Living on next to nought - is that the key?

rtandon27

GP - your Burns dinner looks lovely!

We managed to get cabbage and carrots in with our dinner last night but no potatoes or parsnip. We are both a bit scared of regular haggis - what did you put in your veggie version?

OH did the cooking last night, and proudly boasted to my Mom across the pond it was the second night in a row that he was on kitchen duty. - LOL - Must say it took a bit of explaining for her to understand what Toad in the Hole actually was!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Karmacat

That *does* look lovely - I'd sort of expected the haggis to be more irregular, I don't know why, but that looks great

The day's half gone? <<worried shifty look>> its just about to be 11.15 here ... you're scaring me!

Greying_Pilgrim

Hey up rtandon!

The veggie haggis recipe that I follow - and I notice from my recipe book that I first made it 9 years ago :eek: was off the internet. Unfortunately, at that time, I wasn't so good at crediting sources So I've no idea who's recipe it is. But I do remember that it was off a Scottish veggie recipes site - just can't trace it anymore However, I have found a very close recipe to the one that I use, it is relatively simple and tasty. The recipe is HERE. The only differences are; I don't bother with the lentils and if you don't, you don't need the veggie stock. I use black-eyed beans (as in the original version), not red kidney beans - and I think it helps with the colour/looking like a meat-haggis and I put some mixed spice in too - the nutmeg is good.

It's a forgiving recipe - this year's was quite frugal, I didn't use any nuts (hadn't got any) and I hadn't got carrots when I made the mix (bought some yesterday). It was still tasty though

Karma - I put the mix into tiny pudding moulds then bake for 20 minutes or so

HTH

Greying

little_sweetie

Hi Greying (and other posters!)

I hope you don't mind my joining you all. I've been lurking on this thread for a few days but I think you are all amazing and the Haggis dinner photo clinched it! It looks soooo yummy and I've printed out the recipe from the link you very kindly supplied, thank you.

There's just me and OH at home now. I retired 4 years ago (a retirement enforced by redundancy) and OH officially retires in 2015. He was made redundant in 2006 and has only found part time work since, as his trade all but disappeared. Our income is now a third of what it was 10 years ago :shocked: so big changes have been made including downsizing our home, selling off surplus clutter etc We are so lucky to be able to live within our means but there is always a bit of financial juggling going on. I've adjusted the budget for 2014 and now the only thing I can tackle is the food budget. I don't really like meat although OH does but he will eat a little vegetarian food which I find to be much cheaper anyway. This Spring I'm hoping to grow something (anything) that we can eat even though I'm a rubbish cook and an even worse gardener

I love the concept of being positive and finding 3 things to be thankful for each day. Thanks again for the lovely thread, Greying.

PS Please accept my apologies if I've bored you all. I'm off now to sort out more surplus items for the charity shop, fleabay etc including books, books and more books!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

little_sweetie wrote: »

Hi Greying (and other posters!)

I hope you don't mind my joining you all. I've been lurking on this thread for a few days but I think you are all amazing

Welcome little_sweetie - draw up a seat and come and join us

little_sweetie wrote: »

There's just me and OH at home now. I retired 4 years ago (a retirement enforced by redundancy) and OH officially retires in 2015. He was made redundant in 2006 and has only found part time work since, as his trade all but disappeared. Our income is now a third of what it was 10 years ago :shocked: so big changes have been made including downsizing our home, selling off surplus clutter etc We are so lucky to be able to live within our means but there is always a bit of financial juggling going on. I've adjusted the budget for 2014 and now the only thing I can tackle is the food budget.

So you've done the down-sizing? You're the other side of it? Any tips? Anything to avoid?

little_sweetie wrote: »

PS Please accept my apologies if I've bored you all. I'm off now to sort out more surplus items for the charity shop, fleabay etc including books, books and more books!

Don't be daft - no-one who takes the time to join in is boring. Thank you for de-lurking - pree-she-ate-it

So, here we are, at the tail-end of the weekend. With not an awful lot to show for it I had reason to be grateful for the RCD unit again today.... the kettle decided to die a heroic death and trip the entire fuse circuit today - just as I was busy stick-blending the soup.... To be fair, the kettle, which was not overly expensive some years ago, has lasted far longer than I thought it would - and far longer than some more expensive kettles we have owned have :mad: Still, it was a reason to trawl out over to mrT's to get a new one..... £13 of unexpected expenditure later........ Still, at least it is in the 'daily' fund, it has not pushed us over the edge or anything - for that I am grateful. And whilst technically we could use the camping/stove top kettle, we are just like most other folk and have got used to the speed of an electric kettle

I have managed to do a fair chunk of the menu planning for February, this afternoon whilst watching the oh, so not interesting footy on the telly *yawn*. I shall write about the *criteria* I set myself (being mindful of EH's Frugal February grocery challenge ) later on in the week - but in the meantime, please don't lose any sleep in anticipation, it ain't that interesting :rotfl:

I enjoyed listening to the Food Programme on the radio today - they were talking about yoghurt. Actually, I forgot to mention, that the batch I made the other day was about the 5th or 6th???? version of the original yoghurt (each batch of culture makes approx. 5.5L of yoghurt), so the culture has been kept going IYSWIM. The resultant yoghurt is still as thick and creamy. Possibly purely co-incidently this time it is very silky smooth, the taste seems to depend on the milk used as much as anything else. Ald* milk being the clear winner from where I'm sitting.......

