From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Right, so lunch munched.  I made tomato, green lentil and rice soup - using a punnet of tommie sauce/green lentils and rice from the freezer, with a chopped up and fried off onion and some garlic.  Added a mix of herbs and seasonings at the end.  It was certainly substantial, and LG declared it lovely, so we had clean plates all round 👍

I forgot to add that in addition to finding out about the other commercial bank's visit to school later in the year, LG is also slated to go on another school trip in the summer term.  Once again, we've scant details, but last time they went to this particular museum the cost was £10.  Although interestingly it is a local museum, and the location has been the subject of some conversation of late about the suitability of certain places to walk the children to, rather than bussing them hither and yon.  So we'll see.  I think it prudent to work on the basis I will need to find another £10 by June - anything less is a bonus.

LG found something to spend their money on in MrA in the end (DH came home via MrA to put some fuel in my car - so two birds and all that 🙄).  I think DH had to chip in some money too, as the relative's kind gift wasn't quite sufficient, poor DH.......

I'm just away to grate some cheese.  I have made the pizza dough, got the tomato sauce topping out of the freezer and will chop up some olives, as I think the 'half and half' is the way to go. 

We have nice sunshine now - it's not (currently) on the washing, but we've had some breeze, so I'm hopeful it will have been worth putting the washing out.

I hope the rugger is full of good technique, no injuries and all the supporters on here get to see their team succeed 😉

Greying X

rtandon27

Evening GP - checking in to see how your rugby night went?

Last night my OH watched the superbowl until who know what hour!  He needed a nap this afternoon! 😉

themadvix

Very late to the party (as always), but sooo glad I've found you Greying! I have caught up, bookmarked recipes and will be following along from now on!

Regarding window tradespeople - don't underestimate how far they will be willing to travel. I imagine anywhere up to 40 mins would be taken as standard, even for a job in parts. I know it never seems to have been a problem round here. We also had our windows replaced in two chunks - and no F or C certification. It seems to mean that you'll need a sign-off from the council when you come to sell, but when we looked it was £185 - I think the F certified fitters wanted several thousand more than the man we went with (who was firmly of the opinion it is all a scam - I don't necessarily agree).

Cheery_Daff

We had a few windows replaced a while back and they travelled well over an hour to us 😊 They were lovely. We'll be getting them in to do the next batch too 😊

EssexHebridean

If I am recalling correctly the family allegiances, then I reckon Greying is dealing with a rugby-traumatised LG at this stage.... I had the pleasure of speaking with a very strongly Welsh accented lady at the Land Registry yesterday...I may have been unable to resist the temptation to drop the result into the conversation...  

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening MFW'rs

Thank you for visiting and for leaving comments.  How wonderful.

RT the pizza worked out well in the end.  I did miss some of the match - but that was somewhat inevitable.  But i did a 'half & half' pizza, and DH and I had garlic mushroom, whilst LG was catered for with their favourite olive pizza.  I was very surprised with the result.  I didn't think England would have won that match.  So it was a surprise.  

EH - LG was disappointed, but has got over it - an older relative who also supports Wales is still bereft tho.  They don't like their team losing - especially not to England........😁

The one thing about the garlic mushrooms was that there was too much to put on the top of half a pizza, so rather than overload, I put the remainder back in the fridge and on Sunday, I made vegetable mushroom soup for lunch.  I sort of made the vegetable soup first (remembering to include a potato to make the soup creamy), blitzed it and then added the mushrooms and blitzed it again.  So it sort of made a mushroom soup 'light'.  I did add in some Greek yoghurt to finish it off.  LG (who professes to not like mushrooms), ate it up and declared it 'nice'............

themadvix and Cheery - it must make it sooooooo much better to have good window fitters.  I think we've ruled out the one fitter (who would need to travel to us), on grounds other than whether or not he would travel to us.  More on account of him having 'clingy' relatives who would want to re-establish a friendship (predominantly with DH), but who are still stuck in 1986, and don't really realise that things and life 'move on'.  

Well, I have zero money saving to report 🙁 And given it is half-term, I have been spending 🙁 However, things have worked out better than I feared.  We went swimming with some friends yesterday.  We dithered over the location, and ended up going to a spa/leisure complex.  I knew it would cost a little more than the public pools, but 2 minutes before we were about to set out, our friend announced that the price would be....... somewhat higher than we were originally told.  I had to give myself a strict talking to, and make every effort to go to the place, as I hadn't wanted to 'bust the budget' on day 1 of half-term, and would have preferred to go swimming at the cheaper public baths.  I'm not a proficient swimmer, so it's not my past-time of choice, but want, very much LG to be able to swim.  Anyway, we got there and were delighted that the entry fee seems something of a moveable feast (?) and we got admission for less than we thought.  So, in the end we were in the pool for nearly 2 hours and were able to change in clean, well-equipped changing rooms etc.  I surprised myself by enjoying swimming (as a child i was petrified of water and was never taught to swim 'properly' - the parentals were both non-swimmers, so I don't think that helped), and whilst I shan't ever give David Wilkie a run for his money, I was actually swimming!  So we had fun, and in the end, the price we paid was broadly similar to the leisure centre price, because we had the same time in the pool as 2x leisure centre sessions, so......  

