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!

I never bother lining or greasing my loaf tin for bread. It's non-stick (just a cheap one) and always drops out no problem.

Right, I’ve got a decent sized amount of sourdough starter discard now. What can I make that means I don’t have to bin it? Recommend me your most reliable recipe!

I see a lot of the Diana Henry books are 99p on Kindle, but not that one! 😄 It really appeals to me.

Baked bread and cookies today. Dinner was salmon, new potatoes, salad (past it’s date), avocado and a lovely creme fraiche and mustard dressing.

I sweated some carrot and lentils to bulk out my shakshouka mix. Used some of the dolmio pasta bake carbonara sauce that DH panic bought ( and that I will never use) as the bechamel. Result is damn tasty, but a bit sloppy. Need a bowl and spoon.

I have loads of past sell by lasagne sheets. Hit me with ideas.

Purple - I made these last weekend, excellent: www.thekitchn.com/sourdough-pancakes-recipe-23020673

I haven't made these but my sourdough course on Instagram keeps recommending King Arthur Flour recipes: www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/collections/sourdough-discard-recipes

Segregate apparently you can make cheese crackers out of leftover lasagne sheets! www.thekitchn.com/5-surprising-ways-to-snack-on-lasagna-noodles-224160

@SegregateMumBev as well as lasagne you can also make cannelloni using lasagne sheets you just need to dampen them to make them malleable to turn into tube shapes

@Xiaoxiong I love using leftover potatoes, I always do a few extra when I boil potatoes so I have something for the next day. I love covering them in cheese and blasting them in the oven as one example, so good and just makes life so much easier when they are already cooked and ready to go.

My current craze is pizza bagels - never actually had a bagel before for some reason, bought them the other day on a whim but didn’t get cream cheese or anything to go on top so just put on some tomato paste, topping of choice (first time was leftover burger) then cheese. So simple but so tasty! Really lovely after a day of fasting as well, I can’t handle a massive meal (I mean I appreciate two cheese loaded bagel halves isn’t exactly a light snack, but still) so these keep me going for a bit and then I’ll just start grazing from now until suhoor really.

I may have said this already, planning on playing freezer roulette tomorrow. Got a few things that either the writing has come off or for some reason I didn’t put it on. I know it’ll all be well in date (how long do you guys keep frozen cooked leftovers?) and I know it’ll be tasty as I wouldn’t have bothered saving it, but not sure what it is.

Thanks @Xiaoxiong, that’s breakfast sorted. Got my batter mixed up and sitting in the kitchen.

@angelcakebananabrain I've always thought frozen leftovers ok for up to 3 months...but I may be wrong.

If we have potatoes that look like they may not get used in time we stick a load in the oven while it's already on for something else. Bake them, cool them, wrap in cling film and freeze. DD is the biggest baked potato lover ever so then we always have a quick microwave dinner for her if we are having something she doesn't like (basically anything spicier than a tomato pasta lol)

Delurking to say this thread is my favourite thing on the Internet right now! Thankyou guys. Thought I’d join briefly to say we buy wheat and mill ourselves, before covid it was the occasional load of bread but we’ve definately expanded the repertoire! Tonight DH made spaghetti and I made focaccia, got some lentil ragu out of the freezer and roasted some dying courgettes for our dinner

Only photo I took was the focaccia before it went in the oven

@angelcakebananabrain I think Graphista is right about the proper timeframe for leftovers. In reality, I have eaten things that are a lot older (maybe even a year 😳).

@cricketmum84 would you then cook a frozen baked potato from frozen?

@Wildernesstips yes I just put them in the microwave. I know you can just microwave a potato from raw anyway but this way it guarantees a crispy skin. And you do need a crispy skin for a jacket potato :)

@Xiaoxiong thanks so much for the recipe. These are delicious. And from stuff that would have gone in the bin!

Forgot the obligatory picture...here they are cooking.

Well, the last several days have been super intense between work and homeschooling. Looking forward to the bank holiday weekend!

@angelcakebananabrain I LOVE pizza bagels. When I pregnant with DS1 all I wanted to eat was pizza bagels and potato salad and I still love both (not always together). I use passata as my pizza sauce as I like the freshness of it. Mmm, wish I had bagels now. I’ve looked at making my own but it seems a bit complicated for my limited baking skills.

Everyone’s food looks amazing!!! Especially those pastries! I haven’t had much time lately to cook nicely, but yesterday I really wanted burgers on Texas Toast so I had to make it happen. And it was good for using up a glut of bread that we somehow acquired and I hid loads of veg in the burgers.

Also this week I busted out the kitchen torch DH bought me for Christmas! I know they're absolutely not a kitchen necessity, but I love creme brulee, even shop-bought ones but the topping is never the same done under the grill. So I got some Tesco creme brulee in my last shop and we managed to not blow ourselves up using it. It was delicious.

Here is my v trashy tea which is exactly what I wanted. The wedges/chips turned out really well and were v crunchy

Loving all the innovating! Crackers out of lasagna sheets, fabulous!

@ToThineOwnSelfBe my pregnancy cravings weren't nearly as normal! Melon and gherkins - together! Celery dipped in nutella

Had to google Texas toast never heard of it! Sounds yummy though to a garlic addict like myself think I've been making it for years without realising it had a name!

