Eight Meals for Under Two Pounds

I have been on a mission recently to eat my way through the contents of the fridge and freezer, trying desperately but not always succeeding  not to make too many portions so that the fridge ends up filling the freezer ... if you know what I mean.  

The other day I bought a bag of baking potatoes from Aldi's Super Six, 13 potatoes for just 99p a real bargain.  I decided to use three of them straight away to help use up the last of the celery, carrots and onion from the fridge.

With the addition of some store cupboard staples to add a real blast of flavour I set to chopping and slicing to make myself a large pan of vegetable stew.

I simply add a dash of oil to the pan and then after washing I chop, slice and add to the pan the things that take the longest to cook first.  In went the onions, then the carrots, then the celery and finally the potatoes.

Once everything had been sautéing together for about five minutes, I added all my bursts of flavour and the stock powder with about a litre of water.  It was brought to the boil and then left to simmer for about 25 minutes.

Then it was time to divide and conquer.  

Two bowls of vegetable stew, one eaten straight away and one left to cool.  Two portions of pasty filling lifted out of the pan with my slotted spoon and left to cool.  Then the rest of the contents of the pan were whizzed up with my stick blender and made me just over a litre of nice thick vegetable soup.

I filled my two largest bowls with soup and then froze two more portions for another week ... sorry freezer, I know I'm supposed to be emptying you!!

 

The two containers of pasty filling went into the fridge until the following day.  Then I got out the pastry from the freezer (yay!!) and let it thaw and come to room temperature, before making myself two lovely and very big pasties.

One to be eaten straight away ...

... and one in the fridge.

I did my workings out the next day and found that counting only the foods I used, and always rounding the points of a penny up, my eight portions of food cost me:

3 potatoes = 24p

1.5 onions = 11p

2 sticks of celery = 7p

3 carrots = 12p

2 tsp dried vegetable stock = 2p

herbs and spices = 10p

2 tsp olive oil = 2p

ready rolled puff pastry = 1.05

Total = £1.73.

As I ate each bowl of soup with a slice of toast that added 5p per slice to the final cost of the meals, so I came in at £1.93.

Under two pounds for eight very filling meals.

Of course, you could add all sorts of additions to the basic starter pan using whatever you have lurking in the freezer or fridge.  Frozen vegetables work just as well as fresh and usually cook a lot quicker ... although cooking gently and for longer can greatly improve the flavours, especially with your onion, celery, carrot starter.  

Once you've made the basic pan of stew you could add different things to the stews, the pasties or change some of the soups a bit by adding curry powder or other spices to half of the amount you have.  You could add sausages, tinned or cooked meat or fish to any of the portions and have something completely different flavour wise.   

I just thought I would share this as a basic idea for cheap, warming foods on these cold dreary days. 

 Tonight, I am having the second pasty for my tea ... and I can't wait.

Sue xx

Vitamin Delivery, a Days Food for Me ... and Then a Real Shock

It's been a week of deliveries this week.

First there was the pasta that I talked about on the last post, then my sons Christmas presents arrived and are currently filling up Alan's hall space. Then yesterday my year's supply of Veg1 vitamins came via the postman.  I buy mine from the Vegan Society, as I'm a member I get 10% off my order ... every little helps and all that!!  

Not eating meat I do need to ensure that I have a good supply of B12 in my system, people that do eat meat have it because the animals that they eat are given the vitamins in their food.  Sadly, most animals no longer get to graze outside enough to have it in their systems naturally as B12 comes from the bacteria found mostly in soil and untreated water.  

Anyway, I now have enough to see me through another year and typing this has made me realise that I have yet to take todays tiny chewable tablet.

You can tell that the weather briefly went much cooler ... although it was 17.5 degrees here yesterday ... as I have once again started having porridge for breakfast most days.  My favourite is with a banana sliced and cooked into it for the last couple of minutes.  Having the banana in the porridge and thoroughly heated up, rather than just sliced cold onto the top is a real gamechanger.

Lunch on this particular day was a delicious hummus and salad bun, followed by a delicious dairy free chocolate bar.

Much too tasty for its own good!!

Tea was of course some pasta.  This time cooked with broccoli and peas and then I stirred through a bit more of the hummus to form a delicious sauce with a dash of the pasta cooking water.  Once in the bowl it was topped with some grated Violife.  

I buy the blocks of Extra Mature and grate it myself.  Ready grated cheese always has something added to keep it flowing separately, usually just cornflour, but I really don't like the taste of that in my cheese, so I just grate a whole block or two at a time and keep it in a lidded container in the fridge.

