From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Well, it's been an interesting few hours.....

LG decided to jump down some steps (why???), landed awkwardly and sprained their ankle.  It swelled up quickly, so we popped off to A&E as a precaution.  Mercifully although busy, LG was assessed, x-rayed, splinted and booked in for a check up appt well inside 2 hrs, so grateful for small mercies and all that.

So, apart from having to jump (me) through some hoops to get them admitted to school today, all is, actually, quite well.

Went to do the shopping at MrL.  Didn't realise that they are doing a promotion for Ramadan and came across a whole section of competitively priced spices, pulses, seasonings and snacks.  They had La1la brand 1kg brick packs of; chickpeas, green lentils and chana dhal for £1.79.  Whilst i don't think this beats the MrT offer on channa dhal and chickpeas (iirc), it does beat the 1ndus offer in MrM and the La1la offer in MrS  on Green lentils (if you eat them). So I did pick up a couple of packs of lentils, plus some ginger paste (99p 300g jar) for stores as they represented good prices (to me).  I will have to determine the total that I have spent on pulses just recently and plan a 'bulk buy' fund.  

Also, for...... redo?  I am pretty sure that the offer on the pineapple chunks and slices has gone off at our store - although the mandarin segments (think it's only on pots, not tins 🤔) and the peach slices offer SEL were still in place on those respective product sections.  whereas the pineapple SEL didn't have the offer on, and actually, there was no product on the shelves.

So, I did a very small top-up shop (for me), and I spent £16.41.  So will be taking this from my grocery budget.  The pulses etc came off another card, so will be dealt with separately.  I did take advantage of the 2kg onions in the PoTW offer, but celery was unpriced - so I guessed it would be 60p, but it has gone through the till at 69p 🙁  Needless to say, YS'rs were thin on the ground today and I didn't find anything that was reduced that appeared on my list.  I was tempted to buy a box of Tbags, as they actually had them in stock today, but I have stocked up from other sources, so left them there today.  I also noticed that there were 2 £1.50 boxes today, but I am so glad I checked them over first, as there was no way the contents were worth £1.50 of anyone's money 🙁 That sort of stuff wouldn't have even been taken by folk at the waste diversion scheme, and that is 'notionally' free food/pay what you can.  

mumtoomany - I am envious of your mushroom haul - I had to pay full whack for my punnet today 🙁  I'll have a re-read of your post/goodies list and see if anything springs to mind re-recipes.  I too don't think our family fit into the requirements of most of the survey companies, as we don't buy much, entertain ourselves with simple things, and basically are somewhat 'square peg' shaped in a round hole world.........

Tea this evening will be a veggie version of bobotie and rice, although I just stop at the 'minced meat' equivalent (use lentils), and don't bother making it up into a dish similar in construction to Mousakka.  I will serve it with rice.

Not a day for drying, so I've not put a wash on.  

So, that's me for today.  Off for a lie-down...... 🤣

Ta for dropping by.  

Greying X

teapot2

Think those visits to A&E with tiny humans are a bit of a rite of passage Greying, glad the wait wasn't too excessive and wishing LG well with their healing.  Hope the rest of your day goes to plan

Greying_Pilgrim

teapot2 said:

Think those visits to A&E with tiny humans are a bit of a rite of passage Greying......

Totally agree with you teapot2 - and at least now we have reached the stage where you can actually 'see' what is the matter, or LG can tell us what hurts/what happened.  

I suspect one or two enforced 'classroom-bound' breaktimes and missing out on activities will help the healing process no end..... 😉

Greying X

redofromstart

Hope LG is better soon.

thank you for the pineapple update, I haven't been as the road works are still in place. The MrT info re coconut milk etc is useful though - thank you. 

Just a thought, I was looking on Libby earlier (free with library card, i tut at good food and the gardening magazines etc and screenshot the very rare page of interest) and I noticed you can access a TV magazine for free. May be useful. Not sure if you can access via computer though.

ETA I used to do the dilution of coconut cream rather than buy coconut milk, the blue dr8gon one is £1.70 for 200g, 50g into 350ml of hot water makes 400 ml coconut milk (effectively 43p per tin) and you can freeze it.  Used to be pennies, but didn't everything? 'During the war' aka when I had time.  It's a hard adjustment going back to frugal rather than convenient but oh so worthwhile if I can delay going back to work.

Greying_Pilgrim

Hey redo - thanks for the well wishes for LG, I think they're going to  patch up just lovely, thankfully it wasn't a more serious injury.  The school secretary said that they hoped LG had learnt a lesson - I think her faith is misplaced.... 😁 

It's pretty much DH that uses the TV mag, and although he could use his phone, I think he prefers  a paper reference for ease.  I'm trying to recall which application for online publications our library has 🤔Libby doesn't ring a bell - but that doesn't mean to say they don't operate it, I've never used it, so am not familiar with the name.

