Eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge - part two

Older_But_Not_Wiser

Evening all

Had a lush salad out yesterday, rocket with goats cheese, roasted cauliflower, almonds, cherry tomatoes and chick peas in a lemony olive oil dressing so I'll be trying to recreate that one at home soon.

Did a huge tray of roasted veggies that I'll be munching for a few days, with sausages probably or just on their own if I can't be bothered. When I get bored with eating them this way, I'll chuck in a tin or two of tomatoes to make a sausage stew. Roasted veggies are my 'go to' meal when I'm super-scrimping (finally completed my tax return and the online calculation of how much I owe HMRC made my blood run cold so need to cut back spending as much as possible :eek:)

Love your burrito idea MsNR, sounds delish. Also love the sound of your risotto Kirri, but am rubbish at making them. Have yet to make one that didn't turn into a bowl of broth with bits of rice floating in it :rotfl:

Saddo that I am, I'm already trying to plan my Christmas grocery shopping so I don't end up in a last minute frenzy in M&S spending more than I can afford on things that I end up having to give away as there is always too much! Hoping this will be the year that I get it right

ms_night_ryder

Hey kirri glad to see you working, I remember when you were looking.

I went into as nature Intended today, they didn't have the packets of Brown basmati, I was kind of glad though because I realised that they do self serve on rice and nuts, this works out a little cheaper than packets, I think I prefer long grain brown rice, so when I finish the basmati I will get some.

Made the sausage burrito and it was really tasty! Enough left for 2 portions.

Older I am also thinking about Christmas, I've decided to buy waitrose vouchers each month, so December is a minimal spend month grocery wise and I will start gift shopping soon, you can do it Older, you have this thread to keep you on track.

Older_But_Not_Wiser

ms_night_ryder wrote: »

Older I am also thinking about Christmas, I've decided to buy waitrose vouchers each month, so December is a minimal spend month grocery wise and I will start gift shopping soon, you can do it Older, you have this thread to keep you on track.

What a great idea! I didn't realise you could do that and it will make life a bit easier to know it is all covered in advance. Most years I end up feeding all sorts of people and although I love to see them, it does make it hard to shop as I never know who I am feeding! This year I am being a bit selfish and telling everyone I'm going to spend the big day on my own but they are welcome any other day during the holidays. That way I only have to provide snacky things rather that plan a meal for one that might have to stretch to half a dozen!

ms_night_ryder

Lol half a dozen, do they just suprise you? Yes I think they are waitrose/John Lewis vouchers, next time I go into waitrose I'll see if they have any, will get a £5 or £10 one to start my collection.

Just to add, today I've had love 2 shop vouchers of £30 so will add 10 to my voucher stash, I'm expecting another 5 so will add that to the stash once it gets here.

SerialRenter

Trying to make my work lunches out of the freezer at the moment as they're shutting down the canteen. Although i try not to eat there too often as it's a big waste of money!

This week i've been using a pack of chicken thighs, chopped it up and marinated with various things for different days of the week.

Tom yum paste and chilli sauce chicken
pesto chicken (add basil from the windowsill plant)
tandoori chicken
crushed Sumac berries & chicken

Then i've been cooking fusilli the night before and boxing it up with the chicken ready for taking to work in the morning.
A few of them i've added pizza sauce left over from home made pizza, with leftover mozzarella and pepperoni.

Older_But_Not_Wiser

Morning all

I've got the builder coming in to do more messy work on the house next week which will put the kitchen out of action again so I had a look at those 'Look What We Found' meals that can be kept in the cupboard and cooked in the microwave, and by ordering from them directly with free postage and the 15% discount they are offering, I managed to get 30 meals for just £1.06 each. V pleased with that as I like to keep some in the cupboard in the winter in case I can't get to the shops for any reason.

