Day 20: "Chooseday"

Over the years many of my more organised friends have extolled the benefits of bulk buying, batch cooking and a canny use of the freezer, but to be frank I've never really appreciated the attraction or the benefits.    

However I agree there is a certain satisfaction to opening the freezer, while the kettle for the morning tea is boiling, to select something for dinner and to have the choice of a whole range of homemade meals.  Despite the slight increase in temperature today over Monday's early morning -2.8C, stew and dumplings was calling to me and I took these out together with some of the mash potato I had left over from the shepherd's pies. Served with the penultimate portion of my apple crumble and yoghurt, this will be a satisfying choice for a Tuesday.

The most important decision for the day already made, my head was free to think about other things.  This week will be abnormal in that instead of my usual trips to the Needle and Natter and the quilt group, I'll have to stay in to receive parcels and workmen. Despite my best attempts to arrange for everything to arrive on the same day, the notifications tell me to expect knocks on my door every day for the next six.  There are benefits to this.  I'll need to pick up a few food essentials this week - milk and non-dairy spread for example, but the time restraints mean that I'll not be wandering around the supermarket bemoaning the prices of the things I can't add to my basket this month. The downside is that I'll not be able to identify reduced items that might prove useful constituents of £5 Christmas presents.

At this time of year supermarkets, garden centres, gift shops, delicatessens and other places selling what might be described as 'posh' food items are clearing their shelves of end of ranges, odd items of old stock to make way for all those Christmas specialities and packaged-for-Christmas items.  This doesn't mean that the items are out of date, or even close to it, the shops just need the space.  More about this later (when I'm more able to go out 'foraging').

For now, let's continue out discussion of other under a £5 presents.  If you don't think your skills are up to socks, then maybe scarf making is for you.  I am currently addicted to making these scarves - knitted in the round on four 2.75mm double pointed needles from left over sock wool.  Over the years I have made probably made hundreds of pairs of socks, but have never been able to throw away the ends of the skeins.  As a result I have the equivalent of a laundry basket-full of odds and ends.  Being knitted in the round means that one only 'knits' there is no 'purl' stitch needed to produce stocking stitch, all the loose ends from the joins are on the inside, so no sewing in is required, the scarf is double thickness and lies beautifully flat and the only sewing up required is the pom-pom on the ends (which is optional!).  So these scarves haven't actually cost me anything to make but will make lovely gifts.  If you don't happen to have baskets of spare wool lying around the house, each scarf takes about 200 grams of 4ply (about 800 metres, not including the pom-pom) and could easily be made for under £5 if you chose high-percentage acrylic yarn.  Budget supermarkets like Aldi, Lidl, B&M and Home Bargains often have special offers on craft materials, so it is worth checking them out for yarn, but be quick - Aldi's new range of 'Crafty Yarn' sells out the day it goes on-line/on-the-shelves.

Of course knitting isn't your only option for scarves.  I'm a beginner crocheter, but still managed to produce these scarves without too much angst. Again they use about 200 grams of yarn, but in each case here I've used a much finer yarn: 'lace' weight or 'fingering' as it is also known.  Harder to find in shops at reasonable prices, but not impossible.  Good places to look are charity shops which frequently have boxes of yarn the result of house clearances or crafters 'de-stashing'.  Especially useful are specialist organisations like Remake Scotland who specialise in collecting materials for repurposing, up-cycling and crafting.  Also check out free cycle networks like Gumtree and sites like Google marketplace and Ebay.  Someone out there has exactly what you are looking for at the price you can afford.

As my sisters will tell you I have no need to buy new yarn (probably ever) not of course that that would stop me, but I am particularly aware at the moment of my 'survivalist' mentality, a phrase coined by a Facebooker.  I now appreciate that before the start of my challenge my kitchen cupboards were stocked for war, and there is a reason my neighbours bought me this sign for my sewing/craft room.  So in addition to using up odds and ends of left-over yarn, I'm also planning to use up yarn that was bought with intentions lost in the mists of time.


This 400-gram ball of mostly acrylic has moved house with me at least twice, and possible four times.  I have no idea why I bought it and I'd need two balls for the sweater on the ball band, so having finished my latest scrap scarf this is my new project.  Serendipitously I found a pattern for a scarf that uses exactly 400 grams of aran weight yarn.  It's a bit more challenging than my normal plain knitting and I can't knit this and watch DVDs, but a good audio book is just the thing while waiting in for deliveries.  Not possible for £5 you say?  Think again.  Aldi are currently offering 400 grams of aran-weight yarn (only available in brown) for £3.99. Now I'd say that is a good choice for a Tuesday.


If you'd like to sponsor me for this challenge and support  'Start-Up Stirling' you can do so here!

Day 19: Monday morning blues

Well, not so much blue as silver today, the very first heavy frost of the season.  I heard my neighbour leave the house at the crack of sparrows to go to work, followed by that oh so winter sound of ice being scraped from a windscreen.  I rather smugly pulled the duvet up around my ears only to be landed on moments later by several pounds of cat.  I do wish pets would understand the concept of the end of British Summer Time. So cats fed and the daily ablutions completed I decided to try out 

some more of the odd pieces of equipment I have bought over the years.  This time it was a mandolin and a food hydrator.  I bought the hydrator years and years ago after I had a glut of plums and tomatoes, thinking that in future years such an item would help me make the most of the bounty. Needless to say, I have't had a plum glut since and I've not managed to get more than a few handfuls of tomatoes from the plants I've grown annually.  My reason for taking these things out, of course, was the apples.  I carefully peeled, cored and sliced (using that mandolin - the only piece of kitchen equipment I am genuinely nervous about using!) and placed the rings on the drying racks, and left the machine to do its work.  Of course, it would probably have been helpful if I had hunted out the instruction manual first.  It certainly worked, but I sliced the apples too finely and left them in the dryer too long.  The result? Apple crisp pieces! They won't be wasted, they will make a great muesli addition, a topping for porridge or an addition to cakes; but they were a long way from the leathery rings of chewy apple I was hoping for.  Still plenty of apples left and once I've scrubbed the stuck-on bits of apple off the trays I'll have another go.  

