The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

mcculloch29

I'm going to try to make our charity donations, but I've got to label the one thing, with components/instructions for use. It never came with any, and whilst it is reasonably straightforward, if you're trying to set it up for the first time, it is less so
Ah,, yes..!
Many of my Am@zon reviews contain quite lengthy instructions or hints on how to work something. Not just to help others, but also as a memory jogger to remind me, when I forget how something works, after not using it for a while.
This has proved useful in the past.
Hope your day went well.

beanielou

Hope you had a good day

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Yes thank you, mcculloch and beanie we have ended up having a pretty spiffing day. I achieved most of what I wanted to do. I donated our things and did the shopping and did the visiting that was necessary.

I managed to do the diagram/instructions, only to have BG grab hold of it when my back was turned, and scribble all over it................ I re-did it.............. And I'm possibly still counting to 10........... :rotfl:

I didn't manage a tip run, but we both dislike going there with BG in the car anyway, so that wasn't really such a fail. And the 'stuff' is at least out of the house, so progress is getting made.

I did the shopping that i need to do, and got 2 (500g) bags of lentilles vertes from mrT for 2 for £2 (instead of £1.15 each). HB seems to have currently stopped stocking them, so this was the next best price. I also got a BNS from there - they were 89p each, irrespective of the size. Mine weighed in at over 1.5kgs and I purposely chose one with a small 'bulb' end, and thankfully, it didn't have too much seed in it. I have roasted a small half of the bns for a recipe I want to try.

Tea was oven chips, mushy peas and a 2 egg omlette. Not exactly the menu choice of a nutritional guru blogger, but then I ain't and I was short on time, so........

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

BG being very good - inbetween the norty bits.......... :rotfl:

a car and fuel to pootle about

being made a sandwich for my lunch

Ta for popping in and joining in the chat. Appreciated.

Greying X

in_need_of_direction

I never thought of looking for a small bulb in bns. Every day's a school day here.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Well, a successful day has been had

We seemed to get lucky with YS'd things. we got 2 lemongrass stalks in mrW for 29p - they usually only knock a third off Then in mrA, there were proper YS'd bargains - can't remember the last time that occured whilst I was in there. I got 4 x 250g punnets of mushrooms (white closed cap) for a total of 80p and 3 x 200g bags of cherry tomatoes for 60p. Just what I wanted!

Tea was chickpea and mushroom tagine, which used up half a container of chickpeas that I had in the fridge and a punnet of the mushrooms. It was teamed with brown rice (rather than the cous cous in the recipe) and the shredded leaves of, and remaining curds of, my £1 cauliflower from m&$. They were both steamed. There is a pot of tagine leftover for lunch. I used coriander, cumin, cinnamon, turmeric and allspice in my spice mix - rather than 'mixed spice'. A nice, easy to make dish. Keeper of a recipe for me.

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

Bargains - especially on things that I wanted to buy anyway.

help from DH with the housework - even though he's been out at work all day

for sunshine - it made up for the cold breeze! brrrrrrrrr :cool:

Ta for popping by. Appreciated.

Greying X

beanielou

Yah for YS's

mcculloch29

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Tea was chickpea and mushroom tagine, which used up half a container of chickpeas that I had in the fridge and a punnet of the mushrooms. It was teamed with brown rice (rather than the cous cous in the recipe) and the shredded leaves of, and remaining curds of, my £1 cauliflower from m&$. They were both steamed. There is a pot of tagine leftover for lunch. I used coriander, cumin, cinnamon, turmeric and allspice in my spice mix - rather than 'mixed spice'. A nice, easy to make dish. Keeper of a recipe for me.

Right, I'm trying that...
Thank you so much, and for the tips. Mr Al had some lovely chestnut mushrooms, and I was wondering which new recipe to try. Thanks for the heads up on the spice. Mixed spice? I thought the same as you. I have all of the spices you mention, and in this sort of dish, it's those that make it or break it.

beanielou

Happy Friday Grayling & friends

Greying_Pilgrim

mcculloch - are you familiar with that website? I think I've heard of it before, but not spent anytime on it. But it has menu plans for all pockets/tastes. I wondered if it was any good, and whether it was a resource that you could recommend to others? I know you are steeped in frugal learning, and wondered whether you still have the opportunity to pass on tips to others? I can see why 'mixed spice' was used, but if you have even a small library of spices, it is relatively simple to give dishes flavours more in keeping with their original roots. But I fondly remember all the work Weezl74 did on the OS board to bring about budget friendly meal plans, and I always remember her counsel to buy garam masala, as it could be used in both savoury and sweet dishes :T

beanie - thanks for popping in and offering your support, always welcome and always appreciated. Thank you.

Greying X

mcculloch29

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

mcculloch - are you familiar with that website? I think I've heard of it before, but not spent anytime on it. But it has menu plans for all pockets/tastes. I wondered if it was any good, and whether it was a resource that you could recommend to others? I know you are steeped in frugal learning, and wondered whether you still have the opportunity to pass on tips to others? I can see why 'mixed spice' was used, but if you have even a small library of spices, it is relatively simple to give dishes flavours more in keeping with their original roots. But I fondly remember all the work Weezl74 did on the OS board to bring about budget friendly meal plans, and I always remember her counsel to buy garam masala, as it could be used in both savoury and sweet dishes :T

beanie - thanks for popping in and offering your support, always welcome and always appreciated. Thank you.

Greying X

. I'm patting myself on the back for buying garam masala, now. I've only used it for savoury so far.

I think the website is certainly worth a look for anyone looking for budget recipes, and the tagine is firmly in that bracket. However, it hasn't been updated in a few years, so the prices are slightly out of whack.
It seems to have been a commercial enterprise that didn't take off. The Facebook page was last updated six years ago. They set up the Twitter account in 2010, and sent their last tweet a year later.

There are some very nice touches. I liked the basic-typical-cook's cupboard listing of 'additions', like Worcester sauce, and herbs and spices.
Although even in the last few years a basic cupboard is probably more of a typical one, with spices under fifty p a jar at Mr Al, and pots of herbs being 'the' thing to grow on a windowsill.

I recently bought a book that claimed to be for tiny budgets, that frankly isn't. You'd need three times Jack Monroe's tenner a week. I haven't reviewed it yet. but I will do.

It's all relative, it probably is a tiny budget to the author's well-heeled Shoreditch pals. It's an unrealistic budget to anyone on Universal Credit or a minimum wage.