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

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Hey everyone! 🌺🌼🌸

1st thread is here

2nd thread is here

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

RubySlippers77 you’re on fire with using up leftovers.

Well I've made sourdough discard crackers instead of buying more crackers. Does that count

Also my mum aka. Queen of Leftovers decided that ALL the apples in the fruit bowl needed using so she peeled all of them to make into some kind of pudding. Of course the kids got off their online school and wanted an apple as a snack...all gone!! We also had some tense words about who is in control of next week's meal plan, so I just said I was doing dinners and she could do what she wants for lunches (with leftovers or not). She genuinely thinks we can go to the shops every day for food (with two kids under 8, and DH, DDad and my full-time jobs...).

I LOVE those crackers, they lasted about ten minutes here. I’ve got a pot full of discard so I’m thinking of baking something with it. No plain flour again so I might do a cake.

I’ve started a Turkish Pide bread that I fancied the look of. So far I’ve mainly been using up ancient flour from the cupboard so this feels very frugal.

I have been watching these threads, really enjoyed reading about meal plans and baking and picked up some useful info thank you

I am a fairly competent cook and baker incl bread and like to make use of everything to avoid waste but my conclusion is that you guys must be better at shopping or maybe planning and shopping. I can food shop and end up with not much meal stuff so it has been great for me to take a look and reassess.

purpledaises I made your yogurt cake yesterday that you posted ages ago it was delish, so light and fluffy thank you

Thanks lex, that’s a favourite of mine. A uni housemate used to make it all the time and I always think of her when I make it. Really glad you liked it too.

I’ve got a black eye bean curry in the slow cooker. I’m experimenting with making up a curry mix that can just be chucked in with dried beans on can’t be bothered to cook days. It smells lovely at the moment but I might have been a bit heavy on the chilli flakes. Dh isn’t that great with heat! I’ve got some veg I’ll griddle later, plus the last of a huge pot of brown rice I accidentally thought would be suitable for one meal.

Based around this recipe here...
www.thecuriouschickpea.com/wp-json/mv-create/v1/creations/137/print

lex I've found it's taken me a while to get good at the meal planning and food shopping - I look at what's coming in the veg box, then plan 7 dinners for the week and make sure I have the base protein for each meal coming in the online shop (or if I know I have something in the freezer like a joint or 500g mince I try and schedule a meal to use it up). I try and do 2 meat-based meals, 2 fish, and 3 "mainly veg" but often with a bit of meat as the seasoning eg. bacon bits in a corn chowder. Lunches are leftovers, or salad/bread/cheese/fruit, or sandwiches. Then in the week itself we don't stick completely strictly to the schedule, we have the meals out of order or get a takeaway if we fancy it.

What do you find yourself running out of when you say you don't have much "meal stuff"? Mainly the protein eg. fresh meat/fish etc?

Xiaoxiong I do plan a few meals then we have options but not 7days worth. When the fridge is full I find myself not being able to decide, there is so much choice. I am better when there are fewer options, maybe more like your leftover creative Mum. I would say yes it probably is the protein element plus we seem to run out of veg/salad or enough variety of. I haven't taken to veg boxes but I can see they would help to create a menu.

I was so taken with the visions of epic feasts and lazy lunches with things just pulled from the fridge but of course you put them there in the first place! I am finding bread really does make the meal a lot of the time and I am glad I can make it so we don't have to venture out for it several times a week.

Please keep posting you lot as it is so inspiring

I haven't been posting much because we've been quite lavish lately, but we're back to basics this week (and our food shop was half the price it has been in recent weeks 😬). I also didn't buy myself anything for lunch this week, hoping to use up some of the frozen stuff.

Made Jamie's 7 veg sauce on Sunday (well, 6 because I forgot the peppers) and made a stock with the veg trimmings. That stock then became a soup for my lunch on Monday. Yesterday I made Jamie's green macaroni cheese for lunch to use up some of the languishing veg.

Just catching up and have got to 21st May and the discussion of how long yoghurt lasts.
Made me wonder how long my late MiL had kept some yogurt she served DH and me. In her defence, she really was an excellent cook but (despite being very well off and not averse to spending a great deal, especially on good meat and wine) her childhood during the war had made her incapable of throwing out any food.
You would definitely know if the yoghurt was off: we spotted the facts that it hung in strings from the spoon and was actually fizzy!
We ate it with no ill consequences at all.
Except I couldn't face plain yoghurt for a couple of months afterwards

Been in hospital* for a little while, so am thrilled to be home and eating decent food again.
Talk about "put my sprouts on in November": the NHS put their pasta on about 6 hours in advance in case anyone would have to trouble themselves chewing it.
I was told (nicely) that I was fussy - I'm really not: the only thing I don't eat is egg white by itself - so omlettes are fine; fried or boiled egg, I'd leave the white.
Occasionally, I force down an egg mayonnaise sandwich to prove I can, but...

However, to misquote Meatloaf: "I would eat anything that's food, but I can't eat that...".
I like yoghurts (disclaimer above ) but not warm; stews but not full of fat and gristle; soup if either hot or appropriately chilled but not luke warm; pasta/rice if not cooked so that they cooked literally be mashed...
Maybe that does count as fussy

*Non-Covid related, so I was on a "green" ward.
However, the woman in the bed next to me was found to be Covid positive but asymptomatic.
Would have felt more sympathetic if she hadn't kept telling me how lucky it was that her friend, daughter and granddaughter had all arrived for a cup of tea the morning she fell so they could help her up and call the ambulance...

