I think Saint Hugh of RiverCottage is going to save me £120 this month!

[deaconblue]

Last week we had 4 veggie meals, 2 fish and a braising steak stew on Sunday, I made 2 soups from his veg book too. The week's shop was £94 (previous weeks had been £130 and £140, we average £130). This week I've planned 5 veggie meals, 1 fish and sausages on Sunday and another 2 soups and the week's shop comes to £93ish! I've also decided to cut out buying processed snacks so haven't bought mini cheddars or biscuits and have made home made cheese and ham muffins, and pitta with hummus for kids' snacks instead. At this rate we will be £120 better off at the end of this month.

Dh is finding he is more farty than usual though

Aubergine parmigiana is on my list of next to try!!!! Did you serve with crusty bread?

Anyone done chachouka? I need to use up some eggs and it looks yum!

Chachouka's one of our favourites, we've had it 3 times.

agree the aubergine one is great.

Last night we had the potato and rosemary pizza, which was a lovely flavour combo.

oh fuck...got about half-way through this thread before hitting the 1-click purchase button on amazon.

you lot had better bloody be right about how great this is...

I had leftover roast chicken and bread with the aubergine - was very nice indeed :)

Am wanting to try the chachouka next.

I've ordered it! It had better be good - still concerned that lots of the things you're making involve one or other thing that one of us won't flipping eat! Aubergines - blurgh! Eggs - dd1 won't eat! Tomatoes - blurgh! We are v bad vegetarians here as between us we dislike so many vegetables (although we all individually like lots: just not the same ones - arghhh).

We've just had the corner shop spanakopitta, with the honey roasted tomatoes.

DD moaned during the prep, as she's not keen on spinach, but enjoyed the finishes article, as did I.
I adore puff pastry and cheese and spinach anyway, so I was always going to love it.

The tomatoes were brilliant, much better than the sum of their parts.
I used 'naice' supermarket toms, but would use cheap ones next time, as the roasting would make up for the lack of flavour.
I actually plan to do a big batch, and then chuck in the fridge for snaking.

I can't recommend them enough.

We've just had the pearl barley broth, it was lovely.
I thought I'd overspiced it because some of my spices were 7 years out of date so I put in extra, but dh gave it top rating.

we had the pearl barley broth too although I am ashamed to say that i had some lovely chicken stock from the roast we had on sunday so i used that. Not really the point, but hey ho.

had Chachouka again this evening - used 4 peppers and 2 cans of tomatoes - which was definitely enough for all 4 of us, plus flatbreads and the celeriac, apple, raisin and parsely salad. Scrummy, all of it.

It's arrived and am v impressed on first glance. The onion tarte tatin and the spring onion tart thing are top of my list so far.

RecipeJunkie - I think St Hugh would approve of you using the chicken stock. He wouldn't want a decent stock to go to waste....

Recommendations please! Veg box has arrived today, I have cauliflower, swede, parsnips, leek and purple sprouting broccoli. Which recipes should I make with that lot?

Do we get boxes from the same scheme hazelnut? Although I don't have the parsnips/swede....have a cabbage, cauliflower, leeks, a large amount of rocket (like, a seriously large amount of rocket as i haven't opened last week's bag yet....), fennel and purple sprouting broccoli.

Sadly, no Hugh book yet....

Any ideas, anyone? I'm a bit cauliflower cheese-d and curry-ed (not together, I hasten to add!) out....

HUgh has recipes for cauliflower and chick pea curry, and cauliflower pakora, off the top of my head.

the cauliflower pakora went down a storm with my dds.

any use?

I'm tempted by the book but I have a veg shy DH and DD1. Will it be a waste of money?

Might try cauliflower pakora then, what did you have them with? I've already made the cauliflower and chickpea curry - it was lovely but since there are so many recipes to try I don't want to do the same thing twice! Might also do parsnip and Ginger soup, no idea what I'll do with the swede though.

Fillybuster my veg box comes from a local company in Gloucestershire - they are probably all quite similar at the moment as there is not a lot in season.

Swede mash is rather nice....good mixed with sweet potato too. Although I'm sure Hugh has better ideas....I'd know if my book had arrived :(

Ah...I'm 6 years into an ongoing love affair with Riverford :)

The swede with onions and sage is lovely. I will be making it to go with the roast on Sunday

we had the cauliflower pakora as part of a 'picky' lunch - bread, cold meats, humous and veg sticks etc.

not really what it was designed for, i'm sure, but there you go! was delicious (and dd1 took the leftovers as part of her lunchbox the next day)

And I might add, I don't have fresh sage but I use dried last time and still think it's lovely.

I just bought this book. Thinking I would sub a couple of meals a week for veg ones. Looks like we at snow going veggie all of next week!

-are- not at snow

Ok, so am going to try chachouka - do I understand from other posters that his "serves 4" is actually "serves 2" very greedy people - planning to do with crusty bread? It's our main supper dish, so don't want to under-cater!!

His swede recipe in there is heavenly I agree - my children adore it, never any left over.

I serve it with chips AnonymousBird A bit like posh egg 'n' chips