Living on next to nought - is that the key?

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

INOD - I'm afraid I was pulling my own leg - in exasperation of how much rice has featured this month. Of the 28 photos I uploaded, 15 featured rice :eek: Lovely to *see* you - ta for popping by

Pippilongstocking wrote: »

Unless its some greying law for the 30th of April ....

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Wot, you mean to say as it's Greying's thread, then it's Greying's Roolz?????? :cool::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Or am I only Queen of mine own domain for 1 day??? :rotfl::rotfl:

Pippilongstocking wrote: »

I think its cos she had it for tea yesterday..

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Ahh yes, In Need Of A Direction - the reason for not having rice for tea AGAIN is that Greying has been practically living off the stuff for the past few weeks! :rotfl:

Now this is getting scary - you gals are actually reading this diary aren't you?? :eek: :rotfl::rotfl:

starnac wrote: »

DD used to help him but she's developed an aversion to "eggs with brown on them" :rotfl:

Aw bless - I used to love gathering the eggs - especially the 'still warm' ones

So, how did your Wednesday pan out? Mines done OK. As it happens, I can claim another NSD. I didn't get time to go anywhere near a supermercado, so my purse remained firmly shut. Inadvertently, I end the month on 18 NSD's, which is good, but now I need to sort out what the heck I'm doing on the other 13 days!

Scores on the doors for April are pretty good. I got my NSD's +3, I did 7 new Jack Monroe dishes and 6 of them are keepers - I'm not sure what else I pledged. Well, the Food Bank donation got made, but that was actually at the end of March, due to logisitics. I did go over budget though, :eek: And I can't actually confirm how much :eek::eek: As DP got some things. However, I would hazard a guess at about £10 Still, look on the bright side, it leaves improvement for May........... :rotfl:

Dinner this evening was a mezze plate, and a recipe I had not made before and an ingredient combination I had never done. I made a vegetarian version of 'Jerusalem mix' - which is actually spiced mixed meats (often offal) which are grilled/barbecued and either stuffed into a pita, or served as a mezze plate. I used Anissa Helou's recipe, out of her Meditteranean Street Food book, which I borrowed from the library. Originally, I think she may have got it off Sami Tamimi - business partner of Yotam Ottolenghi. Anyway, I just borrowed the 'spicing' recipe, and applied it to brown lentils. I then adopted Anissa's serving suggestion of a mezze plate including what I could - so French fries (actually HM wedges), pickled veg (from a jar) and then added in some green beans, beetroot and topped the lentil mix with a spoonful of yoghurt - and a slice of gherkin. And yes, Dear Reader, the gherkin came out of the jar that shape, and as it was on DP's plate....... Picture;



I chopped up some fresh mint and mixed it with the pickled veg and I sprinkled sumac over the top to finish. It's a plate combination that I've never had before, and I have to say it worked! The pickled veg worked with the chips - just as we put vinegar on chips. The earthly lentils soaked up the spice mix and worked well with the other veg. Would I make it again? You bet! A very inexpensive plate to pull together. I have had the pickled veg since before Christmas, when I got 2 jars for £1 in c00l trader. The last jar has just been waiting for such a meal!

If you'd like a go at either a meat or lentil version of this dish, THIS link* (scroll down to Meurav Yerushalmi) has a version of the spicing (virtually identical to Anissa's) EH - if you like dishes that contain allspice and sumac, it may be of interest to you....... I thought it reminiscent of the 'bobotie' spicing I do (minus the ginger) and it got me thinking about recipe 'creep'..... around the globe.....

* if you click on the link and a box pops up, select 'register', then when that box pops up, don't fill it in, just click the top right X close button and it will show you the page again.......

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

that's its the end of April - and we survived......

for help from an uber techie person - I'd have been sunk otherwise

for the opportunity to laugh out loud - ta Pippi

Thank you so very much for popping by, reading, cheering me on and talking about eggs - in addition to being all-round, good eggs So very, very, mucho, mucho appreciated by moi

See y'all later.

Greying

Pippilongstocking

aw a Love Heart gherkin

So cute!

Well done on the months acheivements.
Looking forward to Mays marvellous meals
:-)

Greying_Pilgrim

Right, *ahem* after scrolling back 12 pages *ahem* I have found what the actual 'challenges' were I set myself for April.