I'm pretty sure it was dearest EH who mentioned MrT's cut price coconut milk, rather than me.  I don't think MrL has any coconut milk in their offer - I think there may have been a packet of dessicated coconut (1ndus brand), but that's all I can recall seeing 🤔

Greying X

beanielou

@mumtoomany. Mushroom stroganoff & mushroom soup are the only two that come to mind. 

redofromstart

@mumtoomany Shirley Goode mushroom stock cubes. 8oz mushroom stalks, 1oz shallots, 1oz butter. Mince the stalks and shallots and sweat in the butter until very dry, then pack into ice cube trays. I usually make soup (Tamsin day Lewis version) or pork stroganoff (delia) or just sweat to excess and add poached eggs

Greying_Pilgrim

mumtoomany - I've had a think and come up with some suggestions.  I have made all the vegetarian recipes (which may not be of interest to you).  I have not made slow-cooker fudge, but it is what sprung to mind when you mentioned condensed milk, and I obviously haven't made the Chicken with red bean 'cowboy stew', but thought it may appeal, as it's a one-pot meal, and I'm sure you're no stranger to cooking with chicken thighs.  

Mushroom recipes;

Kodova Mushroom curry - Maddhur Jaffrey

Railway Mushroom curry - holycowvegan.net (the other mushroom curry 'not mutton' might be worth a look too)

Earthy mushroom and red wine risotto - Jack Monroe

Red Lentil and pepper bake - I got this from my vegetarian student cookbook, it's easy uses quite a few mushrooms and I don't bother with the topping (can make it an expensive dish).  Nice hot or cold.


Red Kidney Bean recipes;

Budget Carrot, cumin and red kidney bean burgers - Jack Monroe

Chicken with Red kidney beans - "Cowboy Stew" 


Condensed Milk recipe;

Slow Cooker Fudge 

HTH Greying X

themadvix

Can’t comment on the mushroom recipes (I don’t like them), but a vote for the carrot, cumin and kidney bean burgers - they’re lovely. We haven’t had them in a while, so I might pop them on this week’s meal plan. Thanks Greying!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

Touché tmv! I'm minded to put it on the meal plan soonest too, as the Bobotie used up one of my 2 tins of kidney beans in stores, so it will be a use for the remainder.  I'm minded to put the red lentil & pepper bake in the mix soon too, as that is (as long as you like mushrooms) one of those dishes that delivers more taste than the apparent sum of its parts.

So tea was munched last night.  There is another (family size) portion of Bobotie left over for another day, and I cooked up a mass of green lentils, so there are cooked lentils for other dishes that have gone into the freezer too.  There was also a smattering of cooked basmati leftover too, so I have popped that in the freezer as it's always useful for a savoury bake filling or for adding to soup etc. 

The weather is supposed to be variable today - although the BBC forecast keeps changing, so who knows. I've thrown caution to the wind and have pegged out one washing load and another is in the machine.  There's a reasonable breeze today, so it potentially could be too good an opportunity to miss.

I'm undecided as to what to do for tea tonight (a lucky dilemma to have, I'm aware), either I stick to tradition and do pizza and wedges - although it will mean LG will have pizza twice, or I could do lentil bolognese and pasta, which LG loves, but is very, very similar in texture to bobotie, and might proved lentil overload.  It would also be easier to make the bolognese and pasta in advance of the rugger match tomorrow, although I was gonna do summat else entirely for that, come to think of it 🤔 Right, I will get my act together and make some decisions.

No money movements at this time of the month, although you know how squeaky tight the grocery budget is, and I remembered that I had forgotten to get porridge oats yesterday.  We have a full container of oats (for breakfast), but none in stores, so it possibly can stretch until next week.  

We did get clubcard vouchers yesterday.  I think it was for £6 - what I am thinking of doing is using the vouchers for groceries and transferring the money to 'C4C' - probably for March now, rather than February.  And yes, i realise that it's not the most 'bang for buck' using the vouchers instore, but we now don't buy anything from the 'associate organisations' side of things, so we don't use the vouchers in that way.  In ye olden days, when I actually used to shop at MrT, and it was a comparatively cheap place to shop, we used to garner enough vouchers to purchase our breakdown cover.  But breakdown cover has escalated and we don't use MrT's half as much as we did, so 'strategic' shopping is probably going to yield the best value for us imho.  

Um, can't think of owt else MSE related to natter on about, so best push orf.

TTFN, and ta for popping by. Always appreciated.

Greying X