Wednesday 20 March 2013

Spring Flowers and Frugal Food.


With more snow apparently heading our way, it's good to have this colourful reminder that Spring has actually Sprung! These brave little blooms survived the last cold snap so I hope they come through the next one!



I am keeping a weather eye (no pun intended, but hope you noticed my little link there? Eh?) on my meal planning, and am already noticing I'm neither shopping nor spending so much. Quality is not being sacrificed and we are eating well. Here's me about to get cracking on last Sunday's Chicken Pot Roast.


Ooooops, missed out the garlic! Now that would NEVER do! This is the veggies  after sautéing.


And finally with chicken in situ, about to go into a nice slow oven. I do hanker after a gas hob but you can't beat my Rayburn for oven cooking, especially long slow cooking.


This lasted us three days in various guises. I didn't re-use the bones for stock but I do at times, and will be thinking ahead in future. A one pot meal, how economical and time saving is that? Also it meant that as Jim was out coaching all day I didn't have to worry about what time he was getting in. No spoilt dinners in our house!

I've also been bread-making regularly too and really, once you have got into your stride it doesn't take an age. Well, it does, but you work round the various stages. Obviously not a thing to embark on at the last minute when you have run out! I also love putting different bits and bobs in my mix; sometimes it will be very basic, other times I want to experiment. Here I've used spelt again, olive oil to soften, honey to sweeten, and a good handful of the seed mix for extra nutrient content. Tastes yummy!


Yes, I did add yeast and salt, not pictured here, and no, I don't usually use my precious - and pricey - Manuka honey in bread, but had run out of the bog standard variety.


And this is the result. And very nice too, if I say so myself! Oh! I must show you my kitchen freezer whiteboard in situ..........


Scrawly writing I'm afraid, done in a hurry. And still some sorting out between what goes in the garage freezer and what goes in this one. But it is all coming together, and makes it so much easier to meal plan. Even Jim is getting in on the act, and has bought me a large whiteboard to go on the kitchen wall by the door for  the garage freezer contents (as he said, having it in the garage defeats the object, I need it where I can see it here.) and also for jotting down things we've run out of, a rough shopping list.

It has been an interesting and salutary investigation of myriad frugal foods and organising blogs and youtube videos; I have been humbled by the hardship and adversity and sheer guts of some people who have dragged themselves out of debt by very careful frugal living, amazed at some of the wonderful meals created with a handful of cheap ingredients, embarrassed by how much I have in the way of resources compared with many, encouraged by the great ideas I've found to help me organise myself and my home, and frankly astonished and perturbed by some of the sites I visited describing extreme survival 'prepping'. These are the Doomsday Preppers who stock-pile for 20 or so years - food, water, and worryingly, guns and ammunition. I'm not talking about a couple of side-by-side shot-guns either!
But heigh-ho, that is their lives and philosophy, not mine. I'll make do with my freezers and a slim larder cupboard! One of the more daft ideas I came across - this in  a blog about saving money and the planet : crock-pot liners! Yep, it's true. Now you don't even have to wash up! Heaven only knows what cooking your food for 8 hours or so wrapped in clingfilm or similar does to you, but I wouldn't want to be using it near any food which gets heated! And how ecological is that, eh?

Anyway, ending on a high note ....Amanda from Mangle Prints inboxed me about her upcoming Lino Print Workshops so I am first on the list!! Whoo-hoo! More anon.

So, to continue the conversation, what's your best organising tip, and is there a favourite frugal recipe you and your family enjoy? Look forward to hearing from you.

19 comments:

  1. Like the white board but prefer my cupboard door that has been painted with a coat of blackboard paint. Caroline C

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    1. Hi Caroline, yes, a blackboard was considered when we decided on the big, new whiteboard. Just as useful, and kinda funky too! Except I don't have a cupboard door I could paint. I did consider using the door into the utility room but I hang my pinnies and shopping bags there! Lx

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  2. I am amazed at your freezers! I only ever had one medium sized when we had the boys living at home, now it's a small one. I'd never cope with anything bigger, forget what's in this little one sometimes as it is! And there are lots of foods I don't like frozen to be honest. Veggies are OK, but not potatoes, the texture seems wrong. I know a lot of people use frozen foods all the time, but I would much rather cook, and eat, from fresh. I don't make bread any more as it always got eaten too quickly! And am stopping buying supermarket meat, in common with quite a lot of people apparently, in preference for going to the butcher.
    It was snowing in town this morning... the first time I've been for a year and it snowed! And a certain large bookstore was a disappointment.