Sadly, when I went to The Vegan Kind online supermarket to pick up a photo of the chocolate bar, I came across THIS message ... wow, what a shock, and what a shame to lose them just as I was about to put in a Christmas order.  There are so many companies really struggling at the moment.

Well, that was definitely not what I was going to post about when I sat down today, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow. 

Sue xx

Potatoes In, Plants Drowning, What DID Happen to That Last Sausage ... and Weekend Watching

 

I got my Christmas potatoes in on Thursday ... well that's what the information that came with them said, if I planted them now I would have potatoes in time for Christmas!!  

We'll have to wait and see as I've never actually managed it before, even when I had the poly and net tunnels something always went wrong and the Christmas potatoes always ended up being bought from the shop.

They went into my new posh large potato buckets, and I am pleased I got them as they look much neater in this small space than the Aldi Bags for Life did ... gosh I'm getting snobby 😆

I put one variety in each bucket and used the labels and the net bags themselves to label the buckets carefully.

The compost that came with them was completely dried out for transportation purposes so it got a good soaking with the watering can straight after planting.

And I added the leftover compost from this first opened bag to top up the raised veggie bed slightly after giving it a good water.  The idea being that the dry compost on top would help stop the water from evaporating.

In fact I've noticed that my plants are doing better than usual as I am recycling all my grey-water onto the garden and all of a sudden the planters with my Lavender and trees in and the herbs in my tin bath at the front door have really shot up and bushed out, and the Courgettes in this photo have almost doubled in size over night.  It's made me feel a little guilty as obviously I have not been giving them enough water before.

Only me would have healthier plants during a drought!!

Thank you for all the brilliant suggestions for the lone sausage on the last post.  They made me want to cook up another box full and try them all out, in fact I'm thinking of doing exactly that to have as one of my weekly Bases in future.

In the end I settled for chopping the leftover sausage into small pieces and stirring it into some freshly made Cous Cous that I had made up with some vegetable stock for added flavour.  It went really well with some homemade Coleslaw and a sliced up beetroot and made for a nice light, and extremely flavourful lunch on a hot day.

Here's a bit of Weekend Watching ... just for you if you are hiding indoors and staying out of the sun like I am.

https://youtu.be/MroqIrlwiy4

A lovely couple who just decided to change tack quite recently and live onboard a narrowboat.  The videos are short, the boat and dog are gorgeous and the music is so relaxing.

https://youtu.be/l327LbNx1_o

Possibly THE best tiny home conversion I have ever seen.  Sympathetically taking an old building and making it very liveable for one or two people.

https://youtu.be/ingrpKzD3A4

The Happy Pear at Vegan Camp Out 2022

And to finish off yet another narrowboat channel that I love and subscribe to  ... can you tell how much I enjoyed our narrowboat holiday.  https://youtu.be/dlqT3PxW2B4

https://youtu.be/Ttk3lcbNLik

In this episode Joanna and Vic answer lots of viewers questions ... including the one that I asked!!  

I hope you have a great weekend and manage top stay as cool as you possibly can, in whatever way to can find to stay cool.  I'm finding sitting watching television with my feet in a bucket of cold water works very well to cool me down before bedtime, then the water goes on those lucky plants ... of course.  😎

Sue xx

The VeganKind Supermarket ... and Cheese and Onion Crisps

I regularly shop with The VeganKind Supermarket.  It's completely online way of buying all the vegan foods and treats that you might need ... or just fancy.  Although it's far too tempting to spend more than you mean to, so just like with going to the supermarket make sure you have a full tummy before you start to shop!!

My last order was last Christmas so I think I can be excused going a little bit wild in the virtual aisles that time.  Now the crisps are all gone and it was time for another order.

I started shopping with them when we lived in the middle of nowhere, with limited accessibility to the sort of shops that sold the products that I loved.  I signed up originally for the Lifestyle Boxes that came on subscription to my door once a month, it was a Christmas year long gift to myself and I loved it.  It was like getting one of those lucky bags I used to buy as a child ... only this one was full of tasty, healthy treats not dried up old sweets and a plastic toy.  😁  

When I decided to cancel that subscription after about 18 months I started shopping regularly instead.   This way I could pick out all the things that I really wanted and that I knew I liked ... although I have to admit that a few new items regularly make it into my virtual trolley.

