Living on next to nought - is that the key?

mothernerd

liltdiddylilt is there anything in the freezer that is bulky like vegetables (always sacrifice the cheapest ingredients if something has to go) or any joints of meat that can be taken out, cooked, sliced and re-frozen (my DS1 bought a ys piece of pork that was taking up 1/2 a drawer - the cooked meat took up a takeaway container. Have you any friends nearby or good neighbours who could 'lend' you a drawer.

My first freezer had a design fault - the on/off switch was at the base - where the baby could play with it when he was crawling round. Three times I had to cook and freeze all the meat and veg into stews and curries and fed all the kids in the street (5 houses, 9 boys) with the fish fingers and burgers.

mothernerd

Me again - if you have frozen veg, a couple of packs will help keep your lentils cooler as they defrost - I've often put the overspill from a too enthusiastic shop in the bottom two drawers of the fridge (helps if they are packed together).

liltdiddylilt

Hello all you lovely people.

Thank you for your responses! My fridge freezer is a bizarre little creature which cowers under the cupboards on the wall in the kitchen. It is just over 5ft tall, and skinny as anything with 2 thirds of it being lent to 'fridge' and the other 3rd in a strange freezer layout. One big drawer, one medium drawer, and one only big enough for ice lollies. I put some chicken breasts in there (bagged up) a while back. It took me several hours of wiggling and crying to eventually get it back out once frozen, mashing up numerous mini ice creams in the process. Chicken GROWS in the freezer. I know this now!

My neighbours are a weird old mix. Unfortunately the only one I could ask (who regularly comes to my rescue) has only got a fridge herself bless her. I have managed to squeeze in a wee bit more into the freezer thanks to adding frozen chopped peppers into everything in sight. I think I honestly need to concede and buy a chest freezer.

Thank you all for your helpful comments though. I really appreciate it. I took the time to check the freezer out and removed some bits and pieces that were really not going to be eaten. I am of two minds what to do with 24 cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon and a pack of king prawns though... Work that into next weeks meal plan maybe. I found some arborio rice... king prawn and pig in blanket risotto.. :rotfl:

Off to wander... Night! xx

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Hi, I hope you are all well?

I shall endeavour to catch up - I just had to have an 'early night' last night, otherwise I would have been fit for nothing - ever!

Thank you to maddiemay and mothernerd for your helpful assistance to liltdiddlylilt. Although I'm veggie, I recognise the dilemma of the chicken and mince being the 'expensive' ingredients (and which you need to be absolutely scrupulous about in terms of food hygiene), versus having a freezer load of 'other stuff' My dilemma is always a freezer full of picked blackberries 'because they were free and are a source of vitamin C' over really useful stuff like casseroles and curries that would give me a break from cooking every 5 minutes! :rotfl:Which is all very well, but I'm always waiting for apples to put with the blackberries, or the right type of weather for a crumble, so the blackberry mountain never diminishes - *sigh* :rotfl:

wishus - my freezer drawer did exactly the same thing - *threw itself to the floor* in an attempt at attention seeking...... Luckily, it fell on a mat, but still split at the front Again, the chances of getting 'spare' parts for such thing are 1 million to one, as the drawers are all different. I now have to use 2 hands to extract the drawer, and can never pull on the handle, that would snap the front off quick smart If you have the patience of a saint, it may be worth advertising on your local Freecycle network - giving the make and model to see if anyone has a 'defunct' freezer they would let you have the drawers from.

INOD - Thank you

lilt - Thank you. Again, another though-provoking post that made me see a side to my diary that I hadn't thought of. Thank you.

Ayeshlush - Thank you - Kelvingrove art gallery it was! The weather was beautiful and the building looked absolutely respendent

mrsinvisible - glad you had a lovely day out with DD - and like the sound of the picnic

Coulddobetter - Hello and WELCOME. Pitch in, we're a friendly bunch

supersaver/Super Dave I had never heard of Pineapple Rasam before. I'm definitely going to have a look at that recipe - Thank you

Well, I can hardly believe it, but I am happy to report that we had a tradesperson turn up when they said that they would, do what they said they would do, make as little mess as was possible (given the nature of the job) and charge exactly what they said they would charge Plus about 1 gallon of tea But I'm totally cool with that

:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

Before I forget, yesterday was a NSD

I want to tell you about our dinner on Sunday night. Not because it was 'special' and you may not even like the ingredients, but you will all *get* the process, and know that it can be applied to all sorts of meals (and that it is great when it all comes together ).

