My journey to a debt free life

Onebrokelady

Just reporting in from a soggy Devon, it looks like it rained in the night because all the leaves on my garden are wet and they were nice and crunchy yesterday ,I wanted to sweep them up but can't yet so hopefully they will dry out for next week and I will be able to do it fingers crossed.

Last night I cooked the Hello Fresh meal which was a warm  Cavolo Nero and Squash salad served with buckwheat, it was so easy to make and tasted fantastic, I think my body has gone into shock though because it's not used to all this healthy food 😂 tonight we have the last HF meal which is a pasta dish, it does have olives in which we both hate so we are going to leave them out and hope it doesn't spoil the flavour.

We also got the new menu for our next lot of Gousto meals yesterday so have ordered those, I'm actually excited to try them out and looking forward to cocking them and I hate cooking. The price for Gousto is £24.50 for four meals for two people which is £12.25 and I think works out at about £3.06 per head so I'm not sure how cost effective that is compared to buying the ingredients yourself. We have got the recipe cards so can try to recreate the meals later if we want to. It certainly cuts down on food waste because  you use everything up but I'm a bit put off by the packaging. Most of it comes unwrapped or in paper but some bits are in plastic like the herbs and spices so it's just balancing that out and also some of the spices we have used might be hard to get hold of 🤷‍♀️

Today I again stuck at home. I took B for a walk earlier so I've had some fresh air. Now I've finished my jumper I'm going to finish the cross stitch that's on my frame, I'm putting it off because I have to add DGS name and I hate plotting where it's got to go so that will be today's challenge. I might also paint some more of the advent house and I did say to DD that I might make some jam tarts 🙀I might have to do those first actually because I think she will throttle me when she gets home and I haven't made any 😀

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

I have made 4 HF meals so far, all veggie, and really enjoyed them. I made honey & lime halloumi yesterday with rice & a tomato salad.  Who knew that tomato with chopped coriander in olive oil, squeeze of lime and S&P could be so yummy?! I have cancelled my subscription but assume i'm getting one more delivery on Monday.  As it's mostly just me here it's too expensive.  I shall keep the recipes and make all the dishes again though.
You sound very productive and i hope you and DD both enjoy the tarts

Sun_Addict

I think the recipe boxes are great for people pushed for time. I suppose it cuts down on buying an ingredient to make one recipe then never using it again. I have plenty of things like that in my cupboard 😆

Onebrokelady

Deni_debt-free_dreamer said:

I have made 4 HF meals so far, all veggie, and really enjoyed them. I made honey & lime halloumi yesterday with rice & a tomato salad.  Who knew that tomato with chopped coriander in olive oil, squeeze of lime and S&P could be so yummy?! I have cancelled my subscription but assume i'm getting one more delivery on Monday.  As it's mostly just me here it's too expensive.  I shall keep the recipes and make all the dishes again though.
You sound very productive and i hope you and DD both enjoy the tarts

It's definitely renewed my interest in cooking. Last night we had a tomato salsa with our pasta dish which was tomatoes, flat leaf parsley, balsamic vinegar, olive oil plus salt and pepper and the tomatoes tasted gorgeous. I've been looking at the spices tonight and where to buy them or make the mix yourself 😊

Onebrokelady

Sun_Addict said:

I think the recipe boxes are great for people pushed for time. I suppose it cuts down on buying an ingredient to make one recipe then never using it again. I have plenty of things like that in my cupboard 😆

Definitely cuts down on food waste but increases packaging because some things are in little plastic pots or sachets, most of the rest of the ingredients are in paper bags. I did find one of the spices we have used in sachet form today but it was £1.00 a sachet whereas a jar was £2.00 so it's not cheaper to by the sachet. I have investigated how to make our own spice mix tonight and lots of them are made with the spices already in my cupboard so might try that 😊

Onebrokelady

I was so happy with the meal I cooked last night I had to take a photo 😀it was so tasty I will definitely be re creating it .....Rigatoni  Caprese 😊

Onebrokelady

Very productive afternoon and evening yesterday. I made the jam tarts so DD was happy when she got home. I also finished the cross stitch for my DGS, put the one I got last Christmas on my frame and made a start on it 🎉🎉🎉.

Today I had to go to the shops because I had run out of bread and dog treats. My leg was throbbing when I got back.DD has been at home today because she is ill with Covid like symptoms, I'm sure it's just a cold but her job are making her have a PCR test so we are waiting for that to arrive in the post 🙄

The Pom Pom makers arrived today so we made a start on making those, we managed 12 in about an hour or so,I think we should have started back in the summer 😂😂

Tonights  adventures with cooking involved me eating courgette which I'm not keen on but it was quite tasty. The meal was roasted veg with jewelled couscous and it was lovely yet again. We have finished the HF meals so this was a Gousto one ,we have now eaten them all apart from the cauliflower curry. We should have eaten that one earlier because when I cut the cauliflower open it had gone mouldy inside so I'm gutted we wasted it. I will buy a cauliflower though and make the recipe with the rest of the ingredients 

Tonight I have spent time looking up spice mixes so I can make my own and recreate other meals we have eaten this week. Every one has been excellent and all but one made extra portions. I have gone from eating the same food all the time to having a different meal every night. I'm definitely feeling more interested in cooking in general which is a big thing because I don't like cooking ......Nigella eat your heart out 😂😂😂

Sun_Addict

It’s like Masterchef on here 😆 That food looks delicious 😋 I love trying new recipes and have loads of cookbooks, it’s just having the motivation to trawl through them and come up with something. 

milann

I have loads of cookbooks but got myself into a rut. I need to get them out and trying some recipes.
Your food looks and sounds delicious OBL 👏👏

Seasidegal58

The rigatoni dish looked delicious OBL. 😋. Like @milann I seem to have got in a rut with cooking - I need to perk myself up a bit.