The meals are all planned, up to Friday anyway, and I know I have everything I need. Lots of frugality there too.
Here's today's meals
B: poached egg on a crumpet, pineapple and yoghurt
L: vegetable tortilla and salad, apple
D: cheese and onion drop scones, bacon, fried tomatoes, pineapple and yoghurt (again)
No snacks if possible and drinks are decaf and water.
Monday, 2 September 2013
Sunday, 1 September 2013
Cheaper than chips menu: 1-9-13
Breakfast: porridge with fruit and yoghurt
Lunch: vegetable tortilla, salad, coleslaw
Dinner: any leftover tortilla with runner beans and broccoli
Yesterday I made six single portion lasagnas for the freezer - perfect for tired evenings.
Today I will make the first batch of tomato sauce from the freezer, based on the roasted tomato mixture from earlier in the week but then pushed through the mouli to get rid of the skin and seeds. Yum!
Lunch: vegetable tortilla, salad, coleslaw
Dinner: any leftover tortilla with runner beans and broccoli
Yesterday I made six single portion lasagnas for the freezer - perfect for tired evenings.
Today I will make the first batch of tomato sauce from the freezer, based on the roasted tomato mixture from earlier in the week but then pushed through the mouli to get rid of the skin and seeds. Yum!
Saturday, 31 August 2013
Cheaper than chips menu: 31-8-13
Breakfast: boiled egg and toast
Lunch: baked fish with a salad
Dinner: Out to the Hare so goodness only knows! The last for a while though.
Snacks: Plum, tomatoes
Drinks: loadsa water
From Monday I am going to have another store cupboard week or maybe even a fortnight. I will buy the weekly eggs because that's a fixed point in time and space and I may need to buy milk, but that should be it with any allotment stuff from Beth, runner beans and tomatoes.
This holiday hasn't been dreadful but I have spent more than I ought to have spent so it's time to slow down and get organised again. These next two weeks should do that for me.
Lunch: baked fish with a salad
Dinner: Out to the Hare so goodness only knows! The last for a while though.
Snacks: Plum, tomatoes
Drinks: loadsa water
From Monday I am going to have another store cupboard week or maybe even a fortnight. I will buy the weekly eggs because that's a fixed point in time and space and I may need to buy milk, but that should be it with any allotment stuff from Beth, runner beans and tomatoes.
This holiday hasn't been dreadful but I have spent more than I ought to have spent so it's time to slow down and get organised again. These next two weeks should do that for me.
Friday, 30 August 2013
Recipe: Pappardelle with slow roasted tomatoes and peppers
This recipe landed in my mailbox as a notification from the Great British Chefs website and looked so simple and so delicious that I decided to try it. Being me, I had to modify it and here's my comments.
Ingredients: amounts are deliberately vague to match what I had and served 1 (there was left over pasta dough)
Pasta dough:
100g pasta flour (I used ordinary which isn't as nice to work with but it's very much more frugal)
1 egg
splash of olive oil
Sauce:
olive oil
clove of garlic, crushed
half a small onion, cut into thin wedges
some tomatoes, quartered (the recipe said Heirloom, I used home grown)
quarter of a red, orange or yellow pepper, sliced thinly.
a handful fresh basil or parsley (I used parsley as I don't like basil very much - basil would be better if you like it but parsely was delicious too)
Some cheese, finely grated (I used not-parmesan - I didn't need very much)
Method:
Place the tomatoes, onion, garlic and pepper in a small roasting dish, drizzle with oil and roast in a slow oven until gorgeously gooey and fragrant. I gave it a good l;ong time which made it power expensive and next time I will do it in Handy Andy (my halogen oven) instead
While they are roasting, make the pasta dough, rest it, do the usual with the pasta maker and cut into strips about 3cm wide.