Definitely one of the best :money:things I have ever implemented

Dinner this evening was very simple. We ate well last night, and have had a reasonably sedentary day (and had a big bowl of soup for lunch ) so I used the baked potatoes I cooked last night, topped them with the cheap cheese slices I got on offer from L*dl last year, topped that with HM barbecue beans and topped the whole lot off with a 2 egg omelette And whilst it won't be in the running to win a JBF award, I am happy to share a photo here;



Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

for the years of service our (now deceased) kettle gave us - where would we be without a 'cuppa' in good times and in bad?

for the joy in frugality - we've been fed from the store-cupboard, from left overs and use-ups today. No complaints, no junk and no additional expenditure on ingredients

that our local L*dl has a weigh scales in the produce section at last :T:T:rotfl:

Thank you so very much for popping in, reading and commenting. You know how much I appreciate it and I remain truly humbled when folks de-lurk and add kind comments and support other posters. Thank you

See y'all later.

Greying

Karmacat

You've reminded me, Greying, I've been on and off here all day, and not written out the three gratitudes ... will go make amends now, thank you.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Well, snap bags packed, and we're all ready to get up and at 'em...... I think...... :rotfl:

So there are 5 days of January remaining, and I am going to try to make 4 of them NSD's starting with today. We will need milk, the TV listing guide and mushrooms. We're almost out of onions too - and I noticed last night that L*dl had had their XXL offer on - last week :doh:Mind you, the penny situation is tight, tight, tight So we'll have to see if I can afford all that anyway, never mind buy it all on the same day

Dinner this evening should be Nigerian peanut stew with basmati rice. Everything in the store cupboard for it

Library books to return today - didn't manage it yesterday, but they are still all in time, so no fines and recipes gleaned so :j

Have a great day, I fully intend to

Thank you for popping by, reading and commenting. I greatly appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying

mizmir

I'm just "delurking" here too Greying as I wanted to say thank you for your 3 gratitudes which I have picked up from Karma's thread but love the idea.

And am enjoying your meal ideas - pictures making me hungry and I've only just had breakfast!

EssexHebridean

Eek - scary concept that I'm inspiring you Greying....now that means I've got to keep it up, no?! :eek::D

Veggie haggis photo looks gorgeous, although I'm not at all convinced that it isn't cruel to limit haggii to a vegetarian diet...surely they're natural meat-eaters?!

I utilised the train journey back yesterday to start a list of things that I know we have part used, in the fridge, freezer, larder etc, that needed using up, and commenced work on said list when we got home by roasting half a swede(ish Turnip), the remaining two carrots, the last three parsnips and a couple of onions. Oh, and a beetroot. That gives us a heap of roasted veg which will get added to CousCous tonight, and pasta tomorrow, and apart from the habitual mushrooms the veggie drawers in the fridge are now running on empty as MrEH made lemon & lime squash with the remainder of those, too. Amazing when you start focusing properly on what you have, how fast these things come together, isn't it.

You're a better MSE'er than I am, by the way...I had a feeling a while back that our ageing kettle was reaching the end of its life, so pre-empted its demise by replacing then rather than risking it dying at the crack of dawn one morning.

Pippilongstocking

rtandon27 wrote: »

GP - your Burns dinner looks lovely!

We are both a bit scared of regular haggis - what did you put in your veggie version?

OH did the cooking last night, and proudly boasted to my Mom across the pond it was the second night in a row that he was on kitchen duty. - LOL - Must say it took a bit of explaining for her to understand what Toad in the Hole actually was!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

On the latter point - I've confused many a person with frog in the bog also

On the former point - there's nothing to be scared about haggi (veggie or otherwise)

They're all perfectly happy creatures aside the odd length legs.

:T

On the subject of yer burns dinner GP - looked yum.

And our cheflet came up with haggi burgers (nice with a bun, salad and cheese) haggi rolls using up reduced pastry and haggi patties (haggi hidden inside a coating of neep/tattie).

My most peculiar one which oddly worked that she came up with was haggi nachos with tortilla chips and left over dips.

All yummy and very useful with both breeds of haggi.

Hope your monday went well

Almost at the end of the month and we're all still standing.

Sorry to hear about the kettle.

And, (says in a tiny voice) I skipped over the egg/bean combo - can't do the pair of them together at all - they have to be seperate in my life

After an exhausting weekend, I'm opting for a quiet evening.

:A