessings for it all

Thank you so very much for popping by, reading and contributing. I do greatly appreciate it. Always.

See y'all later.

Greying x

Munchin · 29 June 2015 at 9:08AM

Hi Greying - just popping over from my thread - I did see St Lionel last night. Ooh what a feeling

. I also became domesticated and made a chocolate cake on Sat.........it didn't turn out anything like the picture but it tasted ok. Could never post pictures like you because your meals look edible:)

muddywhitechicken · 29 June 2015 at 9:14PM

Yesterday's salads look delicious (as always) Greying

We rarely have a selection of salads as a main meal - I must rectify that!

It's ages since we've had piyaz and I'm putting the carrot salad on our must try list as we've never had a duff Anjum recipe. We like Mary Berry's fiery red rice salad

MWCx

ETA Anjum's 3-seed potato salad looks mighty fine too!

Greying_Pilgrim · 29 June 2015 at 10:14PM

Good Evening :hello:

Munchin - I am so glad that you got to see him in real time! What a feeling indeed!

:T

muddywhitechicken wrote: »

Yesterday's salads look delicious (as always) Greying

We rarely have a selection of salads as a main meal - I must rectify that!

It's ages since we've had piyaz and I'm putting the carrot salad on our must try list as we've never had a duff Anjum recipe. We like Mary Berry's fiery red rice salad

MWCx

ETA Anjum's 3-seed potato salad looks mighty fine too!

Ooooohhh, squeeeeeee! New recipes!!!

:D:D

Mmm, I think that my selection could do with a bit of a tweak, I think the combination could have been a little better - but as I come from a family background where 'salad' consisted of a couple of (the outer) leaves of 'Webbs Wonderful' and half a tomato, I think I've made great progress, really.... considering... :rotfl: (GP most definitely sending self up!

) Probably more balanced portions would have helped!

Anyhoo, I like the lookee-lou of both those recipes that you have linked too - so they'll go on our to try list

And yes, I heartily concur, Anjum Anand is great. I tend to select from her cookery books - as much as anything, because I'm only looking for veggie stuff I guess, but YES, every recipe that I have made of Anjum's has; worked, we've liked it and it's gone into the recipe index

And I was thinking - I used peanuts because I had some (just dry-roasted them myself) but some cashews (dry-roasted at home or in a packet) would probably work well too

- just a thought.

By the way, did you know that Hugh F-W has written a new tome - on what to do with leftovers? New TV prog to follow in the autumn. I'm not so sure how you can write a book on what to do with leftovers - I mean, how do you know what will be leftover? :think:

Hmmmm, all round fab day today

Sure the sunshine helped

I forgot to mention that I had tried out the coconut cream/milk that I had picked up from HB for 15p for a 200g sachet. It was OK.... for 15p. I don't think that I'd select that brand in a supermercado whereitwouldprobablybeconsiderablydearer........... if you get my drift, dear reader. However, it went into the tangy lime vinaigrette that adorned the tofu and then doubled up the next day to blanket the mung beans

If you stood on tip-toe whilst eating and faced toward the east, I'm sure you could get a whiff of coconut in there somewhere...................

Oh, and the other thing I forgot to mention is that I ended up concluding that my YS'd oranges from m&$ were quite well priced after all - I got 6 (nice ones) for £1.10. HB sell 4 large oranges for 89p (dearer per fruit, and they didn't look as ripe) and mrA has 5 large oranges (normal price) for £1.79, so I think I got a deal after all - unless mrL had been running one of their half-price promos, and then they would have won hands down :T I still have 2 left - the other 4 have been brilliant for zest, segments and juice :T So juicy, so sweet

Well, I'm flagging, so I'd best hit the hay.

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

ice cubes

frozen broad beans - second best, but better than nought

a nice word with a neighbour

Thanks for popping by, reading, joining in and making recipe suggestions

Always appreciated. Always

See y'all later.

Greying x

Living richly; simply and debt-freely

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free