Living richly; simply and debt-freely

starnac

Wow Diolch Greying. Those recipes have been bookmarked and saved. They may well be printed out too. I am almost done on my cleanse (2 days to go) and then I can start on making proper meals again instead of one thing for me and something else for everyone else. Hate doing that but it's not fair to make the kids eat a low calorie meal just because I am feeling fat :rotfl:

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Well, 4 seasons in one day virtually. But ain't we doing well in the cricket? :j:D

I bought the TV guide today :j And I also snagged another barginacious melon out of the market stall 'grot box', a Canary melon this time. It wasn't what I had intended for us tea, but I had seen something when I had bought the other melon that I wanted to try out, but I was afraid that the melon would have been too ripe. Whereas the one today was just perfect

I'm glad that I remembered that today is the last day of the current S6 in mrAl, as they have courgettes for 49p - the cheapest I've yet seen. I had incorporated courgettes into next month's planner on the basis of this - but with courgettes at £1 a pack/£1.60 kg in other supermercados - why????? it's the height of the courgette season!!!! - there'd be no way I could have done the recipes without the mrAl priced produce. Luckily DP bagged me some, so they're stashed in the fridge Will have to see what the next fortnight's S6 will be - might be up on the food thread already - or on HDUK.

I had a parcel to return today. There were 2 methods of returning it - c0ll3ct+ or r0yal ma1l. Do you know, when I was repackaging the parcel last night, I just instantly thought 'RM'. And was all set to do this, when I realised that the alternative service gives you a proof of posting and lets you track the parcel. With RM, you had to remember to ask the PO counter staff for a proof of postage and there was no tracking! What are RM on? As it happens, it was a free return, but RM aren't competitive with their parcel prices are they? And as the C+ collection point was no more out of the way than the PO, it was easy enough to do. Of course, the proof of any service is in the 'delivery', but thus far, C+ is winning. Loyalty seldom pays in today's market economy, I need to sharpen my thinking when considering who or what will do the best job for me

Dinner this evening was salads As it happens, they were all cold, but the sun shone through as we sat down to eat (after a torrential downpour half an hour before), so it felt OK to be eating salad...... in summer...... indoors...... with fleeces on:rotfl:

So the recipe that I tried out with the melon, wasn't so much a recipe, as more a cooking method. I had seen mention of 'grilled' melon, and though, 'Ooooh la la'. So, with the chickpea salad in tahini dressing (my version came from my Arto del Haroutunian book, and didn't use tomatoes, but the link is the closest I could find), Pugilese salad and Jajig I added grilled melon;



I didn't dress the melon at all, and I knew that you had to really heat the grill to get it to work. If I did it again - and I think I would I would definitely make the slices of melon thicker. In caramelising the melon slices, the heat evaporates the juices and makes the slice very floppy! Difficult to manoeuvre off a hot grill onto a plate! Unfortunately, you can't really see the chickpea salad as a result either However, serendipitously - as these things sometimes happen, the salad was the perfect complement to the melon, as the savouriness of the tahini was the perfect foil for the sweetness of the grilled melon :j Love it when that happens

Apart from the melon, everything was from stores, and I still have half the melon left :j so all in all, I think that matches the criteria for a frugal dinner

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

for snagging barginacious produce - helps us to live rich on the um..... cheap

for getting better service for the same price ie FREE :money:

for DP's help even though he's currently cross-eyed with tiredness :)

Ta everso for popping in and reading. Always appreciated. Always.

See y'all later.

Greying x

satchmo1

If you ever get a cauliflower cheaply, here's a simple but delicious way to cook it when the oven is already on at around 190 degrees.


For two people, half a small cauli is plenty.


Break cauli into florets, heat a tablespoonful of your oil of choice on a baking tray lined with foil, when hot, put on the florets and dust with smoked paprika. Roast for about 30 minutes, turning half way through. The florets should be mostly brown (although the paprika makes them quite red). If they're very brown, they're just as yummy. Serve as an accompanying veg, or as a snack.


I think spraying the florets with oil might work well, but I haven't tried that.


A variation on the spice would be to use turmeric.

