Leftover Mash?

 

I was watching some YouTube videos the other day, as I tend to do in the mornings while I slowly waken up clutching a cup of coffee or two, when I came across a few from Wicked Kitchen, one in particular caught my attention.

Unfortunately it won't let me share the video on here with a picture as it is a 'short'.  But here is the link:

https://youtube.com/shorts/ZMoFshzyY_E?feature=share

I immediately thought of the two tubs of leftover mashed potato that I had in the fridge.

I grated a block of my Applewood cheese, while my 2/3 of a sheet of ready rolled pastry from the fridge came to room temperature and then set about making the Mashed Potato Wellington.

It was really simple, a good pile of mashed potato on top of the pastry, sprinkled with some of the cheese, a drizzle of  baked beans down the centre and a little bit more of the potato on top, just so that the 'bean juice' wasn't in contact with the pastry too much.  I folded the sides over and the ends in, sticking them together with a quick brush of water and then popped it into my fan oven which was now pre-heated to 180 degrees.

Half an hour later and it was ready.  

I just had two slices of it for my lunch along with a small salad, and the rest of it went into the fridge along with ...

... leftover beans, leftover cheese and more leftover mashed potatoes.

And the leftover mashed potato wellington was eaten the next day just as it was, with a dollop of mayonnaise added to the plate, and if anything it was even more delicious.

No wonder my food lasts me so long, I seem to live on leftovers!!  😀

Sue xx

Using Up the Food Stash, Making Good Use of Leftovers ... and the Pantry Challenge

As well as using up the contents of the freezer I am slowly but surely working my way through all of my food stash over the coming weeks.  

It makes sense to use up all those things that might go off or go wildly out of date first, especially as while my freezer is full I can't add things to that to stop them from going bad.  The other day I saw just how wrinkly the apples in the fridge were ... far too wrinkly to be eaten just as they were ... so I peeled, sliced and slightly stewed them. 

I also used up one of my two rolls of pastry that had been bought well before Christmas.  It was out of date but not horrifyingly so.  The other pack of pastry had been squeezed into the freezer last week but there was literally no room for this one.

Out of one roll of pastry I got the two apple tarts, two little cheese, onion and potato pies and the one little end piece after rolling out was simply cooked as a thin cracker and eaten as soon as it was properly cooked ... chef's perks. 😀

Not a soggy bottom in sight.  😁

I ate one of the Cheese and Onion pies for my tea the night they were made with some garden peas and gravy and the other one I had for lunch the next day, warmed through in the Remoska and served with just a dollop of mayo.  

The apple pies were shared, one for me and one for Alan ... which he enjoyed while it was still warm from the oven with some salted caramel ice-cream.

I am determined not to waste anything as I work my way through all the food stash, no matter whether it's a fridge, freezer or cupboard item.  To keep me on the straight and narrow and for meal ideas and inspiration I have been watching Jessica over at Three Rivers Homestead regularly.  It's this time every year that she does her pantry challenge, working her way through her enormous stash of home-canned and preserved foods and all those things that sneak into a busy home over the course of a few months.  With a family of ten, including one gorgeous new born baby, she's doing it on a whole different level to my own little challenge.

Here's her first video of this year's Pantry Challenge.

https://youtu.be/tYGf-I1U9vY

Are you starting this year by going through your cupboards or freezers while keeping your spending low?  And do you follow any other bloggers or vloggers that are doing something similar that I might be interested in finding out about and taking inspiration from?

Sue xx

The Best Birthday

 

Yesterday was the best birthday for a long time, and the best bits just kept on coming and coming.  Phone calls, texts, Facebook messages and cards from family and friends, flowers arriving that were just so beautiful and to top it all off a wonderful afternoon tea booked by Alan at The Barn in Scorton.

I don't know what Alan was saying here, but it could well have been 'Oooh look at all the goodies!'

There was just so much food that we and lots of other folk took home doggy bags of the food that we  couldn't manage to eat.  This is just my leftovers, Alan had put his in his fridge by the time I took this photo.

After we had eaten all we could and packed up what we couldn't, we went around the gift shop part of The Barn and Alan bought me this lovely large jug.  It was needed to hold the huge bunch of flowers bought for me by Simon and Emma.

