Frugal Foodies, thread 3! Favourite leftover dishes, avoiding waste, menu ideas. Plus pets, and other chat.

[Ninkanink]

Hey everyone! 🌺🌼🌸

1st thread is here

2nd thread is here

Looking forward to another lovely thread! ☺️ Eat, drink and be merry!

Made this cake yesterday to use up some rhubarb. It was very nice except the rhubarb felt like an afterthought - would have worked equally well without it!

Mmmm pita bread I wish I could learn how to make peshwari nan. Actually I probably don't otherwise I'd be the size of a house from eating too many!!

My 2yo loves peshwari naan so much she cried when me and DH took a piece from the sharing plate in the middle of the table the other night...

One for you weeds! 100% sourdough baguettes, somewhere between 65 and 70% hydration, 50/50 plain flour/white bread flour.

They are less shatter-crusted and a bit chewier than the ones from a bakery in Paris, and oddly shaped as I had to bend to fit into a baking tray...but dangerously delicious...!!

Baguettes look great 😁

This thread is such a comforting read at the moment. I dip in and out of it and love looking at all the delicious food!

We're still trying to shop once every 10 days or so and use up every last thing in between.

I went shopping on Saturday and so far we've had:

Saturday evening: homemade wedges and homemade KFC chicken breasts with coleslaw

Sun: lunch - River Cafe Minestrone soup with brown bread and cheese
Dinner- homemade chilli made into nachos - baked in the oven over tortillas and loads of mature cheddar, then served with sour cream, fresh coriander. I wanted to add avocado but forgot to buy them in the shopping

Mon: ham salad sandwiches & fruit
Dinner - fried eggs, beans and oven chips - trashy but had to work om late so needed something in a hurry and it was delicious as we don't have it very often

Tues: Lunch - the rest of the minestrone soup with cheese on toast
Dinner - Italian marinaded chicken breast cooked on the BBQ with BBQed courgette and aubergine slices, served with slow cooked herbed wedges of potatoes

Wed: Lunch - smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels
Dinner: meatballs in cherry tomato and white wine sauce with spaghetti, salad and garlic bread

Thurs: Lunch - BLT bagels
Dinner - the remainder of the meatballs - same sides

Friday - Lunch - cheese salad open sandwiches on brown soda bread
Dinner - BBC Good Food Healthy egg and chips served with baked beans

Saturday - Lunch - carrot and coriander soup served with brown soda bread
dinner - chicken in a creamy tomato sauce served with penne and salad

Sunday - fillet steak in a smokehouse rub cooked on the bbq, served with garlic potatoes, bbq asparagus, broccoli and carrots and peppercorn sauce

Monday - homemade beer batter cod, oven chips, marrowfat peas and tartare sauce

Tues - oven cooked chicken wings in hot sauce with baked potato and homemade coleslaw

Wed - teriyake chicken breast, stir fry veg and noodles

Forgot I also have the ingredients to make high tea - cooked breakfast for dinner - grilled bacon, sausages, pudding, eggs, hash browns, and beans so might have that on Thursday!

Such lovely baking! @Graphista sorry your strata wasn’t up to much, I’ve never had it before.

Dinner today was broccoli, pesto and bacon pasta with cherry tomatoes. Great way to use up broccoli past it’s best - you just steam, then blitz with pesto. Cook your pasta. Fry your cubed bacon and add the tomatoes and chuck it all together. Yum.

@Wildernesstips it happens still worth trying

Today's is leftover "chicken" casserole with garlic mash

Easy one for tonight, must remember to update inventory though.

I need the meal planning so I am reminded to take stuff out the freezer to use.

Forgot pic always forget pics!

That looks really nice @Graphista. I love mash and stew. We had chick pea curry with aloo tikki and brown rice. I forgot the picture but it really hit the spot.

Caperplips I forgot about breakfast for dinner!! Thanks for the reminder, I made ham egg & chips for the kids' dinner and DH and I had cavolo nero, onions and sausages with fennel seeds, chili and red wine. Eaten with one of my baguettes!!

I went out to the freezer yesterday to get steak out to defrost, only to discover that OH, in his weekend masterly display of how disorganised the outhouse was and how much better it would be once he'd put everything where he thought it should be, had plonked a ladder on the switch for the extension cable, into which were plugged both fucking freezers.
Relations are frosty at the moment, which is more than I can say for the freezers.

Oh my god Weeds - how long was the power off? Usually as long as the door hasn't been opened the stuff inside is still ok for a while. I would have been apoplectic with rage!