Upsidedown_Bear

Smilie of the day.

joeyjimbles

Is jajig the same as cacik ie. a cucumber and yogurt salad?

joeyjimbles

Satchmo - I do a very similar thing but with garam masala instead of paprika, and I use a spray bottle for oil and water mix before the dusting of spices. It works well with curry spices or just cumin too. Going to try the paprika version though as that sounds like a good alternative. Thanks.

mcculloch29

Going to try that roasting cauli trick. I grated cauli for the first time for a Jack Monroe cauli mac and cheese recipe - it was lovely.
Link to Super 6 - https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/product-range/fresh-bakery/this-weeks-latest-super-6-fruit-veg-offers/
This week it's 2 x Little Gem Lettuce for 39p and the rest 49p: 4/5 pack peaches, Galia Melon, 500g large vine tomatoes, 250g runner beans, 320g apricots.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

satchmo - hand me a cloth so that I can polish my halo! I cooked roasted cauli t'other week with a YS'd cauli from M&$ :j:D Do I get a MSE badge??? And yes, I can vouch for turmeric being good, that's what I used Roasted cauliflower is an all-round good idea I also made cauli 'steaks' just cut a cross-section of cauli out - looks like a brain brush with oil and roast. Very nice and good to eat

joeyjimbles wrote: »

Is jajig the same as cacik ie. a cucumber and yogurt salad?

Yes, well, in the Arto book I have, he gives the recipe for jajig followed by the recipe for cacik. He describes the former as Armenian and the latter as the Turkish version. In his version, the former has garlic and mint, the latter does not, but the latter has a few drops of vinegar added. But yes, cucumber, yoghurt and your choice of flavouring essentially

mcculloch - thanks for the S6 list - little gem lettuces for me fortuitous timing with the meal-planner :T

Well it's Thursday, so it's TTTT day I've a vague notion of what I need to 'tidy up' so a quick double check and some cogitating on it throughout the day and we should be set for 'summat' to eat by teatime

Be good, be careful and be great today

See y'all later.

Greying x

Upsidedown_Bear

Smilie of the day.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Upsidedown_Bear wrote: »

'.....Major Tom Smilie' ?



Dare we get excited about the cricket?

Well, it was a very Thursdayish Thursday. I don't think there were any triumphs nor tragedies today :think:

I've had fun with TTTT for the last throw of the month I think what hasn't suited me is that it is neither one thing nor the other. It's not making 'anything' from scratch, as there's a hole in the planner - because there was not the 'spare' ingredients, nor cash to buy them with. But neither was it 'clearing out the entire contents of the bottom of the fridge' as I buy stuff in quite a measured manner, and there usually is 'sufficient' for what I need, but rarely 'excess' IYSWIM. Still, we've not starved on anyone of the 5 Thursdays in July - so if that is a measure of 'success', frankly - I'll take it!

So, what I did have was some frozen green beans left - enough for 2 small portions. I had 1 vac-pack of beetroot left. I had lentils, rice, 1 piece of red pepper (jarred) and 2 half lemons (don't ask ) and 2 eggs. Dinner tomorrow night is going to be chilli and rice, so I have everything for that, and breakfast and snap is covered. So. What did I make?

Well, the green beans were just steamed and some sesame seeds sprinkled over. I made a new-to-me beetroot pickle/salad with my beets. I only had about 2 tbsps. of white wine vinegar left, so mine was definitely more salad than pickle, and I didn't put as much sugar in as in the recipe. I did however add in some caraway seed which a) go well with beetroot and b) add another 'sweet' dimension without calories. I made Sophie Grigson's Morrocan Lentil Salad and as I had some orange zest in the freezer, I bunged that in too, and it really, really lifted the salad. DP asked, 'Oooh, is there orange juice in this?', when it was purely a little bit of left over zest Then with the rest of the ingredients, I made a riff on a frittata - for which there is no recipe link off the web I'm afraid - that I got from a cookbook by New Zealand cook/writer Julie Le Clerc. You use cooked rice, mixed with veggies and then bound up with beaten egg and milk (I shoved a few tbsps. of yoghurt in too ) and cook it until it is set. I used up some cooked rice (about 50g dry weight), the red pepper chopped, some sweetcorn, again, chopped and some onion and seasoning. Served all together with a little poncy dash of yoghurt on the beetroot and a sprinkle of parsley for added 'masterchef' appeal........



The egg/rice mix made 4 frittatas, that were baked in some little tins I got a whole aeon ago from woolies. They were part of a child's baking set (you had to purchase it all separately) and they were made by a German firm - the quality is tremendous, but I remember waiting and waiting for them to be discounted, and they weren't! All the other plastic cr*p for kids was being given away and these kept their price Anyway, I ended up with 6 and those and my woolies - pestle and mortar - are amongst the top of my list of prized possessions

I'm glad I made Julie's recipe tonight. I used to make it quite regularly and it is ace for picnics as the result is quite savoury, but at the same time portable iyswim

Oh and I must report success (I think) with using the c0llect+ parcel system. According to the tracking the parcel is at its destination I can't imagine how delivery firms who don't do tracking/delivery window services can stay in business........

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

'use up' challenges - they work, even if not quite as intended....

sunshine! - at last!

Steve Finn's regained confidence :T

Thanks for popping in. Mucho appreciated. Mucho

See y'all later.

Greying x