From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

redofromstart

Lovely to have something to look forward to though.  

Our MrL had a £1.50 box this morning but from what I could see it had two pots of very dead herbs sticking out the top so I didn't even bother looking.  Have plenty of tired F&V at home anyway.

Greying_Pilgrim

I agree redo - the 'having something to look forward to' is actually quite special.  We're also not telling LG - on account of they are apt to go on and on and on and on and on about things when they know of trips/plans etc.  Plus, although I've worked out that the visit may 'enhance' a school topic, it won't be somewhere everyone has visited, and I don't want LG being targetted for being a swot or anything.  It's better if it's kind of a surprise, and then when/if the place comes up in lessons, well LG might know a little bit about it - so it'll perhaps 'bring the subject alive' or maybe make it a bit more interesting.  

Today's good news is that I've been released from jury service.  I am soooooooo relieved.  As it happens, i haven't had to attend at all, I have been incredibly lucky, as it would have been a worry about LG being cared for especially had I had to attend a 'further afield' court.

LG is at activity now, DH will go and pick them up later.  It's too long to spend schlepping around supermercados looking for YS, so we've decided to split drop off/pick ups.  DH and I also get to eat tea together, which almost never happens these days 😁  I wouldn't swap it for the world, but sometimes it is nice to be able to just have a conversation without fear of little ears hearing things they shouldn't - for whatever reason.  We had chickpea/mushroom murgh makhani (the 2nd of 2 pots), sweet potato and lentil wat (the smaller second pot of the batch I made the other day) and some rice from the freezer.  

We haven't a 'whole sky' sunset tonight, but some of the reds and oranges are absolutely stunning shades.  So lovely to be able to see it.

Thanks for all your help and support, for me here, and for others on the forum.  Super, super appreciated. Always.

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Good to hear you have an outing to look forward to 😊

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Yes, definitely good to have something to look forward to.  Although I am currently feeling something of an adventurous lightweight after being bombarded on WA overnight by friends and relations, all of whom are in the septuagenarian cohort, showing them yomping up mountainsides or swimming in some ice-encrusted lake.........😱  

Grey and overcast with us, but there is a breeze and so the whites wash has gone out (again - I've bombarded a yellowed-from-sunscreen top with soda crystals in the wash, but it hasn't really improved it 😕) and the bulk of DH's workwear is now in the machine.  The breeze should be enough to semi dry things.  Sunshine would get them totally dry.  Fingers crossed.

I'm going to make a new recipe for tea tonight.  It's closest to a veggie version of mousakka, but it uses tahini in the topping, and I have 2 jars I need to utilise better. The one jar is the wholegrain tahini, the other one is the honey one (both MrL Greek range).  Obvs I need to pick which to use when, but I'll give this recipe a go.  It will be interesting to see how LG takes to it, as the dish has mushrooms as an ingredient, and I'm going to put them in...... I'm also going to have a go at making dried onion flakes.  Seemingly dried Onion Soup mix is much more of a 'thing' in the US than it is here, and I can't find any.  It's simple to make up, but dried onion flakes (as opposed to granules/powder) are not easy to come by (unless y'all know different?), so I figured i would have a go at making some in the bottom of the oven, and then see if they are good enough to make up a batch of the 'soup mix' to use for slow cooker meals etc.  I don't own a dehydrator, so will use this way first to see if I can make something useable/edible.  LG has taken a piece of HM pizza and some pasta to school for lunch, so we can retain a tag on what day it is......... 🤭

Right, the wash must have just about finished now, so I'm off to peg out.

I forgot to add - after I had posted last night, the sunset set changed again, it certainly did get nearer to an whole sky' affair, but the reds - oh my goodness, the reds........ absolutely stunning.  Such a treat to witness.

Ta for popping in.  Lovely to "see" ya, as always.

Greying X

rtandon27

GP - I'm afraid that this side of the pond, the only place you are going to find dried onion flakes easily is online & in large quantities. 

TBH - any of my recipes from 'back home' that call for it, I just sub crispy fried onions that I blitz in the attachment to my soup wizzer stick - It's just a flavour profile you are looking for, that fresh onions just don't give! - You could also just use onion granules but quantities are hard to deduce!

This copycat recipe is a pretty good substitute for the soup mix!

Greying_Pilgrim

rtandon27 said:

GP - I'm afraid that this side of the pond, the only place you are going to find dried onion flakes easily is online & in large quantities. 

