The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon :hello:


Thanks for all your good wishes for BG. Turns out they most likely have a mild (currently - hope it stays that way) version of a common viral infection that affects the <4's. It certainly would explain the slight temperature spike and the limp. It's one of these 'ride it out' jobs, unless any complications occur - and keep away from vulnerable groups, as it is potentially infectious. I must admit, BG has been 'fine' in themselves, so I'm just hoping they will recover and the virus will fizzle out. They are currently having a nap - they need it



Tea last night was Quinoa, beetroot, avocado salad (scroll down to recipe 3). I only used 150g of quinoa (mrAl tricolour), which was plenty for 2 and I didn't have any pomegranate seeds, but used some goji berries I had bought, to try, from, a 'weigh-out what you want' shop. My avocados were 'wonky' - but delicious and ripe, the beetroot was from the mrAl S6 offer and my goat's cheese was some stocked by HB - it is 200g, looks like a pack of feta, but is goats cheese, for £1.19. The cheese was nice - sufficient tang to know that it was goat, without descending into 'flavours of the farmyard'. I added in; rocket, toasted nuts and seeds, seasoning and a citrus/miso dressing, rather than just oil/lemon, but none-the-less, a keeper of a recipe for me



Lunch today was leftovers, and I just threw in some rocket, some cooked quinoa, beetroot/apple salad, a blob of mayo and a squirt of sriracha - threw over a few whole almonds and a few whole blueberries, and stopped myself in my tracks. It looked........ so much more than the sum of it's parts? It looked like a poncy dish you'd see on a life-style blog, or it'd take up an gram of instant space on a picture site, or it'd cost you £12.50 at a poncy, high-end whole food eatery....... Is it daft that I felt really special? It was leftovers for heavens sake! Mind you, it attracted BG's attention, and they asked ever so nicely, but I was in danger of losing those precious blueberries to a swift hand and an impish grin! :rotfl:


I have no idea on tea tonight. We've plenty in, so we'll not starve.


I was beginning to wonder if I had made a mistake watching the footy last night........ But well done lads :T


Right, best go and do some chores, BG will be awaking from their snooze just now, and I've achieved a smidge of necessary admin, but need to get the pedestrian household stuff shoe-horned in too


Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:


It struck me over tea-time that perhaps I've moved too much away from 'simple' living, talking about 'keen-wa' fer a Monday night tea.................


Perhaps I've lost the plot?

And yet....... I don't know if I'm going to come across as just trying to justify my 'lifestyle', but thinking about it, I do purchase poncy, 'weird' ingredients; but I purchase them at the best price. It has helped enormously that mrAl and mrL and HB stock such delights as; Quinoa, brown basmati rice, capers, chia seed, dijon mustard (49p in mrL for really nice stuff!!!). And as for the goji berries, well, they cost me 35p for 20g - as I was able to weigh out what I wanted.



Tea this evening, could sound awfully pretentious - we had Asparagus Mimosa - based heavily on THIS recipe. And yet, the 'mimosa' bit of it just refers to covering your ingredient in finely chopped, boiled egg (I cheated, and sliced my boiled eggs in 3 different directions on the egg slicer - not pretty, but it worked ) So we had grilled asparagus (mrL's 'wonky' stuff, £1.39 for 200g or 250g - I think), with a dijon mustard (mrL's 49p a jar), and lemon (half lemon leftover from last night) dressing, on top of brown basmati rice (HB £1 a kilo), with a 2 tomato salad (M&$ basic tomatoes are 50p for 6, and I got 2 x 250g punnets of yellow cherry toms for 99p in a greengrocers in a local market town last week - produce of Spain), grilled pear (m&$ YS'd 4 large pears 'ready to eat' for 65p) - 1 pear between 2 of us, the grilling made the sweetness come out of the pear, which was ripe-ish but firm. A sprinkle of toasted sesame, pumpkin and sunflower seeds topped the lot off, with a sprinkle of sumac for good measure.


A tasty, 'interesting' tea, very much done on the 'cheap', using ingredients that I had bought (asparagus), combined with ingredients I had (eggs) and that were in my storecupboard (oil and vinegar). I suspect that that may be the last asparagus that I buy from mrL. The English asparagus season is drawing to a close, and the stems in the pack, whilst still quite slender, were more 'woody' further up the stem.



We would, if we had to, eat rice and beans, or rice and lentils everyday. But I, personally, would quickly get blue about eating the same things, without access to a decent spice and herb cupboard. But I've built my ingredient base up over time. You often need very little of something to transform a dish.



I love to experiment, but when I started out making food for myself, I didn't have much experience - didn't come from a vegetarian home, and ingredients were - I think - proportionally more costly "25" (+) years ago. That's if you could get hold of half the things.


So I am mindful of the waste of money attached to trying out new recipes, or unfamiliar ingredients. BG didn't eat much of their omlette tonight - and yet lapped up one last week - what to do? As it happened, DH finished it off, but eggs are 15p each. It all adds up.


But I do also like cooking and food - it's my passion. So I put in the extra effort to make nice tasting (hopefully healthy) meals. Trying to eat a varied diet is important to me, but not at any price. And food prices are still creeping up, in my humble opinion. And whilst seasonality should mean prices fall when the 'glut' point is reached - realistically this rarely seems to happen.