I didn't need to do anything other than put my pre-pared shepherd's pie in the oven to heat and brown and steam a few vegetables, so while that was cooking, I did a stock-take of my larder.  While I have plenty of dishes prepared to see me through the rest of the challenge month, stocks on store cupboard/fridge essentials are low or gone completely.  Here's the list as it stands at the moment: white bread flour, whole nuts and ground nuts, coffee beans, tea, dried mushrooms, barley, lentils, parsnips, swede, green fresh veg, lettuce, cucumber, fresh herbs, peppers and chilli, onions, tomato puree, tinned and fresh tomatoes, garlic, olives, anchovies, rolled oats, vegetable spread, milk, frozen peas, kitchen roll, dried yeast, yoghurt. I've also run out of greaseproof paper, light bulbs, bleach, and am down to the last few inches of cooking foil.  Another month on a £30 budget would be very hard. All of which had me thinking about Christmas.

I know, it's not even Halloween yet, but imagine what Christmas would be like on a £30 food budget for December.  And to quote from a favourite childhood book of mine:

“Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug. "It's so dreadful to be poor!" sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress. "I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all," added little Amy, with an injured sniff..  

I've heard a lot of people recently talking about the arrangements they are making for Christmas, the agreements they have come to with family about the amount of money to be spent on presents, and whose 'turn' it was to host the Christmas lunch.  By mutual agreement my siblings and I no longer buy each other presents, and the same arrangement occurs with many of my friends, but for those suddenly thrown on hard times who would normally 'do' Christmas to the full, coping with little or no money at Christmas must be very tough.  

So I've decided for the remainder of my challenge blog to include ideas for presents that can be bought (or made) for under a £5.  I know that even this little will be beyond the purses of many on the breadline, but perhaps for the rest of us, it might be time to put a bit more care and a bit less cash into Christmas.  

Not surprisingly, I'm starting with socks.  (I AM the Sock Lady after all).  Each of these pairs of socks was knitted with yarn that cost less than £5.  There's no pure wool here (obvs.) but then if you want your socks to last a little while you want a bit of nylon. The two pairs in the middle of the photo are 75% wool and 25% nylon and those at the top and the bottom have a reasonable proportion of acrylic in them.  They are not hard to make for even the most basic of knitter, and once you handle 'knitting in the round' are quickly completed.  You can find a basic sock pattern here.  Many on-line yarn shops have special offers, you'll need about 100 grams or 400 metres of sock or 4ply yarn for a basic woman's sock and a tad more for a man's (if his feet are bigger than a size 8 or 9).  If you want to make boot socks, double knitting (DK or Sport) works well, you might get a pair out of 100 grams if the skein has plenty of yardage.  You can buy 100g of acrylic yarn for under £2 a ball.  Check out The Wool Warehouse for a wide range of suitable budget yarns, but if you don't do on-line shopping (or can't order enough to get free postage) visit your local Hobbycraft, they offer 'click and collect' too.  If you can't knit, find a local 'knit and natter' group and join it.  I guarantee there will be sock knitters there, and all will be willing to help you learn.  Socks may seem like a deeply boring gift, but once you've worn a pair of handmade socks, it is very hard to go back to shop bought.  You might find yourself with a second career knitting socks.  What would be so bad in that?

If you'd like to sponsor me for this challenge and support  'Start-Up Stirling' you can do so here!

Days 16, 17 & 18: Le Weekend

Despite being retired, the weekend is still, well, the weekend.  I continue to do the things on Friday, Saturday and Sunday that I always have, from meeting up with friends to avoiding doing the ironing. This weekend was much the same, with the exception that I changed my mind about some of my plans.  I had intended on to go to the SEC in Glasgow on Friday for the Christmas craft show, taking a packed lunch with me and using my free bus pass to get me there.  However Thursday night was a restless, sleepless one and I felt disinclined on Friday morning to get myself off to the bus station at any time that would make the SEC visit worthwhile.

So was this sleeplessness the result of a bad conscience (I can hear you ask)?  No.  I was thinking about food, cooking and the remaining tenner in the budget.  Now I know that at any time I could throw in the hat on this challenge and buy anything I need, nonetheless this one sleepless night of mine surely reflects the reality of so many people who are challenged to live on the breadline, without much chance of an end to it. I determined this weekend to prepare enough meals to last me for the rest of the month, so that the remaining £10 can cope with emergencies.  Which is probably a good plan.  This weekend a light bulb blew in the kitchen, I ran out of greaseproof paper, kitchen roll, bleach and washing up liquid.  Now as it happens I had a spare bulb and a bottle of washing up liquid in the cupboard and I can live without greaseproof, bleach and kitchen roll, (we never had kitchen roll in the house as kids, why do I need it now?) but if I had had to go out and buy this stuff, it would have cost me exactly £10 in Sainsbury's.  If £30 had to be used for all the month's household expenditure, I think the budget would be bust by now.

One of the slightly odd side effects of this challenge is that I am using all sorts of kitchen equipment that haven't seen the light of day in a very long time.  Like many women of my generation I have a large collection of Tupperware, most of which had names and purposes once but are now long forgotten.  For the record, this week on the equipment front I have used a zester, a cannelling knife, a potato ricer, American measuring cups, a ginger grater and a lemon juicer plus nearly all of my portion-sized Tupperware, the ice cube trays and cake-keepers.  The other odd thing is how much time I'm spending in the kitchen with an apron on.

