Taste testing!

 

In today's YT video I'm tasting a variety of strawberries, tomatoes and apples after recent discussions about how fruit (and veg) is lacking in taste.  I got some from M&S, Waitrose, my local greengrocer and my Co-op.  Spoiler alert, the M&S produce came out top for actually tasting like they were supposed to!!  So I'm thinking it's worth buying more expensive in season produce but just less often so I can stay within budget.

Someone asked what I was going to do with all that produce!  You know me, I won't be wasting any of it!!  As I had too many strawberries to eat by myself I chopped the 'lesser' tasty ones and froze them in my wee tubs (right hand side) for using in overnight oats or yoghurt.  The wee tubs on the left are mixed fruit compote.

Some of the tomatoes I've just lightly cooked with vinegar, sugar and a pinch of salt to make a kind of sauce.

It's delicious with my sausage meatballs!

The remaining tomatoes on the vine will be roasted just as a side veg and the wee sugardrop ones I'll just munch on as snacks! 🍅

What I ate in a day for £2.13

 

In tomorrow's Foodie Friday vlog, I'm sharing the costs of what I ate in a day.  I explain how I work out the cost of the veggies in a Lidl veg box simply by dividing the £1.50 cost by the number of items (6) so each item/pack is 25p.  Then within that 25p I work out what each single piece of veg costs.  For example a single pepper would be 25p divided by 3, a single banana would be 50p divided by 13.  And so on.

I had 6 Wagyu beef sausages that were reduced to £1.99 making each sausage 33p.  These were cooked in home made onion gravy and portioned into 3 servings.  I ate one and froze the other two.  Honestly, they weren't the best sausages I've ever had despite the fancy Wagyu content!

I have a load of butter in the freezer made from reduced cream so when I add butter to a meal/recipe it doesn't cost as much as shop bought.  

And so you get the gist of how I calculated the cost of what I ate in a day.  Here's the breakdown of each meal.

Breakfast: 42p

• 50g oats 6p (from a 2kg bag costing £2.45)
• 50g frozen raspberries 33p (from a 300g bag costing £2)
• Banana 3p 
• Peanut butter, no cost bought with a voucher
• Jam, free as was a gift

Morning snack: Free

Scone with jam and clotted cream, free gift

Main meal: £1.37

• 2 sausages 66p
• Instant mash 45p
• 1/3 of the sweetheart cabbage 8p
• 1/3 of onion gravy 18p (made from 2 onions at 32p, butter 10p, seasonings 10p)

Supper: 34p

• 1 slice home made sourdough bread 6p
• Butter 10p
• 30g cheese 18p (from a 900g block costing £4.99)

Grand total: £2.13

If I'd had fresh potatoes at the time or mash in the freezer, it would have been cheaper as the instant mash was just a storecupboard standby.  

It's not something I'll do regularly as it's faffy to work out the costs but it was an interesting exercise nonetheless 😊

Halfway through my no spend December

 

So far I haven't spent a penny in December as planned.  I have plenty of food in my storecupboard and both my freezers.   Even though I think I'm organised, it was still good to take everything out and have a good look!!  I did find a few things I'd forgotten about!

The above shows lots of veggies, cooked chicken, raw turkey slices, beef stew and minced beef.  I still have a banana loaf and some carrot cake as well as lots of lemons 🍋

My second freezer has plenty of soup and fruit!

There's more than enough food to last me well into January and create lots of healthy balanced meals with what I also have in the storecupboard (rice/pasta/noodles/flour/oats.)

In today's Foodie Friday vlog I mentioned I'd leave the link to the freezer tubs I use HERE.  I've had mine for a few years now so they were worth the investment.

I've not needed to spend money on anything else as I'm organised for Christmas which is always the biggest expense for December anyway.  So I might even be able to SAVE money this month!!! 

Lemon syrup and apple puree

 

I had 8 unwaxed lemons languishing in the fridge because my freezers are jam packed.  I had to do something with them soon or they'd go to waste.  So I made a simple lemon syrup.

I thinly peeled the zest and added them to a pan with 3 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar.  I simmered them until it had reduced by half.  Once it had cooled I removed the zest.

I juiced the lemons and added the juice to the sugar syrup.

I now have some slightly candied peel to use in my next whisky fruit cake or Christmas pudding and a jar of delicious lemon syrup to use in my iced tea 🫖

I still had the apples from my last Lidl box so they were cored and peeled and poached in a splash of water.

Once they were cooked, I pureed them so I now have 4 x half cup portions of simple applesauce to use in baking.  They're already in the freezer.

Also chopped up and in the freezer are the 3 red peppers (29p each at Lidl) and the remaining 3 free bananas.

Today's Foodie Friday vlog shows my last shopping 'haul' of the year.  My plan is to not visit a supermarket again until January.  I can only do that if I make sure I use up all my purchases and don't waste anything! 

Simple mango chutney

 

I got 2 mangoes in a Lidl box last week.  I've been checking their ripeness all week.  They seemed soft and ripe so I tasted one this morning.  While it was ripe it wasn't that sweet so it was perfect for making mango chutney!🥭

This is a very simple bare bones recipe.  Of course you can add your own favourite spices to it but today I didn't have any chillies or garlic or cardamom seeds.

I used:

2 mangoes chopped

1/4 cup sugar (I used brown)

1/4 cup vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)

2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1/4 tsp ground coriander

pinch salt

Add to a large pan and bring to the boil.

Simmer for 5 to 10 mins until the mango is soft enough to mash.