Trashy tea looks good too.

Forgot to get stroganoff out the freezer to use today as per meal plan, if I get it out now will it defrost ok in time? Or maybe ratatouille which I'd have with pasta?

If not I'll have a "freezer meal" freezer needs emptying a bit anyway.

Asda have again delivered short dated milk - tomorrow! This is getting very annoying. Also my quorn pepperoni arrived opened - just. Looks like packaging got caught during delivery. I doubt the pickers would have put a bust one in they're usually pretty good and it smells and looks ok

Was planning on pizza tomorrow night anyway and I add my own toppings to a basic cheese & tomato pizza so the pepperoni could go on that and finish off on crackers from tonight on as a snack.

The milk...gah this is so annoying! It's making me kinda sick of milk!

I've some of the mix from the creamy dish I made on 4/5/20 (top tip - I got some whiteboard markers as I have a whiteboard in the kitchen for various notes and lost the pen for it. Discovered I can use them to label "Tupperware" containers it just washes off) in the fridge so actually thinking about it maybe I should make that again tonight? Except I've not got creme fraiche now only natural yogurt which I'm not sure would work as it has to be heated up.

Thinking I'll do some baking today.

Banana loaf and maybe scones? I've never had much luck with scones rising though they're always edible.

BUT I have never used an acid before (lemon juice/vinegar) which the recipe I'm looking at does include

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/classic-scones-jam-clotted-cream%3famp

And would use some milk.

Only thing is I don't have a microwave or vanilla extract. The vanilla extract is no biggie I'm just not sure about not warming the milk - although my kitchen is very warm!

Anyone have any tips?

Could you heat the milk really gently in a saucepan, @Graphista?

Celery dipped in nutella? I'm equal parts intrigued and horrified. I would def try it once.

@ClientQ that trashy dinner looks delish. When I cook just for me it's usually that kind of comfort, what's to hand, super satisfying type food. And def all dumped together. My fav is ramen noodles with veg stock powder (instead the sachet), sesame oil and a little soy sauce, topped with bits of griddled haloumi and a runny egg. And I'm not even pregnant!

I’ve just had a (quorn) fish finger sandwich for lunch. Somethings you really can’t beat a trashy dinner.

I'd rather not "waste" a pan if I can avoid if it isn't completely necessary. I don't recall needing to warm the milk when I made scones before. But as I say they haven't gone well before.

Decided I'm just doing banana loaf today as cba washing and drying all the baking stuff to use again. The bananas need using up! Also as really I just want to ease myself back into baking so doing familiar recipes I know work is more appealing.

At one point I made banana loaf so often (dd loves it she's gonna be miffed she's missing out) that I barely needed to use scales!

Re celery & Nutella I was getting through a pack of celery a day at one point and half a pot of Nutella - and I had to mark "my" Nutella so ex didn't accidentally use it on his toast as apparently it was pretty gross

Weirdly I went right off garlic/onions/shallots

Trick with scones is absolutely minimal handling. Only enough to get the dough to form and sort of pat it out, don't roll.
We have no water at the moment as the water main has been damaged by workmen.
My neighbour's child is screaming in the garden and the people opposite are hacking ineffectively at their massive pyrocanthus, with a piddling little electric hedge cutter, when quite frankly, the thing needs a machete. Or a chainsaw.
Feeling rather irritable today and not like doing anything much!

I was having a crappy day too - worked it out on mixing the cakes!

Interesting on the scones as I always rolled out as that's what mum and grans did and theirs always came out perfect! But I will definitely try not rolling, acid and as advised by another mner ages ago on same subject don't "twist" when cutting just push down quickly (although I'm going to have to use cups/glasses as I've no cutters and been unable so far to get any)

Meanwhile here are the banana loaf and fairy cakes I made today (yes I succumbed to temptation and made more fairy cakes)

The fairy cakes are a bit "wonky" this time as I'm an idiot!!

But to explain more fully...the "shelf" I usually use in the oven is really a shelf/roasting tray that came with the cooker. Baking trays JUST fit onto it level but I think I must have closed oven door a bit too enthusiastically and the tray slipped! So they cooked tilted!

They taste fine though well I had to test them!

Another reason I had to test was I kinda rushed myself, creamed the sugar and butter together but forgot to whisk in eggs before adding flour...

Now in the past due to the ocd and lack of confidence I'd have given up on baking altogether that day and written off as a bad job. This time I thought 🤷‍♀️ well if the food used is gonna get wasted anyway as I already had the sugar, butter and flour mixed together and the eggs cracked and whisked I may as well carry on and hope for the best!

I really did wonder if they wouldn't rise or something weird would happen but they're absolutely fine. So I'm ridiculously happy about that.

Banana loaf looked a bit odd at one point but again carried on and seems absolutely fine, think I just forgot how it would look prior to baking - the banana can make it look "curdled"

Debating whether to try this but with quorn pepperoni instead of ham?

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cherry-tomato-ham-bread-butter-bake

What do you guys think? Would that work?

Also recipe is for 4 servings which is obviously too much for just me so would need to halve ingredients so 1 or 2 eggs as can't halve an egg!