Friday was curry night, so I defrosted a portion of sabzi, cauliflower curry, a naan bread and some dahl and while it was the second curry this week, it was none the less enjoyable for that.  Saturday I was out until after 1930, and on returning home I definitely wanted to eat not cook, so out of the freezer came one of the pizza bases and while the oven was heating I loaded it with grated cheese and Italian herbs and a drizzle of olive oil and despite the cheese being mousetrap and the herbs dried, it was as good a Margherita as I've had anywhere. Sunday was a day at home, and in order to save me more sleepless nights, also a day in the kitchen.

Being Sunday, I decided to start with preparing a proper lunch. This time I wanted nut roast, mash and vegetables with lashings of gravy.  I started by sweating chopped onion and garlic in a pan and adding vegetable stock, marmite, tomato puree and seasoning. I added this mixture to a bowl in which I mixed the chopped nuts and breadcrumbs and two beaten eggs.  Once completely  combined, it was turned into a loaf tin and baked for about hour and 15 minutes on 190C (with a foil cap for the first hour to protect the top from browning too fast.  In addition to the cashew nuts I found half full packets of almonds and hazelnuts in the cupboard, and while rather old were still sound so used these in order to save some of the cashews.  The breadcrumbs were made from the heel of the five seed loaf I made last week.  While the nut roast was cooking I peeled and steamed several big potatoes (still using the 'international kidney' from the garden) and when cooked put the lot through the ricer, mixing in some olive oil (no butter in the house), salt and pepper and some milk.  I put a portion aside for my lunch, the remainder to be used on the second dish (prepared while the nut roast was cooking).

 I do love a Shepherds' pie!  250 grams of green lentils soaked for an hour were added to two chopped onions, garlic, all of the finely chopped mushrooms left over from the family pack I bought ten days ago (this dish needs them to be a bit old - not fresh new button mushrooms which have no flavour) plus about two handfuls of pre-cooked cannellini beans crushed to a paste (I'd soaked them overnight and then boiled them up this morning), a tin of tomatoes, the last of the tomato puree, mixed herbs, marmite, the last of the dried mushrooms soaked and then chopped and the soaking liquid from the mushrooms made up to about a pint with a veggie stock cube, and four chopped prunes.  All of this brought to a boil and then simmered until the lentils were tender.  Why the prunes?  Veggie stock cubes aren't the most flavourful, so a couple of prunes finally chopped adds a good dark colour and a rich flavour  - I usually add a bit of extra salt to off set the sweetness.  This made four individual shepherds' pies (can it be called a shepherds' pie if it doesn't have lamb in it?), and two extra portions which can be used as ragu with pasta.  There was also two portions of mash left-over, which might be useful for fish cakes or for gnocchi.  All into the freezer.

The final savoury dish was Boston baked beans.  Great for lunch or breakfast, these are so much tastier (and cheaper) than bought baked beans.  There are six good portions here.  I soaked and boiled until tender the 500 gram packet of beans I bought this week.  All but two handfuls (which were used in the shepherds' pies) were then added to chopped and lightly fried onions, tinned chopped tomatoes, a couple of spoonfuls of molasses, a teaspoon or so of sweet smoked paprika and some salt-free stock and cooked in the oven for about an hour (or until the beans are soft and the sauce thick).  At this point the seasoning is adjusted (don't add salt when cooking beans  as it makes the skins tough).  This lot will be portioned up and added to the freezer stash of ready-prepared meals.

As it is Sunday I also made some dessert.

I still have lots of apples left, so I made my version of apple crumble.  Standard crumble is not a favourite - I so rarely manage to get the crumble cooked properly - it always seems overcooked on top and doughy near the fruit.  So I use muesli.  I use enough muesli to cover the fruit to the depth of about an inch and add it to a frying pan in which I've melted fat (butter is best, coconut oil a reasonable second but today it was sunflower oil as it was all I had), and added honey (or syrup or sugar, or agave nectar or whatever you like) plus spices - for me it is allspice, ground green cardamon and cinnamon - but add what you like.  Turn the heat up once the muesli is added and lightly fry -- you want the flakes toasted and the dried fruit plumb.  Stir it continually and don't leave it, it will only take a few minutes to brown and it burns very easily.  Take it off the heat and keep stirring until the residual heat in the pan is gone.  Use this to cover peeled and slice apples placed in an ovenproof dish.  I like my apples chunky not mushy, so I bake the lot in the oven until the apples are just tender.  You can speed the process up by microwaving the apples until they are the texture you like, adding the topping and then grilling for a minute or two just to finish it off.  It's great served with custard or cream or coconut yogurt - like here.  And yes, I know that this a big portion, but I've been slaving over a hot stove......

So in all there are now six (greedy) portions of beans, three portions of nut roast, two of lentil ragu, two portions of mash and three portions of shepherds' pie to be added the freezer.  The apple 'crumble' won't make it to the freezer - unsurprisingly it is really nice for breakfast, with a cup of coffee mid morning or cold for dessert.  Already in the freezer are two curry meals, four portions of stew and dumplings, sardine fish cakes and a pizza base so to my calculations there is a main meal for every night remaining of my challenge, and I still have a pumpkin, red kidney beans, eggs and potatoes to use up.  That should put paid to the sleepless nights.

If you'd like to sponsor me for this challenge and support  'Start-Up Stirling' you can do so here!

Days 14 and 15: batches and patches

Wednesday (day 14) was another busy one, and apart from catching up on the blog, doing some house-work stuff and driving over to see Marilyn to get my instructions for my next stint helping out, I wanted to do some thinking about my meals for the remaining two weeks of this challenge.

On rising I had a good mooch about in the freezer. Firstly I decided on eating a mid-week curry, so pulled out portions of the cauliflower curry, dahl, sabzi and naan that I made last week and set them aside to defrost.  I also still have a portion of sardine fish cakes (for Thursday), two more portions of each curry dish, four of my stew and dumplings plus two pizza bases.  There is also another portion of veggie soup in the freezer and two more in the fridge - I'd got these out for Wednesday and Thursday but had been too busy on Wednesday for lunch and forgot that on Thursday I'd be at the quilting group.

