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 think I have found my people.
Tonight I’m making chicken noodle soup made with left over from yesterday’s roast. Also feeling quite pleased to have used the noodles that are not our usual type that have been lurking in cupboard for months.

Love cats. Here’s mine (also 7 kg)!

Old boiled new potatoes made into potato salad with a couple of homeless fish fingers and salad for lunch.

Used my last slice of bread but have made two loaves today.

Tonight is roast beef, but the veg is a real mix of previously frozen veg. Really can’t wait for my food delivery.

@PurpleDaisies you could just freeze a couple of peppers sliced?

We had a bit of a Chinese tonight. Hot and sour aubergines and honey, sesame and orange king prawns. I loved it all. My three year old is still wailing at the prospect that he be asked to try prawns and aubergines!

I love hot and sour anything furble. Food envy coming from here.

Can I have thd prawn recipe please Furble? Sounds really nice.
I'm doing sweet and sour prawns tonight, inspired by whoever it was that did S&S chicken?

Here’s the prawns www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/honey-sesame-orange-king-prawns which I’ve been eyeballing for a while and was very easy.

It was also me that did the battered sweet and sour which was great, so glad I finally gave it a try. I’ve always been a bit afraid of deep frying having scarred myself quite badly a few years ago making pancakes of all things but it was totally easy and so nice, I can’t wait to make it again. Enjoy Weeds

@Furble glad you've had a good weekend hope it sets you up for the week ahead. When I have courgette with pasta I just finely dice and sauté in a little veg oil + olive oil and Italian herbs and garlic, set aside until pasta cooked and then mix in with whatever sauce I'm having, been having cheesy sauces to use up the milk but certainly normally sometimes no sauce at all just a little butter and sprinkle of cheese.

Love halloumi but I have way too much cheese in at the minute to justify buying more!

I love sweet and sour too as it's flavoursome without being spicy.

@Collision that afternoon tea looks amazing.

My banana loaf I made has turned out quite "greasy" and I'm not sure why. I initially thought it was the toastabag liner I used but removed from tin and put it on a plate on some kitchen towel to absorb the grease and it's not improved much

This is recipe I used but I skipped the decoration part

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/brilliant-banana-loaf

Would appreciate thoughts, I'm thinking too much butter? Because the bananas are moist? I'm sure I've used this recipe before no problem and it seemed right to me at the time

@purpledaisies re peppers - ratatouille, peppers in a soup, think they'd work in huevos rancheros too, as crudités with dip and of course in pasta and stir fry dishes, can be very visually pleasing in quiche and tarts, in omelette/frittata - this is why I love them so versatile

@Weedsnseeds1 yet more impressive bread - how do you eat it all?! How many in your household? Even when dd was living here we didn't get through much bread

I'm just having a stir fry as had a bad few nights and I'm sore and shattered and eczema playing up so a hot kitchen for an hour or 2 not ideal. Will do a "roast" another time.

@Graphista

Thanks.
The banana bread I made used vegetable oil rather than butter. It had mixed spice too which tasted amazing.

Sweet and sour prawns.
Graphisya I give some bread to the neighbours as there are oh two of us, but my OH is a breadaholic and would live on the stuff given half a chance!
He has some for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch as he is still going to work. I would have a sandwich or toast during the day.
If we have soup, we have bread.
If I don't use it all that way if joins the stale bread bowl and will later become breadcrumbs, bread pudding, Zombie bread, fishcakes etc.

Thanks for the recipe Furble.

Had amazing pancakes using sourdough starter for breakfast (with golden syrup, banana and blueberries), leftover sweet potato and orange soup (courtesy of

The Mountain Cafe Cookbook) for lunch with some sourdough (supermarket own 🤫) and roast chicken for dinner.

Just did a quiz with friends, drank too much vino but there's got to be some perks of lockdown, surely, right?!

Hope you've all had pleasant weekends.

Burnt aubergine chilli on the menu tomorrow - seen it recommended on here and the Instant Pot Facebook page. Managed to find some bargain liquid smoke on Amazon if anyone wants the link.