When I put in my latest order they gave me a link to share with you.  So if you would like to have £10 off any spend of £40 or over just click on the link below and follow the instructions.  It's not a bad saving at all if you try and be good and stick as close to that limit as possible.  After all 25% off is really good ... as long as you are  😄

The link : - https://thevegankind.mention-me.com/m/ol/lk6ba-sue-hall

I have to admit that I usually spend far more than I should, but as you acquire points on everything you spend that add up to money off vouchers for future shopping it's a form of saving ... isn't it!! 😄😂😁

My favourite product from there are the Ten Acre Cheese and Onion crisps, the best dairy free cheese and onion crisps on the market in my opinion, and The VeganKind Supermarket is the place that virtually always has them in stock and also sells them the cheapest.  You can guarantee that a box of 20 packs always makes it into my shopping basket.

Well my latest order is in and in a couple of days will be with me ... crisp butty anyone?

Sue xx

Of Vegan Fairs ... and Paddington Bears

It's been a brilliant weekend.  

Possibly far too much television watching but the weather literally did rain on our parade.  So indoor watching and social media following was a much safer bet.  

We rounded off the weekend with a trip to Morecambe and this vegan festival, which was small by lots of standards but perfectly formed ... and very, very tasty.

I perhaps went a little too mad on the gorgeous vegan treats on sale as I usually do when the thrill of not having to ask if things have dairy or eggs in them means I can just buy and eat, but luckily some of them have long dates on and there's no rush to consume them straight away ... and as a former small business market trader myself I think it's nice to support small businesses whenever you can.  

I had treated myself to a VIP ticket for the event and got a goodie bag for doing so, it contained quite a few of the non-fresh food items things in this photo. 

And as well as the recipe cards and leaflets there was lots of really interesting reading and some badges.

I had a really good chat with the guy selling the vegan honey and Alan also bought some flour off him as he was also selling this along with lots of edible seeds.

Then we enjoyed an al fresco lunch break of vegan hot dogs looking out over the sea on the promenade  before the rain drove us back inside where maybe a little bit more buying went on and a couple of coffees each were consumed.

Alan surprised me by buying this patch for himself, he's going to Wonder Web it to his dog walking coat.

And then before the rain got any heavier it was time to come home and settle down to watch the Queen's Pageant.  I thought it was lovely and a brilliant end to the long weekend celebrations for the Queen, with Ed Sheeran finishing the celebrations off just beautifully.

The bit I loved best about the whole televised weekend just had to be the Queen acting alongside Paddington Bear ... now we all know what she keeps in those handbags that she guards so closely!!

Artwork by Eleanor Tomlinson

And this artwork is available from her website on this page - Jubilee Ma'amalade Tea | Open Edition Print | eleanortomlinsonart

Celebrations over.

Sue xx

My Latest Addiction ... and Weekend Watching

 

I finished the jar of homemade Lemon Marmalade that was in the fridge the other day and went into the cupboard to get another one out ... there are quite a few orange marmalade and lemon marmalades left from my pre-house move making session ... in amongst them I found a jar of Rhubarb Berry Jelly which had been made way back in 2019 from our own rhubarb and various berries from the smallholding.  'I'd better use that up first then' I thought to myself as it was the oldest jar in the cupboard.

Gosh, I had forgotten just how tasty this was, possibly it's matured nicely in the dark recesses of the cupboard and through all it's moving from one home to storage facility and then to another.  I had another rummage through the back of the cupboard for more but it seems that this is the last jar of this particular batch that I have ... I wonder if Alan has any in his cupboards?  

Here's a few of the YouTube videos that I've watched this week ...

https://youtu.be/fhwE3hmRANk

First Jane with some brilliant advice, although I suspect a lot of us know most of this already, but it's always worth having a little pep talk to keep us on the straight and narrow.

https://youtu.be/F751XNICZus

I've had a bit of a watch-a-thon following Joanna and Victors progress with their narrowboat café tales over the last couple of weeks.  It's nice to pick up a bit of the canal lingo ready for our little adventure next month.

And finally ...

https://youtu.be/diQKp-Jckpc

I've been watching a few of The Happy Pear's recipes in anticipation of my new book arriving.  It looks like it could be a good book.

Hope you are having a lovely Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK.  Sadly our town procession got more than a little bit wet yesterday as the heavens opened during the night and rain fell all morning.  Happily they then went on to do an action replay at teatime in glorious sunshine.  A little bit of British weather never stopped a lot of fun.  We're off to the Morecambe Vegan Fair tomorrow so that is something to look forward too.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Sue xx

Thank You ... and Buying to Copy

Firstly, thank you to everyone who commented yesterday.  

It really helped me to think about the Challenge after reading all your comments and I have decided that my No Spend Challenge should really be a LOW spend Challenge.

My food budget is still the same just £50 per month for the whole of the year, but I will be relaxing my No Spend Challenge rules on some things.  For instance I will allow myself to buy any really necessary things that I need ... something else was purchased yesterday and will be delivered in 6-8 weeks for instance.  So if I was going to say I failed, then I failed again yesterday, but I didn't ... I adapted my Challenge for the sake of my health.  