I think I need to make at least two more large pots of soup, two or three more loaves of bread, several portions of Shepherds pie (maybe) and perhaps a nut roast or a bean chilli.  If possible I'd like to make some cake or dessert, to feed the sweet tooth I seem to have developed and to supplement the several packed lunches that I will need over the next couple of weeks.  So Thursday will need to be a shopping day, and the weekend will involve a fair bit of time in the kitchen.

Thursday is the day I go to the Chryston Quilters' Group.  I've been several times now, but each time I haven't quite managed to get my act together enough to take the projects I actually want to work on with me, so the bag with my crazy quilt has accompanied me, and today I was pleased it did.  There is something very satisfying about working with rich fabrics, embroidery thread, sequins and buttons, especially when all I have been thinking about lately is plain fare.

Anita brought in a bag of trimmings that she thought might be useful as embellishments, and

Morag brought me in a pancake and butter, which felt like an embellishment of an entirely different sort!  (And delicious it was too, Morag, thank you!).

As a result of this unexpected treat I didn't get around to eating my packed lunch (cheese and pickle sandwiches) so decided to have these with a bowl of soup and the last remaining piece of chocolate zucchini cake for dinner tonight.  Which of itself turned out to be serendipitous as what I was defrosting as fish cakes turned out to be more curry!  (Note to self, label containers before they go in the freezer).  I think Friday will be another curry night.  I'm beginning to think that batch cooking is the way forward!

On the way home from the group I stopped off to do some shopping.  One of the real delights of autumn as far as I am concerned is squash: butternut, acorn, crown, patty pans, turban, and of course, pumpkin.  As we approach Halloween shops are beginning to lower their prices, anxious that they will be left with huge containers of unwanted 'lanterns'.  I'd have loved to buy locally-grown, from Arnprior Pumpkins for example, but their £5 for a small pumpkin as against the newly reduced 99p for a similar size from Lidl really doesn't provide a real choice. I also bought nuts - cashews (unbelievably) being the cheapest on offer, dried cannellini beans, tinned tomatoes, carrots, yoghurt and coconut milk.

I'll need ordinary milk by the weekend and probably tea before the end of the challenge.  Just over £11 left.  With these ingredients and what I still have in the kitchen I can see soup, nut roast, and maybe a sweet pie on the weekend cooking list.

The first job on returning home though, was to get some bread on for tomorrow's packed lunch.  Those who know me well and have visited Chez Willis know that I have an enormous collection of cook-books, which is odd for someone who has spent most of the last ten years zapping convenience foods in the microwave, but some are very well used.

I love my bread machine, and I love this cookbook.  Since I retired I've been working my way through all the recipes, writing my comments, amendments and (I hope) improvements on the various recipes as I go.  Tonight the recipe of choice is for the rice loaf, a white loaf enriched with egg (thank you chickens) cooked rice (extra was cooked in anticipation on the mid-week curry night) and with added millet (just because I want to use it up).  I've also started to try the recipes that produce just dough for shaping and cooking in the traditional way rather than in the bread pan, the very successful naan breads from last week are an example.  I also understand that the machine can be used just to bake cakes that have been traditionally mixed, so that might be on the cards this weekend too.  I am not sure if using the bread machine is more economical than putting on the small oven, but it is certainly a time saver.  While it is doing all the hard work, I can be turning more left over sock work into another scarf.

If you'd like to sponsor me for this challenge and support  'Start-Up Stirling' you can do so here!

Days 12 & 13: getting in the swing

Almost halfway through my challenge, and I feel I am finally getting in the swing.  This is making me more aware of a number of things that I wasn't conscious of before, like how much milk I consume, the amount of convenience food I eat, how little I 'cook from scratch' and how much food stuff I buy because 'it looks interesting'.  I also realise how infrequently I use the freezer for anything other than bought frozen food, ice cubes and wine chiller 'vests'!  Now, of course I have a fair amount of ready-prepared food in it and this week I shall be using some of that for meals rather than 'proper' cooking.

I spent much of Monday in my sewing room, making templates for felt Christmas tree decorations for the Tuesday needle and natter group.  My local community centre is home to a daily play-group/nursery as well as the library and various itinerant exercise classes and the playgroup are planning a Christmas Fair on the 17th November to raise funds.  I have been delighted to find that the needle and natter group have a wonderful relationship with the playgroup  (more about this anon) and have asked that we join them to offer a 'drop-in' knitting facility in the tea room for the duration of the fair.  They have also offered us the opportunity to sell a few things of our own, hence the templates.
So having spent the day slaving over cardboard and felt, I didn't want to cook on Monday evening, just eat.  Out of the freezer came one of my pre-prepared pizzas, it was topped with extra cheese and a few sliced mushrooms and into the oven it went.  Normally when I want pizza, I buy it, probably spending around £3.  My homemade one cost pennies to make and was jolly good (even if I do say so myself).  I'm not sure I shall go back to buying them when this challenge is over.

Tuesday (Day 13) dawned bright and dry but decidedly cool.  The forecast is for snow on the hills at the weekend and minus 1C overnight on Sunday, the promise of which is making me hanker after the delights of the sort of dinners they used to serve at my school, mince and tatties, shepherds pie, steak and kidney pudding, and heavy, hot desserts (spotted dick, rice pudding, chocolate sponge).  All of which is a bit strange as 1) I've been a vegetarian for over 30 years and 2) I don't have much of a sweet tooth and rarely eat pudding!  However there was no time to pander to these strange food desires today as I was to be very busy.  The needle and natter runs from 10-12 and the whole group have been invited to share lunch afterwards with the playgroup.  Some weeks ago some of the children had written to our group asking us to make some clothes for their new dolls, all of which had arrived naked 😯! Said clothes duly knitted, sewed and delivered and the playgroup proffered the lunch invitation by way of a thank you, with the menu including soup made from the vegetables from their own garden and sandwiches and cakes.  Needless to say this 'free lunch' was attended and much enjoyed by yours truly. I stayed in the community centre for the afternoon (after popping home to check on the chickens), for a WI session on Hardanger embroidery, something I have seen and admired but never tried.  Anne Muirhead showed us some wonderful work and gave us a super introduction to this beautiful craft.  I am tempted to do a bit more, but such adventures may have to wait until after production of Christmas tree decorations has finished.