And don't forget - I buy and eat oven chips, fish fingers and tinned mushy peas, and enjoy those teas, just as much


So I hope I ain't painting myself as a pillock. As that isn't my intention. I like to get good food/meals at an affordable price.


Today i am grateful for these 3 things;


hugs and snuggles for reassurance... of the patient or nurse.....? :rotfl:

British produce and food seasonality



time to complete some vital admin - it's outta my hands now.........


Ta for popping in. Appreciated.


Greying X

beanielou

You dont need to justify yourself.
Especially on your own diary

greenbee

As beanie says, no need to justify yourself on your own diary. But by using a wide variety of ingredients you're making your food interesting, the cook's job interesting (very important), ensuring a broad range of sources for nutrition and exposing BG to lots of different foods at a young age.

Unfortunately children are annoying, and don't necessarily consistently like the same things. With the possible exception of chocolate... Most of my food waste is generated by the kids.

in_need_of_direction

Fish finger sarnies on white bread with real butter and hp are one of my favourite dinners but I am truly in awe of your creativity. Maybe when I'm a grown up I'll make dinners like yours.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:


Thank you beanie - I guess I was wittering on about 'keen-wa' and then I read the report about the problems primary schools are seeing with children turning up to class with unwashed bodies/clothes and unbrushed teeth and hair. Whilst there is always more to these issues than first appears in media reporting, I did question my approach to a 'simple' life within the context of not being able to afford a bar of soap.......



greenbee - how I wish BG would at least try some of the foodstuffs we have at our disposal. I don't mind 'no-likey' so much if they've tried something. It's when they've never tried it, and refuse to have it near their mouth on the basis of 'no-likey' - how do they know???? :rotfl:

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Maybe when I'm a grown up I'll make dinners like yours.

:rotfl::rotfl:Thank you inod -you've given me my first larf of the day And fundamentally, I remain incredibly grateful that I can exercise choice over the foodstuffs I currently get to buy and eat



Few bits and pieces to get today. We need bananas, as BG is currently in a 'I like nar-nars' mode - but this changes at the drop of a hat But at least DH hoovers up any remaining fruits - to the extent that there are never any 'really ripe' bananas to cook with! :rotfl:


Tea this evening will probably be beetroot and goat's cheese risotto, as I've both to use up. I will need to get a top-up of risotto rice. i'll probably get it from HB, I can't quite remember the price (for 500g) off-hand, but I'm pretty sure it is the cheapest I can get for the packet size, from the centre of town. Failing that, I'll get DH to get a 1kg box from mrL for £1.99. however, this is not without difficulty, as DH has very set routes around mrL, and looking for risotto rice is not on his radar...... Although I did notice on the weekend that our local mrL had put all their italian branded ingredients onto one shelving area.


Right, can't think of anything else :money:to witter on about, so best vamoose.


Ta for popping by. Appreciated.


Greying X

greenbee

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

greenbee - how I wish BG would at least try some of the foodstuffs we have at our disposal. I don't mind 'no-likey' so much if they've tried something. It's when they've never tried it, and refuse to have it near their mouth on the basis of 'no-likey' - how do they know???? :rotfl:

This conversation is still ongoing age 7 & 6 (as is the 'but last week you said it was your favourite food in the entire world and wanted it for every meal'). I've explained that I missed out on strawberries for about 15 years through insisting I didn't like them and refusing to taste them, and it's made a bit of a difference. Obviously BG is that much younger, so it's harder to have a discussion about it.

I found putting things out tapas-style so they could pick what they wanted (and how much, although they tend to over-estimate) helped. So that way they weren't faced with a plateful of food that they weren't sure about. Also bringing things out in relays - so starting with veg to make sure they ate it, then the main part of the meal, and then pudding if and when they'd eaten the stuff that matters... (although pudding is usually plain yogurt and some kind of fruit, with sprinkles if I'm feeling adventurous).

I'm sure others have lots of other stories and ideas. I think a lot depends on smell/texture/appearance. Toddlers go through very adventurous phases where they'll eat all sorts of things and then suddenly cut down... and then improve. We have one who doesn't like cake. What kind of child doesn't like cake??

Greying_Pilgrim

greenbee wrote: »

We have one who doesn't like cake. What kind of child doesn't like cake??

:rotfl::rotfl: - I don't have one of those, greenbee :rotfl:;) If fact, BG is quite adept at calling alot of things 'cakey' and munching away. This works in my favour, as I have a savoury 'bread' and a flapjack recipe that are actually packed full of 'good things' that they eat, because they call it cake........ There is no rhyme or reason to BG's eating though - they eat some things that you wouldn't expect a littley to, and yet won't consider others. Pudding in our household is generally plain yoghurt and fruit for BG and for the most part, they lap it up. Blueberries are definitely their favourite, but they like other fruits too (although not generally with yoghurt).


Greying X

greenbee

frozen blueberries added to yogurt make 'ice cream'. Frozen blueberries added to porridge make purple porridge...

in_need_of_direction

I once went through a phase where all food was cut into triangles where possible. It was then sold to them as pizza and was eaten on the basis that the turtles ate pizza.