From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

peb

With your potato mountain have you considered potato dumplings 

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/sausage/sausage-casserole/

I could be wrong but I don't think you like gnocchi as a family - I suppose potato dumplings are large gnocchi....🤔

rtandon27

How about Latkes? - pan-fried thin hash browns eaten with creamy sauce of choice.  My favorites are my mom's recipe for potato/parsnip latkes with horseradish sourcream - I have zero clue where she got the recipe (as my mom is not known for her cooking) but anything fried is gobbled up in this house so that recipe is a keeper!

I'm also thinking of something my Gran called a potato-chop - much like a fish-cake but with whatever leftovers were in the house, mince, chickpeas, cooked veg, grated cheese - very frugal as she was always stretching every last bit of food and very tasty as once again pan-fried so more-ish.  I remember her saying she was taught how to make these by a neighbour when she was a young bride living abroad with her new husband (my Grandpa - lol) and not knowing how to cook let alone run a house!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening MSE'rs

Thank you for all the recipe suggestions - you know I'll  investigate them and will experiment where I can 😁

The Detroit style (only style - I wouldn't say it counted as 'exact'), pizza worked out well.  I ended up making 2, because I figured the dough would be too much for my biggest square pan.  I had seen on line that you proved the dough, and then "slung" it in the pan to prove further, and shaped it to fit the pan when you were ready to add the toppings.  I have to say, the smaller pizza didn't fill the pan in the second prove, so i (gently) pulled it to fit the pan - promptly letting out most of the air ☹️ So when I make them again, I shall make sure that i form the dough after the first prove to "approximately" fill the pan.  This worked with the bigger pizza, and most of the sides had pressed up against the side of the pan, and the pizza was approximately 3/4" in height when cooked, which is pretty 'poufy' 😁

I've never made a veggie sausage pizza before, but I fried the 4 frozen qu0rn sausages first, then I chopped them up randomly.  I topped the tomato sauce with the chopped sausage and then added smoked paprika and the cheese.  With the tomato pizza, I topped the tomato sauce with cheese, then the small diced tomato, and added a bit more cheese and some dried basil.  

I diced up 6 or 7 of the red tatties and treated them as i would wedges.

The sausage pizza was cut into 6, the tomato pizza was sliced into 4 - with the intention that the tomato pizza was for another day.  And I have to say, 2 pieces of the 'deep' pizza was sufficient - we were all stuffed.  

I would definitely make this pizza style again.  I read a blog/recipe where the author had investigated water ratios etc, and good information was given.  I particularly liked that bread flour v all purpose flour (it was an American web page) had been investigated.  I ended up using approximately 2/3rds bread flour and 1/3rd plain flour, with about 210g of liquid (warm water and a bit of olive oil).  

I did not "load" the top of the pizza with cheese, so that it spilled against the sides of the pan to form a crust.  That isn't what I was after particularly, although greasing the pan well did mean I didn't have too much issue with getting the pizzas out.  

DH and LG really liked this style of pizza, and they both loved the veggie sausage topping.  We all felt that although it was a smaller pizza, 2 squares was sufficient.  I must admit, and I'm not trying to blow any trumpets, but this was possibly the most like a 'pizzeria pizza' I have ever made, and even DH commented that we'd be delighted to eat this in a restaurant - but I think he was a bit out of touch with his guess that our tea would cost us £10.50 in a restaurant...... 🤣




The tomato sauce made 2 pots of tomato sauce and 4 pots of pizza topping, which are now in the freezer.  The 4 slices of tomato pizza are in the freezer too.  We all had an ice cream for pud.  Fakey magnummys and fakey corneyettoes.  

The washed bedding dried well, and I will set it on the airer just now.  

Ta for popping by.  Appreciated.  Greying X

rtandon27

wow GP - what a success - I'm mighty jealous of your homemade fluffy pizza - it's been an age since I've had that style & can I say it looks absolutely delicious.

Pizza & wedges on a Friday - all is right with the world 💓😉😁

beanielou

Pizza looks amazing. 

Cherryfudge

Those pizzas look just delicious. Very professional.

We have plenty of discounted carrots up here in North Yorks and I still have most of two bags of potatoes and two of carrots from Easter as well as discounted broccoli, so I'll be following your cooking with interest. I'm beginning to think I should build a vegetable clamp before the Christmas discounted veg become available!