Lovely Liz from the needle and natter had brought me another bag of veg from her garden, this time red onions and beetroot.  She apologised that the beetroot were a bit old and might be woody, but I'm not about to turn down any gifts that might be edible, so I'll be having a go at making something yummy with those later in the week.  I took the opportunity (as the wind rose and the temperature fell) to remove the very last of the 'tumbling tigers' tomatoes from the two plants I had in the garden.  The vines died days ago, but the fruit had hung on, but I thought another stormy evening would see the end of them.

I used the tomatoes up for my evening meal, along with an onion and a few olives, a tablespoon of capers, some finely chopped, rather sad kale (sorry chickens, I was going to give it to you), a couple of handfuls of pasta and some frozen beans for another one of my 'chuck it in a pan pasta' dishes.  Fast and tasty, and the combination of legumes and grain provided me with a complete protein, which can normally only be found in meat products.  It's interesting that most cuisines around the world have at least one dish that provides this vegetarian classic combination.  In the Caribbean you'll find 'peas and rice', in India dahl and rice, 'risi e bisi' in Italy, hummus and pita is another and in the UK?  Beans on toast!

However, the weekend's chicken-feeding provided me with a little supply of complete protein, and I'll be using these during the week.  Perhaps it's time for that other classic UK dish, egg and chips!

If you'd like to sponsor me for this challenge and support  'Start-Up Stirling' you can do so here!

Day 11: Sunday, Sunday!

Until I reached my teens, 'dinner' was always eaten at lunchtimes and 'tea' was the meal I had in the evening.  After that I joined my older siblings and my parents and dined at night.  I say joined, we used to eat in shifts, those of us at school ate first, then my Mum and the older ones on their return from work, and finally, my father who as a night-worker ate his main meal for breakfast before he left the house.  However the one meal we always shared was Sunday lunch.  It's a great institution, the British Sunday lunch, and traditionally of course, it is usually a roast.  Since I became a vegetarian, I've mostly given up on Sunday lunch, especially eating it 'out'. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've been offered mushroom risotto, penne arrabbiata, or salmon caesar salad, and it's just not the same.

So today, with heavy rain forecast and the weather due to deteriorate over the next week, I decided it was time to reclaim Sunday lunch and have some proper comfort food. It was a close run thing but in the end, stew and dumplings won out over nut roast!

Half a punnet of mushrooms, onions, garlic, parsnips, carrots and whole chestnuts.  I added dried mushrooms that had been soaked in boiling water, and then made stock with the soaking liquid, a stock cube and strong cup of tea! Normally I'd have added red wine (scary how often I cook with wine), but as that's off the menu, a strong cup of tea helps provide the body and tannin taste.  (Jack Munroe provided this little tip in her book "Cooking on a Bootstrap). The colour wouldn't be right of course, so I also added two rather old beetroots that I microwaved for a few minutes first to soften up.

I made eight dumplings, adding two to the pot about 20 mins before the end of cooking.  The remainder I placed uncooked on a floured tray and put in the freezer.  I served my meal with  potatoes (from the garden), steamed with green beans and cabbage.

The pot of stew made five large portions so four are going into the freezer.  When I next fancy stew, I shall defrost a portion and a dumpling, and roll it out to make a suet pastry top before cooking.  And I'll still have two dumplings left over.

As chestnuts are not a usual store cupboard ingredient for most people (they are for me -- I always buy them whenever I see them, as they tend to be seasonal) I've deducted the cost of the chestnuts (£2.20) from my budget.  In total the dish worked out at 60p a portion which is not bad for a Sunday lunch, and with porridge and apple for breakfast and homemade soup and bread for supper it easily falls within the budget.

All in all a very satisfying meal. My constant companion in the kitchen was less happy though, I think he was hoping for a bit of fish!

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Day 10: A friend in need?

I can remember a disagreement I had with a teacher when I was at primary school.  We had been set the task of explaining a whole raft of proverbs and sayings.  When it came to the end of the exercise and we were reading out our answers there was a definite split in the class over the meaning of "A friend in need is a friend indeed". My teacher supported the view that it meant that a person who wanted something was likely to act in a very obsequious way towards another (I'm not sure she used 'obsequious', and I'm sure we said 'sucking-up').  I was in the camp that thought the saying meant that when one was in need, if a person still helped or supported you, then that person was a true friend.  I still prefer my interpretation.

A third of the way through the challenge and with all my usual treats used up and off the shopping list I am becoming acutely aware of the difference between necessities and luxuries.  Opening my front door to find this half-jar of coffee on my mat was wonderful.  If I were truly 'on my uppers' (Mrs Wright, that one wasn't on your list) random acts of kindness would mean a lot.   I hope the memory of it will make me more aware that some gifts are worth so much more than their value. But for now, I certainly won't be 'looking this gift horse in the mouth'.

I had things to do and places to go on Day 10, so I decided to make the most of what my over-cooking had provided me in the way of frozen left-overs.  It was fish pie I pulled out of the freezer, the remnants of the dinner on the first night of my recent house-guest's visit.  The night I had prepared it, it hadn't seemed particularly special, but oh my, how I enjoyed it!  The remaining £20.20 won't be stretching to salmon, cod, smoked haddock and prawns so I'll need to get my thinking-cap on to come up with something within the budget that tastes this luxurious.

While I peruse the cook books, I think I'll enjoy a cup of coffee.  Thanks Siân!

