The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

greenbee

Oh yes... pizza...

'don't like tomato sauce'

'It's not tomato sauce it's pizza sauce'

(It wasn't tomato sauce... it was every vegetable available pureed into a red sauce... they still eat it as 'pizza sauce' but wouldn't eat 90% of the contents if they were served up separately)

beanielou

Toddles round for tea.
I love risotto :drool:

Greying_Pilgrim

beanielou wrote: »

Toddles round for tea.
I love risotto :drool:

*sets a plate for beanie*


We will definitely be having risotto this evening, as I managed to get a bag of Italian arborio risotto rice from HB, 500g for 89p :j


I bought some more 'british' labelled strawberries from mrA, 300g for £1.09, as we won't be going to the nearby market town this week But I was sorely tempted to at least try the scottish labelled strawberries, as their price had been 'rolled back' to £1.29 for 300g. The only reason why I didn't, is because whilst they looked lovely and luscious, they failed the sniff test............. The ones I bought were lovely and red, reasonably unblemished and smelt of strawberries.



BG and I ate some of the strawberries for lunch - they were really nice, and just what you require from a strawberry - summer written right through them


We managed to dodge a short, sharp shower of rain :j returned several library books and took time out for a bit of relaxation in one of BG's favourite spots t'as been a goodly Wednesday, already today


I did miss to get the TV guide though. We didn't go past the newsagents, and M&$ don't appear to be stocking the 'cheap' guide..... I don't know why, as they always seem to sell copies...........


Right, BG is snoozing, so I best get moving!


Greying X

beanielou

Aldi do a great ice cream from Aberdeenshire.
Not sure if you have it in your neck of the woods.
It is called Strachans.
You get different flavours at slightly different prices.

redofromstart

This made me giggle - I'm the first to admit that I am definitely a toddler when it comes to food

I've always thought your meals frugal and inventive, and they often set me off looking at things I might not otherwise have tried,

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:


beanie - I don't get into mrAl all that often - but I shall make sure I keep an eye out for that Scottish ice-cream, and give it a whirl if I do see it


redo - I suppose I got a bit worried that 'poncy' ingredients always immediately equate to 'expensive'. I certainly won't try recipes that are full of chi-chi ingredients that would only get used once. But having tried some of the 'emerging' ingredients over the past few years, I've found that I like them, can use them in a variety of dishes, and now that some are more widely available, it's affordable to use them.



Tea this evening was Cecilia's Purple Risotto, which was very nice and a keeper of a recipe for me. It's a good version of risotto and fits into the index with Jack Monroe's beetroot and pearl barley orzotto recipe that she supplied to the.......... Royal Marsden Cancer Cookbook? Pearl barley is cheaper per 500g, but more of an autumnal/winter ingredient (for me), so it's nice to have several versions for year round recipes.


I used mrAl's S6 vac-pac beetroot (from some weeks ago), the remainder of the HB goat's cheese (definitely using that product again!) and my 89p/500g arborio risotto rice from HB.



The only things i did differently wereto; blitz one of the beetroot with a stick blender to ramp up the 'redness' of the dish and used caraway seeds in the risotto, then seasoned, and sprinkled pumpkin and sunflower seeds on top, along with the toasted, chopped walnuts. DH said he'd pay £11.50 for his tea. DH is a cheeky get and doesn't eat out often! :rotfl:


Pudding for those that wanted it/want it, is fresh fruits and greek yoghurt.




Today i am grateful for these 3 things;


BG's contentment in the simple things

a nice walk in good weather - and we dodged the only shower of the day :j

Seasonal Strawberries - YUM!




Ta for popping in. Appreciated.


Greying X

gallygirl

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

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.

You're welcome

The crazy thing is GP - you are buying them for not much more than we can buy them and they are grown a mile away :mad:. That's the bulk buying power of the UK I suppose. We are still getting strawberries at !!!8364;2.50 a kilo but I think we've just about reached the end of them now . On now to melons which again are grown on the doorstep and I'll do a price comparison with the UK...!!!8230;!!!8230;..

You're meals continue to sound lovely GP - everyone is aware that you buy your poncy stuff cheap - that's part of the attraction for us :rotfl:.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

gallygirl wrote: »

You're meals continue to sound lovely GP - everyone is aware that you buy your poncy stuff cheap - that's part of the attraction for us :rotfl:.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:- My dearest gallygirl - I now consider my 'pretentious chef wannabee' bubble well and truly BURST! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::T:T




Well, tea this evening was going to be a 'salad bowl' anyway, featuring cauliflower 'buffalo-style' (with hot sauce basically), but Chr1s Evan$ on R2 was wittering on about roasted cauliflower, just now, so that is settled now I got a cauli from M&$ t'other day - from their 'simple' range, £1 for a cauli that was as big as a small child's head :T I've used some of it, so will use up the remainder for tea tonight. I'll also use up the last 4 yellow cherry toms (from Spain) in a 2 tommy salad.



We will go out for a walk today We're getting short of greek yoghurt but our mrL is having stocking problems (it seems) so goodness knows if we'll get any in the forseeable


It should be a low-spend day, even if we can't manage a nsd.


Right, DH is outta the door, so I best vamoose.


Ta for popping in - all air-mail correspondance welcome


Greying X

Silver_Queen

To chime in... I was a child that didn't like cake. Usually too dry. Or chocolate ice cream... too chocolatey. I much preferred strawberries or strawberry ice cream. Oh how times have changed...!

UncannyScot

Can defo vouch for Strachans Ice cream... 'tis lurvley

I love your recipes and I know fine well you get all those exotic ingredients very frugally indeed, so while it may all sound very lah-de-dah, it's very MSE :money:

So keep on keeping on 'cos it's awesome what you do
:A