Budget, week 11
A bit of retrospective post regarding the past week's budget this time. Due to various offers from the supermarket to give £10 off for a £100 spend on a very strict time limit, I doubled the budget but aimed to play them at their own game and stock up on essentials so that future weeks should be less. This should work but is a dangerous game, I'm sure they expect us all to do this and then eat the excess anyway, it's hard to outsmart their shopping psychology! Still, we now have extra olive oil, a few bottles of wine for Christmas and healthy stocks of washing-up liquid, rice, lentils, tins of beans, loo paper etc.
The weather here is colder and damper and turning very autumnal but so far we are just about coping without central heating. The trouble with old houses is that they not very economical to heat so every evening we are tucked up on the sofa under home crocheted blankets and nights are spent under several layers with toes wrapped in woolly socks. Meals have been seasonal one bowl types, eaten hungrily with a spoon from a large bowl. Again to save money, most meals this week have also been vegetarian, using recipes from two excellent books - Alice Hart's Vegetarian and The Meat Free Monday Cookbook. Alice Hart's book is one I particularly recommend. The recipes are interesting, easy to follow and utterly delicious. Amongst all the glamorous 'foodporn' style cooking books available these days it's easy to miss the rather reserved cover but on opening you will be enthralled and it's such a bargain price on Amazon too.
The shredded root vegetable gratin with creme fraiche and Gruyere is the perfect winter dish (and leftovers make an equally delicious lunch). I served this with steamed spinach for a pleasing green contrast to it's mellow orange hues.
As it's fig season (although they are still ridiculously expensive unless purchased from a market) I fancied making some fig jam to remind me of the warmer weather during the wintry months. I managed to get a whole tray of slightly overripe black Turkish figs for a bargain £2 and using another of Alice Harts recipes made her black fig and fennel jam. Early taste testing during cooking suggests that this will become a favourite. It's deliciously sweet with discreet undertones of aniseed. Shame it only made one large pot, I won't be giving this jar away!
One of the many lentil based meals this week was a spinach, lentil and lemon soup from a little recipe tucked away on the back pages of the latest issue of Jamie magazine. Easy, economical (uses frozen spinach) and quick to knock up, this is a bowl of warming wholesomeness, again leaving enough for a thermos for lunch.
The weather here is colder and damper and turning very autumnal but so far we are just about coping without central heating. The trouble with old houses is that they not very economical to heat so every evening we are tucked up on the sofa under home crocheted blankets and nights are spent under several layers with toes wrapped in woolly socks. Meals have been seasonal one bowl types, eaten hungrily with a spoon from a large bowl. Again to save money, most meals this week have also been vegetarian, using recipes from two excellent books - Alice Hart's Vegetarian and The Meat Free Monday Cookbook. Alice Hart's book is one I particularly recommend. The recipes are interesting, easy to follow and utterly delicious. Amongst all the glamorous 'foodporn' style cooking books available these days it's easy to miss the rather reserved cover but on opening you will be enthralled and it's such a bargain price on Amazon too.
The shredded root vegetable gratin with creme fraiche and Gruyere is the perfect winter dish (and leftovers make an equally delicious lunch). I served this with steamed spinach for a pleasing green contrast to it's mellow orange hues.
As it's fig season (although they are still ridiculously expensive unless purchased from a market) I fancied making some fig jam to remind me of the warmer weather during the wintry months. I managed to get a whole tray of slightly overripe black Turkish figs for a bargain £2 and using another of Alice Harts recipes made her black fig and fennel jam. Early taste testing during cooking suggests that this will become a favourite. It's deliciously sweet with discreet undertones of aniseed. Shame it only made one large pot, I won't be giving this jar away!
One of the many lentil based meals this week was a spinach, lentil and lemon soup from a little recipe tucked away on the back pages of the latest issue of Jamie magazine. Easy, economical (uses frozen spinach) and quick to knock up, this is a bowl of warming wholesomeness, again leaving enough for a thermos for lunch.
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