This thread is so lovely and I must thank @Ninkanink again for starting (and maintaining!) it. I find a lot of MN a bit depressing at the moment but everyone on here seems very helpful

We received an enormous fruit & veg box today so I have plenty to work with! I do have a couple of requests... do you have a recipe for the amazing looking chocolate orange bread & butter pudding please @Weedsnseeds1? And @PurpleDaisies, if you have one for the pear & ginger cake that would be great, as I have lots of both to use up!

DP (who never cooks) told me today that he wants to eat less bread/ potatoes/ pasta/ rice to try to lose weight. He can't have dairy either which restricts recipes still more, plus he refuses to give up alcohol which would save him a good few calories! I said fine, give me some recipes you like the look of and I'll see what we can do if you want to eat less 'stodge'. He promptly requested risotto

Rubyslippers it's a bread pudding rather than bread and butter, so intended to eat cold in slabs.
It's something I have been making so long, I kind of do it by eye, however, it's one of those things that doesn't require accuracy.
Stale bread ( anything from burger buns, to white sliced, bagels, wholemeal, doesn't matter) about 1 loaf worth. Soak in water to soften, then squeeze out in your hands to remove moisture as best you can. Doesn't need to be bone dry.
Mix in a couple of eggs, about 2-4 oz (50-100g) melted butter and about 4 tbsp sugar, plus a splash of milk.
Add dried fruit and mixed spice for standard version or cocoa powder and marmalade ( about 1/2 jar - in which case ease back on the sugar) for chocolate orange.
Mix together, it will be a wet, pourable sort of batter.
Pour into greased trays and bake at 160C for about 1 hour.
Let it cool properly before taking it out of the tray and cutting.
Sorry its a bit light on detail, but it's one of those bits and bobs type things that can be as basic or as fancy as you like, depending on what's available.
You could use jam, stewed fruit, honey etc.

You can dry ends if bread in the oven after you have cooked something else to build up stale bread "stock"

Just realised you said no milk. You can use oil ( or lard/suet) instead of butter and water or fruit juice instead of the splash of milk

Tried smoked duck today. Got it on a whim when I did an online delivery. So nice! Just had it on its own after my main meal (below is what is left) but planning on doing it with roasted new potatoes as I think that would be really nice. But the below I’m just going to slice up and add to my Chinese rice leftovers tomorrow.

@RubySlippers77 this pear and ginger cake is really nice...
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sticky-pear-ginger-cake%3famp

You can dry ends if bread in the oven after you have cooked something else to build up stale bread "stock"

Good tip thanks. I've no processor can I grate to make breadcrumbs?

Ok fresh filled pasta needing used, that suits me fine, I usually sauté veg, cook pasta then mix pasta and veg together and add whatever sauce I'm having or just a little butter as a "sauce"

Any other ideas for serving suggestions though? Might be nice to try something different.

@Graphista I often have filled tortellini in broth or a light tomato soup. Somehow it's simultaneously lighter than with sauce but more filling!

E.v. Olive oil and one raw garlic clove, crushed. Plenty of salt and pepper. Add lemon juice and zest if it would go nicely with the filling.

Or butter and sage/tarragon/parsley/any fresh herbs you have/mixed herbs if you don’t have any fresh.

A light broth.

Ohh both sound lovely, think I'll try butter & herbs tonight thanks guys

Ricotta and porcine mushroom flavour so I'm sautéing cherry tomatoes and white mushrooms thinking sage and basil to flavour the olive oil & butter "sauce"?

Mmmm that sounds lovely!

I need to use up about 190g leftover roast chicken and have some refrigerated shop bought puff pastry that's about to go out of date. Any recommendations for a chicken pie recipe with err limited chicken? It only needs to do me, Mr Magnarocks and grumpy three year old (who eats like a sparrow).

In addition I've got some pancetta, onions, frozen peas, spinach, white wine and carrots, potatoes... any suggestions? Keen to avoid the shops if at all possible. No cream or creme fraiche here. 🤔 Many thanks in anticipation!