The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Greying_Pilgrim

Well, I was right about our particular branch of morries being less than expansive on its stocking of world food brands. But we got a nice walk out of it, and coming home, a £10 note came fluttering along the pavement to greet me. With no-one else around, I can only assume it wanted to come home with us, so I took heed.

I will try to do something constructive with it. Most likely the FB will benefit.

I did buy a couple of bits and pieces from morries. They are still cheaper on one or two things, but not sufficient to make me divert to shopping there full-time, nor to make a detour to pick up x, y & z. There was nothing YS'd that caught my eye, and I don't know if they employ 'staged' price knock downs. Everything I saw was only 10p or 26p (that sort of discount) off the original price. Might as well purchase the fresher stuff..........

BG has fallen asleep on me. too much fresh air, obvs!

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

A couple of good things that I did notice in our local morries, and I don't particularly think that they would be specific to this branch, was quite a big section of 'free from' type foods, ie gluten/lactose etc. Can't remember specifics, but looked quite 'interesting' foodstuffs iyswim, and also their vegetarian range, both in the chiller section and in the freezer section was actually quite large. Far larger than it used to be in our store. I cannot believe that we have a disproportionate number of people purchasing these products, so assume that it is nationwide.

Tea has been munched - as slated, Maria Elias' Parsnip risotto. It is such a shame that the recipe is not on the net. Everytime I make this, I have forgotten how good it tastes! Is it the French that believe parsnips are only fit for animal fodder? Goodness, send me their share! So dang tasty, such a good use of a 29p bag of parsnips Served with brocolli (frozen), picture here;



Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

That I don't have it all - everyday is a new adventure in discovery

That I don't need it all - my happiness rarely has anything to do with 'stuff'

That I don't want it all - because you only have to dust it, insure it or find space for it - enough with domesticity already! :rotfl:

I hope you have all had a really happy Wednesday. I have

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

:rotfl: love your list tonight Greying :rotfl:

Also love the look of that risotto! :j We often stick parsnip in a risotto, but it's usually chopped up fine and mixed in - is yours roasted and served *with* rather than *in*?

Greying_Pilgrim

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Also love the look of that risotto! :j We often stick parsnip in a risotto, but it's usually chopped up fine and mixed in - is yours roasted and served *with* rather than *in*?

No love, you make a puree of parsnip; so you cook up chopped parsnip with garlic (onion and celery too if you want,but it's not in the original recipe), butter, milk, salt and pepper - then blitz. Then you make up a risotto in the normal fashion. Whilst you are doing that you can saute some parsnip pieces. Then when the risotto is cooked, you fold in the parsnip puree, and then top it with the 'roasted' (sauted) parsnips. In Maria's original recipe, she advocates making a stock with the parsnip peelings (which would really ramp up the parsnip taste) and there is marscapone and parmesan in the finished dish. I omitted these, as we agreed that the risotto is unctious enough without them. There is also thyme and lemon in the risotto in the original recipe. I put thyme in, but kept the lemon out, on this occasion.

If you ever spot a copy of her book, Maria Elias, 'The modern vegetarian' in a chazza, for 50p - get it for this recipe alone. It is SOOOO much more than the sum of it's parts. Wish I'd kept it until the 14th now, DH would have felt extra special Still, why not celebrate Wednesday 8th eh?

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

What a pity J0hn L3wis is changing its 90 days returns policy We bought quite a few baby bits from there. One of the factors was the extended period for return, a) because nipping to the shops to make a return isn't necessarily high on your list of priorities when you've just given birth* b) you might not realise something isn't going to work, until you've bubba in your arms, or c) you may never have bubba in your arms........

_________________

Thursday, buddha bowl. I'm sticking with using quinoa that I have in the cupboard, and eggs of which I have plenty. Any other featured vegetables or supporting cast is up for grabs.

I need to buy a stamp (1st class) today and post some cards. So fresh air and exercise is on the *cards*

I could also do with spending some time in the kitchen, using up stuff. But need to rearrange the freezer first too.

Pre-grating cheese for DH's butty making is working well, when accompanied by a broad guideline of how many days (min) it should last and how many days (max) I don't want him to exceed - otherwise his cheese sanger will be missing a key ingredient.......

Right, tail-feather-a-shifting time.

Ta for popping by. Appreciated.

Greying X

* we got caught out with this - a well-meaning relative bought baby clothes, included the receipt, with the instructions that they could be returned to a shop in a town which wasn't Greying Town. 2 of the items were so poorly designed, they never fitted BG from the getgo. Did we venture anywhere near that other town in the 30 days after giving birth? Did we buffalo......... We might have squeaked a visit in, within a 90 day period (the shop was not JL), but 30? Na.

muddywhitechicken

:wave: I hope all is well @ Greying Towers

I have the Maria Elias book and a bag of parsnips :j

MWCx

in_need_of_direction

Did you see the news story about the price of cheese potentially increasing by sixty per cent? Keep grating and rationing.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

Did you see the news story about the price of cheese potentially increasing by sixty per cent? Keep grating and rationing.

No, I didn't inod, what reason are they giving? I don't actually like that DH takes cheese every day anyway, but since he is good enough to make them for himself at the moment, I can't really complain.

mwc - delightful to see you, as ever. I trust that Mrmwc had a small sweet sherry in jubilant celebration of last week's rugger result?

