Living richly; simply and debt-freely

in_need_of_direction

I've found the best furnishing places tend to be where land is cheap and plentiful. This generally means the middle of nowhere.

rtandon27

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

...Mousakka worked well last night - my only query would be the amount of topping versus the amount of mix. I'll see if the recipe is about later...

mmm - mousakka with labneh sounds intriguing GP - what do you substitute for ground lamb? - I've never realized there is a veggie version of the dish! Good old g00gle has just shown me that Jamie, Delia & Nigella all have versions!

Hope you had a lovely adventurising day!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Well, we survived our trip out into the wilderness - for shopping!! (and no the irony is not lost on Greying......... :rotfl:)

We parked the car on the track of a nature reserve for our picnic lunch - as the wildlife trust had thoughtfully made one car parking space for the whole area - which was so muggy and boggy, that you'd be stuck within 2 seconds flat. The area is 'celebrating' a river habitat....... Still, we were serenaded by birdies whilst we munched.... oh and SAndi Toksvig, as DP doesn't seem to be able to not have the radio on in the car at all times......... Anyway, it was very nice - and for once, the world and his wife didn't decide to descend and walk/have a picnic at this remote spot in unison with us (Isn't it amazing how many times that happens?)

I came on to fill you in on the last two recipes for February from the student cookbook. Unfortunately, neither of the recipes is on the internet from the book Mind, I do have to say, I don't think that they are the strongest recipes out of the book either......

On Friday night, we had lentil moussaka. I would normally make mousakka or Bolognese with the green or brown lentils - as they hold their shape better and give *bite* to the dish. But this was made with red lentils. I also didn't slice my aubergine and layer it with the lentil mix - I just combined it all in the dish. I had my suspicions that there wouldn't be a lot of topping, as the recipe called for 1 egg and 150g cream cheese (where I substituted my HM labneh - youghurt cheese). I therefore, purposely only used a small casserole dish - LxWxH = 17(max)x 11(max)x 5cm - as the dish is tapered, you can see that my dish isn't very big. There was just enough topping to cover the mix in the dish - and it did puff up slightly in cooking.





I wouldn't rush to make this dish again. I think that I've got better versions. However, as a *starter* dish, or an introduction to cooking/vegetarian food, it was OK. The labneh worked with the egg in exactly the same way as cream cheese does, so I was pleased that the dish was a little bit more *made from scratch* than normal

Last night we had pumpkin goulash. This was made with butternut squash - the leftover half from the curry. It was OK. Again, the lentils used were red. It wasn't the tastiest goulash - the caraway rather dominated. I don't think that this is a keeper of a recipe for me......



I will be copying out the recipes out of the student cookbook that I would make again - I've done most of them - then I will be passing it on to the charity shop - in true MK fashion I'm glad that I chose to focus on recipes from it for the month - I think I have done something like 20 recipes out of it, which means that it was an underutilised resource, sat on my shelf

March is going to be super squeaky £'s wise, as we already have two *maintenance* bills to fund - one human and one house :rotfl: We have the cash stashed, but it will take away from funds to decorate/do up Greying Towers, so clearly if we can live cheaply...... it all helps

I'd better shift a tail-feather, as we want to watch the rugby this afternoon. I know that INOD will be roaring on the greens I hope we have a really great game of skilled rugger, with no serious injuries. Oh..... and come on England! :rotfl:

Thanks everso for popping in, reading and commenting. I do appreciate it.

Now, I really must vamoose.......

Greying x

in_need_of_direction

I think this is the deciding game. Can't believe I couldn't get tickets.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Just popped on to note that HM yoghurt literage has now hit double figures :j

I'm convinced that I have already made more in 2015 than I made in the whole of 2014 - thanks for the impetuous greenbee UHT is making it a pleasure to make yoghurt in my cold, cold kitchen I've also used up the last litre of the 25p UHT milk from H0me bargins. Now at least 1 week out of date but funnily enough, worked perfectly fine....... (well, it didn't know it was out of date, did it? )

We've had leftovers for the first 2 dinners of March - Tonight, being Tuesday is thrifty soup . New to me recipe involving black beans.

Thanks for all your support. It is greatly appreciated.

See y'all.

Greying

rtandon27

Well done on the yogurt making!

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

...Tonight, being Tuesday is thrifty soup ...

Didn't know it was thrifty Tuesday, but we had soup too - lots of pak choi, with storecupboard finds of pickled seaweed & udon noodles, and some leftover bits of chicken with homemade broth - super cheap - only spend was the veggies - nothing like a bowl of soup on a cold evening!

greenbee

Well done on the yogurt GP. You're ahead of me.

I think something is up with this batch (I left it in to cook rather a long time), so I may have to abandon it and get myself a new starter. I'm almost out of UHT milk to, so may have to risk going to proper shop (rather than the one in the village which pretty much sells bread, milk and biscuits) to stock up. It's the only thing I need, as otherwise I'm trying to run down supplies of pretty much everything and not spend while I save up for yet more stuff to be done in the house.

liltdiddylilt

I too had thrifty soup from cupboard ingredients today. And got a dispatch notice for my red/green lentil sacks, caraway seeds, celery seeds etc. All because of you. Big hugs xx

in_need_of_direction

Oddly, I only make soup when salvaging veggies. I say oddly cos I really like it!

mrsinvisible

me too, broccoli and celery, with a touch of sweetcorn and a swirl of elml*a y uuuummm y