Vegan Storecupboard Challenge 2024

Cherryfudge

Thanks @leftatthetrafficlights, that's useful info whichever way I go about getting some (and the furniture polish will remain untouched). I'm imagining it would be lovely with fish too. We've an M&S food place near here so I'll have a look.

leftatthetrafficlights

Last night's dinner was a 'bolognese' made from onions, mushrooms, courgette, cauliflower, beetroot, walnuts and tomatoes with wholewheat pasta and salad. 

I've just been in the garden and harvested some courgettes, broad beans, runner beans and green and yellow climbing beans. Dh is going to harvest some potatoes later and I'm making a curry tonight with it all - just got to cook some chickpeas for it this afternoon 😋 

July week 4:
Fruit & veg: £12.30/£25
Storecupboard: £15.98/£20 (monthly)
Laundry/toiletries: £5.90/£20 (monthly)

July week 3:
Fruit & veg: £10.87/£25
Storecupboard: £15.98/£20 (monthly)
Laundry/toiletries: £5.90/£20 (monthly)

July week 2:
Fruit & veg: £17.20/£25
Storecupboard: £15.98/£20 (monthly)
Laundry/toiletries: £5.90/£20 (monthly)

July week 1:
Fruit & veg: £23.99/£25
Storecupboard: £15.98/£20 (monthly)
Laundry/toiletries: £0/£20 (monthly)

tooldle

We had Gazpacho yesterday. A first time recipe for me. Bursting with flavour and plenty of leftovers for today’s lunch.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-green-gazpacho

leftatthetrafficlights

That looks lovely @tooldle! I'll definitely give that a go in the next couple of weeks! 😋 

The curry was fabulous although I will soak the chickpeas overnight next time as they were not as plump as I would have liked them to be despite being delicious! 

Tonight is a fridge raid of leftovers - lots of bits and pieces so it will be random!! 

leftatthetrafficlights

Tonight we're having whatever veg is ready in the garden with dark speckled lentils. I think there are courgettes, broad beans, calabrese, climbing beans, aubergine and runner beans available. 

I'm doing a digital detox in August so I'll be back at the beginning of September! 

Happy cooking! 😁

tooldle

We had this for lunch today. I used runner beans (and carrots) from the garden, rather than green beans. The recipe quantities resulted in a huge bowl of salad. We ate around 1/3 for lunch and expect to get four more portions from the remainder. Very tasty.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/three-bean-salad-with-mozzarella

tooldle

Courgette Pakoras for us this evening. No courgette glut for us, yet. Weather hasn’t been favourable to the courgettes this year.

leftatthetrafficlights

I'm back from my digital detox and after a very busy August which included two birthdays, an anniversary and a family reunion, I'm desperate to get back to eating well from my storecupboard!! 😳🤦‍♀️ 

I've had mountains of courgettes (sorry that yours haven't been great @tooldle 😔) so I've been making courgette, tomato and basil sauce by the bucket - I've had to buy most of the tomatoes which is very disappointing but that's just how gardening is sometimes! 🙄 

I made mushroom and walnut mince at the weekend and added some of the sauce plus additional herbs to make a bolognese from half of it which we had for dinner on Sunday. Monday I added jackfruit to the remaining mince and sauce along with fajita spices and served it on purple sweet potatoes. We'll have the leftovers tonight as enchiladas. 

Yesterday we finished a soup that I'd made with cannellini beans and some fennel and leeks left over from a risotto I made. There are a couple of boxes of it in the freezer now too! 

I need to do a freezer organisation and inventory this week - I've got loads of the sauce in there along with mountains of beans which I've harvested and I want to make sure that once the fresh summer stuff in the garden has finished my menu plans involve what I've put in the freezers! We've decided that we are buying a new chest freezer for next year - we're going to be ramping up production of home grown stuff so need to increase the available storage space. 

Anyway, I've decided that I need to increase the fruit and veg budget for September - I've looked at how much we spend (mainly on fruit) and £25 per week makes it difficult so I'm going to remove the budget, monitor what we spend without being concerned about cost then reset my budgets from October. 

I'll start posting my food again from tomorrow 😋 

Jacs205

Good to have you back, you'll inspire me.  Since going back to work three weeks ago I've been living of cuppa soup, ryvita, houmous and things I can chuck in the oven. I feel crap for it and need to get back to planning and cooking properly again.

leftatthetrafficlights

I've started eating my main meal at lunchtime now and after several weeks of eating rubbish due to celebrations and time away, I was desperate for something fresh!! It was lush!! 😁

Salad of rocket leaves, purple sweet potato, watermelon, lemon stuffed green olives, black grapes, mixed grains, chickpeas, avocado, hemp seeds and balsamic vinegar dressing.