Anyway, the hospital lost all interest in me, decided I was much better immediately and packed me off home to self-isolate for two weeks.
🤞that I'm still showing no symptoms by Sunday...

PS Sorry - that went on a bit.
Perhaps a reaction to not having posted for weeks on MN?

Just baked my bread and it’s so good. The novelty of my starter working still hasn’t worn off yet!

LeMarschallin welcome home and really glad you are on the mend! I had some brilliant advice on here when I was in hospital after DS1 was born, and have used it again for other hospital admissions (I had a run of very ill health when my kids were babies and toddlers). Request the "Asian Vegetarian" option (you may have to claim you are vegan, and it often isn't on the little menu they give you and you have to request it separately), and then you'll get lovely dhal and rice, or saag paneer or something like that. This also works on airplanes though you have to order in advance.

Bread definitely makes the meal lex, you're so right - I baked 2 loaves this morning and one is almost gone, having been the backbone of a lunch with a bit of smoked mackerel pate, some cheese, a plate of sliced tomatoes, a bowl of olives, some smoked salmon and a green salad. There wasn't quite enough of anything to have made a meal on its own but the bread tied it all together.

Tonight we're having meatballs from the freezer, another green salad, and a tomato, goat's cheese, olive and basil savoury clafoutis to use up a lot of eggs all in one go. Then hopefully the fridge will be bare for our weekly ocado shop to arrive this evening!

How’s everyone doing? It’s been quiet on here recently, hope all’s well. This is still my favourite thread on mumsnet.

For tonight’s fake away, @Weedsnseeds1 I’m trying the sourdough discard pizza dough you recommended ages ago. My discard “trash pot” is full! I’ve got manky aubergine that looks bin worthy so I’m roasting that with tomatoes and it’s going to be a sort of caponata style topping with capers and olives. If I can find fennel, I might roast it and add some of that. Dh objects to fennel so I’ll keep some to add pasta and meatballs tomorrow.

@Xiaoxiong did you get what you wanted in your Ocado delivery? Your savoury clafoutis sounds amazing.

@lemarschallin it must be so nice to be home. Hope you’ve got some low effort treat meals planned-it sounds like you really deserve it after all that hospital food.

Purple yes it's been quiet - I'm hoping because everyone is slowly getting back to work/school/normality! I'm really worried for the economy, the future of all kids' education and also people's health from other things if we can't get people out of lockdown soon.

I got everything I wanted from Ocado, a LOT of tomatoes (like probably 2kg!!) but they are really good ones so I'm looking forward to eating my way through them in various ways.

This weekend's dinners:

Tonight - arroz con verduras from the Diana Henry oven to table cookbook - basically a vegetarian paella, with some home-made aioli and a chopped tomato/cuke/avo salad

Tomorrow - chicken thighs baked with rice, cardamom and cloves from Ottolenghi jerusalem, with cucumber/coriander yoghurt on the side

Sunday - roast leg of lamb with pecorino, tomatoes and basil - again from Diana Henry!

I think I'll be mixing a levain tonight, kneading/shaping tomorrow and then baking sourdough boules again Sunday morning (I baked 2 yesterday and we have eaten one already and cracked open the next one). I need to build up my sourdough starter discard pot again! I used 500g of it to make seeded sourdough crackers which were SO delicious.

Those crackers are my favourite discard recipe. Dh has been campaigning for more ever since I made them. I’ve now got the same problem-I’ve cut down how much starter I have at any one time so it takes longer for it to fill up. There are so many nice recipes I want to try!

I’m reading but I haven’t made anything especially interesting or frugal! But here is my lunch, on Wednesday I made tandoori baby potatoes with Mediterranean style chicken (the chicken was one of those pre seasoned ones from the co op but was really nice) so today I had the leftovers, lovely

That looks lovely @AngusThermopyle. I still haven’t tried spiced roast potatoes. Think they’ll go on the meal plan for next week. I’ve got some tandoori barbecue spice mix (bought on in impulse ages ago) so think that would be good on a spud.

Burgers for us tonight, but the rolls didn't arrive in my food delivery this week. So decided to make some with the last of my yeast, along with some extra rolls for breakfast tomorrow and some focaccia (just because it's delicious). Two kneads, three proves, all the shaping etc etc then literally two minutes before I was about to put them in the oven, 3yo DD flattened the bloody rolls 😤 so we'll be having bacon frisbees for breakfast!

@PurpleDaisies I think you meant @angelcakebananabrain 😁

clearly I need more coffee and new glasses! Sorry!!!

@Spam88 your poor rolls. Hopefully they’ll be tasty even if they’re a bit flat.

Flattened vs one she didn't get her hands on 😂🤦‍♀️

Any tips for baking bread with seeds on top? I put sesame seeds on my burger buns after shaping them and kind of pressed them in, but they just all fell off once they were cooked.

Spam brush with egg white first, then sprinkle the seeds on top!

Ah thanks @Xiaoxiong will do that next time!

@PurpleDaisies yes it works really well! For these ones I just mixed in a little bit of oil, some tandoori paste and some coconut milk then roasted them and they were lovely.

Thanks for the tip angel, I wouldn’t have thought to use coconut milk. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Tonight’s pizzas were a triumph. I used this recipe as recommended by @Weedsnseeds1 so pretty much half the dough was old sourdough discard. Mines fed on rye so the pizza crust had great flavour. Forgot to take a picture of dh’s veggie feast with mozzarella. This is my caponata style one before I covered it in feta..