I planned the week's food yesterday, did the usual massive Ocado shop, making more baguettes today to bake off tomorrow and then I'm going to try my hand at foccacia and more sourdough boules this weekend. All this bread is proving to be a really handy bartering tool with my neighbours - I bake double the bread we need and give away half of it, they give us all sorts of things back - we have had a couple of canisters of pre-mixed cocktails from one friend, a lego book from another for the kids, and 1.5kg of self-raising from another when I ran out! Quite enjoying this barter economy (and let's face it - I like showing off!!) If only I could trade bread for childcare...

Forgot to say, today's lunch is jacket potatoes topped with various bits and bobs of leftovers in the fridge (must remember to put them in the oven in time!) and dinner is spag bol, the next step in DH's cooking education. I'm going to have to take myself off to do an exercise video or a long walk with the kids so I can't see him "doing it wrong" and leap in to sort it out. I'm a terrible backseat driver so I have to physically remove myself from the kitchen or I'll never be able to let him get on with it!

4 days Xiaoxiong.
I opened the door to the one with the steak in and noticed a wall of partially defrosted food. Had the "OMG, the freezers broken, where can I get another moment", then realised they were both off, removed the ladder and flicked the switch.
The stuff at the bottom / back is probably OK. I'm planning to feed him all the stuff from the front in his packed lunches for the next couple of weeks.

Oh no weeds, what a nightmare.

xiaoxiang I love the idea of swapping bread for cocktails. I need to get baking!

I’m off shopping today-there’s very little fresh stuff in the fridge. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with being able to choose what to cook tonight without having to base it on what’s in at the moment! So many choices...

@Xiaoxiong we have similar here :) DD(11) loves baking cakes and every time we leave half a wrapped up cake at the next door neighbours doorstep he cuts our grass the next day! Winner!

Omg re the freezer. I would be raging!

We have had some problems with the freezer and dread it breaking! Poor you weeds.

We ended up making spinach tortillas yesterday which were wolfed down by the kids. The extras are destined for a BBQ dinner with mini burgers, griddled courgette, halumi and mint yoghurt dip.

Lunch is random fridge stuff!

Dinner was delicious even if it isn't that pretty!

I like the idea of bread bartering. We are relying on friends as we cant get out so might make bread for them 😁

Delicious lunch -sourdough, cheddar and salad sandwich including some beetroot I pickled ages ago and had forgotten about! Everyone else using up random back if the cupboard stuff?

I was not best impressed!
If it wasn't for the fact he's still working so would be noticed missing, I'd be extending the composting trench at this point 😁
Cooking a chicken and boiling Jersey Royals for potato salad. It's a glorious day here and I'm planning to drive to the nearby lake and havd a picnic this evening!

@PurpleDaisies thanks, simple but tasty & filling that'll do for me

@Weedsnseeds1 oh no! Were you able to salvage anything? I'd have been livid!

I'm planning to feed him all the stuff from the front in his packed lunches for the next couple of weeks revenge served as a hot dish for a change?

The yoghurt I opened Saturday... we think ok to use still? Says 3 days after opening

If ok I'm thinking I'll make more flatbreads not sure what to make to go with them though - suggestions?

Eat the yoghurt Graphista, live a little!
It's fine, pH controlled and then you are putting if in the oven.
Chilli, ratatouille, something like that would be nice with flatbread.

Ooh yes not used the ratatouille yet, nor the giant cous cous

So... I'm thinking spiced giant cous cous with ratatouille and flatbreads I'll try and remember to post pics...

I'll be back (I need to sort out kitchen first it's a tip!)

The pictures are all so gorgeous looking, this thread makes me hungry!
Especially @Graphista's garlic mash and casserole, reminds me to make a stew / casserole soon!

I have swapped our meals about a little and tonight we're having the BBC healthy egg and chips which is cubes of parboiled potatoes cooked in the oven in a drizzle of sunflower oil and salt. Once they're nicely crisped and brown, throw in sliced mushrooms, thin wedges of red onion and chopped smoked bacon and sprinkle in dried oregano, Once these have all cooked and bacon is crisp, make wells in the tray and break in 6 eggs (there are 3 of us) and out back in the oven till the eggs are set. We serve this with baked beans on the side and it is utterly delicious comfort food all cooked in one tray and one small pot for beans. Teen dd loves this dinner!

I also baked coconut oat biscuits this afternoon from the new Delicious magazine and they're really really good!