Sunday, 12 July 2020

Meals from Nothing and a Mantlepiece Beauty


Although I have lots of food at the Van I'm not wasting anything or going berserk eating everything.  I am being my usual sensible self and wasting nothing.  With just a little bit of hummus left in the tub ..  nowhere near enough to warrant opening a box of crackers ... I decided to turn it into the basis of a simple pasta sauce.


With just one onion, five cherry tomatoes and the spoonful of hummus I had a nice sauce going, but I decided a smidge of green would be healthier and more pleasing on the eye.  It was going to be frozen peas then I spotted the full bag of Spinach pellets.  

Can you imagine how much spinach it must take to make a kilo bag of spinach ... the mind boggles 😆


Anyway it turned into a tasty little meal with a sprinkle of mozzarella style cheese as a garnish.  And as always I had cooked far too much pasta, so that is in the fridge and will make a nice pasta salad tomorrow with the last of the cherry tomatoes, some more onion and a stick of finely chopped celery.


I got some lovely post the other day, a little bit of the most beautiful mantlepiece clutter.  

A lovely card from my son Simon and a selection of photos of my gorgeous granddaughter Amira ... I also have three very handsome grandsons and a great grandson who is almost a year older than Amira.  She's such a little beauty and the apple of her Dad's eye.


Sue xx




32 comments:

  1. I remember Jamie Oliver did a segment in one of his programmes about frozen spinach and showed how much fresh you would need for just a small portion of the frozen bag. It was an eye opened. I wish I liked spinach a bit more.
    Your sauce sounds delicious and that's such a beautiful photo - what a lovely little lady.
    You sound so happy.
    xx

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    1. I know myself from homegrown spinach how much it takes to get one of these pellets. Many a time I have started chopping and blanching what I thought would be masses of spinach 'cubes' for the freezer ... only to end with half a dozen, if I'm lucky. 😄

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  2. I'm a recent convert to spinach and it never ceases to amaze me how a big bag of fresh spinach cooks down to next to nothing.

    Lovely card, lovely baby. X

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    1. I know it's amazing isn't it. You tip a whole bag into a dish and all you have to show for it are a few green specks. The pellets are such good value for cooked dishes.

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  3. In total agreement with spinach comments. When I was a child, I was slightly scared of Popeye the Sailor Man, so it was years before I ate the stuff! Your granddaughter is lovely - what a joy and a blessing to have a loving family.

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    1. I used to love Popeye, but never understood why his spinach was in tins!!

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    2. And he ate it straight from the tin yuk!

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    3. Oh as a child I thought that bit was brilliant, I longed to do it with the baked beans ... haha

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  4. She's gorgeous! Wow a great grandson! I have three lovely grandsons, my sister two gorgeous granddaughters so we have a lovely mix between us :-). I LOVE spinach in any form. So pleased you are back in your little haven and fingers crossed for a quick sale on your home. They seem to be selling VERY quickly here at the moment.

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    1. Yes my son's eldest is 21 this year and his little boy is 18 months old. Amira is 7 months old now 💕

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    2. Well at least with your move you'll be closer for more grandchildren cuddles when social distancing is over.

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    3. That's the plan, I'll be central to them all. Simon lives in Cumbria and Liam, his eldest lives with his little family in Lancashire 😃

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    4. Perfect! They'll all be relying on you for babysitting!

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  5. I always cook enough pasta for three meals, makes sense. I'm going to move to frozen spinach because the last bag of fresh I had was very chewy to eat. I hate chewing something forever which is not going to break down. The only use I can think of for fresh is put it in a blender and make a green smoothie.

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    1. Yes that's exactly what I do. Buy a bag of fresh when it's on yellow sticker offer or a good deal and put it straight into the freezer for smoothies and buy frozen pellets for cooking with.

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  6. I love spinach, too :) And houmous with pasta - although my current favourite way of eating the last bit is usually with the last of some rice or couscous and some naked coleslaw (so your choppy veg would be similar) - ends up being very tasty & filling and ensures no wastage :)

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    1. I've really got into cous cous recently, much more so that usual. It's just so quick to make. It soaks and cooks in the time it makes to put together the rest of the meal ... and as I make it in the bowl I'm going to be eating out of, less washing up too 😃

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  7. Re pasta: I was always cooking far too much. Now I weigh it every time, as there are many different types. I never guess: it only takes a moment. I won't tell you how much - that's up to you!

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    1. I find I need around 100g for a filling meal. But I do tend to guess a lot ... and then end up with leftovers. But I like leftovers, it's a head start on another meal, and here at the Van saves me using too much gas 😃

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  8. I always cook too much pasta too. That sauce looks good - I often finish my hummus tub off by adding it to pasta too. I have a three year old great grand daughter, Ula. Sadly she lives in Glasgow so I have not seen her since lockdown began - but lots of photographs and now one or two 'drawings' which I have on display.

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    1. They are so precious aren't they ❤️

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  9. Amira is beautiful, those gorgeous eyes are going to follow you around the van. No waste is a great household rule it reduces your food Bill's dramatically as does the COET (cook once eat twice) rule.

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    1. I noticed that about her eyes the other day, no matter where I sat she seemed to be looking straight at me 😃

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  10. She's so pink and girly ... quite naturally with her colouring ... compared to her brothers. 💕

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  11. Amira is a beautiful girl! I didn't know you had a great-grandson. You are much too young to be a great-grandmother! Grandchildren are such blessings. I only have two and they are grown now.

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    1. Yes I was Nana Sue at 39 and Great Nana Sue at 58 ... makes me feel ancient, but no shawls or rocking chairs just yet 😄🤣

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  12. What lovely little girl - she is a real cutie!
    I made pasta salad earlier in the week and it turned out to be much more than I had anticipated - ended up eating it for most of the week!

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    1. She's so cute and girly, and getting mischievous now she can roll around and almost crawl ♥️

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  13. I love seeing what you can "whip" up with a few ingredients Sue, always amazing:) What a gorgeous granddaughter Amira is and I love her name♥♥

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    1. It doesn't take much to make a meal does it. 😃 It is an unusual name, it took us all a while to get used to it but she just suits it so well. Her big sister (no relation to us) is called Alicia ♥️

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  14. What a good idea for the last of the hummus! Never would have thought. Thank you.
    Sarah in California

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    1. It was only quite recently that I discovered that it makes a yummy sauce 😃

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