I've been neglecting you! Time has been slipping away, so much to do, so little time! I'm grabbing a bit of time today between the Mens Wimbledon Final and the football later on! Will you watch either of them, or is sport not your thing?
The garden has finally got going in this very slow and strange summer.
We've had no pickings AT ALL from the rhubarb this year, which has usually been a forest for several months by July. Look at it, it's laying down like it does in September at the end of the season, but it's been like that all year. It's not like it hasn't had enough water with all the rain we've been having, and it had a compost heap spread on top of it over the winter.
This is a basil plant bought from a supermarket. I buy one each year, early in the season, plant it into that big terracotta pot, in the greenhouse, and feed and water it like crazy. It goes bananas and I have more than I can use all summer. I currently have small glass jars with cuttings in on the windowsill. You just cut a bit off just below a leave joint, remove the leaves of that joint, pop it into water and in a couple of weeks there will be lots of roots.
The tomatoes in the greenhouse, nine plants in total, of three different varieties.
Tomatoes forming, lots and lots of them.
The runner beans
And the first baby beans
Lots and lots of apples coming for later in the year.
Remember those tiny courgette plants I showed you a little while ago. look at them now!
Lots of courgettes coming, they will be coming out of my ears soon, but here are the first two - twins!
The tomatoes in the cattle troughs are doing well
Again, lots coming
In the floral beds, everything is growing enthusiastically
These beauties only go outside when all frost has passed. One windy night, I'd left the umbrella up and it flew out of the hole in the table and crash landed on these! Eek! Quite a lot of bits snapped off, but I made cuttings of those for friends, and they seem to have recovered now.
And this zantedeschia is something I've just bought, it should fit in well colour wise don't you think?
So, to some recipes
Chicken Pizza with onions and peppers
This month in 2022 I was working out the recipes to stretch a roast chicken to last a week and this pizza recipe was one of them.
Think I might have this this week!
Peanut Oatcakes with Roasted Onions and Green Pea Hummus
This recipe came about when I was challenged to create an 8th day on Meal Plan 1 using remaining groceries. It was indeed quite a challenge trying to come up with a days eating from this and that. I’m really quite pleased with these!
Sweetcorn fritters, wedges & peas
Simple little fritters, very quick and easy, and a very cheap meal
Easy Poached Pears Without Alcohol
Poached pears are usually simmered in a red or white wine and water syrup.
Wine being the obviously most expensive ingredient, the usual alcohol was replaced in this easy poached pears recipe with value apple juice (the pink tinge in the image came from a tiny bit of red wine in the bottom of a bottle). Using wine would bump up the cost considerably
Poached pears in white wine are less common than poached pears in red wine. Each wine bringing its own variation. I hadn’t tried poached pears in apple juice before, but I’m very glad I did!
I published an ebook for meal plan 1 in August 2021 and am delighted that many people have thought it was worth getting. I repriced it again in June 2022 and it was still holding on, even in these scary times. Now we are in September and prices have shifted again and I've managed to get my head around WooCommerce so I can feature it on the blog and you can find it here.
I was busy recooking, photographing and updating the recipes for Meal Plan 2 and putting them into an ebook as well. The meal plan was first written in 2013 and still prices up, which is fabulous and that is finally complete. The book is done now too, prices seem to be stable enough to do it.
I've finally completed the e-book from the Stretch A Chicken To Last A Week series. Took me absolutely ages to finish it off!
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 over 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. So much to do, so little time!
With all best wishes, until next time
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