Well, best laid plans of mice and Greyings... last night's buddha/salad bowl dinna happen. I was bobbling along quite nicely and then my energy levels just crashed through the floor and I was all but fit fer nowt. So we ended up having scrambled egg on wml toast with baked beans, and I was in bed by 8.30pm

Still, I feel better this morning, so did the right thing, I suppose. Although had there magically been a bowl of prepred fresh vegetables and fruit - lucious, fresh and juicy, I would have munched it all up, as that is what I really wanted to eat

I'm not too sure about tea tonight. DH has an afterwork commitment, which is of the time-expansive variety (nah, doesn't involve the pub ), so timimg a pizza and wedges will be difficult. I'll have a think.

We're pretty stocked up. But I'll go for a wander around somewhere, some direction to get some fresh air and exercise with Baby Greying. They did me proud yesterday, by bringing a smile to the faces of two elderly people that we know. BG didn't do anything special, it's just they were delighted to be able to see BG and their progress I guess.

Right, speaking of BG, there are smells beginning to seep from nether regions, and they are bouncing about, so it's getting pretty ripe _pale_

Mustache!

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

I hope you are all warm and well. It is cold, but thankfully not icy here with us.

Yesterday was lovely. We got out and about, because although it was me that lifted the last banana out of the bowl to scoff it, it hadn't occured to me that i would subsequently need to restock :doh:#isthereanyhope . So we put bananas on our list and off we trotted. We saw some nice blood oranges at the grocers, so bought some of those. I also bought some YS'd cottage cheese from h3ron. But when I tried it for lunch, it was decidedly orf, so I'm afraid I binned it - Yes, I'm sure if I had returned it, they would have reimbursed me, but I couldn't justify the time spent going back up the high street for the sake of 51p. I shan't bother buying that product again, reduced or otherwise. We bumped into a couple of people on the high street, one of whom didn't know I had been pregnant/had Baby Greying - so they were delighted to see us and 'meet' BG They are the sort of person that you wish was a family member; they are bouncy, bright, call a spade a shovel, adore kids and would drop everything to help you out. Really nice person. Almost had me in tears though, as they were so overwhelmed by BG's unexpected arrival in our lives

I enjoyed spending time piecing together tea under BG's close supervision. And as it was DH came home earlier than anticipated, so BG had maximum play time with daddy too. I ended up doing a salad bowl for tea, as I was still craving 'light fresh' foods - much as I lurve pizza & wedges - and came across some YS'd sprouts (only in mrW, so not that cheap) which became the centre of my 'bowl'.

I made the 'best marinated lentils' that is an Angela Liddon recipe, but I got it off Laura Wright's blog. I used masoor (brown) lentils and beluga lentils. I sauted some sweet potatoes, cut up a cucumber that I bought, boiled up some brown rice and steamed the sprouts in the microwave (actually overcooked them. because I left them in the microwave and responded to an email - should have removed them, and dressed them, there and then ) and dressed them with a version of Asian Citrus dressing. I didn't use coconut aminos (??) nor fish sauce; but did use blood orange juice and zest, a finely chopped lemongrass stalk and coconut milk. I dolloped a lump of yoghurt on the side and sprinkled spices and chopped seeds over. Picture here;



Hit the spot lovely. And whilst the sprouts weren't quite as crunchy as I intended, they were good enough.

Tonight we will be having curry based on cauliflower. I hope to have most of it prepped in advance of the Wales v England rugger game. Which should be a good un. May the best playing team win. I don't think I shall have time to watch the earlier game - is it Ireland v Italy? But shall try to keep an eye out.

Right, time to say ta-ra for now.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Not too sure that I have achieved overly much today Must try harder tomorrow.

We've just caught up with the Wales v England rugby match and throughly enjoyed it as a game of rugby. There weren't any serious injuries :j for the most part the game was played in good spirit and whilst the result could have gone either way, I'll admit that I'm pleased England won. However, yet again, not a forgone conclusion - so well done team Wales for making a victory for England so hard. I'm also glad that trys were scored - no reliance on kickers (from either side)/penalties/drop goals.

We had curry for tea. I ended up being disproportionately pleased with the choices I made, in terms of using things up/thrifty ingredients etc. The Cauliflower curry not only made use of half the fresh cauli that I bought for 85p, (and more cauli could have found its way into the sauce), but also a pot and a half of coconut milk out of the freezer, from the can that I opened last week. The spinach dhal used up 3 blocks of frozen spinach that I may have struggled to find a use for, and also used up the rest of the cooked (but not marinated) lentils that I cooked for tea last night. As I was using coconut milk in the cauli curry, I used yoghurt in the dhal. Seemed to work perfectly fine. I will however, not rush to buy mrS basiks rice again in a hurry. Had I needed sushi/sticky rice, this would have been perfect, but as boiled rice for a curry? It's a long time since I've had rice that hasn't cooked well by the absorption method, which is usually pretty forgiving.

Picture here;



Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

for my talented, resourceful husband.

for the members of the Welsh and English rugby teams, who played such a good game of rugby, providing us with high quality, free entertainment.

for recipes that allowed me to put hearty (if unglamorous) food on the table, for a fraction of the cost of a take-away.

Thanks for popping in, reading and supporting me. Greatly appreciated.

Greying X