Confession and Confusion - Missed Shopping Trip

My head just wasn't in the game last week!!

I went shopping on Wednesday, a last minute 'Do you fancy coming to Aldi with me?' from Alan saw me agreeing just so I could get out of the house for a while.  The sun was shining and it seemed crazy to stay indoors when a little five minute trip up the road and away from my desk would make me feel so much better, so we did.

And I shopped.

And I forgot to pick up the receipt.

 Then I put away my shopping.

 It was only when I went into the fridge later and looked at the Spring Onions in their glass jar on the top shelf that I realised ...

 I had also forgotten to photograph the food.

And when I dug everything out and took the photo and then put everything back, then I realised there should have been bread.

I took it's photo!!

Then I remembered we had also gone into Booths for a cup of coffee and when Alan asked me if I needed anything else, I said yes, curry powder as they hadn't had any in Aldi.

I have just sat on the Aldi website and found the prices of all my purchases and it seems that I spent £8.06 in Aldi and my curry powder was £3 ... what!!

At least it towers head and shoulders above it's friends and should last me a while.  😄

And you lot tell me I'm organised!!

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

Red Lentil Dahl

 

I made a large pan of dahl the other day.  

It always seems like such an easy recipe and one that gives multiple portions for me as I like a lot more rice than dahl so it goes a long way.  I could literally ... and indeed have done on numerous occasions ... eat a bowl of rice with just salt and pepper I love it that much.  But there's not much goodness or protein in plain rice so adding some dahl to my bowl gives a good hit of both.

Whenever I bought this coconut milk, it must have been quite a while ago as it was out of date, I had obviously picked up the 'light' version by mistake as this is something I never do, and it really stood out in the finished dish.  That luscious creaminess that I'm used to achieving just wasn't there.

But I wanted to use it up so I did, and I added lots of spinach for the healthy greens side of things.

It made enough for three good portions for me and a large single portion for Alan to go with a roast chicken portion for his tea.

I used the recipe from Deliciously Ella's book, but dahl basically is just lentils, onions, spices and coconut milk if you like it creamy.  Nice, cheap to make and very simple ... and much tastier than these simple ingredients would suggest it is going to be.

I think it's important to have a good base selection of spices in stock if you want to make cheap meals taste better, and I've just used the last of my curry powder so I better add that to this weeks shopping list.  I'll have a rummage through the cupboards first though just in case there is some lurking in there.

Sue xx

Breakfast, Packed Lunch and Chippy Tea

 

I'm cheating a bit with the 'breakfast' photo, as this one was taken a while ago and never used.  This mornings banana was a sorry affair and I didn't photograph it.  I wish it had looked like this!!

Lunch is good though.  

When we go to Mum's these days we take a packed lunch with us, Mum doesn't need the hassle of trying to prepare food and I would rather spend time with her than be struggling in her kitchen to make us something.  We don't need much for lunch as we are only really there for a couple hours and an hours drive each way.  But we do need something, so I try to make it as tasty as possible ... and something that suits us both.

Just one bun each ... carefully labelled of course ... and one of the two wafers each out of one of the packets from my fridge.  We supply the food and Mum supplies the hot drink, it works well, and the dogs both love a day out at Granny's house ... Granny has a dog treats tin 🐶🐶

When we get back it's time to feed and walk the dogs and then Alan usually goes and gets us a chippy tea, no cooking, no washing up and tasty food.  A good end to a good day.

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Sort of good news from the vets with Suky yesterday, her eyesight and hearing loss are just pretty much on track as the kind of ageing a Pug of her years would experience, the only sad thing is the vet is pretty sure she has arthritis in all her joints and although she has been on YuMove for the past four years and we have recently moved her onto the Advanced version for 'stiff, older dogs' he thinks that  she does need more help now.  So she is currently on a liquid anti-inflammatory and pain relieving medication for a weeks trial, if this doesn't work she will probably have to move on to steroid tablets, something we used to have for Sophie our elderly Border Collie for the last few years of her life. 

He did suggest that we might want to consider one of  THESE  for her in the near future.  Although I never saw myself as the type of person to push my dog along in a stroller ... this could work out well for both of us!!  😀

Sue xx

Menus ... and Memories

 

I've decided to simplify my menu planning a bit, instead of putting the meals onto a specific day I am simply listing the seven main meals I want to prepare during the week ahead using the ingredients that need using up first as a starting block.  I found myself spending far too much time rubbing out and moving meals around when they were listed daily ... purely for my own benefit of course but still annoying!

And at the bottom of the page the things that need using up first, you wouldn't think I'd need to be reminded to use up chocolate spread would you.  I've literally just had a brainwave for that actually, well it is Valentines Day in seven days and I think some little cakes might be in order.

I used up one of the smaller new carrots yesterday and made a quick portion of coleslaw.

Little carrot = little grater ... just for a bit of fun.

It doesn't look the most appealing photo does it but coleslaw made with iceberg lettuce never looks as good as when you make it with white cabbage, and of course it has to be eaten straight away otherwise it goes soggy.  But it was really tasty and I have just enough lettuce for an action replay for my lunch today.

While I was getting one of my many notebooks out yesterday ready to start to work on a potential complete weeks shopping for a £10 budget, I came across old workings out for previous Challenges.  They make for fascinating reading.  I was going to put them into the recycling and start afresh but then I thought no, I will see how many more pages like this I have tucked in other notebooks and use them for reference and recipe ideas.   I obviously then spent a good hour or so reading through all my old scribblings.

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Stationery and starting new notebooks off is a weakness of mine, no doubt started by Mr Downey my form teacher for the last year of Junior School.  He had taken over the class after our very strict female teacher had left following an embarrassing incident in the playground, but he was most definintely not cut from the same cloth as her.  He was so laid back he was virtually horizontal.

Every Monday morning we would all be given a new school exercise book which we spent the first hour after assembly 'backing' with paper of our choosing from the art trays, then we had to use this to do a 'topic' for the week.  We could choose anything to write about and cut up any books in the classroom to glue the pictures in our books.  We would all start off the first couple of mornings of the week full of good intentions and then by Friday morning we would be doodling and making paper aeroplanes instead.  Every afternoon when the weather was relatively dry we would go through the gate from our school into the park, where the girls would play rounders and the boys would play cricket ... which Mr Downey loved more than life itself.  If it rained too hard we simply read, chatted very quietly or in some cases fell asleep.

It's a good job there were no SATS tests back in the day 😄

Sue xx