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Day 9: Weekend treats

Today I needed to shop, cook and do a bit of housework.  So after putting some washing on and with the bread maker doing its stuff,  I set off to Lidl (where else?). This was the list:
Onions
Mushrooms
Red lentils
Green beans
Cheese
Milk
Lime
I discovered that I could buy a kilo of frozen green beans for only 10p more than 200 grams of fresh, that there was an offer on mushrooms - they were reduced from £1.47 to 70p for a kilo, and a single lime was 25p.  All told my little bag of shopping came to £6.26 which leaves me with £20.20 for the rest of the challenge.

For much of the rest of the morning and afternoon I amused myself cooking, producing not just the meal for tonight, but also enough portions for several meals over the next three weeks.  But first up was a little weekend treat.  All week I've had a desire for chocolate, but spending money on that this early in the challenge seems foolish.  I'm on 'chicken duty' this weekend, and my 'wages' for feeding and otherwise taking care of them are the eggs they produce while I'm in charge.  So with the promise of eggs, and with cocoa in the cupboard, some cake was in order.

Half of the chocolate zucchini cake recipe makes a good sized tray bake and in an air tight tin will keep very well.  It's also very ideal for using up those courgettes past their best! I didn't have chocolate chips for the top, so flaked almonds left over from last month's WI baking stood in. Delicious with a cup of tea or coffee.

Friday is 'carry-out' night, but even a couple of dishes would leave me cashless by the end of next week so with store cupboard ingredients, fridge stuff left over from other dishes I made this week, some spuds from the garden and some of my shopping ingredients I set about preparing a curry.  The menu: masoor dahl, aloo gobi, carrot, butter bean and kale Sabzi, raita, naan and plain basmati rice.

I had to make lots of substitutions.  No ghee, so coconut oil until it ran out, then vegetable oil. Red chilli instead of green, Skyr instead of yoghurt, etc.  There was more prep than cooking, but I made the full-size recipes and produced enough not only to serve for this evening but also to freeze for the next three Fridays.

I finished the raita as it won't freeze, and the left-over rice will be a nice treat tomorrow for the chickens (in payment for eggs, I hope). The three main dishes I'll portion up and freeze with the remaining two naan.

So time for me to put my feet up and knit.  I felt the need of a glass of something, so let me introduce you to my newly invented 'mocktail'.  The left over cooking syrup from yesterday's pears, over ice and slices of lime, topped up with Lidl's sparkling Sicilian lemonade (bought by Shirley when she was visiting in case we wanted an alcohol-free night 😂😂).  It probably needs a name.

Cheers!

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Day 8: Making do

I love a pear.  Conference, Williams, Comice, Packham, I'm not fussed. But I never get to eat them raw.  I don't know whether it is me, the kitchen or the house but this is how it usually goes after I buy them: day 1- rock hard, day 2- rock hard, day 3 - mush.  They seem to go from inedible to inedible without passing through perfectly ripe.  So when I have pears (and I rarely buy them) I cook them.  Whether poached or baked they are always delicious, helped along by cooking syrups made with wine and dried fruits and served with lashings of cream.  Obviously there is no wine (and if there were I wouldn't be cooking with it) and no cream - £30 is too little to fritter on such luxuries.  But having planned a dinner tonight of frozen and recooked leftovers I really, really fancied something fresh, sweet and unctuous for dessert.

The lovely Liz from the Tuesday's Needle and Natter group
had given me four pears, and one was a

bit ahead of the game and had already turned to mush, but the other three were still at the rock hard stage.  So while my savoury bread-n-butter pudding was reheating I peeled them and put them in a pan to poach.  I added a 'turmeric gold' tea bag, a few whole cloves and some lemon peel, a tablespoon of sugar and a half a cup of ginger cordial (not having any stem ginger or crystallised ginger in the house).  Real root ginger would have worked as well, but more sugar would have been needed.  I poached them until they were tender (about 20 minutes) and then turned off the heat.  After I ate my main course  I removed them from the pan and reheated and reduced the cooking liquor by about half, checking the sweetness along the way.  The ginger cordial really packs a punch and the turmeric tea and cloves adds a warming spiciness as well as a great colour.  Served with the syrup and a little  'Skyr' the pears were as delicious if not as calorific as those poached in red wine and served with creme fraîche. Sometimes 'making do' is no hardship.

I had two pears for dessert and will have the third with my breakfast porridge. The remaining syrup I have a use for tomorrow evening, once it's been chilled.

Today's visit to the Chryston Quilters' Group was a pleasure, they are a wonderful group of women with a wealth of interesting life experiences.  I am certain to learn a lot from them about quilting too, not least that others share my obsession.  I  also found time today to send off Shirley's scrap sock-wool scarf.  These scarves are very satisfying to make, so another will be started tonight.  Tomorrow is a cooking, cleaning, ironing sort of day so a little treat for dinner might be called for.

If you'd like to sponsor me for this challenge and support  'Start-Up Stirling' you can do so here!

Day 7: the end of the beginning

I am pleased to say that I've reached the end of the first week of my challenge and I'm still alive and not hungry.  I plan to stay that way and I'm fast discovering that it's planning that is likely to keep me that way.  I've learned four main things about myself so far; I buy too much, I cook too much, I eat too much and I am very, very lucky.  I'm guessing this could be the anthem for a large proportion of the western world.  And yet I fear the portion remaining can only dream of singing this particular song.

I ran out of milk again today, so off to the wee shop I went.  I did take a list with me and on it were all the things I've run out of or am getting low on; coffee, tea, cheese, marmalade, fresh tomatoes, butter beans, arborio rice, chick peas, frozen peas, beans, parsley and marmite.  But I came out having only bought milk (£1.25 spent).  I had realised that my shopping lists are always like this.  I buy because I have run out, not because I have a plan to use that particular thing.  I know now that it is why I end up with a cupboard of unopened food that is pushing its 'best before' date.  And of course, when I find it, I cook it and eat it to avoid it going to waste - hence the eating too much.  Having had a rake through the cupboard yesterday, I shall need to find a use for almost out of date millet, quinoa and buckwheat, no doubt there is a wonderful recipe somewhere that uses all three.  If only I could remember what/where it is. Another habit to change.

