The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Well, it was my turn to fall asleep in Baby Greying's room last night

Tea was a Falafel salad bowl. I'd share a pic, but hey, guess what? PB is playing up.......... I was pleased that it was made up of components that I had/needed using (go me! :rotfl:) The one recipe that I used - although I didn't (need to) follow it slavishly in this instance was Cous Cous with Chickpeas & Goats Cheese - a recipe by Julie Le Clerc from her 'Made in Morrocco' cookbook. I didn't use chickpeas, as I had the falafel, and didn't need goats cheese in this instance. Please ignore the picture for the recipe - there isn't aubergine in the recipe, so your dish won't look like the photo. Need to get me a job as a cookbook/recipe/picture editor me thinks :think:

Tea this evening will be pizza and 'something'. Not too sure if it will be pasta salad or wedges/oven chips. I haven't any tatties to make wedges, and looking at the YS'd prices in m&$ yesterday, I won't be having any for a while........

I've sorted out a menu plan for the remainder of June. The recipes of Jack Monroe feature heavily........ I've probably only enough left in my budget to buy the 'essentials', so need to get creative with what i have.

I'm able to check another thing off as accomplished on my 'challenge' - it's so wee (form completion) and yet it's because it's been on the 'list' it's been accomplished. I need to buy a stamp and send it off today, which I can do

Definitely having the challenge is moving us forward. I've done far more in June, than I possibly have for most of this year; but in teeny tiny steps, rather than huge project completion. I suppose I'm doing the equivalent of a daily 'Tilly-Tidy' of a penny against a mortgage of £100,000 - but it's progress, and better than letting 6 months pass, wishing for a lottery win of £100k to pay it off in full..........

Still can't shift me blessed weight though........

Right, can't think of owt else MS, so best vamoose.

Ta for reading. Appreciated.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon :hello:

I have finally managed to upload a picture of Thursday night's tea onto PB, so here it is;



The sauce was my usual citrus, miso, tahini with yoghurt blended in too, and then I did a bit of a riff on harissa, and tried to 'marble' it through. Not entirely successful, but neither is the sauce pink!

Tea last night was HM mushroom pizza with oven chips. No pic as it tasted OK, but looked dreadful - I used millet flour in the dough and it didn't work out well. It was 1/3rd millet flour to 2/3rds bread flour and although it rose, it didn't do so well in the oven and looked and acted much more like a pastry/biscuit base. As i said, perfectly edible, but looked like a dog's breakfast, as it stuck to the pan too

I nipped up the high street this morning. My 'bargain of the day' was definitely a kilo of carrots in m&$ for 25p :j Good job I am easily pleased I shall be making JM's Peach & Chickpea curry later, maybe some dhal too.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to miss staying in budget for food this month. I've aproximately £5 left (plus a little shrapnel), and I suspect even 'basics', milk, bananas and bread will 'eat' that up before Friday. I shall, however, try my best to eke it out. Although thinking about it, I will need to 'buy' olive oil and 'cheese' from my 'store' cupboard - erm, even at discount prices, that is £4.78, spent, right there, so no, I'm not going to be able to do it Fiddlesticks!

Right, best go and do chores. BG is tired out with our 'massive consumer fest-spending spree'...... :rotfl: and has gone down for a little snooze.

Greying X

in_need_of_direction

Hello can one of you cheffie types please help?
despite trying 2 different supermarkets, I can't get the 40g of stem ginger asked for in a recipe. any thoughts on a substitute?

Greying_Pilgrim

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Hello can one of you cheffie types please help?
despite trying 2 different supermarkets, I can't get the 40g of stem ginger asked for in a recipe. any thoughts on a substitute?

Mmmm, let's have a think about this.......

In terms of 'something else', mmm, nothing is springing to mind. So, do you look for a way around it, utilising ginger and 'syrup' which is what stem ginger is - ginger chunks steeped in a sugar solution/syrup.

Is the stem ginger important to the 'look' of the dish, for example, if you were making ice-cream, and it was important to the look of the ice-cream that there were little lumps of stem ginger flecked through.....

Is it just for flavouring? Could you get away with utilising 'ginger' in fresh or powdered form and combining it with sugar or a basic stock syrup to which you then go on to add ginger flavouring?