Then today we pootled off to the next market town along.  We had haircuts - which were less than I was expecting to pay, but incidentally cost the same as yesterday's swimming.  We cruised the chazzers, and found some bits and bobs.  LG has been asking for a watch (they had one for Christmas a couple of years ago.... but it didn't survive the day 🙄), so we looked out for one, and lo & behold, there was a nice (working) watch, sitting in the cabinet at the cash register, waiting for LG to point and say 'that one'.  I also picked up a book for them - that didn't look as if it had been read - for 50p.  It was a book I was considering buying off Am*on at Christmas (to make free postage) and has a cover price of £6.99 😮This particular market town still (sensibly) has it's branch of Her0n F00ds, so we ducked in there and got a few Ys'd bread products that will be useful to accompany soup (we also popped into the branch of MrM, and amongst a couple of other things, got some YS's wholemeal pittas which will accompany dhal/curry plates in the future - so have been stashed in the freezer).  

Unfortunately we left it until we were returning to the car park to quickly duck into the library.  There were activities on for children - which were really attracting the crowds, so LG stepped to the side and got interested in the community jigsaw that was set out on the side for all to join in with.  I had a peruse of the cookery section and chose several books that are on a veggie/budget theme.  

I remembered it was Shrove Tuesday, so figured we would have soup for 'main' for tea, and then have pancakes - but I decided to make Nigella's American Breakfast pancakes with blueberries dotted in them.  Conventional pancakes are OK, but take so long to make a few.  Anyway, I figured I would try to be 'frugal' with the soup, to accommodate a 'stodgy' pudding so I went with Cinnamon Apple Turnip soup, which helped me use up some more of the massive swedish turnip (swede) that I had bought.  I cooked it in the PC, and added a bit too much water, so it was a little bit more liquidy than I intended (turnip doesn't thicken like, say, potato on blitzing) but was perfectly good soup.  I added a bit of greek yoghurt, as I don't routinely have cream, and the apples I used were just the 'misfits' out of the fruit bowl - nowt fancy.  It's difficult to tell that the soup is made from turnips, and LG ate it up and liked it - possibly based on my fraudulent/mangled french-like name of pomme. derterre.  based on it having apple in it and turnips grow in the ground...... 😉

I need to total up what I spent on groceries today - most of it was YS'd - and amend my siggie.  I haven't made any savings today, so no updates on pots 🙁

Lately I have been grateful for these 3 things;

turning up - we had a ball, maintained a friendship and it didn't break the bank
simple food - LG is getting interested in suggesting foodstuffs/helping to cook.  All good stuff.
finding functionality and fiction in a chazzer - and LG not minding that stuff is 'preloved'......

Ta for popping in.  As ever, I remain totally appreciative of your support.  

Greying X

beanielou

Sounds like a good day 

badmemory

I've said it before & will no doubt say it again somewhere but youngsters tend not to like the texture of pieces of mushroom.  In finally got my DS to tell me that.  He now has mushrooms whenever I put them in stuff, which is often as although we are not vegetarian I have reduced the amount of meat we eat severely & replaced it with mushrooms & many assorted veg.  We have recently reduced meat even further as he has had a cholesterol warning.  I have to say that I don't get why his is bad & mine is OK when we eat the same meals but as they say it is what it is.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon MFW'rs

Not alot to report thus far today.  

But LG and I popped to the cosmopolitan market town across the way, as there is currently an offer on 1kg brick packs of certain pulses (1ndus Brand) in MrM that I wanted to take advantage of, but the MrM in Greying Town doesn't have a World Foods aisle, and neither does the MrM in the market town we visited yesterday, but the cosmopolitan Market Town does.  I think - like the MrT La1la brand offer, it is on until....... April?  I'm pretty sure it is a longer term offer anyways, but I haven't any more green/brown lentils in stock, so went to get some today.  The offer is 2 packs for £4.25, which is 25p more than I paid.... last? year for the same offer.  But I think they are about the cheapest - and whilst the offer does include chickpeas and red lentils (don't bother - the MrT offer is better vfm, unless you prefer the 1ndus brand over La1la) - it also includes; brown and green lentils, mung beans, moong dhal (split mung beans), red kidney beans and popping corn.  I selected brown and green lentils and mung beans.  I was tempted to get a bag of the dhal, but opted for more mung beans instead.  I also got a YS'd 100g bag of fresh coriander for 26p (YAY!), which was priced the same as the smaller packets.  I suspect the person doing the stickering hadn't been paying attention as there was mislabelled stuff all over the place.  We got a couple of other bits that I must take off this months grocery budget too.  

It would have been nice to combine the shop with a walk, or NT visit, but the nearest NT place to that town is permanently closed (some guided tours, occasionally, but otherwise shut), and a significant walk up a local hill would have been on the cards had the weather been better.  As we passed, we couldn't see the hill top, as it was shrouded in mist 🙁We came back via a different route and saw some lovely clumps of snowdrops, daffodils and crocus.  

