I'm eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge

Lip_Stick

Evening all. Just tucked into the shepherd's pie which was lovely. Had it with savoy cabbage and sweetcorn. Spent £1.38 today on two lots of milk, one each for me and ds, although did have a bacon sarnie from a cafe for lunch.

Having Maccy D's for lunch tomorrow, and probably a fish thing I've got in the freezer for tea.

Kirri - I watched that Weight Watchers programme too. It made me laugh when they worked out how much those women had paid for each lb they'd lost. I think the ex suggested those for a meal as you can get them cheap, and they're easy. Last idiot he is lol.

ms_night_ryder - No I won't be lol. Might do his tea tho! :rotfl: Actually was feeling a bit mean, as he is paying for the holiday I've realised. But then again, he's never paid for ds to go on holiday in his life. It's always been me who has taken him, so it's about time! And yes, he was completely serious about the WW meals.

bearsinthewood

Had a go at doing this when we moved house to try to reduce amount of stuff to move. Got rid of a lot of stuff, discovered some new recipes, but had to buy stuff specially to go with it. Fun though and you may as well eat something up rather than waste it. This has inspired me to find a recipe with popping candy in it though - need to use that up.

Jelly_Biactol

Veggie Challenge Week recipe:
Melanzane Parmigiana (Baked Aubergines)

(recipe by Gip Dammone of Salvos Restaurant
http://www.salvos.co.uk/gips-blog/uncategorized/a-southern-favourite/
so all the personal quotes are his not mine!)

1) Slice aubergines, dip in flour then in a 'batter' made with eggs, grated Parmesan and seasoning. Loosen this with a tablespoon of water .
2) Shallow fry in abundant veg oil gently and place them on absorbent paper till they are all fried.
3) To build the 'parmigiana' you need a nice tomato sauce made by frying a base of garlic and onion then simmering tinned tomatoes for a hour or so very gently with a lid half on so it goes 'put, put, put'. If it boils rapidly you may lose it. Throw a few leaves of basil in at the end.
4) As if you were building a lasagna, layer the aubergines with the sauce, grated Parmesan, chopped mozzarella and a grind of black pepper.
5) Bake for 40 minutes or so at 180/200.
6) Rest for 30 minutes then eat.

Points:
The better the quality of ingredients, the better the finished dish so use good Italian plum tomatoes (we use San Marzano from Campania). Napolina are good and available all over. No need to use mozzarella di bufala, the cows milk (fior di latte) is traditionally used anyway. If it is in water, ensure you leave it to drain for an hour and pat dry before using.
The egg batter is more like a tasty omelette enveloping the aubergines but don't make it too thick or it will take over.
Don't be faint hearted with aubergines or they may mis-behave and undercooked aubs are disgusting!
When baking, start with sauce on the bottom and finish with sauce on the top; you can put mozzarella on top for the last 10 minutes so it stays fresh looking and creamy.
It is always best after it has rested and warms up lovely in the oven, tastes better just hot rather than hot-hot!
Other versions in the south are different; the aubergines can be just fried till golden then layered - like in Sicily. Like this you could also layer ham, meatballs, sheets of cooked pasta, boiled eggs, smoked scamorza etc.
The egg in the Salerno version adds protein for a pretty well-balanced dish
Our mum sliced the aubergines lengthways and braised the fried slices in the sauce with a pinch of oregano and olives as if they were meat - no wonder aubergines were known as 'la carne del popolo', the meat of the masses!

Jelly_Biactol

bearsinthewood wrote: »

This has inspired me to find a recipe with popping candy in it though - need to use that up.

How about Exploding Chocolate Truffles:)
http://candy.about.com/od/chocolatetrufflerecipes/r/exploding_truffles.htm

Edwardia

hi bearsinthewood great username !

Yup organic food is more expensive Florenceem. We asked ourselves if we had more money per week what would we spend it on first and the answer was food firstly

So this thread is a constant reminder to buy on offer and stockpile and try to get the max amount out of every buck. :T I've gotten better to be able to manage my budget thanks to you all

I'd probably be quite good at money saving in other ways ie low APR credit card only for emergencies, attempting to claim back PPI and council tax, watching TV on catch up so don't need a licence, buying clothes in sales and charity shops, not having a car, growing our own herbs in summer.