Later I had some of my leftover afternoon tea for supper while watching Pretty Woman on the television.

And I have saved these two half-price Easter eggs picked up from Sainsbugs on the way home for another day.  You just knew I wouldn't go without a chocolate egg at Easter now didn't you.  😉 

Thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes yesterday, you helped to make it The Best Birthday.

Sue xx

Not Just Sausage Rolls

 

Three rolls made in the sausage roll maker that I confessed to buying yesterday, thank goodness I had enough cash left over this month to be able to get it.  Only there are no sausages or sausage meat inside these ones,  inside one there is pate and inside the other two is apple from a tin of apple pie filling that I had in the cupboard.  Yes, the sausage roll maker makes four, but they are so good the other one containing some pate didn't even last long enough to be photographed.

They are a doddle to make using this ready rolled puff or shortcrust pastry.  I have tried both now, this one that I bought yesterday and one of my other shortcrust pastry rolls from the freezer thawed out.  You get three pieces from each ready rolled roll that fit into the maker (two at a time obviously 😁) so one of my sets of four 'sausage rolls' was a puff pastry bottom and a shortcrust pastry top ... it worked perfectly with no discernible difference between to two types of pastry,  I think the lid pressing down stops the puff pastry from rising but makes it super crispy at the same time.

As each roll is sealed by the machine while it cooks drippy fillings can't escape until you bite into your roll, so these would be brilliant for school lunches or picnics etc ... or simply sitting on the sofa watching scary movies like I did yesterday.

Up to now we have tried:

Linda McCartney Sausage and Sage and Onion stuffing x 4

Pate x 2

Tinned Apple Pie Filling x 2

And for lunch today I am going to try making some potato, cheese and onion rolls.  The world is my oyster and if it can be cooked in ten minutes, fits neatly into the indentations and sounds like it might be tasty wrapped in pastry it will be being tried.  I see a lot of leftovers being turned into very tasty little sausage roll shaped pies over the course of this No Spend Challenge.

Of course one of my main reasons for buying this ... as well as an addiction to sausage rolls and all things pastry ... was to save on having to put my oven on.  My Remoska can cook some pastry items, so it already saves me a fortune with not turning on the oven but but it does seem to cook pastry slightly erratically, so this little gadget is the perfect accompaniment to the Remoska to save me money on the electric bill.  I can use them covering most dishes and leaving my oven switched off except for larger batch cooking sessions or cakes.

And I intend to make up a big batch of homemade pastry and have the right sized pieces stored in the freezer ready for use to make this even more economical.  And I know I have at least three boxes of these sausages in the freezer, which tasted wonderful when thawed and added to some sage and onion stuffing before being trialled as my very first batch in the sausage roll maker.

Winner, winner sausage roll ... and other things ... dinner.  😄

Sue xx

Vegetables and Pastry

The last of the potatoes, the last of the celery, a couple of onions and the smaller carrots that I wanted to use up first.  Along with a tablespoon of bouillon and some water and seasoning made the component parts of six meals. 

One of the more finely chopped potatoes was cooked first and then scooped out to cool down and be added to the Cheese and Onion Pasty that I showed yesterday.  Then the rest of the chopped vegetables were added to the already potatoey water along with the bouillon and some more water.  This was then turned into a vegetable stew ... with the late addition of a large handful of peas ... that I had for another meal.  

After the rest had cooled a bit a couple of spoonfuls of the stew left in the pan were then lifted out with minimal water to be added to another strip of the same roll of pastry I used yesterday to make a Vegetable Pasty.  Then what was left was whizzed up with my stick blender to make three good sized portions of Vegetable Soup for some of this weeks lunches.

After making two pasties from this pack of pastry there was a very narrow strip of pastry left.  I could have just made the pasty a bit larger but I had a different plan in mind.

I rolled out the pastry to make it wider and thinner, sprinkled on some of my tastier cheeses, folded it over, rolled it again and cut it into four biscuit sized portions.

They looked like this.

Then I baked my pasty and cheese biscuits together, knowing that the biscuits could come out first and be a tasty little starter while my pasty continued cooking.

