Had one of those deeply satisfying frugaltastic moments today.
Do you remember that distinctly average curry I made a few days ago? The remains have been sat in the fridge ever since, a decent portion size, along with a portions worth of rice and peas.
Several days ago, I cooked up a lovely melange using up an entire pack of spring greens. I sauted an onion, added the shredded greens and a tin of tomatoes, lots of salt and pepper and cooked them until done. That was the the mix I had with the faggots. I had the faggots and the veg twice, and didn’t fancy either of them again just yet.
So it was time for the sweep round the fridge soup pot. In went the indifferent curry, the peas and rice, the remaining spring green mix, some leftover coconut milk powder that I had mixed with water to make coconut cream, and a good splosh of water. I heated it all up, wondering whether to blitz it or not. On tasting it, I was delighted to find that it was much more than the sum of its parts. What was now in the pot was a big batch of the most yummy soup! I left it unblitzed. I shall have a portion for lunch today, and quite possibly tomorrow as well. That will probably leave another couple of portions which I shall stash away for next week, or the week after, when I shall finish it off. Result!
DP wouldn’t eat anything like this, he’s very suspicious of leftovers. We often have ding cuisine, where I do a four portion sized meal and we have it 2 days running, but leftovers? No. Doesn’t know what he’s missing does he
Leftovers soup is often extremely flavoursome and one of my favourites.
Having eaten 2 portions of the faggots, I have another 3 portions bagged up and ready for storage. I shall have those over the next few weeks.
We went out for an Indian last night and I tried a fish platter. My word it was yummy. It had not 1 but 3, different, filleted fish in a delicious sauce, with lots of onions, and came with a roti. One was a standard white fish, one had a very soft texture, unusual, but nice, and the third was full of sharp bones but with with an outstanding flavour. I’m having the rest of that this evening, and DP will have the rest of his. We invariably order too much and have a doggy bag.
There is a pot of soup from a dried mix simmering on the hob for DP. It is from a few sachets I got from Approved Foods, a lentil and chickpea one by Ainsley Harriot. I tried some a while back and thought it was disgusting. Don’t know if DP will eat it or not yet. Edit: well, he ate it, although he didn’t like it much. So the remaining 3 sachets will have to go in the bin. The best before date has expired, so I can’t pass them to the food bank.
I’ve been having a little tidy in the cavernous larder this morning. Decanted two x third full bags of different Lidl muesli mix into the big jar of muesli I mixed up myself, then gave it all a good stir to amalgamate everything together.
There were 2 bits of own brand ReadyBrek, with just a tea cup of oats inside, so I tipped those into the new packet. Reminded myself of what was in the cupboard. Loads of AP spaghetti and cans of black olives, so need to have pasta, tomato sauce, olives and Parmesan at frequent intervals.
Several packets still of AP Allbran. I’ve been having that often, so that will soon disappear.
Couple of huge tins of mushy peas, so soup to use those.
Still got several jars of HM damson jam. After leaving it in the cupboard since 2001. I am finally getting round to using it. Been having it on HM bannocks. Got a taste for that on my LBLUK week.
Tired from our late night last night, so had a nice relaxed day. Hope you’re having a nice Bank Holiday. See you tomorrow
Yes, I tend to try things sometimes, especially when they are very cheap! I don’t normally buy packeted anything as I don’t like it
Maybe it’s because it is given away to very needy people and if it caused any problems there might be trouble. I guess you buy from AF knowing it’s past its sell by date so it is buyer beware.
I see what you mean about the soup – it does have a certain ‘taste’ to it when it’s been dried. Home made is almost as simple anyway! 🙂
J x
I’ve got some ancient pickle too Joy!
I must say you’re right, the damson jam does seem to taste extra good. No sign of mould either, so well done me ☺️
For me, the soup had that nasty ‘dried’ flavour that can’t be hidden. I had 5 packets for a quid, so I’m not that upset about it. It’s a personal thing, neither of us like packaged food very much, and that ‘dried’ flavour is one of the reasons . It’s perfectly edible, just not for me, or himself. If I could pass the remaining packs on to someone who would appreciate them, I would. The food bank has this stupid rule where they won’t accept out of date food. Approved Foods wouldn’t have a business if everyone agreed with that!
Well you never know Lola, you might like it. These things are all a matter of taste and what one person likes, another might hate.
I’ve tried some foreign made jams and preserves from AP, some of them are exceptionally good.
I might not like this particular soup, but there are very few things from AP that I don’t like even tho many of them are an unknown quantity. The umpteen packets of Allbran have Greek on the packets, so may have been made to a different recipe, but taste the same to me. I have a mahoosive packet of sage and onion stuffing that is lovely, but might not have been, an equally huge bag of instant custard, nearly gone now, that also may or may not have been nice. Etc, etc
Oh dear. Ive got some packets of that chick pea and lentil soup sitting in my kitchen. I will at least try it and see if I can save it in some way,though if Lesley can’t perhaps I should not be too hopeful.However,I must give a thumbs up to the Materne Strawberry Jam,which I recently got from AF. It is a Belgian brand which I had never tried before. It was dangerously delicious,full of large pieces of fruit.I polished off the whole large jar for breakfasts very quickly.I first learned about AF on this site so am very grateful.
I have jam that old, chutney too, and they have the most incredible taste and flavour. That’s the joy of home preserving!
A shame about the packet soup. It must have been nasty not to want to use it as a base and add other stuff to pet it up a bit. I guess that’s how we live and learn! 🙂
J x