The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Cheery_Daff

I grate then freeze too (with a sprinkling of flour so it doesn't stick together - no idea if that's even necessary though!). I also do it in bags, then it lies flat in the freezer and doesn't take up much room

Hmm - I just read a post from you and now it has vanished. That was about cheese too! Wonder what I did?! :rotfl: :rotfl:

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Thank you for all your cheese tips - freezer bags are the way forward, obvs! hex - do you get your bags from h0m3 bargins? or Bee&M?

Tea last night was cobbled together curry - onion, garlic & ginger paste, spicy tomato sauce, spinach, cauli & green beans. Surprisingly nice, but a tadge hot, due to the fact I blitzed chilli in with the onion & garlic, and then remebered I was using 'spicy' tomato sauce Served with yoghurt!! leftover dhal and white basmati - pic here;



Soup for tea tonight.

Right, must dash, DH has been on Daddy duty, but needs to vamoose, so must I.

Greying X

Verbatim

I cut large blocks into smaller blocks, say 6 for a "normal" sized block and freeze. No trouble grating when defrosted and not claggy. If anything it can get crumbly but I have been known to defrost more than needed and then refreeze and I think that might be why.

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks Verbatim - I think what I'll do is to get some bags and grate most of it, then I'll cut several blocks, wrap them well and freeze them, and then experiment at the other end. I know grating and freezing works, and the cheese in blocks isn't going to be 'ruined' by freezing it, so we'll see what happens.

Cheery - you're perfectly right to put something in with the cheese. Pre-grated mozarella cheese - sold as 'pizza' cheese, always has potato flour in it to stop the flakes sticking.

joeyjimbles - I had a feeling that you hadn't got a h3ron near you - what I meant was, that offers on coconut milk are thin on the ground, so I was pleased to see this one yesterday, particularly as the quality seems OK (will tell better tonight when i open a can). It has saved me money on something that I purchase anyway, which is the backbone of MSE thinking :j

Baby Greying has fallen asleep on me again They will wake up the moment i set them down, so might as well wiffle on for a bit......

try harder - that is some good going sticking to a budget of £46 pw feeding that many! Are you a meat eating household? Yes, I agree that bargain shopping is time consuming. I haven't got it down to a fine art - although I'm not convinced that the YS'd bargains of yore exist much anymore - not on a regular basis anyway, so I don't think the fact that I can't linger around supermercados at 9pm+ matters quite as much as it did. It's an ongoing job to come up with tasty meals for what I can get cheaply, and not wasting anything, unless I really can't help it.

maddiemay - lovely to *see* you. Thank you for your ongoing support - it means much to me! Yes, 4 weekly payments has been an eye-opener to me too. Much prefer calendar month, and only having to be firm at Christmas with 'early wages'. And I heartily agree that there is nothing new with 'rubber chicken'. Whilst I think it is great when new generations find the benefits of RC, I wish they didn't claim that they're the only ones that know about such things - implying the rest of us are dunces! :rotfl:I've always been nearer to monetary poverty than monetary riches, so need to watch the pennies, but even I have got complacent - think I've had a really valid reason for taking my eye off the ball!!!! But none the less :rotfl: Time to take stock now I think Although I'm forever grateful that my 'riches' in life, lie elsewhere - wouldn't swap it for the world

EH - I would love to go back to HM bread, from the BM or by hand, but after 'cheese-gate' on Monday, I can imagine DH just slicing a loaf in quarters and making two sangers out of it - doorstep city!!! Lunch has to be munched on the go, so unfortunately convenience wins out....... One day, I may own a pan0s0n1c and make bread daily for us all I've owned a cheapy BM - got on with it fine - to the extent that I wore it out :rotfl: That was a long time ago though.

Right, I'm going to attempt to move, as I've chores to attend to.

See y'all later.

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Mr cheery is a fiend for giant slices of home made bread :eek: I tend to time it to finish first thing in the morning (when he's not up), thinly slice myself 5 slices for the freezer for work lunches, have my own breakfast - then whatever happens to the rest of it is up to him. He's the same with shop bread (which we rarely buy) so at least this is cheaper! But pre sliced stuffay well solve the problem... good luck!