Tea this evening is going to be a bean stew featuring veggie sausages.  I am using a recipe from Dr Rupy's 'cooks' book, but as I won't be putting on the oven to finish off the cooking of the dish, it probably won't be differentiated enough from a veg/bean/sausage casserole that I would make anyway, so I suspect the recipe won't be a keeper as such.  But you've got to try these things.  One thing I am thinking of doing is using some of my cornmeal to make wet polenta to serve with, although I generally use it for dusting the pizza tray, so it's not fine cornmeal, so may be a bit too grainy 🤔 DH and I don't mind, but i don't think LG has had polenta before, so they may find it a bit too texturally challenging.  If all else fails, and I bottle out, I will make mashed tatties instead.  Not that mashed potato is a fave with LG 🙄

Right, best shift-a-tail feather.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening MFW'rs

Just a quick update on the meal made for tea.  It was a new to me one - from Dr Rupy Aujula's 'Cooks' book (got from the library).  It was the 'Sticky baked Beans and vegetarian sausages' one.  I never intended to cook it 'as written', because it involves the use of the oven - as many of his recipes do - and I can't justify it.  However, I certainly based my efforts on the ingredient list he gave -  but cooked mine predominantly in the PC.  I must admit, I wasn't mad keen on the flavour profile, which leaned towards stirfry/barbecue, although I did include as many of the seasonings as I had in my store cupboard.  I didn't use haricot beans, but subbed in black beans from the batch I cooked up from the MrL YS'd dried beans a few weeks ago.  I also didn't use cavolo nero, but subbed in frozen spinach.  I cooked my veggie sausages separately in the frying pan and then chopped them up and added them to the stew.  I did add in some chipotle chilli flakes......

I went with the 'wet' polenta choice, as I was feeling adventurous.  I used about 200g cornmeal (probably too much for 3 people) and used about 800ml of hot water.  I haven't made it in so long, I forgot what the proportions should be 🥹

LG......... dug in, and then decided that the stew was too hot for them, and they didn't like it because of 'all' the chilli that was in it 🙄 Anyway, DH confirmed that it wasn't too hot - it didn't seem too hot to me, and as I'm not mad keen on chilli myself, I never make stuff too hot, as I wouldn't eat it, and neither would DH.  LG did eventually eat it, after being coaxed to eat the stew with the polenta.  When they had finished their tea, they did admit that the stew was OK, but could we have it without chillies next time and that they had really liked the polenta, and would eat that again.  So partial success.  

It's not a keeper of a recipe for me - I think I already have enough stews/sausage casserole recipes of that type to use in future, and this didn't really bring anything new to the party.  I am pleased that LG likes polenta - as it is always useful to have different 'carb' options on the plate.  But I am glad  i followed the recipe, and tried something new.  I suppose the key difference was the finishing off of the dish in the oven, and I was unlikely to do that anyway with current energy costs.  

I suppose the takeaway for me is that I'm beginning to regain my cooking from scratch with frugal ingredients mojo.  I've not majorly departed from the concept by choice, but over the past few years - well, certainly since having LG I firstly didn't have the energy, and latterly, coping with 'me-no-likey' has made going 'off piste' very difficult.  When LG was going through their bland pesto pasta phase, I wondered if I would cook with more than 2 ingredients ever again....... 🤣  LG did want to get involved with cooking tea tonight, and I do try to let them, where and when I can, as I do think there is a correlation between LG being more willing to try meals when they have been involved in the making.  Being creative with a range of vegetables and pulses is the only way that I know to keep the grocery budget low.  And even 'low' in February 2024, is probably the highest I have ever known things to cost.  

For sure, we're not in quite as tight a bind now, as we were when we had to meet rental payments every month, but food prices seem to have just rocketed.  Interestingly, in the 'budget' cooking book I got from the library yesterday, Halloumi seems to feature alot.  I suppose in competition with meat proteins, perhaps Halloumi is the least expensive choice, but I have never really known Halloumi as 'cheap'.  The better quality product is expensive and the sort of 'squeaky cheese in all but name' alternatives have crept up in price too.  But then to be fair, I think this book is aimed at a generation of much younger home cooks, who will have possibly been exposed to a much broader culinary menu than I. So it is serving a different audience, who aren't necessarily looking for frugal budget meals - but perhaps meals that they can make at home that cost less than eating out/takeaways. 

And the gratitude that has struck me this evening is that despite the potential derailment of a dish, due to several too many chipotle chilli flakes landing in the saucepan, it is pretty darn amazing how far LG has come in...... 6 months?  They certainly are trying a wider range of foods now - even if they aren't familiar with the ingredients, they will give things a go - and we certainly have a much, much higher percentage of 'clean plates' than we have ever had before.  And I need to acknowledge that, because in their own little way, LG has become a real team player for Family Greying and is understanding the role that meal prep plays in budget management - and how being on a budget doesn't mean that you can't have nice foods, or a variety of foods.  You've just got to work at it a little. 

Thanks for reading.  Appreciated.

Greying X