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!

Hope everyone is feeling better today

Finally getting my foodie mojo back thanks in part to this thread. was in a massive rut so thnx

Fridge is almost bare but thankfully things are ready in the garden so did a mustardy potato salad with first harvest of my lovely salad potatoes and a mix of leaves: sorrel, Burnett, parsley, mint, watercress and spring onion tops for lunch with Boursin stuffed nectarines.

Inspired by talk of curry so a Fathers Day feast tonight of chicken rogan Josh using a paste with hm channa masala, daal, Bombay potatoes and frying pan naan

DD going back to school tmrw so heading straight to do a food shop for a proper browse rather than the quick smash and grab of basics of the last few months

Much better thanks @lexloofah. Loving all your salad. Very envious-it’s only limp little gem lettuce here.

We’ve had lidl tomato gnocchi with leftover veggie sausages and a ratatouille type sauce with leftover fridge veg. I had fennel (bought as a treat-I need to get out more!) on mine. Plus garlic bread obvs. Love a double carb.

Hmmm, checking in the fridge I have a tub of pomegranate arils that I’ll need to get using.

I had 2 salmon darned over the weekend-one marinaded in honey chilli ginger, and micro-zapped, served with that everlasting biryani.

2nd one chopped finely with spring onion and my home made red Thai curry paste to make Thai fish cakes, served with salad ( cherry toms and an underripe avocado).

Have frozen some coriander today in olive oil as I wasn’t going to use it in time. Never done it before but should be okay.

I’m getting much more produce out of my garden : strawberries, blueberries, salad and chard. In other news, I bought a chest freezer for the garage, which should arrive next weekend.

So jealous of everyone's gardens producing gorgeous veg!! I have some spindly herbs in a window box and that's it. We do have a garden, but for various reasons it has to be kept as a reception/entertaining space so it's a big lawn and borders round the edges.

We had a luxurious lunch, all seafood: smoked salmon for an amuse bouche, head and shell on prawns fried in butter, garlic, smoked paprika, cumin and chili flakes for a starter, and then for the main we had noodles with ginger, garlic, chili and coriander topped with seared scallops. It was with 12 other people over zoom - we should have all been together for their graduation dinner so we all did our own celebratory meals and had a zoom call. Hopefully we can get them all back as soon as dinners are allowed again and do it properly - it all was a bit flat and I felt quite sad about it so didn't say what I wanted to say to them all. And then we hung up and I felt like I might never see them again I know it's like this every year when they graduate but this year is all so messed up by covid.

I don't want any dinner now but I'm sure the kids will start sniffing about the kitchen in an hour or so! I also have a random tub of pomegranate seeds - maybe I can feed them to the kids in the guise of dessert...

Aw Xiaoxiong, sorry it felt a bit flat.

My family has a weekly Skype which always ends in hilarity. Today it was cos I could only send a heart emoji, while everyone else was able to do thumbs up, laugh and shock faces.

But your all seafood menu sounds delicious, at least!

Tonight was a Joe Wicks charred Brussels sprout, pomegranate and feta salad. As usual with JW, the quantities are very generous, so there’s enough left for tomorrow’s lunch.

Forgot to add the picture!

Yum that looks delicious! Reminds me I still need to use up those pomegranate seeds - I'm defrosting chicken thighs for dinner right now, so maybe I'll make some kind of pilaf with those and some freekeh (have a bag in the cupboard).

I'm really losing my cooking mojo...I just need a break I think. I may get a couple of takeaways this week. I need a holiday from work too, I haven't had one since Christmas since I didn't want to waste holiday during lockdown. Feels a bit weird and disloyal booking one though somehow?!

It's relentless isn't it Xiaoxiong the constant serving up of thought out meal after meal. We aren't takeaway people but must have eaten out more than I realised as missing that occasional break, some time off sounds much needed. We have cancelled our UK holiday for next month but hoping DH will still take time off.

Onion tart/quiche and big salad for lunch, using leftover pastry for good old jam tarts filled with my hm strawberry jam which I over cooked and is more like strawberry toffee!

I'm struggling too especially as it's just me. But I'm still seeing on reviews on apps and local fb pages that our local takeaways are still struggling with delivery times and I cba with that!