Too tasty ... it's a good job there were only four!!

Just like the softest and tastiest of cheese straws but flat and hot straight from the oven.  😋

And finally the pasty ... just my usual vegetable pasty but very enjoyable.  I didn't bother with gravy just a small dollop of mayonnaise.

Not the most balanced of weekend foods if you just look at the photos I have shown but bear in mind there was also the last three of the mandarin oranges and one of the apples consumed, a spinach and fruit smoothie for breakfast on Sunday and a large portion of liquid apple on both Saturday and Sunday evenings.  🍷🍷 😉

I could of course have just gone out and bought a pack of various pasties or pies but isn't making your own from what you already have in just that much more satisfying?

Sue xx

I KNEW it Would Come in Handy!!

 

I had a couple of crusts of bread in the freezer that I decided to turn into garlicky fried breadcrumbs to top the pasta bake that I showed on the last post.  

I forgot to take a photo but I can assure you that the addition of crunchy garlicky breadcrumbs to the top of the luscious cheesy pasta bake made for a very tasty meal.

Of course two crusts made a lot more breadcrumbs than I actually needed so my saved jar from THIS post, you know the one where we all sat in a circle and said 'my name is .......... and I hoard pretty empty jars',  came in very useful and the rest are now safely stashed in the fridge for another day.

It's been quite a cheesy weekend because I decided to use part of one of the shop-bought ready rolled rolls of pastry from the freezer, along with the last of the Vegan Ch**se Sauce and some red onion to make myself a nice big pasty.

I've all but given up on cutting out a circle for a pasty and now I just slice off the right size width of pastry straight from the roll and fold it over and crimp.  Anyway I love the edges 😄

I used one of my last five remaining potatoes to pad out the pasty a bit and add some body to the filling.  Gosh it was tasty.

I'll be back tomorrow with what I did the rest of the potatoes, because as well as it being a cheesy weekend it was most definintely a pastry filled one too.

Sue xx

For those of you who had a minor panic attack or were worried about my literal 12 hour vanishing trick, it was done by me for a very good and specific reason and there is nothing weird or wonderful going on.  For those of you who didn't even notice ... this makes no sense whatsoever, and I thank you.  😁

Using Things Up

 

Two of the things I definitely needed to use up this week were the broccoli that I bought at the end of January and the vegan Cheese Sauce that went out of date last month ... or as it says on the jar Ch**se Sauce.  It makes me laugh the various spellings they use when they veganise foods, so many variations that children are going to grow up not knowing how to spell some things properly.

I noticed the pasta jar was getting quite low, but a quick peek in the cupboard showed me that I really don't have to worry.  I have a couple of packs of pasta shapes and lots of spaghetti.

I cooked up enough for my lunch ... yes that is a mixture of Penne and Fusilli pasta shapes, I tipped them all together when we moved house and gave the jar a shake ... and put the leftovers into an oven proof dish ready to top it with some garlic fried breadcrumbs tomorrow night and there's still a little bit of the sauce left that I think I might use as the sauce in a vegetable pasty or two over the weekend.

The first portion was very tasty, so I have high hopes for the following two.  😀

Sue xx

Just One Days Food

 

Soup at the computer was actually my second breakfast of the day yesterday, I slurped away while reading and answering all your jar hoarding confessions ... it would seem I am far from alone!!  😄

For some reason I just really fancied using the last of this weeks soup and why not at breakfast, who ever stated that breakfast had to be cereal or toast!!  I had added some of my tiny pasta shells to the pan after I served the soup just plain with the bread at the start of the week.  I felt it needed more body and I'm not always in the mood for a slice of bread with my soup.  This worked a treat.

Although toast was the actual first breakfast of the day a few hours earlier, I can't take my tablet on an empty stomach and one slice of toast is all I can face first thing.

And then later for elevenses I had a 'bacon' butty.  I have been using up the Quorn Smokey Ham slices rather than buying any fake bacon, and they are just as delicious and more versatile too as you can have them on a salad sandwich, or as I did the other day add a torn up slice to a pizza for a hit of smoky flavour.

I've got half a pack left for next week.

