The garden
The garden is starting to look positively springlike, so cheering at this dark and damp time.
The snowdrops are flowering, several clumps of those
The Daphne is perfuming the whole garden when it's warm
and the insignificant flowers of the Sarcococca scent the air for a long way around it.
There are several clumps of cyclamen
Little Tete a Tete daffodils are coming along
The wild garlic is up, I'll be using some of that soon
And just look at these garlic cloves I put in water just 7 days ago!
Wild Garlic
This recipe is for pesto made from wild garlic, or ransoms, which is in season in the early Spring in the UK. The pesto is pungent, delicious and made from wild garlic foraged from the woods, or Allium triquetrum which is what I have growing in my garden.
You can use the pesto to dress pasta, drizzle on a salad or toast and all the usual ways pesto is used.
It’s super easy too, just throw everything into a food processor and whizz until it’s blended, smooth and emulsified a bit.
Cheap Valentine's Day ideas
I’m having Valentine’s Day at home this year, as will thousands of other people. Mind you, we’ve been doing that for a while now, got a little fed up of the over commercialised meals when we went to a restaurant. If you’re looking for cheap Valentine’s Day ideas for your special dinner, or something special for your special person, you might find something you like right here
101 ways to use a pancake
Or if you're not up for hearts and flowers, how about some lovely pancakes? Always great for using up bits and pieces, or they can be glammed up to make something extra special
Pork and veg meatballs
There was a post on the Facebook group talking about some meatballs from Waitrose which had added vegetables and pearl barley. I thought these sounded lovely, so decided to use some of the mince to experiment. This is the result. They’re quite trendy you know!
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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