The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

EssexHebridean

I also follow the "just freeze it" method with coriander - so handy to have it there ready! I have to confess as not being someone who washes any fruit and veg though - lazy devil that I am!

Something else I forgot for ages that you can freeze is pesto. If like us, you don't use a jar of it fast enough to stop it growing it's own furry little blanket, you can freeze dollops of it on a sheet of greaseproof as soon as you open the jar, and just take out one at a time and drop straight into your sauce.

O still use MemoryGirl's ciabatta recipe!

Katzen

That's a great tip on freezing coriander, thank you all!

Thanks to your inspirational outlook, GP, I donated a couple of boxes of milk to the food bank today. I intend to make that a regular thing whenever I'm in MrT ( that's their only local collection point).

joeyjimbles

Celebrating your perfect pear - I had one this week too, but only one out of a bag of five - the others were left to do something but failed so two have been poached and two have been sliced into a brownie mix for puddings and cakes as required.
Dinner this evening has been sausage and lentil casserole again, with chili and garlic roasted butternut squash and sweet potatoes to pad it out. This tiime it was venison sausages YS'd to 80p for a 550g pack and happily I got 3 packs as they were utterly delicious. I know people get freaked out by eating Bambi but I cannot - and two of these sausages each were more than enough for even my boys with their huge appetites. There are some veg/pulse leftovers in the slow-cooker so I've pureed it with veg stock powder for soup for tomorrow's lunch.

Katzen

Afternoon GP, you've been quiet, hope all is well. I thought of you as I dished up dinner last night. Buddha bowl style roasted veg (fridge stragglers) with 'jewelled' quinoa salad, harrissa yoghurt dressing and toasted almond flakes. Was delish, especially for a 'from stores' dinner.

Also, MrAl today and they seem to have vastly increased their health food section to include cous cous, quinoa, chia seeds and more dried fruit and nuts, as well as various bars and snacks that are less appealing. I'll have to see if my local HB stocks that stuff for similar prices but I was impressed.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon :hello:

Sorry Katzen just got caught up with life a bit and lost track of time..... Good tip about mrAl's new ranges,I'll have a looksee. I happened to notice yesterday that HB now stock chia seed in the 'Bradbury's' range (is that their own label?) and it is £1.29 - unfortunately, I didn't take in the packet size

We had pizza on Friday night. It was OK, but I think that the pizza that had been topped with 'antipasti' shouldn't have been frozen - it tasted a bit 'odd' so unfortunately it got chucked (hate food waste ). Luckily, I had defrosted enough pieces, so we didn't starve (as if).

Saturday night was curry. I made Chole with the last frozen kala chana (think I'm down to about the last 500g dried now.....), carrot fry, added some frozen leftover sukhno dhal and served with basmati rice. Picture here;



Last night we had leftover veggie scrapple, fried up as it should have been, teamed with a baked potato (had the oven on for cake baking), broccoli, carrots and green beans. No picture as it turned out to be a bit of a gap between cooking and actually getting to eat..... we had apple crumble with yoghurt for afters. We went walking on Saturday, and there are still kind people putting their windfall apples out! I don't know what type of apple they were (apart from it stipulated cookers), but they taste gorgeous and cook to the most gorgeous pulp

Today I have had a chum around for coffee and cake. Unfortunately, the cake was a bit claggy Wish i hadn't followed the recipe, wish that I had followed my baking nowse instead She deserves 'perfect' cake to munch, I think so highly of her

Tea this evening is going to be pasta and veggie sausages. I would say in a 'cream' sauce, but I know that I have used up all the yoghurt So it may well differ a bit from 'that advertised in the meal-plan'.

I have not been around to the community hub to give over my donation to the FB for Chrimbo and 'normal'. I won't go tomorrow, as it is client day. I'll try and get it sorted this week though.

The UHT s/s milk has gone back up to 55p/L But this does mean that I can support h3ron f00ds and get it from there, rather than HB. It does push me back over the amount I had mentally budgetted for my donation though Oh, and talking of price rises, I was moaning about the cheese that I buy from h3ron being OOS for ages, and then coming back 49p dearer the other day. I saw an even worse example in HB yesterday. I was in a bigger one, that sells fresh produce, so they had cheese. I used to buy garstang cheese in HB that was 800g for £2.99. I noticed yesterday, that whilst the price is unchanged, the block size is now...... 600g! A 25% reduction! I couldn't believe my eyes - I had to ask DH to confirm for me!

I did pick up one bargain yesterday. We were in the next market town along - with its Sunday free parking :j And their h3ron had the sav3ra brand paneer in for 69p a block. So I got some. Our branch haven't currently got it. So it is now in the freezer for curry nights throughout winter

Right, I've wittered on for so long, Baby Greying has fallen asleep on my shoulder....... ow......ow..... ouch.....

See y'all later.

Greying X

brizzledfw

Yay..late to the party but found the new diary

Hello :wave: and will keep in touch

xx

Greying_Pilgrim

brizzledfw wrote: »

Yay..late to the party but found the new diary

Hello :wave: and will keep in touch

xx

Hello lovely! Always good to hear from you Think of you often - as I think/hear about/read about, Brizzle often

Take care you

Greying X

brizzledfw

Bless you xx

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon :hello:

Ay, ay, ay - is it cold with you?

We took Baby Greying to a high spot to see what we could see. It was glorious in the sunshine, but the minute that you got in the shade, brrrrrr! Thank goodness for warm clothing and a flask of spiced hot chocolate!

We picked up a quality toy in a charity shop, which, if used is still in very good condition. It cost a quarter of the price new, and is the sort of toy that we would like to buy for BG. It'll have to be put away though, as they are a bit young for it yet.

Tea this evening is carrot and caraway soup, a Rose Elliot recipe. There may well be toasted cheese sandwiches to accompany, given the weather.

Right, I'm away to tidy up and put things away.

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Evening cheerful Greying, love the idea of toasted cheese sandwiches being an appropriate weather accompaniment Also love the idea of spiced hot chocolate - do you mind me asking what you put in it to make it spicy?

I confess I struggled a bit for tea tonight Mr Cheery had, in the absence of much time, put a few potatoes in the oven to bake :j But when I looked in the fridge to see what could go with them, I found:

garlic cloves - several
cabbage - very tail end of a head, about the size of a pack of cards
tin of tomatoes - half, mouldy
small tub of baking soda to soak up pongy whiffs
half an opened can of gin & tonic

:rotfl: :rotfl:

Not exactly inspiring :rotfl:

Fortunately we had a glut of onions for some reason, and we have at least fallen into the habit of keeping frozen veg in at all times, so I fried up onion, garlic, the last of the cabbage, some frozen peppers and half a box of pasata (not mouldy) and had a vaguely respectable tea :j

Would have been better with some cheese, or lentils, or at least something protein-y, but the only protein-y thing we had was kidney beans (why are there always loads of tins of kidney beans?!) which I'm really not fond of and don't like the texture with baked potatoes. Bleurgh.

Hey ho, one uninspiring dinner (or, in fact, several in a row :rotfl: ) won't do me in, and I am indeed grateful for having food at all :j

Hope your tidying up went well! x