I had wanted to make Jack Monroe's 'Gigantes Plaki' dish. But on their own, they would constitute a 'snack' for DP, whereas I needed them to be a dinner dish. So, what did I wheel out? Yep, you're ahead of me, a Buddha bowl :rotfl:

Anyway, I used rice as the starch, because I couldn't think of anything more 'greek', apart, possibly from orzo pasta, but I wondered whether pasta and beans would be a little heavy. But the thing with the rice was that I decided to 'dress' it, as you might when you are preparing sushi rice I found a dressing from a Greek spinach Salad recipe HERE boiled my rice in the usual way and dressed it with the dressing ingredients.

I then made the Gigantes Plaki from Jack's recipe HERE and whilst they were cooking I made up a hot spinach dish, which is actually based on a spinach dip with yoghurt from the recipe found HERE.

I put it all together, although you will notice that I omitted the feta from the gigantes plaki, as there was yoghurt in the spinach. Had I done plain spinach, I would have topped the dish with feta as per Jack's recipe. I also sprinkled a couple of teeny HG yellow tomatoes around for *ponce* and cut some thin strips (thinner than they actually look) of lemon zest to put on top.

A greek inspired Buddha bowl, that did not cost many pennies to make;



I know the concept of Buddha bowl is supposed to be 'leftovers' or what is available, but I am quite liking coming up with themes - and using new recipes in combination together. Daft as it sounds, if I hadn't made that veggie sushi the other week, I would not have thought of 'seasoning' rice to accompany a meal. Sure, I have flavoured rice, but usually with something 'umpfy' [tech term ] like curry powder or stock powder.

Just to restore the balance, for 'afters' I made chocolate, ginger pear pudding, which used tinned pears [they were a bargain from B&M], the last spoonful of cocoa powder in a Victoria sponge recipe with a bit of melted choc added, and we had some vanilla ice-cream to accompany (lost my nsd on Sunday for it, but it was so worth it ) A pudding straight out of the *school dinners* portfolio Evidence here;



Right, best shift a tail-feather. Snap bags to make up and the day to be got on with. If I get the TV guide today, it won't be a NSD, so we'll see how the day pans out.

Thank you for your continuing reading, commenting one and joining in with, this diary. It is greatly appreciated, by me

See y'all later.

Greying

Busymumofthreeplusdog

Ahhhh, Greying being a proud Glaswegian I've loved watching the commonwealth games this past couple of weeks. We spent many a wet Sunday/summer holiday day in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery during my childhood. My parents being very frugal types I never knew it had a cafe until I was an adult! Lol recently introduced my own kids on a visit home, they spotted the cafe straight away!!
Happy days....!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Busymumofthreeplusdog - I LOVE that story But you have fond memories of going to Kelvingrove, so your parents did their work successfully Did you take pack-ups? Or have dinner at home? We rarely ate out, and we didn't always have a picnic. Although those were invariably eaten at the side of a busy road. What was all that about? I can't remember ever stopping for lunch in a layby with DP - not one that was directly next to the carriageway anyway...... :rotfl:

I'm aiming for a NSD :j I did get the TV guide and several bits yesterday.

I won't be around tonight, so apologies in advance for my absence.

Last night, I had another early night, and given that I slept from the moment my head hit the pillow until when the alarm went off, then I must have needed it.

Ayeshalush - my apologies, I spelt your username wrong yesterday And of course, Kelvingrove art gallery looked resplendent, not respendent

Right, best jump to it. Have a great day everyone

Greying

supersaver1000

Lol. Layby picnics GP. The puzzles of what our parents were thinking.

I can't remember picnics at all and we never ever ate out as a family. The nearest we ever came to it was to share a toasted teacake at a cafe in Cleethorpes and that was a rare occasion. And we must have had take away fish and chips or scallop and chips at times, but it wasn't a regular thing. Very picky parents with regard to food. I remember their shock horror at my older brother bringing home a Chinese take away. Although it wasn't helped by the same restaurant appearing in the paper after being prosecuted sometime later. My younger brother had a similar attitude to food until he was in his thirties but although he now eats out he is still strangely picky - amuses me that he says what a lovely burger you get in McDs, but if you present him with a piece of sirloin with fat on it, he can't bear it. Nurture not nature I guess. (Sorry for that meaty story, GP I know you are veggie).