I have also noticed over the last week that I spend much more time thinking about food, preparing food and cooking food - to the detriment of all the other things I'd rather be doing.  If I were really in parlous circumstances that is time I would need to spend looking for work.  So I decided early what I was going to eat today.

Breakfast was toast and marmalade, lunch was soup, bread and a piece of strudel and for dinner tonight I wanted something with a bit of green.  I also didn't want to spend all evening cooking as tonight was SWI night.

My go-to quick meal is always risotto.  20 mins start to finish.  Usually of course a goodly slug of wine goes in with the stock, but in lieu of that I flavoured my rice with grated lemon zest and garlic, added peas, a finely chopped courgette, a couple of leaves of shredded black cabbage and a handful of parsley.  I turned a tablespoon of parmesan through it at the end just to add a little creaminess.

This meant that not only did I get to the SWI meeting on time to hear a super talk about dyeing, spinning and weaving (and delivered the vote of thanks) but I've also had enough time today to finish knitting Shirley's scrappy scarf -- just the pompoms to sew on now.

Tomorrow I join the Chryston ladies for patchwork, so I'll need a packed lunch (made with the last of the bread) and an evening meal I don't have to spend ages preparing.  I'm thinking porridge for breakfast (of course there are oats - if a bit close to their 'best before' date), a cheese sauce salad sandwich (you don't know what you are missing) and then the portion of left-over savoury bread and butter pudding that I froze last week.

As a result on Friday I'll need to make bread, and I think it's time I had some curry (I have all those frozen curry leaves to use up) and maybe something sweet with apples and pears. I should also plan a menu for next week and shop accordingly, taking account of the leftovers I've frozen.

I was offered some more apples today.  Perhaps I should spend the weekend finding out how to make cider.

If you'd like to sponsor me for this challenge and support  'Start-Up Stirling' you can do so here!

Day 6: the important things in life

Tuesday is the day I go to the 'needle and natter' group at the library.  It's a pound a visit and this money would normally come out of the 'disposable income' I keep in my purse.  I'd decided that for the duration of my challenge I wouldn't go - as the pound would need to come out of my food budget.  The lovely ladies persuaded me that the pound was 'tea money' and that if I didn't partake, I needn't pay (the library being a community space and free to enter). It made me consider what it might really be like if I were bereft of cash, out of a job and used to all my socialising being done at restaurants, bars and coffee shops.  How very easy it would be to become depressed and isolated if one HAD to spend everyday alone because socialising always cost money.

These ponderings made my experiences today particularly poignant.  A neighbour told me she'd been reading my blog and invited me in for coffee.  At the 'needle and natter' every member of the group asked me about my challenge and how I was getting on and cash was thrust in my hand to go into the Start-Up Stirling fund.  One knitter told me how I'd been on her mind since she had popped into the Co-op and came out having spent £30 on 'bits' and another handed me a bag of apple and pear windfalls which she hoped might come in useful.  On returning home I found that old friends had sent me an encouraging email after sponsoring me and had then dropped off a package of apples.  I feel moved just thinking about it.  Today people in my community, friends and neighbours thought about me and were concerned for my welfare.  For me, undertaking this challenge, this care and consideration ranks really highly amongst the important things of life, and I can imagine the difference it would make if I had actually fallen on hard times.

Not unsurprisingly I felt rather happy this afternoon and decided to use up some of those lovely apples.  In the process I remembered why I bought this 40 years ago.....

and pulled out some old favourite cook books that I'd had when I was a young wife (back in the days when I believed I needed to be superwoman):

I didn't want to make an apple pie as I'm rubbish at shortcrust (and scones!) and in any event it would use up a fair bit of non-dairy spread (no butter in the house 😕) and I'd probably end up with a soggy bottom.

But one thing I've always been able to make (with the help of Mrs Beeton) is apfelstrudel. A half portion makes loads: 8oz plain flour, 1oz fat, 1 egg and lukewarm water worked until it stops sticking to your hands and then rolled and pulled out on a flour covered tea-towel until it's thin enough to see the pattern through it.  About a pound and a half of sliced (but uncooked) apple, dried fruit (the recipe calls for sultanas but I only had raisins), sugar and mixed spice are laid over the top and then the whole lot rolled up using the tea towel.  I cut it in two (and using that long slice shown above) manoeuvred it onto a greased and floured baking tray and cooked until golden brown and the apple soft at about 180C.  Traditionally the strudel would also contain fried breadcrumbs to help soak up the juice - but I sprinkle a little dry semolina and some finely chopped almonds on top of the apple (thanks Mum) which serves the same purpose.  Delicious warm with yoghurt or cold with a cup of coffee. I'll leave half out for this week and cut the other into portions to freeze for desserts later in the month.

I had to put the big oven on to cook the strudel, so I thought it best to make the most of it.  The 'Use Your Loaf' cookbook contains my favourite pizza dough recipe, so I made a double batch (using 1lb flour, 8 tablespoons of oil, a teaspoon of yeast, sugar and salt and enough warm water to make a dough) and made four one-person pizzas.  I only had enough filling to complete two, so two have been baked with the tomato sauce only, and two were topped with half a red pepper (the last bit left and a tad soft), a few black olives and anchovies.  One was for dinner tonight (followed by strudel) and the remaining three will be frozen and be topped when I have something to put on them and cooked as the need arises.

I didn't need to make the tomato sauce from scratch.  The soup I made yesterday thickens on chilling so I used half of the portion set aside for tomorrow's lunch to make the pizza sauce. I added a crushed garlic clove, some extra herbs and a big squeeze of tomato puree and whizzed it up to a smooth

texture, adding a little extra seasoning and a splash of olive oil.  The fact that the 'sauce' has more cabbage, carrots and potatoes in it than tomatoes really isn't noticeable once it's cooked with other toppings.  And tomorrow's lunch?  Well, there is strudel as well as soup and bread now, I don't think I'll be hungry.  And that's three more dinners and desserts in the freezer.

