Frugal Foodies, thread 2! Favourite leftover dishes, avoiding waste, menu ideas.

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Hey everyone!

1st thread is here

Hope that link worked! I’ve never done it that way before...

💐 and 🍰 and ☕️ to all!

Guacamole with "stuff" for dipping in. Fresh and tasty, if not particularly involved from a cooking point of view!

And pina colada cake, with fresh pineapple and coconut, with rum syrup chucked over once baked

We had ramen from the cupboard for lunch but jazzed up with some odds and ends of salad and veg we had lying around.

I have a butternut squash, some sage and a packet of chestnuts and discovered while staring at a box of matches while on a very long conference call today that there is a recipe for soup that uses all those ingredients, so that will be for tomorrow.

I also plan to make a serious dent in a few jars that I am bored of looking at. Some cashew butter which we will have on crumpets for breakfast and then some rose harissa which I haven’t quite decided what to do with yet but may involve pasta at the weekend.

My kale dish yesterday was a winner! Chopped Kale (was supposed to be chard) cooked in boiling water, then drained and 1/3rd chopped finely and mixed with 2 tblsp Tahini (didn't have!) 2 tbsp Peanut butter, 2tsp soy sauce, juice of 2 limes, garlic, ginger and chilli. Served rest of the kale with Soba noodles (subbed with rice noodles) and the peanut mix on top. With extra peanuts if you have them.

Tonight's dinner is the lentil stew mentioned on another thread - seems to be lentils, brown rice, garlic/onion/spices and stock cooked in the oven and topped with cheese. Sounds ... - filling!

Tolstoy if you don't fancy pasta with your rose harissa, or have any left over, Honey & co has a nice recipe for little cheesy rose harissa nibbles which are tasty with a glass of wine or a cocktail!

www.thejc.com/harissa-and-goat-s-cheese-buns-from-honey-co-at-home-by-sarit-packer-and-itamar-srulovich-1.469381

Not much real cooking going on over here - lots of reheated leftovers, PB&J sandwiches and takeaways as both kids are back to school and DH and I are trying to work as well. So if anyone has anything that needs using up, let me virtually cook your food!

My absolutely amazing 15yo went out for a walk in the woods by our house yesterday and found absolutely loads of wild garlic! Result!!

So with my previous list of foods that needed using I've made:

Pasta with roasted veg and pesto
Chicken jambalaya (used some of the veg, my lovely chicken stock, frozen peppers and chorizo)
Bubble and squeak with a sausage each and baked beans

Tonight we're having leftover 'Jools' easy chicken curry' with homemade (but been in the freezer) sourdough naan bread. Three year old has informed he doesn't like curry (with super sassy sign language for the word 'curry') 😆 🍛

@Xiaoxiong well if you want a challenge...

Quorn Bacon
Mange tout
Peppers
Baby corn
Courgettes

Hit me with your ideas!

@ptumbi that sounds lovely!

@Xiaoxiong hope you're ok - sounds tiring. We're busier than ever too, what I'd do for a leisurely day of child free lazing. 🤫

magna yeah it's so much busier than I was expecting. Thank goodness each kid has their own device, I can't even imagine if we were trying to police sharing as well. But the amount of prep the night before, printing sheets, finding logins for about a million educational websites, making sure they're handing in the work... plus my work has gone bananas (in a good way). I really musn't whinge and just be thankful we have secure jobs and everything we need. But at the moment it's like managing a multinational corporation.

But there will be a bottle of cremant cracked open PRECISELY at 6pm for kir royales!!!

Graphista that particular combo of veg screams stir-fry to me, with garlic/ginger/chili/coriander, fresh basil if you have it (thai basil even better!) and seasoned with soy and fish sauce. Or I would make a veggie thai curry, with tofu, or laksa soup. I would use the quorn bacon on top of avocado toast or in a classic "B"LT.

Mildly alcoholic strawberry and melon soda may have to be renamed as highly alcoholic falling down juice "the secret ingredient is nitroglycerin"

I’ve been tired today so it’s been a day if raiding the freezer. I had some lovely minestrone soup for lunch and this new potato and cabbage subji made a month or so ago. It was so nice...just as good as fresh. This weekend I’m going to be restocking the freezer with some more easy reheat meals.

thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/savoy-cabbage-black-kale-and-potato-subji-savoy-aloo-gobhi

Dh has been making sourdough starter croissants today ready to be baked tomorrow

Cottage pie for the freezer

Weeds wow that is mad!! Is it tasty though??

Dinner tonight was minimal ingredients, but extracted maximum flavour by cooking it all together in a one-pot meal. Caramelised onions, chicken thighs, some very elderly currants, rice, cinnamon stick, some cardamom pods, some cloves, not even cooked with stock, just water. I crisped up the chicken thigh skin under the grill at the end and had some fresh coriander to garnish, and some yoghurt on the side, and sauteed some chard with lemon and garlic. The bottom of the rice stuck to the pot and was gorgeous and brown and jammy. Glory!

xiaoxiong it needs to ferment out a bit, but the whole house smells of strawberries now, so the signs are good!

Thanks for filo inspiration. Did a mash up of various ideas in the end - pastilla type filling with already cooked chicken and also a can of chickpeas. Loosely following this recipe

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chicken-almond-pastillas

Oops posted too soon. Served with creamed spinach on side and apple/raspberry filo pie with remaining filo afterwards.

I can’t keep up with you all but made tofu scramble burritos with leftover soyrizo empanada mix, half a block of form tofu, limes, tin of black beans and an old potato boiled and mashed in with a ton of Mexican spices - made me think of you all!

@IJumpedAboardAPirateShip that sounds amazing! I have an avocado going soft in rye fruit bowl and leftover creme fraiche in the fridge. I try and do a fake away every friday and Saturday. Would love to try Mexican!
Is there a recipe you follow follow for those empanadas?

Boiled up frozen roast chicken carcasses, made stock and stripped the meat.

Cooked jasmine rice( my new discovery, so much nicer than basmati) in chicken stock, seasoned,added meat chunks,a dollop of cream and a generous pinch of dill. Lovely.

Usually deal with carcasses day before the binman comes so the bones won’tbd stinking in the bin for too long( speaking from stinky experience)

Baking a Turkish pide style bread for tonight using Cofig19 and have retrieved Hellraisin from the fridge for a feed, ready to make more croissants later.
Planning yo have the pide with dips and lamb tonight.

Pide style bread

That looks fantastic weeds.

Right. I’m starting a sourdough starter today. Which of your two do you prefer?