When the tomatoes are ready, snip in the parsley and pop it back in the oven while you cook the pappardelle in boiling, salted water until al dente, then drain well (it took about 90 seconds, that's all). Check the tomato mix and season as needed. I just added a little sea salt
Arrange the pasta in a bowl with the tomatoes and a sprinkling of grated cheese over the top. Eat and enjoy
That was the theory and it all worked really well. The roasted veg mixture was fantastic - a really deep, intense tomatey hit that was just incredible.
Just a couple of comment.
I didn't really go a bundle on the wide pasta ribbons: the flavour was OK but somehow it didn't work. When I make it again (and I will) it will be linguine or fettuccine type pasta. The other thing I will do is steam off the tomato skins before roasting as they were a little tough. But, honestly, it was absolutely gorgeous. So simple and so scrummy. And using value flour and tomatoes from the garden, the whole dish was under 60p
Just one word of advice - grated knuckle doesn't really enhance the grated not-parmesan flavour one little bit! Don't try it! OK?
Ingredients: amounts are deliberately vague to match what I had and served 1 (there was left over pasta dough)
Pasta dough:
100g pasta flour (I used ordinary which isn't as nice to work with but it's very much more frugal)
1 egg
splash of olive oil
Sauce:
olive oil
clove of garlic, crushed
half a small onion, cut into thin wedges
some tomatoes, quartered (the recipe said Heirloom, I used home grown)
quarter of a red, orange or yellow pepper, sliced thinly.
a handful fresh basil or parsley (I used parsley as I don't like basil very much - basil would be better if you like it but parsely was delicious too)
Some cheese, finely grated (I used not-parmesan - I didn't need very much)
Method:
Place the tomatoes, onion, garlic and pepper in a small roasting dish, drizzle with oil and roast in a slow oven until gorgeously gooey and fragrant. I gave it a good l;ong time which made it power expensive and next time I will do it in Handy Andy (my halogen oven) instead
While they are roasting, make the pasta dough, rest it, do the usual with the pasta maker and cut into strips about 3cm wide.
When the tomatoes are ready, snip in the parsley and pop it back in the oven while you cook the pappardelle in boiling, salted water until al dente, then drain well (it took about 90 seconds, that's all). Check the tomato mix and season as needed. I just added a little sea salt
Arrange the pasta in a bowl with the tomatoes and a sprinkling of grated cheese over the top. Eat and enjoy
That was the theory and it all worked really well. The roasted veg mixture was fantastic - a really deep, intense tomatey hit that was just incredible.
Just a couple of comment.
I didn't really go a bundle on the wide pasta ribbons: the flavour was OK but somehow it didn't work. When I make it again (and I will) it will be linguine or fettuccine type pasta. The other thing I will do is steam off the tomato skins before roasting as they were a little tough. But, honestly, it was absolutely gorgeous. So simple and so scrummy. And using value flour and tomatoes from the garden, the whole dish was under 60p
Just one word of advice - grated knuckle doesn't really enhance the grated not-parmesan flavour one little bit! Don't try it! OK?
Menu: 30-8-13
I think I have to give up on the frugality for a few days.
Yesterday evening's meal with three lovely people was great fun and we all had small plate meals which was nice, even though I then spoilt my comparative frugality with a large class of dry white (I wasn't driving!)
But today I am meeting Beth and Alex for lunch in the local pub and tomorrow evening it's back to the Hare with two other lovely friends (and Beth and Alex are lovely too, I hasten to add).
So I must do my best when I can, but . . .
Here we go . . .
Breakfast: Something eggy as I have some to use up and I'm collecting next week's eggs this afternoon. I think I feel a batch of lemon curd coming on too!
Lunch: Eeeeeeek
Dinner: I'm going to try a very simple recipe that I found. It looks lavish but is very frugal given the tomatoes will be home grown rather than a punnet of expensive Heirloom tomatoes. It's pappardelle with slow cooked tomatoes, parmesan and basil, except that I will sustitute the basil for parsley because I don't like basil, philistine that I am and I shall roast some garlic with the tomatoes because yum; possibly some onions too! I shall make the pappardelle, of course.