When it comes down to it I guess we do all those things so we aren't eating soya 5 nights a week and to keep me healthy.

PS I saw the WW on catch up today.. not terribly surprised tbh.

donnajt

Hi everyone, have been really down with my depression the last few weeks, haven't been online much, just read the last 3-4 pages and omg got so many ideas written down, should have come on her sooner for a pickmeup!

Not doing terribly well with the freezer emptying, but I am finding ways of using up all the food cupboard stuff - have actually managed to shift 4 tins of batchelors condensed soup (from the free voucher last year, still have over 3 tins tho!)

I am definitely meal planning from now on, makes life a lot easier

Kirri

Jelly_Biactol wrote: »

That would be interesting to know, maybe as a %age. I'm not as organised as that, unfortunately:)

I like the HFW tv programmes but have still to be convinced by the books after I was flicking through his 'Three Good Things' and the first recipe actually had 18 ingredients:doh:

The Quorn Southern Style Burgers are my 'fake meat treat' at the moment:drool:

I spent £62.69 on fake meat in 2012... :eek:
Have spent nothing on it in 2013 so far though.

I like the HFW Everyday book which I've used more than his Veg book, the recipes in those books are all fairly simple, cheap to make and have been good. Not really watched much of the 3 Good Things series though as too much meat involved even though I do adapt recipes all the time.

Was given a good vegan burger recipe to try and it worked really well - I had all the ingredients in too so didn't cost me as such.

25g Engevita yeast flakes (give a cheese flavour, brand Marigold, can only seem to buy in health shops, not sold in supermarkets)
30g oats
25g ground flax/linseed - mix with 3 tbsp water to act as an egg like binder (seems to be another health shop item in ground version)
10g sunflower seeds
1 tin beans - I used 400g home grown beans I'd picked fresh and put in the freezer, gave them a 10 min fast boil and then cooked
1 onion chopped small
1 carrot chopped small
seasoning/spices to taste

Cook and mash beans
Soften carrot and onions in little water
Add in the flax & water mix to the above and mix all together

Shape and cook - I coated in flour for ease but it's a great consistency and holds together so well.

Made 14 small burgers so will do me 7 meals :T

I have so many beans I'm going to make lots of these burgers now, will try varying the spices.

Florenceem

Muffin and cuppa mid afternoon.
Dinner was Prawn Curry, Basmati Rice and Garlic/Coriander Naan Bread - all from stocks.

jak

Well I'm doing well with using stuff up but I always have extra to freeze so it's kind of filling up the freezer too! Tonight I made spag bol with 100g beef mince, butternut squash, red kidney beans, tom and basil sauce, pulses and a tin of toms. (I'm slimming hence not much meat!) This made tea for tonight, tomorrow and a portion to freeze! I'm determined to use up the frozen food and replace it with homemade portions as my little one has hot school dinners, so doesn't eat his main meal with me during the week. So far I've got 7 100g portions of mince, 6 chicken breasts, 4 homemade salmon fishcakes, 6 1 portion homemade ready meals, frozen pulses, 2 lots of tortilla wraps, 5 portions homemade soup, herbs, frozen veg, sauages, sauce X 2, tons of stuff! XX

Edwardia

OH forgot to get food out of freezer (if he chooses it he can't moan) so he made a three egg omelette with Lidl prosciutto, Lidl organic cheese, ASDA organic mushrooms and Sainsbury's organic green pepper and OMG it was so rich. I didn't get through it all but it was fantastic, all melted cheese n runny eggs in the middle with well cooked mushrooms and peppers and huge n fluffy.

Kirri are you meaning Hugh Fearnley W when you write HFW ? OH bought me my first ever hoodie to support his Fish Fight campaign www.fishfight.net to stop fish being thrown back dead in the sea because of stoopid EU quotas. What do you think of his books ?

NSD today. Hoping to do Sainsbos top up veg shop at weekend and avoid Ocado at weekend so save money.