After a ridiculous amount of 'breakfasts' I only needed a little baked potato with some butter and cheese for my lunch.  Just enough to stop me nibbling later in the afternoon, or so I thought ...

... but I ended up with a chocolate bar with my coffee  😁

After all the days nibbly foods I just wanted something simple for my tea so it was just a question of chopping up a red onion, a few stems of my broccoli and halving some of the cherry tomatoes and sautéing them in some olive oil for five minutes.

With one of the pouches of the ready to wok noodles I had a tasty and healthy tea in under ten minutes.

Not a bad day at all and a very tasty one too.

Sue xx

Getting Into Routines and Planning Ahead

I've spent the first couple of weeks of this year and this new Challenge trying desperately to get into a routine, but I still feel like I'm winging it a bit.  Photos are stacking up on my camera and need downloading to the computer, things are being shown on the blog posts slightly out of sync etc etc ... the only good thing is that I'm doing minimal shopping and that I am managing to eat some pretty decent food three times a day, well twice yesterday hence my menu now being out of sync. 😏

I made some mashed potatoes ready to make the little Potato Pizzas for my tea last night and ended up having no tea.  They are ready in the fridge for tonight, well the bases are and the other half of the mash is in a bowl ready for this weeks Shepherds Pie.  

The one in the photo above is last weeks version ...

... and it's mash came from an additional baked potato made when one of my lunches last week was a Jacket Potato.  

It's this doubling up and having things waiting that while being good for energy consumption and less work later also causes confusion and a little queue of foods waiting to be used.

But by and large getting into a routine and planning ahead does work well for meaning that no food is wasted.  For instance I was prepping the veggies for the Mediterranean batched cooked vegetables last week and I decided to pull a couple of slices of the peppers, onions and tomatoes to one side to add to a cheese and mayo bun, meaning that I had a really tasty lunch that in a way was 'free' of extra things needed.  And chopping things for two meals at once means less washing up, and that in my book is always a winner.

The cheese salad bun was eaten with the last quarter of this bag of crisps.

A tasty lunch and less work later on, it suits me just fine.

Sue xx

A Simple Leftovers Meal

 

I'm loving using the last of things from the fridge and seeing the space appear and in this instance it was the last two slices of  the 'No Pork' bacon and the last of the cream.  There's still another portion of the Tenderstem broccoli to use up ... most likely for tea tonight ... but last night I added just enough to my dish to give it a good hit of flavour.  There are lots of the tomatoes left which I am going to roast with the peppers and some onions to make a tub of roasted veg to add to a couple of meals for the week ahead.

While I chopped the veggies the onion and pasta were already cooking away on the hob to give them a head start.  Once the onions had softened I tipped everything else into the pan along with a good squirt of the garlic puree and left it all to putter away for ten minutes.

A very easy tea cooked in less than 15 minutes and extremely tasty with the addition of a splash of the pasta water and the addition of the last of the cream which is not something I do that often ... perhaps I should 😊

Sue xx

Wrinkly Fruit

 

So what did I do with the wrinkly apples mentioned on the last post?

Well before I had had the chance to read any of your brilliant suggestions they had already been turned into a lovely little afternoon treat to go with a nice cup of coffee.

I peeled them, something I wouldn't normally do to apples, but the wrinkly skin was just too far gone and then lightly stewed them with a couple of sachets of brown sugar from my 'freebies' stash as the homegrown apple in particular was quite tart.

Then I decided to use the last little bit of pastry left over from when I made the pasties, there was less than I thought so I squidged the three inch strip together into a ball and cut it in half, making that into two balls of dough.  These were rolled out to the right sort of size and using some of the paper that the pastry came in I lined my tin and put the circles on top.  The rest of the paper was saved to be used for something similar in future.

The apples were shared out between the two tarts and then I curled the edges over slightly.

Twenty minutes later I had two tarts to top with the last of one of the squirty creams from the fridge.

Another good use of leftovers and more space is appearing in the fridge.

My tea made me a bit more space in the freezer as I had this ready meal.  

The curry tasted gorgeous but the 'no chicken' pieces were a very strange texture.  But it was worth trying, even if only to remind me that sometimes a good homemade vegetable curry is as good if not better than a shop bought one.

Sue xx