They were;

* 15 NSD's

* Back to Back Jack Week

* 16 new recipes/dishes to make

* Food Bank donation of 6L of milk

So I did;

18/15 NSD's

Back to Back Jack Week was a roaring success - Thank you Jack Monroe for your wonderful recipes And to our library for stumping up for multiple copies of the cookbook A Girl called Jack - heartily recommended

I made 13 new recipes rather than the 16 I'd targeted, but of these 13, there is only Jack's Morrocan-not-a-tagine that I would not bother making again.

Food Bank donation made.


Which brings us neatly on to 'Marvellous May' (ta Pippi )

I am going to try ever so hard to make sure that I finish May within Budget To that end;

NSD's 15 - and I shall aim to exceed this. But what will be mucho more important will be the mindful allocation and spending of the budget throughout the month

Seven Salads - May weather is usually unpredictable, so not all salads will feature 'leaves', but they will feature beans and cous cous and vegetables and other nice things to munch on

7 May *b's* - this will be the use of ingredients that I have left over in my storecupboard, beginning with the letter b - so beetroot, broad beans..... y'all get the drift

7 'Ready-meals' - summat outta the freezer for those CBA'd times (although I'm secretly hoping that I don't have the CBA's 7 times! )

Doris Day day - officially now the 31st of May, because, Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps, I can actually budget properly and end the month either in or on budget! :T:rotfl:

Food Bank donation - of at least 6L of milk.

No buying alcohol - not out of the social budget anyway, we want to put the money towards holiday spending instead DP has agreed

Snuff to keep me outta mischief d'ya not think?

Greying

brizzledfw

I too love collecting eggs..especially the warm ones from under the bird :rotfl: and the unexpected ones you find in a plant pot by the back door (4 in there!!:eek: and the thing was she had climbed through a cane frame for our honeysuckle to get there, not once but 4 times!! Was gobsmacked!!)

brizzledfw

Woah GP...those NSDs are awesome and the salad sounds great. We have been eating a lot of dandelions...well we do seem to have a lot of them down the allotment so rude not to eat them!

Greying_Pilgrim

brizzledfw wrote: »

..... and the unexpected ones you find in a plant pot by the back door (4 in there!!:eek: and the thing was she had climbed through a cane frame for our honeysuckle to get there, not once but 4 times!! Was gobsmacked!!)

What was she doing?? Auditioning for a part in The Matrix????? :rotfl:

Lovely of you to pop by brizzy - and la la la I've my fingers in my ears and I can't hear where you'll be on Saturday la la la nope still can't hear you ...... jealous? moi? yes! a little bit? nope, lots :rotfl::rotfl: Seriously - have a good time and DO tell us all about it :D

Greying

brizzledfw

I have no idea GP!! But it was quite a surprise I can tell yer!

Oh..and Monday too I suspect...:)

Will do hon..will do Sorry you won't be here? There is always the following weekend you know. It ends on the 11th..

Cheery_Daff

Brilliant challenges you've set yourself there Greying! :j :j :j

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Greying, your dinner looks fab, if you'd have just told me when to pitch up I too could have had a heart shaped gherkin

Well done on the April challenges and Marvellous May sounds like it could be a productive few weeks.

I love the salad idea - bulgar wheat salads feature often in the Tilly household this time of year. B£gger, I still haven't finished the May menu plan.

Best wishes Tilly x x

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

And so on to Marvellous May............

I've an early start again this morning - serendipitous reschedule, which means I should be able to grab a load of the grocery shopping later and have the assistance of a vehicle to carry it all in Therefore, today is unlikely to be a NSD - let's hope I'm not starting as I mean to go on

Tilly - had I known you were available, you could have indulged in gherkin hearts to your satisfaction - I think they put the whole *kinky* gherkin in the jar in slices, as that was the best one, but not the only one.

Cheery - thank you for your support - I need to work on my mindful allocation of the available budget now - no going over this month!

Right, Dinner will be off the plan, but a little bit of a mystery until I know what groceries I can/cannot get hold of today.

I really need to shape up and ship outta here. Don't want to be late

Thank you for popping by, reading and joining in. I continue to appreciate it

See y'all later.

Greying