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    1. Mmm, we discussed the why's and whynots of freezers last time, Maggie, I do agree that things get lost and forgotten - hence my board! And I don't freeze potatoes - except Aunt Bessie's Roast potatoes at Christmas time!

      About 18 months ago I bought a lamb from ...I think it was East Winch farm? Anyway, picked it up al beautifully jointed and packed at Howards the butcher in Gayton, and was in there last week to suss them out for some other stuff. Their meat is very good and When I have used what Is in the freezer I shall be toddling across to order some from him.i think you still have to know your butcher but much better idea than supermarket meat.

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  3. I'm liking the look of your stockpot chicken, never done this myself but might try in my slow cooker. Your bread looks divine I can smell it from here. I do a lot of one pot cooking either on top of the stove in a large deep pan or in the slow cooker and it saves on the washing up. I always plan my meals and only buy what my recipes need plus all the regular stuff but it does save on the cost. I found that I was throwing away too much food as I'd buy things 'just in case I need them' but I didn't! So I suppose you could say I am being frugal.
    Patricia x

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    1. It is so easy, Patricia, and one pot to wash up ! I certainly think you sound frugal to me! If I lived in a town/village with a greengrocer and butcher within walking distance I could shop every day for food - though this would be a tiresome interruption to the other stuff I'd be doing! but I don't, so to buy enough to cook, eat one freeze two makes perfect financial and ecological sense to me. By meal planning I'm not doing that impulse buying which always seems such a bargain at the time. And it's early days, I'm just getting into the swing of things. I may even end up getting rid of a freezer! Lx

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  4. You are going guns there! Really getting into it....I'm not a cook I'm afraid, just the basics, cooking gene skipped me by! Love those spring flowers! :) x

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    1. Ada, we all have our talents! I don't do the fancy stuff, and have every admiration for people who do.

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  5. I know, more snow - groan!! At least you have a little colour in your garden, for the moment!

    S x

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    1. Still escaping the snow here, Sandra ... but I know lots of people who are having it badly.

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  6. Hi...let me introduce myself, I'm Viv and live in Ipswich although for about 20 yrs I lived in Norwich. I have just spent the morning reading through your blog which is wonderful and so inspiring. Actually I also recognise you from the morris world - my husband dances with Pretty Grim, Green Dragon and Milkmaid Molly. I hope you don't mind but I've subscribed to your blog so that I can follow it from now on, as I don't want to miss anything. You are so talented with the music, journalling, textiles and cooking and have managed to record it all in such an entertaining and informative way. It's great to see a craft/sewing area as untidy as mine!
    Lets hope the snow that's promised doesn't arrive but maybe that is asking too much. Any way that's all for now...catch up with you another day...Viv

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  7. Hello Viv! Lovely to meet you, and thank you for such lovely comments. Ah, I wonder if i have seen your husband at the Ely Day of DAnce - I do remember Green Dragon from somewhere. Do you get involved yourself, at all?

    I play fiddle very basically and am much more into playing my melodeon these days - I have met so many lovely people through Molly and music.

    Lovely to have you subscribing, I hope I can keep the standard up! Speak soon, Lx

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  8. Well, frugal in this house is when the fridge and freezer are almost bare and I just gather up the contents, chuck them in a roasting dish with some olive oil and shove in the aga for an hour or so, with, of course, garlic! It usually works ok and is always a bit different from last time! Aga's just conked out though, so it's sarnies and take-aways in a cold kitchen at the mo. xCathy

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  9. Hi, I've just found your blog - love the look of the pot roast chicken, I can almost smell it from here!
    My kids are hard to please when it comes to food but a favourite with everyone is a good old fry up of bacon bits, onion and new potatoes, with an egg & mushrooms too if we have them. Suits everyone and isn't pricey either!

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    1. Jay I'm so sorry I've only just found this; I always reply to comments (I obviously don't get them in hundreds!!) Yes, a fry up of leftovers works every time, doesn't it? Or soup - Cream of Fridge is our favourite! Lx

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