If the stem ginger wasn't important to the look of the dish, I would try to concoct something with grated 'fresh' ginger (actually the root or jarred) and a syrup of some kind. I would bear in mind that stem ginger is really really sweet - whereas fresh ginger is a hot, agressive flavouring, so i would go steady and taste, taste, taste as i went along. Bear in mind if you are making something like ice-cream, adding extra sugar etc can affect setting times/abilities.

Alternatively, if a little time is on your side - make your own?

Let us know how you get on love,

EDIT: You have really nice local bakeries - is it worth being a mite cheeky, and asking if they have big tubs/jars of the stuff, that they'd decant out 40g for you for a consideration?

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Man alive - how is my brain wired? I get ready for bed, clean me teeth, kiss the baby night, night, switch the light off, get under the covers, and........ BING!

GINGER MARMALADE springs into my concious mind.

INOD - do any of your supermercados sell Ginger marmalade - or ginger conserve/Jam?

I'm going back to bed now...... Night All :cool:

Greying X

rtandon27

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

in_need_of_direction

Thanks for the reply. I'm gonna try the basic stock syrup using a mix of powdered and fresh ginger. It's to go into a carrot cake so the appearance isn't the issue.

Re the bakery suggestion, I'd have no bother asking them but I've never seen anything gingery on sale there bar gingerbread men. It's an amazing place but majors in potato and soda farls, iced fingers, apple puffs, truly amazing beef sausage rolls and jam stuffed donuts.

I had checked the jam sections yesterday but there was no ginger apparent. To source some would mean knocking the car free day on the head so I'll improvise. I'll report back later as, if nothing else, it should mean that I actually bake.

Thanks again to a wonderful cookery clinician.

Tilly_MFW_in_6_YRS

Another supporter for making it. It's expensive to buy and ginger is relatively inexpensive. I know I'm going to need a fair bit for Christmas - I'll have a go.

Tilly xxx

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

I'm going to be waiting in today for a delivery for summat I've ordered over the internet....... (will I ever learn?). I am supposed to be getting a text with a delivery 'window' of 4 hrs, so we shall see. Fingers crossed it all goes spiffing

I've been and gorn and dunn it I have signed up to Mrs Frugalwoods Uber Frugal Month - July edition. I figure the challenge is good timing, for the 'middle' month of my own challenge, to ramp things up a notch. Also, I am of the belief that there is always new stuff to learn, so here goes I don't think I'll be joining faceache for the challenge - I'll have to ask Cheery if she thought it added exponentially to her experience back in January.

In one way the timing is bad, as we're planning a teeny trip that will benefit from an overnight stay (driving distances just a little too long to accomplish all in one day and enjoy the venue). It isn't the accommodation costs that are daunting, but the meals that cannot be kept in a butty box for 36hrs, and so will have to be 'bought out' Still, hopefully with an uber frugal mindset, we can feast without causing famine to the bank account........ Still, I didn't think that it was a big enough 'biggie' to prevent me signing up for the challenge anyway.

Tea this evening will involve leeks. We went adventurising yesterday and a wander around mrS just before closing yielded 800g of organic leeks for 20p....... I couldn't leave them on the shelf.........

Tea last night was actually JM's Peach and Chickpea Curry with dhal and rice. We had fish & chips (out the freezer) on Saturday night, as it better suited what was going on. I took a tip out of EH's thread and made some more cucumber salad to accompany the fish - it's a wee bit too summery for mushy peas........

I think I had better get conversant with Mrs Frugalwoods 'rice & beans' recipe...........

Right, think that is all that I have to report that is MS. Our adventurising yesterday involved leisure, pleasure and shopping for something to finish off the decor in a room in the house. We ended up having to go hither and yon to reach our 'shopping' destination due to roadworks. We ended up just following cars who seemed to know where they were going - and it got us there! :rotfl: I only know the are vaguely - so knew we were heading in the right direction generally, but couldn't have told you which backstreets we went down! Anyway, I think we used our car relatively efficiently and packed alot in

Right, I'm off to stare anxiously at my phone for 'the' text. I might be some time......... :rotfl:

Ta for popping in.

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, I think I'm going to sign up to Uber Frugal July too - I really enjoyed January :j and we did eat in cages a couple of times, it just made us aware of what we were doing so perhaps had soup rather than three course dinner (not that I usually have three courses in a cafe...)

As for Faceache, no, don't bother. Interesting to see what others were doing but from memory not many people posted there anyway, and they mostly just said 'good idea!' :rotfl: certainly not worth signing up to faceache for if you're not already on there

Looking forward to seeing progress! :j