If you'd like to sponsor me for this challenge and support  'Start-Up Stirling' you can do so here!

Day 5: Autumnal comforts

It was a beautiful day today.  Bright, clear but cold and the 3C temperatures last night had me thinking about turning the heating on this morning, despite the house still being at a reasonable 14C at 8am. The outside temperature climbed during the day to 12C but it never really felt warm and I

found myself doing up my cardigan just to put the rubbish out.  It was the sort of day that called for thick soup and homemade bread.

So soup was the first culinary exercise of the day.  This was a good opportunity to utilise the left over veg from last week before it was too old to eat and had to be consigned to the recycling bin, especially the cabbage, of which I seem to have bought rather a lot. So I started with the big stock pan, a splash of oil and two of the three remaining shallots, finely chopped. Added to this went some old carrots, peeled and chunked; a couple of misshapen spuds from the garden (possibly 'International kidney") peeled and cubed; the finely chopped woody stems of yesterday's purple sprouting broccoli; a piece of red cabbage that I couldn't get in the bowl when I made the spicy red cabbage; about two thirds of a savoy cabbage that I found in the salad drawer; the bottom of a bag of red lentils and about the same amount of pearly barley.  I added to this a couple of kettles-full of boiling water, a tin of tomatoes, a squeeze of tomato puree and two stock cubes.  Brought to the boil, the lid went on and I left it to simmer for 40 minutes or so until the barley was soft.

I remember back in the 90s there was a fad diet which centred around eating almost nothing but cabbage soup.  I know, because I did it for seven days.  It was a fairly sulphurous week - and neither satisfying nor very successful.  I didn't want this to be THAT sort of soup!  When the barley was soft I went at it with a hand blender just to thicken up the broth a bit, while still leaving plenty of substance so I could see what I was eating.  I added a couple of handfuls of soup pasta (alphabetti as that's what I had) a spoonful of Italian herbs and seasoning.  Three minutes later lunch was ready.  Served with a chunk of my homemade wholemeal and a scraping of parmesan it was just what the day demanded.

After it cooled I portioned the remainder into plastic freezer containers, putting two in the 'fridge for Tuesday and Wednesday's lunch and the remaining six in the freezer.  These I will use to form the bases for other sorts of meals, with new flavours and ingredients added.

Tonight sunset was at 1815. The nights are fairly drawing in and it's only a fortnight until the clocks go back.  As if chunky soup didn't provide comfort enough, I felt the need for my version of cauliflower cheese for supper.  I didn't want to use all the cauliflower (I want some for a curry later in the week) but I did want it to be substantial enough to fill me up, so I steamed it with half a can of butter beans (this is such a nice combination) and served it with a cheese and mustard sauce.  I finished it off with a crispy topping using up the last shallot, a clove of garlic, half a dozen crushed almonds, chopped parsley and the breadcrumbs made from the crusts of last week's cheese toasty!  Yum.

There's enough topping left over to add to my soup for the next two days, and a couple of spoonfuls of sauce that when cooled and set will make a tasty accompaniment to a salad sandwich (it's a bit like savoury spread).  However all this cooking means that I'm almost out of milk and cheese and most of that ageing veg has been used up.   I shall need another recce through the cupboards before I go shopping.

If you'd like to sponsor me for this challenge and support  'Start-Up Stirling' you can do so here!

Day 4: Sunshine and showers

As I sat this morning reading about the devastation Storm Callum has made in Wales and the Midlands, with rivers bursting their banks, landslides and deaths, for the first time in several days the sun shone in Stirling. Moreover it was a comfortable 13C for much of the day and the visibility was excellent, the Trossachs bold and clear over the valley.

It made me think, this disparity of weather across the UK.  We are after all not a very big country.  The differences in the weather can no doubt be explained by the vagaries of geography, relative latitudes and the effects of the gulf stream.  If only it were so easy to explain the differences of fortune in the peoples of our Isles.

I am a mere four days into my £30 challenge, and still have plenty of that left along with various foodstuffs in the 'fridge, freezer and cupboards and yet as I poured the last of the coffee beans into the grinder today, and a little later the last of the Earl Grey tea into the caddy I found myself thinking about being without these middle-class treats later in the month.  And even as I type this I feel embarrassed to be concerned about coffee beans when there are those in Stirling district who have to worry about running out of basic foods.  It hardly seems possible in this day and age.  I hope this challenge will raise some dosh for Start up Stirling, but importantly I hope I'll learn a little about myself, and develop a sense of gratitude for the fair-weather in my life.

Today's cooking experiment was to use up some more of the veg I have had sitting around since my house-guest's visit and to make the most of the 'stretched' egg!  So today's lunch (and indeed supper) was a mushroom clafoutis - whole mushrooms set in a batter made with 4ozs flour, 1/2 pint of milk and what was left of that wickedly beaten egg left over from yesterday's fish cakes.  I seasoned it with fresh thyme, lots of black pepper and a goodly grating of nutmeg - which always brings out the flavour of mushrooms. Served with the tops of the sprouting broccoli (the stems are really woody.....) some peas and yet more spiced red cabbage (I am getting a bit bored with this), the clafoutis provided two good meals.  I also had enough batter left to make some pancakes for pudding (this being Sunday). So the stretched egg made four main dishes and a pudding.  My old Mum would be satisfied with that I think.

Tomorrow I shall be waiting in for the gas man to call. It seems I am to have a smart metre.  Perhaps this will prompt further economies - with the utilities as well as with food.  I believe we are to get more rain from tomorrow.  It may be some time before Scotland moves to water metres......

If you'd like to sponsor me for this challenge and support  'Start-Up Stirling' you can do so here!