Cheese-gate reminded me of a story I read in the war when he dad came home nd made a cheese sandwich - not realising he'd used the entire family's cheese and butter ration for the entire week! :eek: :eek: same thing happens here. (Not that we're on the ration, not that far behind the times! :eek: :rotfl: )

Best stop talking rubbish and go to work

EssexHebridean

:rotfl::rotfl: You lot - in between "cheese-gate" and rationing stories, that made me chuckle!

Greying I did have a marvellous picture in my head of you weighing the cheese before and after Mr Greying had used it and then going :eek: at the result! :rotfl:

Agree about frozen cheese tending to go crumbly - for things like topping jacket potatoes I often find that once it's come out of the freezer I can just cut it up roughly with a knife and the natural crumbliness does the rest . Beats grating fingers, although the added protein can be useful, admittedly!

I find the best "test" for coconut milk is usually to put the tin next to my ear and gently shake - if it;'s the type I like (with the really thick stuff jammed into the top of the tin) I don't hear much movement - if I can feel and hear it sloshing about I pop it back on the shelf. Works for me.

I too hanker after one of those sooper-posh BM's - the current one was a charity shop bargain a few years ago, and is a straight replacement for our earlier one (Morphy Richards I think) which we did indeed wear out. It does however have an element of "Trigger's Broom" about it - as first the old breadpan wore out - and was replaced with the charity shop pan, then the old machine wore out, and was replaced with the charity shop machine....and finally the pan fro THAT one wore out, and was replaced with a bought-online replacement pan! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Next time I need to buy one I have promised myself it will BE a swanky one!

Greying_Pilgrim

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Greying I did have a marvellous picture in my head of you weighing the cheese before and after Mr Greying had used it and then going :eek: at the result! :rotfl:

Erm, well that is sorta, kinda what happened........ sorta :o:o:o I wondered how he'd been able to fold the flap down on the cheese, given it was a new packet. He's normally a fiend for leaving it open and the cheese getting dried out. When i picked the packet up, I couldn't believe that there was so much packaging, so weighed it. The block was 830g.... and it weighed in at 768g....... And don't even mention that the other block that we got was 830g on the packet, but actually weighed 847g..... the wrappings aren't that heavy.........

Cheery - I love a hunk of HM bread with soup But did find it a little fiddly to cut nicely for sandwiches. My aunt and grandmother is/was fabulous at being able to upend a loaf and cut lovely uniform slithers of bread. I have no idea how they manage it - they never use/used a serrated knife. Never cut their finger at the end either, stopping the bread from 'tearing' the crust. It was always wholemeal bread too. Necessary frugality develops necessary skill I suppose.

Went up the high street and got everything on my list......... forgot the one thing that was not on my list...... freezer bags! :doh:

To lunch..........

Greying X

hex2

I buy the Home&B bags in a blue box with a picture of frozen raspberries on it. Best thickness for money ratio that I have found.

I was stopped in traffic this morning and spotted that the animal based charity shop in coalville had a L4kel4nd dehydrator for £7 in their window display.

Greying_Pilgrim

hex2 wrote: »

I buy the Home&B bags in a blue box with a picture of frozen raspberries on it. Best thickness for money ratio that I have found.

I was stopped in traffic this morning and spotted that the animal based charity shop in coalville had a L4kel4nd dehydrator for £7 in their window display.

Aw, thanks hun, I shall PUT FREEZER BAGS ON MY LIST and look these out tomorrow. Blue box. Raspberries. Got it

Looks up Coalville on map and works out if pedalo has enough juice in it to get me there by close of play today to bag that dehydraytor....... What a steal! Someone's going to get an absolute bargain. Well spotted.

Greying X

hex2

I've got one already or I'd have found somewhere to park. I use mine for apple rings but it is a big bit of kit to squeeze in the cupboard unless you use it a lot.