TBH - any of my recipes from 'back home' that call for it, I just sub crispy fried onions that I blitz in the attachment to my soup wizzer stick - It's just a flavour profile you are looking for, that fresh onions just don't give! - You could also just use onion granules but quantities are hard to deduce!

This copycat recipe is a pretty good substitute for the soup mix!

Oh hey sweetie, thanks for that info - I'm glad I'm not being dim and looking in the wrong place.  Interestingly it is a 'L1pt0n' copycat recipe that I have too.  Funny how some of the big brands have kept so intrenched in people's memories that we try to emulate them.  I had seen the crispy fried onions but hadn't explored them as I didn't know if the 'frying' bit would alter the taste from just dried.  I'll give DIY onion drying a go, but I suspect convenience may well out and I will default to a punnet of crispy fried onions in the future!  Great tip about whizzing them up - thank you 😁👍

This veggie mousakka dish is a bit of a faff - primarily because I am actually making my version from scratch - including cooking my lentils, whereas the original recipe uses beluga lentil pouches.  Which is absolutely fine, and a product I have used, but I wanted to utilise what I had.  Anyway, the flavour is good.  I substituted raspberry jam for pomegranate molasses.  We had a scrape left in the jar and the lid has never fitted safely since we've had them (I bought several when I was on holiday and the MrL there had the jars in stock - our local one didn't), so actually, it was good to use it up and get the jar (washed) into the recycling.  I did use a mushroom stock cube too, but I've minced the mushrooms, and it's not obvious they are an ingredient, so it'll be interesting to have LG's take on the dish.

Greying X

beanielou

You do actually get tinned onions. We used to get them at the food bank! 

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

I feel like I've had hardly any sleep...... oh wait, that's because I haven't......  Firstly meno-insomnia kicked in, then LG had a mid-night coffing fit and then DH started suffering bad dreams and was fidgetting and shouting out....... He said he can't remember the dreams, but he remembers they were scary 😕

The veggie mousakka wasn't a hit last night.  I won't bother to make the recipe again - even with convenience ingredients.  It was my fault really.  In a drive to use up an ingredient I have, I just looked at the fact the recipe used tahini, and didn't really "read" it first of all to see what the flavour profile might be.  The 'meat' part with the lentils and mushrooms was OK, but when I read that the topping need 6 tablespoons of tahini, I did wonder.... I don't suppose it helped that mine was wholegrain, as the colour was an unattractive dark beige......  I added in yoghurt and mustard (not to recipe) to enhance the cheesyness of the topping, but the tahini was too prominent.  LG still doesn't like baked potatoes, so they were miffed that I had done them, but then LG had already had pasta at lunchtime, so I thought it would be a change.  We did end up with clean plates all round, but LG took a long time to finish theirs.  I suspect if we hadn't had 'Flapjack Apple Pudding' with a ball of vanilla ice cream to look forward to for pud, the mains may not have been finished......  The pudding was an ancient recipe from beebeecee GF magazine from the last century (I kid you not), and I can't find a link, but if you think of Eve's pudding with 50g of porridge oats thrown in the batter and plenty of 'autumnal spices', you'd more or less have the flapjack pudding version.

The onions have only semi-dried - my oven was either mostly too hot or too cold to 'dry' them, and I chose not to leave it on low overnight.  I have stuck them in the slow cooker to try to get them a bit drier, with kitchen roll to catch any moisture.  I suspect they will 'work' but won't be any use to store.  It's worth trying these things though.  Certainly the stage I have got to now has concentrated the onion aroma, so I can see why they are an ingredient choice in soups and stews.

DH has gone to work... again 🙄The weather is grey and cloudy again, so I don't think I can get any clothes washed/dried.

Right, best shift-a-tail-feather and do something constructive.  But first a second coffee........... 🥱😴

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Oh in other news, I think our microwave has waved the white flag of surrender.  It's never been great, but now it can't even defrost things in under half an hour of nuking, so will have to get something else.  I think it was on tmv's thread that combi-micros were mentioned.  That had wandered through my mind as a good compromise, but I read that they get very hot, and that would be no good for the only spot we could really have it in the kitchen.  I'm glad that I read people's comments/experiences though - saved me making an expensive mistake.  If we were planning the kitchen from scratch, or we didn't have a cooker at all, then I might re-consider, but a 'conventional' microwave is the way forward.  I have a 'white goods' budget, and we do have sufficient in there to buy a replacement - luckily.  It got decimated when we moved here and had to buy new/replace.

Greying X

beanielou

I got my last microwave from Amazon warehouse.