Simmer for another 5 mins or so until you can pull the spoon through the mixture and no liquid fills the gap.

I've just put it into wee containers to freeze, the size you'd normally get with a take away.  I'm freezing it so I don't eat it!!  I guess you could put it into a sterilised jar etc if you want to preserve it longer.  But I'd look for an actual preserving recipe instead.  

I just want to pull out a portion to have with curry or pakora! 😋

Stretching meat

 

This week I bought a lot of meat which will last me into December if I stretch it with veggies and dumplings.  I had 2 x 700g packs of lean diced beef so after dusting it with a little flour,  I fried it off in batches in a little oil.  The caramelisation on the meat adds to the flavour!

It all went in the Crockpot with diced carrot, turnip (swede) and onions with 1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce and stock.  It bubbled away for 6 hours.

I made some suet dumplings (recipe at the end) and popped them in for the last half hour.  The smell in the kitchen was amazing!

I had a portion with some sweet potato mash from the freezer.

I used 2/3 of a 750g pack (ie 500g) of steak mince to make a meatloaf.  The meat was stretched with 1 grated carrot, 1 diced onion, 2 cooked bacon rashers finely chopped, 1/2 cup of oats, 1 beaten egg and a lot of Worcestershire sauce to taste!  Mix really well and bake in a lined 2lb loaf tin at 180C for about 40 mins.

The rest of the mince was cooked with some grated carrot, onions, red lentils and some stock.  I had extra doughballs so they were popped in the freezer tubs too!

I made some pastry and popped it on top of these 2 wee individual pie dishes.  

Everything is now in the freezer!

Suet dumplings

200g SR flour (or plain flour with 2 tsp baking powder)
100g suet (beef or vegetable)
1 tsp mixed herbs  (optional)
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together with very cold water until it forms a dough.  Roll into 12 balls the size of a golf ball.  Cook on top of stew with a lid on for 20 to 30 mins.

All of the above made 20 portions of meat dishes.

Eating from the storecupboard: Sunday lunch

 

I'm still eating from the storecupboard/fridge/freezer and using up 'stuff' that's in there.  Today I made a Sunday lunch with a chopped up baked potato fried in the wok, some cooked chicken, cauliflower and cheese sauce from the freezer and the last of the gravy granules from the storecupboard.  Ok the gravy was lamb based but gravy is gravy!!  The cauliflower was the end of a bag of frozen cauliflower and broccoli so there were a few wee bits of the green stuff in there too.  I can't even remember when I made the cheese sauce, I didn't date it.  Pity I didn't have any Yorkshire puddings or it would have been the perfect meal.

I have to say it was absolutely delicious and made in 10 mins!! 😋

Eating from the storecupboard: lamb burger hash

 

In my continuing effort to feed myself from the storecupboard/fridge/freezer, today's meal was using up the lamb burgers I got free from the community waste shop ages ago and some cooked potatoes.  A hash seemed a good idea!  The above quantities made 2 main meals.

I broke up one of the burgers into rough pieces and put them in my wok.  I use my wok for just about everything, not just stir fries!  No oil needed as they produced their own fat!

Once they were nicely browned/carmelised I added the chopped potatoes.  I fried them until they were browned too.

I tossed in some steamed broccoli and the hash was done.  It was really good.  I'd never buy burgers but they were free to me.  And as they were M&S ones they were a good quality.  I'm not keen on a burger in a roll so this was a good way to use them up.

I believe a hash usually has a potato and onion base but I used my last onion to make a soup.  I eat a lot of these style of meals as it's all done in one pot, or wok in this case! 😋

Eating from the storecupboard: chicken curry

 

Today I made a very simple chicken curry using the yellow sticker chicken my DIL got me.  I chopped the 2 small breasts into chunks and sprinkled some garlic granules, mixed herbs and a pinch of salt over them.  This amount of chicken will feed me for 3 meals.

I sautéed them in a little oil for a few minutes until just cooked then removed them from the pan.

I mixed 3 tsp of garam masala, 1 tsp each coriander, cumin and turmeric plus 1/2 tsp of chilli flakes.

I fried the spices (carefully to avoid burning) in 1 tsp oil in the same pan.

I added my last portion of tomato and veg sauce from the freezer and about a cup of water.  I simmered it for about 10 mins.

I added back a third of the cooked chicken and simmered until piping hot.  It wasn't too spicy so I only added a little of the coconut cream my DIL also got me.

I served it with one of the naans/flatbread I made at the weekend.  It was really good and so quick to make!  I've now got an opened carton of coconut cream to use up in the next few days! 

Eating from the storecupboard: baked bean chilli

 

I had half a tin of Heinz baked beans in the fridge.  They had been there 2 days as I had the other half with my cheesy baked potatoes.  I pulled a portion of tomato and veg sauce from the freezer.  It has tomatoes, onions, 3 types of peppers and grated carrot so is packed with veggies.

I put a teaspoon of oil plus 2 teaspoons of my fajita spice mix in a hot pan and gently fried off the spices for 1 min (or until they smell amazing!)

I added the tomato sauce and let it all sizzle for 1 min then added some water to loosen it.

I let it simmer for 10 mins while I cooked some rice.

Then I added the baked beans and stirred it all together until piping hot.

I served it with plain boiled rice.  It was honestly the best bean chilli I've ever made!!  You could add more chilli flakes to the spice mixture if you like it hotter 🌶 but I find my fajita spice mix is spicy enough for me.  That's the beauty of mixing it yourself 😋

And there's a second portion in the fridge for tomorrow!