Humdinger1

Dearest @Greying_Pilgrim, you are free to make decisions based on your priorities rather than those of the consumerist society around you.  You're doing a brilliant job of that.  It's none of my business how you came to make this admirable choice, though must confess I'd love to have whatever details you're happy to share.  I do think it will get even harder to navigate on one salary but that doesn't mean that your stance is wrong.  Whether it's for reasons of health; wishing to make an ethical stand; wanting to show that this is possible; all of it or something else entirely, might it be worth considering working on a project or temporary basis so that you can raise funds for specific things like the car, or windows? This might fit with your underlying philosophy fully or to a degree? Whether that's better than a loan, if you need to buy windows and a car at the same time - which I guess might not work for some of the underlying reasons above - only you will know.  Love Humdinger xx 

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Well Fam. Greying got their arrisses into gear for a change and we've walked into Greying Town, done all the things and come home again.  Just in time for elevenses 😁  A £1.10 bag of doughnuts was secured from the M&$foodall, and the kettle popped on as soon as we walked in the door 😁  

School shoes have now been purchased.  We're still lacking school pe pumps, but they were the least imperative of the shoeing requirements.  They will be needed, but we've a slight breather before they are desperately required.

The monthly money shuffle has taken place and I've topped up the windows fund - only by a little, but it's at least going in the right direction.  LG has gathered a little bit of pocket money, so that was deposited into their bank account too, to prevent temptation setting in.  They are getting a little better at seeing the value of saving, but gone are the days when any money they received was handed over to me to put in their account...... Ah well, fingers crossed they come good.  We did have a discussion about banking and wages, and costs and bills (briefly) this morning.  And funnily enough, when we were walking out of town, a householder, who must be connected to the local food waste diversion scheme, had set out a little stall at the front of their house with 'free to take' produce...... it will not surprise fellow MSE'rs that the stall was groaning under the weight of...... supermarket carrots and potatoes.........🤣  We didn't indulge, but LG did read the sign, and was up for us taking some - as the sign implored you to do.  However, we have plenty, so didn't take any.  But there was a lesson there too, about only taking what you need, or better still, what you know you can use and won't waste.  

A library book was returned and DH took a couple of books he'd bought from chazzers and read, back to a charity shop.  I spent some money on non-food items in hB - £3.87 to add to my total.  

I think I shall at least make a parsnip curry today (PrC recipe), even if we don't eat it (it freezes well), Oh and I was thinking, as I was walking this morning, how "daft" it is, in a way, to top pizza with veggie sausage - from a cost point of view ie, a pizza is a 'meal' and sausages can be eked out, say as a pasta dish, or something in the style of jambalaya as a 'meal' too.  But then I did some math, and the 4 sausages I used cost out at just a smidge under £1.  A jar of black olives now costs 89p, so using the sausages wasn't "that" much more costly than our usual topping.  And we liked the sausage pizza, and it was something different.  So I think in this instance, we still achieved a 'frugal food' option - which is satisfying to know, and something I need to bear in mind when I'm next dithering about the infrequency with which we eat out/have take out.  We all enjoyed the pizza, and it was economic.

Mind you, I fell down the rabbit hole of investigating pizza making equipment this morning, on finding a UK manufacturer of all things catering, whether you like your pizza square or round 😉  Perhaps HM pizza won't turn out to be the economic option, after all 🤣

Right, best push orf and do a bit more.  I've finished my coffee and the doughnut has been munched (too sugarey).

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Bright start with us.  Clothes wash on.

Tea last night ended up being cheese and tomato sandwiches and a bag of mini cheddars, as we were all still stuffed from our Minestrone-esque  soup at lunchtime.  I did go to the trouble of cutting the sangers into little triangles and plating them up like you'd see at a posh hotel 😁I didn't have any cress to strew, a la Nig3lla, but it looked like I'd made the effort 🤣 Yoghurt and banana for pud.

The next few days are going to throw up a conundrum with eats.  I've not got a plethora of salad-y things to call upon, so I'm going to have to put my thinking cap on.  Although I have got some carrots (🤣) and some easy peelers - so buckets of Morrocan Carrot Salad it is! 😁I have 95p left of my budget, but I suspect I will need to hold onto that for milk, possibly before Thursday.  DH being home has seen the kettle on for tea every other minute 🙄

Tomorrow's tea will be a SC plant-based balls with tommie sauce pasta dish as club should be starting back up.  Will need to gather up what remains of the CHB to pay fees this week.  

Don't think we'll be going out anywhere today.  DH is already moithering about returning to work 🙄 and we've plenty to keep us occupied here anyway.  

Planning ahead I need to bear in mind that half term is in May (for us), and DH is on holiday with us, so I'm going to have to be more inventive with less 😁There is also a BH a week tomorrow.  These are all good things and I'm up for the challenge, it just won't be easy, is all.  

Right, best crack on and make hay in the sunshine.  Ta for popping by.  Greying X

in_need_of_direction

Potato salad?