Busymumofthreeplusdog

Lol, Greying! We didn't have a car so often we were walked from the West End to Kelvingrove via the scenic route through the botanic gardens and down Byres Road(40mins+) Sometimes we got a bus part the way there or part the way home as it was a two bus journey. Eating out was a very rare occasion! I think my folks would have brought some juice and crisps with us and timed the excursion between meals! But you are right Greying, I have such fond memories of those days. Of course, the sun shone all summer and my sister and I never argued...........

Coulddobetter

Hi
I just love picnics and used to make my children go to visit a stately home or park so I could indulge. They used to moan and groan but guess what they are now young adults and they love taking their friends on picnics and visiting, you have guessed it parks and other free venues.
I know we have probably got a lot wrong with parenting but it made my heart sing to hear them saying they wouldn't waste money in a coffee shop when they could take it with them :j
We even went away with my son who was horrified that we would pay to visit a specific museum when we could get in another free of charge...
Best get back to the coal face:o
Coulddobetter xx

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Went the day well Dear Reader?

I've had a day of rolling my eyes at the utter stupidity of humankind - in between :j at the marvelousness of humankind :rotfl: T'as been a funny auld day................:D

However, first things first, I bagged a NSD, so with yesterday's, my total can go 'up' by two And we have not keeled over through dire lack of anything, so all is good

I came back to find a *food parcel* on the doorstep - the parentals had dropped off a load of HG goodness :D I had to laugh, the gardening parental's tomatoes are considerably bigger than my efforts, despite them being the same varieties and being bought on the same weekend I suspect I was too kind to mine. I have grown lovely tomato plants, rather than the intended lovely fruit Also, we have tatties, courgettes - green and yellow French beans and runner beans :j We'll not go hungry this week at Greying Towers

Luckily, the menu planner accommodated the 'free' bounty, as the 'smoky lentil burgers' (Jack Monroe recipe HERE) had already been made and frozen, so they were wheeled out to be accompanied by; HG new potatoes, HG French beans. HG tomato salad with red onion and vinaigrette and a salad of carrot, sweetcorn, celery, red pepper, pumpkin & sunflower seeds with a sesame seed sprinkle. Pic here;



Scrumptious Oh, and if you are thinking of making the burgers, I don't use an egg to bind - the mix works perfectly well without it, and I think we've discussed before on the thread that to achieve 'smokey' burgers, you really have to use smoked paprika. I get mine from mrM and it is around about the 80p mark for a jar that lasts a while.

Also, I 'sort of' doubled the recipe (I use oats rather than bread) and got 6 burgers out of it - I make 100g burgers in my el cheapo burger press, but the last one was around about the 120/130g mark iirc. HTH

The rest of the bounty will be incorporated into the menu planner in the next few days - feel free to watch this space

I have loved your stories of childhood 'excursions'. I'm pretty sure that ours were limited by the on-going need for economy, and the budget just didn't allow for the petrol to get you to the castle/big house/beach or ploughing match..... :eek: and to have summat to eat in a cafe. I can only think that our 'picnic' lunches in roadside laybys were more a product of there not being the 'welcome' for you to bring your own food to venues that there seems to be now. And yes, Busymumofthreeplusdog, the sun was always shining and no, there was never any sibling rivalry or bickering....... :whistle: Seems like we all turned out pretty good though huh?

Coulddobetter - it is always a little disconcerting to be *lectured* by those that you have studiously been trying to [STRIKE]indoctrinate[/STRIKE] teach all this time. My *little man* does it to me now....... :rotfl:

Super Dave - I have no problem with meat being mentioned on the thread - keep the posts coming

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

Home grown produce, generously shared

for lovely weather - everyone was hinting at rain, plus the cricket started today......... :rotfl:

for the nice memories writing a letter of condolence has been prompting ..................

Thank you so very much for contributing to the thread, for reading and posting. Always grateful me

See y'all later.

Greying