EH is Back - and going Onwards, and Upwards!

EssexHebridean

Well done LT - not sure if you usually buy free range eggs but if so the boxes of 15 assorted size ones that you can get in Teso, Sainsburys and Asda are about the best value I've seen at £2.50 a box. By the way I'm deeply jealous of your bargain mushrooms!

Taxi - I must admit that Lidl is fantastic for the weekly special offers on fruit & veg. I'm fairly flexible so far as cooking meals according to what is best value at the time, so it suits me well to buy according to the deals that are about.

Lemon_Tree

EH we often get a mushroom man come to our market and if OH gets there late enough in the day he can get the box/crate for £1. They're pretty good mushrooms and we always chop and freeze them so that when you're cooking stuff you just take a handful and put it in frozen and hey presto they're done. I certainly hated this summer when they weren't about and i had to buy them from supermarkets the cost was maddening. To make it easier to picture the size, if you transfer them from the box into a carrier it would pretty much fill it up

taxi73

thats a bargain LT...do you just stick them direct in the freezer in a bag and they are ok.

Lemon_Tree

yep that's it taxi, they seem to freeze individually so you can just grab a handful and bung them in dishes that you're cooking. My MIL insists that they should be blanched first but we've not died yet and i'm too lazy to blanche them. I've only ever put them into dishes never just cooked them on their own as a veg though so not sure what they would do as the latter.

EssexHebridean

Wow - fabulous bargain with those mushrooms then - I really wish we still lived close by a good market for fruit and veg - we have North Weald not far away but the fruit/veg stalls aren't that great. (The two "Approved food" type stalls however, are excellent!) We used to live within walking distance of Walthamstow Market which was fantastic - the stalls down there have saved our skins on many occasions in the past when we're been absolutely skint, and in fact the chaps always stop work for a chat and some banter when we pop along there even now!

Jut popped in to check what I'm meant to be doing for dinner this evening - will pop back with a proper post later on!

EssexHebridean

Meal plan:

Saturday - Lunch, [STRIKE]soup & bread[/STRIKE]Ryvita & Tesco Value soft cheese :T, Tea, Cheese & crackers
Sunday - Lunch -MrEH needs to make pastry - [STRIKE]chicken & mushroom pie[/STRIKE]Braised pork, apricots and mushrooms, new pots & red cabbage/apple. Tea, probably cheese & crackers again! :T
Monday - [STRIKE]Rest of the chicken pie![/STRIKE] Pasta bolognese & garlic bread
Tuesday - [STRIKE]Pasta bolognese & garlic bread[/STRIKE] (had it last night instead of the pie we didn't make......so, tonight's dinner is......errr..... :eek:
Wednesday - Soup & crusty bread
Thursday - probably pasta & pesto for me & an omlette for MrEH
Friday - not a clue, we're both out all day so something quick & non-taxing!


Oops. All going a bit "Pete Tong" at the moment.....best go and raid the freezer!

Lemon_Tree

our market isn't that wonderful really, but the mushroom man who occassionally visit there is good. we don't have an 'approved foods' type stall, but there is the toiletries and cleaning stall which sits outside superdrug but charges more. Don't know how he actually stays in business.
I've been to Walthemstow market a couple of times with OH, when he used to live down in London.
I really miss a good old fruit and veg stall. The only one we have here doesn't seem to sell the quality that you can get elsewhere.

EssexHebridean

Lemon_Tree wrote: »

our market isn't that wonderful really, but the mushroom man who occassionally visit there is good. we don't have an 'approved foods' type stall, but there is the toiletries and cleaning stall which sits outside superdrug but charges more. Don't know how he actually stays in business.
I've been to Walthemstow market a couple of times with OH, when he used to live down in London.
I really miss a good old fruit and veg stall. The only one we have here doesn't seem to sell the quality that you can get elsewhere.

He stays in business because of the many, many people less savvy than you, I and the majority of our pals on here, who assume that because he's a market stall, he will be cheaper!

Lemon_Tree

now young lady, i know you're more savvy than that! a lot of people working around the town maybe but not you. I think i'm a bit of a snob though as his stuff generally looks a bit grubby so i've not gone too near.

May i ask a question? as my friend with the beauty product knowledge, can you help me? once upon a very long time a go i had a tiny wee tub of cream (i think my only adventure into clinic (ok i've tried to spell it 5 ways and it doesn't look right, but this is at least a word!)) that helped my dark circles look less bad, and i could wear it without any other make up. Do you know of another such wonderous product? my bags are about to get their own postcode!

EssexHebridean

Ooh, now, small tub of wondrous eye product from Clinique.....if it was ust a regular eye cream then it might have been "all about eyes" which a lot of people swear by. I've never been a big fan of eye creams and similar - have at various times over the years bought them, failed to use them, and given up, but the one I've found that actually seems to be quite effective, and I have been remembering to use, is Nivea Visage Natural Beauty radiance boosting eye cream - link HERE - and it's fairly budget friendly for an eye cream. It apparently uses light reflective particles to make the dark areas appear better, so it's not a concealer as such, but as a result you avoid the risk of it ending up looking "cakey" or proving tricky to blend. I just checked back on what I wrote about it on the "No more toiletries" thread in April (I'm not really that tragic - it's just I knew when I had used a sample of it as it was while I was on holiday!) and it was this: "Nivea Visage "Natural Beauty" - I only had one lot of these sachets - there was an exfoliating scrub, and moisturiser and an eye cream. The scrub was lovely - just scrubby enough for the face and worked as a cleanser as well. The moisturiser I didn't even use the whole sachet - it was one of those with a shimmer in it and I hate that look. The eye cream was a bit of a revelation - I don't normally get on with them but I loved this one. WIBA? - the scrub, possibly. The moisturiser, definitely not, and the eye cream, yes - I shall be looking out for it.". I do have several Avon eye creams kicking about at the moment - but they are the "ANEW" ones - lovely range, but not so far removed in price from the Clinique and similar. I will have a play with one of them in particular though and let you know what I think as I have a feeling it might suit you.

Why not try asking on the "No more toiletries" thread to see what people recommend? I'm guessing that Touche Eclat will get mentioned, and if you like a concealer-ey type product then that is many people's holy grail!