Went to a pub, the Bottle House, very close to where I used to live yesterday for a 60^th Birthday Celebration for one of my brothers. It was a lovely family ‘do’.  I had started the day with a migraine that was probably kicked off by a late night on the Saturday. The only thing I have ever found that gets rid of the horrible pain and flu like symptoms is something called Imigran which is sumatriptan.

It was a Sunday so the local pharmacies weren’t open. DP, bless him, drove all the way to Uckfield  to Tesco which had an open pharmacy – via Hailsham as he forgot where he was going!  Within a couple of hours I was feeling ok again and able to enjoy the occasion.

I had got my brother a couple of Walter Trout CD’s as we both like music with lots of wailing guitars and Mr Trout is a master of the Blues. His playing puts a huge smile on my face and makes me waggle random bits of my body – have you got a funny mental picture now ;o)

I love get togethers like that.

So, to the second recipe using the bargain Aldi ingredients, Mushroom Stroganoff

For 2, you will need
an onion, 5p
4 sticks celery, 80p a head, average 12 sticks, 25p
350g mushrooms, Aldi 750g/£1.58, 73p
tbslp oil, Aldi £1.25/litre, 2p (currently showing as on offer, so cheaper than this)
80g value cream cheese, Aldi 49p/200g, 20p
80ml value yogort, Aldi, 45p/500g, 7p
200g value rice, 40p/1kg, 8p
Total price £1.40, so 70p a portion, a bit more than the 50p I usually allow for a main meal.

Slice the celery into small pieces. Wipe and slice the mushrooms. Chop/slice the onion. Saute the onion with the oil until transparent. Add the remaining vegetables and cook until done. Take off the heat and add the cream cheese and yogort, stirring well to make a sauce. Add a tiny bit of water if necessary

Season well with salt and pepper and serve with the cooked rice.

This recipe originally used creme fraiche and Aldi sell a 300g pot for 89p, which you could use if you have the funds and don’t need to keep the cost as low as we can get it. I have used some yogort to substitute for the tang you get from creme fraiche, but if you just have the soft cheese, I’m sure it would still taste lovely.
You could leave out the celery, but with so few ingredients, it does add a lot to the flavour.  It works best with fresh mushrooms rather than frozen ones.

I have enjoyed this with rice (I usually go for brown basmati), with mashed potato or a baked jacket one, over noodles or all different kinds of pasta shapes and even on some toast. It’s something I have been making for many years.

The picture shows Sainsbury soft cheese because that is what I had, but I have priced this using Aldi ingredients.