What I am going to do ... and thanks for the idea Allie Jane ... is to keep a journal note of anything that I buy that I have decided is a real need during the course of the Challenge, if nothing else it will keep me focused and enable me to look back over the year at what I have spent.

My new little £7.50 black planter and the green obelisk that will be for the French Beans to grown up.

Thank you again for all the comments yesterday.

And now ... the post I had planned for today.

A tasty little tea last night, it was just an M&S Melt in the Middle No Fish Cake with the last of the Iceberg lettuce, cherry tomatoes and two spring onions.  Quite tasty and passable  but it was just as it said virtually a fishcake with the fish left out and oozy vegan cheese in the middle ... something I could no doubt do myself much cheaper.

Seemingly it contains:  

Flavourful flakes of rice protein combined with potato filled with a deliciously creamy coconut centre, coated in breadcrumbs. Simply heat the oven for 20 minutes and serve alongside chunky chips. Serves 2. 

But I would just make a mashed potato cake and then place a square of vegan melty cheese in the middle and then coat with breadcrumbs and bake in the Remoska.  Virtually the same outcome just with a cheaper price tag.  But sometimes it's worth buying a product just to see if you can replicate it and this was bought in a pre-Christmas rush of madness to the head when I filled the fridge with M&S goodies.

I think I will call mine simply a Cheesy Mashed Potato Cake 😁

After making up another batch of Apple Pies in the sausage roll maker earlier I had a little strip of pastry over, once again I rolled it out thinly sprinkled it with cheese, rolled again, sprinkled on more cheese and left it in the fridge.

Then while the Remoska was still hot from cooking the Fishless Fishcake I cooked my little Cheese and Cracker All in One dessert and ate it straight after my tea.  Very satisfying.

Is there anything that you have recently bought and then successfully replicated at home ... for a lot less money?

Sue xx

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

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

Sorting Through the Vegetable Drawer

 

Gosh, now that's an exciting blog post title isn't it. 😄😆

But not wanting anything that I already have to go to waste, yesterday I hoicked out the vegetable drawer and went through it all carefully.  Everything in it was bought either before Christmas or just after and some of the dates were waaaaay in the past!!

The first thing I usually do when I buy celery is to wash it and repack it wrapped in kitchen roll inside a green Stayfresh bag.  This really does mean that it stays fresh for a long time.  However I hadn't done it this time, so that was my first job.

 I know in the past when I have mentioned doing this that some readers have said that they wrap theirs tightly in tinfoil, but I've always found that this doesn't work as well for me.  Anyway prepping the celery all in one go means that I can use all the trimmings for soup and what I have left is ready for use ... or a quick grab and go snack.

I chopped up one and a half red onions my remaining two carrots and added the celery trimmings and leaves along with the stalks of the Tenderstem broccoli  then sautéed these in some oil while I checked through everything else.

The bagged leaves were looking very sorry for themselves, but still edible thanks to the kitchen roll trick.

Not bad when I bought them and opened them a day before this date.

I also opened and used the outer leaves of an Iceberg lettuce that I bought just before the New Year.  The cut end was placed on a double piece of kitchen paper and then into a bag, then it and the cut in half celery sticks were put back into the now wiped out and dried vegetable drawer.

Once the harder vegetables had been cooking for a few minutes I added the leaves, a vegetable stock pot that I found lurking in the cupboard ... I must check if there are anymore in there ... and about half a litre of hot water.

Then almost as an afterthought I added a good handful of washed red lentils, I might as well keep the protein police happy. 😉

It cooked away for a bit longer than I meant it too, as I started hopping around blogland reading lots of lovely posts, but then it was whizzed up and I decided to weigh it to see how many portions I would get.

So I reckon three good portions of lovely warming vegetable soup, so that's two more lunches for me and I now also know exactly what I have left in the vegetable drawer and it should keep me going until at least the middle of next week.

So I have left in the drawer - 

1/4 white Cabbage

most of a head of Celery

most of an Iceberg Lettuce

 Red Onions

Brown onions

1/2 Cucumber

full pack of Cherry Tomatoes

3 Peppers

and

the heads of the Tenderstem Broccoli 

(which are actually in a tub on the shelf of the fridge)

Not a bad little stash of fresh stuff, which after a thorough check is still pretty fresh and very usable.  I have just been adding this photo to my photo files and now I should be able to monitor everything nicely ready for showing quite a difference in the food stash on the 1st February.

I should do the same for the fruit drawer next ... but I think it's coffee time first. 😀

Sue xx