What's been happening
Mary's Meals
Following on from what I was talking about last time regarding the u3a talk from Mary's Meals, we on the committee have decided that we will help by asking our members to bring any foreign coins they have to the next three meetings. I know I have quite a lot of odd bits and pieces, and as we get an average of 80 people to each meeting, I'm sure we will be able to send a nice donation to this brilliant enterprise.
If you'd like to support them, there are many ways, from a donation, fund raising, through to feeding a child for an entire year for just £19.15 - or sending off those odd coins!
Birthdays
It was my baby brother's 70th recently - goodness how did that happen! He and his new wife used a voucher that we had given them for their wedding to go to The Wild Mushroom in Westfield and invited us along to go with them. It is one of those lovely places where morsels arrive unordered, I love that. I had a pre-pre starter of salmon in tiny crumbed balls and deep fried along with tapenade on teeny biscuits. Then the pre-starter of curried cauliflower soup in an espresso cup. Both of those were unordered. And delicious.
Then an ordered starter of the most gorgeous chowder. My main was sweet potato gnocchi, SO good. Then, after a long pause, a pudding of pannacotta. And a coffee
Phew, I didn't think I'd eat for a week! I love it there and go for special occasions.
Cooking Up A Storm
In my cookery group this month, one of the things we made was a cake with 275g of peas in it!
It went down a storm! If you put a slice to your nose you could just about make out the aroma of peas, but taste it with your eyes closed and there's no way you'd be able to tell
We were so chuffed with it, we're going to do the tomato soup one next month !
Recipes for February
Stretching a chicken
This time 2 years ago, I did a couple of series on how to stretch an ordinary sized chicken to last a family the entire week - 28 portions.
One series starts with a poached chicken, and the other series with a roasted chicken. I was really rather pleased with them!
There are of course literally hundreds of recipes using chicken and if you can adapt them to use 140g of chicken, they could be used in this way. I know 140g doesn't sound like much, but in every recipe I tested, it tasted just fine - and chickeny.
Raisin Pancakes
These super little pancakes are made with minimal ingredients and are always popular. My grand daughter has learned how to make them and makes them for herself now and again
Lots of different things can be used instead of the raisins
Bacon and Leek Pie
I found the base of this recipe in one of my many cook books – The National Trusts Great British Vegetable Cookbook by Sybil Kapoor. It has loads of recipes that I have marked to try ; stir fried cabbage with pork balls; stuffed parathas; mushroom flan and carrot and cardamom cake to name a few
I have tweaked it rather to frugalise it. I used oil pastry rather than butter shortcrust. Whole eggs replaced egg yolks, I can’t be doing with parts of eggs in the fridge. There was creme fraiche in the fridge so I used that, but cream is cheaper so have used that in the recipe. And of course I used cooking bacon instead of rather more expensive rashers
The amount of mix also made rather too much, overflowing the dish and leaving enough to make a small crumble. So I’ve adjusted the quantities as well.
That's it for now, have a great week and I'll see you soon!
Do come and say hello on the Fantastically Frugal Food Facebook group, or the Sensational Slimming Sustenance group. I'd love to see you. Lots of useful tips, recipes and ideas. The nearly 19,000 membership are brilliant, brimming with talent.
And don't forget Thrifty Lesley, where there are 800+ recipes of fantastically frugal food and many weekly meal plans. And Cheap Family Recipes where you can find all kinds of delicious things that don't cost much, with two family monthly meal plans.
With all best wishes, until next time
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