Living on next to nought - is that the key?

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Thanks Karma - your support means a lot to me

mizmir - thanks for being a good sport

Cheery - lovely to *see* you. Hey, good work on the BT changes for phone and broadband - you've galvanised me to tackle them to get a better deal than I'm on. DP will want to watch the motorcycling soon, so we're gonna need unlimited broadband....

Well, today has whizzed, but has been productive and enjoyable.

I went for a walk this morning, probably about 3 or 4 miles - it took about an hour anyway. Just what I needed, enough sunshine and some fresh air.

We had egg mayo sandwiches for lunch to use up the last of the YS'd bread I got from L*dl yesterday. Isn't it funny, egg sandwiches taste different on brown bread to white bread. Both have their merits, and I like either, but definitely different......

We watched the rugger. Mmm, very well played Ireland, a deserved win, but not the most epic of encounters.......

I have cooked up a storm in the kitchen..... well, made a few things :rotfl:

I made Parsnip orzotto for dinner. It was LUSH let me tell you Unfortunately, the recipe does not appear to be on the net And whilst there are any number of Parsnip risotto recipes (this recipe was originally for rice, not barley), none of them are similar. Basically you made parsnip puree and sauted parsnips and combined them in the risotto/orzotto. The sweetness of the parsnip counterbalanced the pearl barley so well. Mmmmm, super. So, I'd like to thank chef Maria Elias for coming up with such a super recipe - which I found in her BOOK, which thankfully, was stocked by my local library :T It's a bit of a fiddle to make, but so worth it. And for once, I do wish that I had given a tiny bit of consideration to the food that I photographed for you. I have done the dish no favours. I just tipped all the sauted parsnip into the pan, I should of held some back to scatter on top. Plus, the dish calls for parmesan. I had none, so used mature cheddar, but I should of left it off for the photo - it adds nothing (but did to the taste - YUM!)


I'm having trouble uploading the pic will back later with an amended version

This dish would be great as a starter as well - not just as a veggie main. If you like parsnips, of course :rotfl:

It cost very little to make. I used 4 parsnips. There were 4 or 5 in each of the bags I bought from L*dl the other weekend for 34p, and I used 200g of pearl barley, from a bag bought from MandS when they were charging 49p, so 20p worth of PB. None of the other ingredients, onion, celery, garlic, milk, oil, cheese (about 20g) cost much, so I reckon about £1 for the lot or 50p a plate, as it made 2 dishes only.

It's definitely a keeper of a recipe. Frugal if you've access to parsnips and tastes far more luxurious than the sum of its parts. Well done Maria :T

I have other 'makes' that I want show you, but they've got to pass the taste test first

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

for inspiration from library books - the true frugal home's friend

for good health and fitness and the ability to enjoy a 'leisure' walk

for good sports - on the field of play and off :D

Thank you so very much for popping in, reading and commenting. You know how much I appreciate it. Thank you.

See y'all later.

Greying

muddywhitechicken

Good evening Greying

I have a copy of that book - it really is fantastic

The red braised mushrooms, ginger beer battered stuffed tofu with Asian mushy peas, and quinoa, mushroom and chickpea cabbage rolls are particularly good!

MWCx

Greying_Pilgrim

Hey MWC - that's great to hear that someone else thinks the book is good. I think that she balances reasonably straightforward prep/cooking with quite stunning end results. Lovely to *see* you btw - are you calling from Europe? Have a lovely time (in between w.o.r.k) and I hope you get some time in the home store

So, I'm going to attempt to upload the photo of dinner again (it wouldn't re-size before and threw the thread out). Sorry for the delay, I was watching Hugh F-W and his 'Scandimania' programme. Quite good, but tried to cram in too much in too short a time period and in between ads.

Anyhoo, parsnip orzotto;



Again, my apologies for not trying significantly harder on the food 'styling'. This is a dish that deserves it

Greying

in_need_of_direction

Today I am grateful for

The win from Ireland
The acknowledgement by Greying

Only 4 more to victory!

Greying_Pilgrim

Right, now that I'm in the groove, I have to ask both rtandon27 and FortuneSmiles to step forward to take a bow

Fortune was talking about parsnips on her thread and rtandon supplied a yummy recipe. I saw it thought 'ooooooo chocolate and parsnips' and figured I'd like to have a go at the recipe using some of my L*dl parsnip stash

The result is here;



I have to say, that although I had no 70% chocolate or chocolate chips, the result is LUSH. I have just force fed my food guinea pig one..... (have no fear, restraints weren't necessary - as per usual :rotfl:) and the verdict was 'great'. Although I cannot repeat what was said when I revealed the mystery ingredient as this is a family thread........ :rotfl:

If you want to have a go at hiding parsnip in your chocolate buns, the recipe can be found HERE I have to say, I didn't cook my parsnips either, just grated them on the finest side of the grater.

As they are made just like carrot cake, this is yet again a pretty frugal recipe And we have snap buns for the week

I also made 'Yves pudding' which is a definite pun - Eves pudding is, as you know, made with apples, well I got hold of some YS'd pears the other day, and thought that they would provide a suitably 'gallic' pud for the rugger. Anyway, I ran out of time to make the buns and pud yesterday, so we had it tonight instead. I was going to take a pic, but as it is only chopped pears topped with sponge, it is never going to thrill. But because I was rushing between ad breaks when Hugh was on, I made lumpy custard I'm happy to admit failure - but no one needs to see lumpy custard DP ate it though, and I'd forgotten how nice and refreshing pears are.

Oh, I should add that all the YS'd stuff that was bought the other day, but used in February has now been 'bought' with this month's budget IYSWIM, so my remaining balance is less. I also remembered that I hadn't 'bought' cooking oil from the store cupboard, so I moved the money across accordingly.

Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Today I am grateful for

The win from Ireland
The acknowledgement by Greying

Only 4 more to victory!

I was absolutely amazed that Brian O'Driscoll was playing. I thought that he'd been forced into retirement after the world cup battering? Edit: I meant autumn international of course - against NZ

Always happy to support good play - the team matters not But I do wish England would improve

Greying

in_need_of_direction

It's his last 6 nations but he has such charisma he lifts the team and the crowd. Interesting to see how the wales game will unfold given he was dropped from the final lions game. Apparently he doesn't bear a grudge but he has very loyal team mates

Fortune_Smiles

If only I'd known about Parsnip cake earlier - my stash is all used up now and they look amazing!

Fortune x

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Monday morning again.

I'm aiming for a NSD today. Should be relatively easy, but still worth snagging

Dinner this evening will be everyone's 'frugal favourite' - a Buddha bowl

So, snap boxes packed, better get up and at 'em.

Thanks so very, for popping in, reading and commenting. You know how much I appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

Fortune_Smiles wrote: »

If only I'd known about Parsnip cake earlier - my stash is all used up now and they look amazing!

Fortune x

They taste good too Fortune - I don't think you'd guess there was parsnip in them, particularly if you put all the chocolate in that the recipe advocates

Thank goodness you were talking parsnip though, and rtandon provided the recipe :D

Greying