Last night was a VERY late crisp bake chips and beans (freezer to oven job) as my sleep has been shit lately and I fell asleep yesterday afternoon.

Tonight more normal time and I'm having pesto pasta - fresh filled pasta with sautéed veg and grated cheddar I needed to use up and finishing off last jar of pesto I opened

I called into a service station today for petrol and milk.......and their Burger King was open! So I treated myself to a halloumi king. Back to being creative with Pomegranate and aubergine Tomorrow.

OMG burger king! I always love the idea of a Whopper more than the reality though.

Tonight we had Chinese: white rice, sauteed spring greens with garlic, fish-flavour aubergine, and chicken thighs marinated in honey, dark soy, garlic and lime juice and roasted until the skin was crispy and sticky. That used up chicken from the freezer, two elderly aubergines, a bottle of soy, three limes and spring greens were almost 2 weeks old and a bit wilty but fried up nicely in the wok.

Still not feeling the cooking mojo but it has to be done doesn't it. One meal after another, plod plod. I put some ready meals in the Ocado order this week just to give myself a break from the mental load!

I’m not great at cooking in this heat. Dinner was a jar of curry sauce, ancient kale, leftover roast courgette and aubergine plus a quarter of a naan I found in the freezer. I’m thinking of a cold dinner tomorrow which is almost unheard of here.

It is too hot to cook, or move, or do anything. Thankfully we have leftover quiche which will do cold for lunch with a tomato salad.

Haven't had pesto for ages, must get or make some. No one else here likes it but I am sick of making what everyone else likes. Let them eat sandwiches!

You know what I have just done - I've gone on Deliveroo and ordered lunch from Pret a Manger, of all places.

And I'm not sorry!!

You’re supporting the economy @xiao! Well done.

I’ve got some ancient quorn turkey meatballs from the depths of the freezer, bulgar wheat, tomato, cucumber, olives , capers, lemon juice, fresh oregano and red pepper houmous salad. It’s a random combo but tastes really nice.

Really can’t be bothered to think about dinner.

Joe wicks again tonight- aubergine pomegranate flatbreads.

Discovered a great hack to making small amounts of humour- just crush the chickpeas in a suitable container with a teaspoon, before addIng the flavourings.

Will use the remaining chickpeas and aubergine in a tagine tomorrow.

Hummus, not humour. Though good humour always helps!

That looks lovely @SegregateMumBev

We had very unexciting jacket potatoes with baked beans. Surprisingly hit the spot!

That's a great tip!! I so seldom make my own hummus because it's annoying to get out the food processor and then clean it all afterwards, so when I do make it I make a tonne.

Dinner tonight was a Lillet and tonic, and a packet of crisps - too hot for anything else. At least we got to have a swim in the river this afternoon, which was lovely, and I met a friend of a friend and we really hit it off. I forgot what it was like to meet a new person!!

I had a tin of spaghetti hoops.

Real "use it up" tagine last night - half an aubergine, half an onion, half a pepper, 1 poor wee mushroom, some chickpeas, passata, the last couple of medjool dates and an actual preserved lemon!

We had "use it up" fried rice last night too. Really regretted it when I was standing over the flaming hot wok but at least it was quick and I didn't have to turn the oven on. Then we went and jumped in the river which was icy!

In today's use-up stakes - salad stuff (lettuce, cuke, avo, green herbs, i'll throw in some pine nuts), a lot of odds and ends of cheese and also loads of eggs (32 to be precise) so I might try a use-it-up cheese souffle for lunch! I don't have a souffle dish, but I just saw over here that you can make it in a roasting tin and it actually comes out better so I'm going to give it a try: www.davidlebovitz.com/cheese-souffle-fromage-recipe-recette/

We'll be allowed get togethers with one other household of any size from July 4th...we've already been booked in for two dinner parties and hosting two more

Question as I quite like boiled eggs in a salad but it's a faff only doing one at a time - how long will they keep once boiled?

Also warm humid weather here, I've no room anywhere for a bread bin though I don't on past experience think they make much difference anyway! So how to make fresh bread last? I've half a loaf in the freezer which is fine for toast but I like fresh bread for sandwiches or bread n butter on the side of a main but it's starting to get mouldy towards the end of the week and I'd like it to last the week if possible.