Well, my goodness, I have been neglecting you! I can't believe just how long it is since we last spoke!
So much has been going on.
We have been hard at work clearing out a garden bed, potting anything we want to keep and improving the soil. There's a nurseryman down the road who does a beautiful design and only charges for the plants. Can't wait to see what he comes up with.
I've been taking cuttings for my daughter as well who has a large garden and a new found interest in gardening. They've been in this house 2 years now and she's really getting to grips with it.
le Marche
We had a great day at le Marche this year. The weather was fabulous and although we couldn't have as many French traders coming as usual, there were still loads of good stalls. The music was going all day and all kinds of other things going on on the periphery.
I bought a grass fed steak, and some butter and sour cream from the same farmer. All indulgences of course. You don't go to le Marche for bargains!
The u3a had a stall and recruited 25 new members, so all good!
Cooking Up A Storm
The cookery group I run did some lovely recipes for gnocchi this time. Bought gnocchi with mushrooms and paprika butter; with roasted pumpkin, walnuts and blue cheese; and a smoked salmon, lemon and watercress one. We also made gnocchi from scratch.
The made from scratch ones were nice, but not significantly nicer than the shop bought ones. If I went to that trouble again, I think I'd make gnocchi with carrot; beetroot; mushrooms or pumpkin.
We'll be exploring risotti recipes next month.
An e-book
I published the e-book, and am now improving the posts and taking pictures as I re-cook recipes so I can do Meal Plan 2.
One of the recipes I re-made this week is the Broccoli Pesto and that can be found below
I had some on toast for breakfast this morning
Knee
The recent x-ray shows 'moderate arthritis' and the osteopath said that means no more running for me. I was just getting really good at it too!
I'll have to find something else to get my exercise in.
My husband is having one of his knees replaced on the 21st, so I'll have my nurses uniform on for a few weeks.
Too Good To Go Boxes
Just been shopping to Lidl’s to use a £5 off voucher - and forgot to flipping use it! How annoying!
On the plus side, there were loads of £1.50 boxes, and no-one showing any interest. So I got two of them
Box one - 2 old sweetcorn cobs, will flavour stock well. Cherries, mini tomatoes, elderly mint, little gem lettuce, 3 onions, an iceberg lettuce, 2 avocados, 2 red peppers, pack of 6 tomatoes
Box two - family pack tomatoes, 2.5kg potatoes, 2 passion fruit, 6 apples, 2 little gem and some blackberries
Very pleased with that and will adjust meal plan to make best use of them
Have you had any good or bad ones recently?
Red Lentil Pancakes
Made some pancakes using just red lentils today.
Soak a cup of red lentils in 2 cups water overnight. Add garlic, salt and paprika and blitz until smooth.
Then fry in pancake amounts, spreading the mix over the pan. Flip over half way through cooking.
Stuff with whatever you like. These are stuffed with paprika mushrooms, and we had them with carrots and runner beans from the garden.
I went to Northampton to see my Mum for the first time in 2 years on Thursday, coming back Friday, then had to do a work thing all day Saturday. That meant the soaking lentils sat in the fridge from Wednesday right round to Sunday. They had developed a really nice sourdough type tang in that time.
The pancakes are very tasty and with so little in them too!
I'll write up the recipe properly on the blog in a bit
Lemon Peel Jam
I had some zested and squeezed lemons recently and wondered if I could make jam with them.
It was a very successful experiment and I was really pleased with it. You could use it to replace marmalade, and indeed, use orange peels to make something even closer to marmalade.
I get a great sense of satisfaction from making something edible, and delicious, from nothing much. And from something that would have been thrown away. Oooh, even better!
Vegan Broccoli Pesto
Fresh, bright and as versatile as all pesto's are, this a joy. It doesn't taste of broccoli, so veggie-phobes may well like it. It's part of Meal Plan 2.
That's it for this time, 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 17,000 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.
I've also got a few YouTube videos up, not many yet, but I'm planning to do more. I've done a couple more, need to edit them now!
With all best wishes, until next time
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