I'll let you know!
Yesterday evening's meal with three lovely people was great fun and we all had small plate meals which was nice, even though I then spoilt my comparative frugality with a large class of dry white (I wasn't driving!)
But today I am meeting Beth and Alex for lunch in the local pub and tomorrow evening it's back to the Hare with two other lovely friends (and Beth and Alex are lovely too, I hasten to add).
So I must do my best when I can, but . . .
Here we go . . .
Breakfast: Something eggy as I have some to use up and I'm collecting next week's eggs this afternoon. I think I feel a batch of lemon curd coming on too!
Lunch: Eeeeeeek
Dinner: I'm going to try a very simple recipe that I found. It looks lavish but is very frugal given the tomatoes will be home grown rather than a punnet of expensive Heirloom tomatoes. It's pappardelle with slow cooked tomatoes, parmesan and basil, except that I will sustitute the basil for parsley because I don't like basil, philistine that I am and I shall roast some garlic with the tomatoes because yum; possibly some onions too! I shall make the pappardelle, of course.
I'll let you know!
Thursday, 29 August 2013
Cheaper than chips menu: 29-8-13
Well, yesterday turned out to be rather a disaster on the food front. Andrea and I went over the road from school to the Flyer and we each had a very nice jacket potato with coronation chicken filling. Then I totally lost it after I'd finished in school, went over to Morrisons and bought rubbish. Ho hum.
Today won't be much better, but hopefully more planned.
Breakfast: the sausages I had planned for dinner yesterday and which had thawed slowly in the fridge
Lunch: not sure because I have a friend coming for coffee and cake this morning. If I have anything it will be based around tomatoes and salad leaves as there's something of a glut of them at the moment - oh, and cucumber!
Dinner: Out to the hare with Linda and Julia.
See - not frugal, not cheaper than chips, but very nice, all the same
And now I'm off into the kitchen to make a Victoria sponge.
Today won't be much better, but hopefully more planned.
Breakfast: the sausages I had planned for dinner yesterday and which had thawed slowly in the fridge
Lunch: not sure because I have a friend coming for coffee and cake this morning. If I have anything it will be based around tomatoes and salad leaves as there's something of a glut of them at the moment - oh, and cucumber!
Dinner: Out to the hare with Linda and Julia.
See - not frugal, not cheaper than chips, but very nice, all the same
And now I'm off into the kitchen to make a Victoria sponge.
Wednesday, 28 August 2013
Recipe: Courgette fritters: Cheaper than chips
As expected, I was spoilt for choice when looking for recipes. Finally I downloaded three. One was a very basic (useful for doing your own thing) recipe, one was spicy and one was herby. Decisions, decisions.
In the end I used half a fairly reasonable sized courgette, grated; one egg; some chives and parsley, chopped (garden); about 20g grated not-parmesan; 40g plain flour and some salt and pepper and fried them in a little olive oil. I guess you could say they were Italian-ish style and they were really scrummy.
Just put all the other ingredients but the flour in a bowl and mix well, then add the flour and mix again until everything is combined.
It made eight fritters so that came to about 5p per fritter. I ate four with my dinner, then nicked another one afterwards. I wonder if the other three would freeze?
And I forgot to take a photo! Sorry.
In the end I used half a fairly reasonable sized courgette, grated; one egg; some chives and parsley, chopped (garden); about 20g grated not-parmesan; 40g plain flour and some salt and pepper and fried them in a little olive oil. I guess you could say they were Italian-ish style and they were really scrummy.
Just put all the other ingredients but the flour in a bowl and mix well, then add the flour and mix again until everything is combined.
It made eight fritters so that came to about 5p per fritter. I ate four with my dinner, then nicked another one afterwards. I wonder if the other three would freeze?
And I forgot to take a photo! Sorry.
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