50p a day til Christmas - healthily?! Weezl's next challenge...

Lesley_Gaye

cw18 wrote: »

had a nasty shock this morning....

popped into Mr T for a couple of bits, including the value frozen mince as tonights tea is going to be minced base (though I've not yet decided what)

since I bought the last 1kg bag about 2-3 weeks ago it's gone up from £1.40 to £1.89 !!!!

wow, that's a lot. The current food price increases make me want to fill the house with everything I can before it goes up again

moneydribbler

Morning all,

I spent rather more than intended over the weekend, as I was away for a family celebration (whole weekend away, nice dinners and lunches, nice hotel... paid for by m'lovely parents... so that's all very MSE for me ) and we came back up home via a farm shop that sold lovely fresh, local, wensleydale and I couldn't resist...

Never mind - onwards and upwards right? This week I'm eating out the freezers again, and I'm only going to buy milk and possibly some veggies.

I'm still looking for some inspiration for wheat-free lunches but I've got some corn tortilla wraps, which I'm going to use in place of bread and see how that goes...

I found some lambs liver in one of my freezers (well, no, I found it when I inventoried a fortnight ago, I'm just a little bit scared of it ) so tommorrow night I'll be making the pate .

Offal is something I really need to get my head around - It's a cheap source of meat, and something we ought to be eating to be environmentally responsible, but my Mum's not a fan at all, so I've grown up feeling like it's horrible stuff. I like pate, so it's a good step in the right direction, right?

lentils now... I'm totally a lentil evangelist (one of my friends asked if I was suddenly part of the British Lentil Marketing Board) - Soup, Daal, Pate...nomnomnom. I'm thinking continental lentils would make quite good bolegnese (The red ones being a bit claggy?).

Weezl, I think the takeaway is more than deserved, and you'd budgetted it, so it's all good

gimme4free1

Very interesting, I will have to try this one out, sounds like you must have saved quite a bit of money!

shaz_mum_of__2

red ones make nice bolognese i use green ones for savoury mince /shepherdless pie i use a mixture for meatless moussaka

Just seen a recipe for red lentil and butternut squash curry tht looks nice on S/W site too

Shaz

moanymoany

Tried nettles yesterday - made a frittata with potatoes, onions - add the eggs and cooked nettles top of with a bit of cheese under the grill.

Will use leftover nettles to make gnocchi, but tomorrow when it's cooler.

On their own - very strong - but nice in the frittata.

moneydribbler

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

red ones make nice bolognese i use green ones for savoury mince /shepherdless pie i use a mixture for meatless moussaka

Just seen a recipe for red lentil and butternut squash curry tht looks nice on S/W site too

Shaz

How do you make it? I'd cook the lentils, brown some onion, add the lentils, tomatoes, puree and some garlic and cook down a bit, but I'm not sure that'd be so good with lentils? I suppose I could just try and mix it half and half with meat if I don't like the texture

The Lentil and squash curry sounds really good - I love squash, too and I can't see it being too complicated .

Obviously I'm going to need to experiment more with lentils - especially when I've run down all the meat I've got in my freezer - before I can really claim to be part of the marketing board :rotfl:

weezl74

evening all, :A:D sorry I've been so neglectful of the thread, our decorating rages on and I have been just soooooo tired, even my inner geek has had little to say!;)

challenge-wise, all still good, no more spends since I last totted up. Fortunately the freezers are so well stocked that the budgetting and thinking has all been done for me!:T

Slight snag, our acetate monkey gets even hungrier when doing DIY so has been on extra rations of everything! Just defrosted a load of choc chip cookie dough to make him a batch to snack on.:D

Glad to read you're all still doing well with your challenges, both frugal and SW-type ones.

Love to you all.

Knackered weezl x

shaz_mum_of__2

moneydribbler wrote: »

How do you make it? I'd cook the lentils, brown some onion, add the lentils, tomatoes, puree and some garlic and cook down a bit, but I'm not sure that'd be so good with lentils? I suppose I could just try and mix it half and half with meat if I don't like the texture

The Lentil and squash curry sounds really good - I love squash, too and I can't see it being too complicated .

Obviously I'm going to need to experiment more with lentils - especially when I've run down all the meat I've got in my freezer - before I can really claim to be part of the marketing board :rotfl:

i just treat them as i would meat

bolagnese

fry a chopped onion ,carrot and stick celery in oil with garlic until soft add tblsp italian herbs and about 300g red lentils and 2 cans chopped toms cook until lentils are soft iusually add mushroom and courgette too

the shepherdless pie is on the recipe index


Shaz

shaz_mum_of__2

weezl74 wrote: »

evening all, :A:D sorry I've been so neglectful of the thread, our decorating rages on and I have been just soooooo tired, even my inner geek has had little to say!;)

challenge-wise, all still good, no more spends since I last totted up. Fortunately the freezers are so well stocked that the budgetting and thinking has all been done for me!:T

Slight snag, our acetate monkey gets even hungrier when doing DIY so has been on extra rations of everything! Just defrosted a load of choc chip cookie dough to make him a batch to snack on.:D

Glad to read you're all still doing well with your challenges, both frugal and SW-type ones.

Love to you all.

Knackered weezl x

Hope the end is in sight :T :T decorating wise

Take care don't worry about us we will talk amongst ouselves while we wait:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Shaz

ps courgette cake was delish...recipe tomorrow

cw18

question time from me again.....

the cheapest way for me to buy onions is in large bags, but in the heat we've had the last few days mine have started to sprout. I don't have anywhere cooler I can keep them, and can't use them much quicker (already use them most days).

peppers are something I don't use often as my son "doesn't like them" - though he eats meals if he's not seen them being added. As such I only tend to buy them when they're in markdown, but when the markdown is a bag I have problems using them all before they go off. (none of us eat them as a major item - they get chopped and added to mince dishes to "hide" extra vegetables and pad out the meat)


So while I was chopping both for tea tonight I was wondering whether I could finely dice, bag, and freeze when I get them ? (came to me as I know I've seen both in the freezer sections of the supermarkets, but they're too expensive for me to buy that way). Would I have to do any partial cooking first?