MsNR, my visitors do normally warn me they are coming, but not until Christmas Eve. They are not really interested in food themselves so I don't think it occurs to them that it might be a problem for me to produce a meal at such short notice (in fairness though, I think I could serve them egg and chips and they'd be perfectly happy but I would feel I wasn't being a good host!) Christmas Day is enough of a challenge without the last minute drop ins as I cook for me and a friend; she is a veggie and doesn't eat anything even slightly spicy (that even includes black and white pepper) and it is the one day of the year when I like to have a traditional roast for myself. For someone who can barely boil an egg I do find the whole thing stressful, hence why I'm telling everyone that I want to spend the day on my own!

Kirri, any advice on growing spring onions? I'm getting through a bunch a day at the moment and the cheapest I've found them is 49p in Lidl, and about 79p in the supermarkets. I've got a little garden so I wondered if I could just grow my own?

Anyway, I seem to be rambling so I'll stop now.

Hope everyone is OK.

Kirri

Older_But_Not_Wiser wrote: »

Morning all

Kirri, any advice on growing spring onions? I'm getting through a bunch a day at the moment and the cheapest I've found them is 49p in Lidl, and about 79p in the supermarkets. I've got a little garden so I wondered if I could just grow my own?

Pick up some seeds in Wilkos at the moment, they are the cheapest around (ie 40p ish) and were on offer the other week as it's the end of the season. There are summer and winter varieties of spring onion seeds but tbh spring onions are so slow growing anyway it's not worth the effort really in winter. Even the spring/summer sown ones are very slow.. I'd get the seeds now and sow next Spring, every few weeks, for best success. If you sow now they will grow slowly a bit and probably sit there all winter and carry on in spring..

If you want to grow anything now, the only things I'd bother with are radish (4 weeks to eating) or the speedy seeds mixed salad leaves (supposed to be useable in 3 weeks but I'd say that's a bit of an under estimate but might get some before the first frosts around mid Oct).

Something like this:

http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Vegetable+Seeds/When+to+Sow+Vegetables/Vegetables+to+Sow+in+July/Speedy+Veg+Seed+-+Leaf+Salad+Winter+Mix_185394.htm

and these are nice, I'm eating these at the moment, love the colours!

http://www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk/Vegetable-Seeds-1/Radish-Seed_2/Radish-D-T-Browns-Rainbow-Blend-Seeds.html#.VAs1Jhw9VCc

However everything has really slowed down almost to a stop growing wise with this cooler weather so bear that in mind if it's not successful, and plan instead for next Spring. There are some amazing veg growing options in small gardens or even balconies in pots. I'll see if I can find a link to one I liked, they had huge amounts of veg in a tiny space.

http://www.verticalveg.org.uk/my-growing-diary/

Another mega busy week for me Bit annoyed to have some wastage as I was so tired I didn't always cook as planned.

Older_But_Not_Wiser

^^^

Thanks Kirri, I'm going to nip down to Wilko's tomorrow to see if I can find some seeds to try. Just have to remember to plant them next spring! Meant to go today but got side-tracked by local fair where they had some lovely homemade pickles for my Christmas stash

Sorry you're having such a grim time with the whole work thing, being constantly tired is miserable (my last job involved long days and a daily four hour commute, I was like a zombie for about 3 years and developed a very expensive ready meal habit cos anything that took longer than 4 mins in the microwave when I finally got home was intolerable!). Hopefully it is temporary though?

Kirri

^ Yes last week hopefully, I hate it, hope they don't extend the booking :eek: I can just about cope as I know it's about to finish... it makes me miserable let alone tired! I ended up having toast for 2 nights last week, that isn't good.

I managed to cook tonight, potato wedges, a nut burger thing and corn on the cob.

Still picking lots of veg so have to make sure I make myself cook it this week, tired or not.

Edwardia

Kirri !!!! Sorry to know that you're feeling carp.

My mother swears by something called Floradix which is on BOGOHP at the moment at Holland & Barrett in liquid and tablet form.