It’s been a funny old week. I haven’t felt ill exactly, just slightly below par and lacking in energy. Last night, after painting all day, I felt like I had been run over by a steam roller. I think I may have caught the lodger’s cold. This never happens – I have an immune system of steel usually! I still managed my five frugal things though, so here we go.
A healthy veggie bake
I am eating healthily but haven’t done much except basic cooking, although I did make a really nice vegetarian spinach and potato gratin to kick off the week. I had mine with some sliced boiled eggs on top; the others had Aldi Lincolnshire sausages. This was a thrifty winter warmer to kick off my five frugal things.
I wish I could find a decent veggie sausage. I know there are some out there but they all seem to contain soya, which I just can’t stomach. Perhaps I need to make my own. Anyone have any good recipes or know where I can buy some soya free sausages?
Love your leftovers: soup
I made a bucket of what I call ‘thrift soup’ at the weekend to give us a whole week’s lunches. There was quite a lot of frozen leftover mash potato, which I used as a thickener. I diced the rest of the veg. You can use pretty much anything in this type of soup – I chucked in all the odds and ends that were lying around in the fridge. We had two sweet potatoes, half a bunch of celery, 4 large carrots and some frozen peas.
This soup was lovely and hearty. We will be having the last of it today for lunch.
Something fishy
I found some kippers in the reduced section at Asda the other day, so I grabbed two packets. They were reduced from £1.28 to 88p each.
I hadn’t had kippers for years and only got them because they were so cheap. But they were delicious and there was a lot of protein in each pack. I would say there was enough for two people – I tried to eat a whole pack myself for tea but was defeated.
Mr S loves them and they are pretty healthy, being full of those good omega 3s. Without doubt, I will be buying these again, even at the full price. I had them with tomatoes, bread and butter, but I am thinking they would make a good kedgeree type dish.
Lactose free
Asda came up trumps again when I discovered they now have their own range of lactose free products.
As a lactose intolerant person, I have missed finding a decent yogurt at a reasonable price. I can’t eat soya (that’s even worse for my digestive system!) and the only alternative I have found is coconut milk yogurt. This is very expensive! I bought two tubs of the Asda strawberry Greek yogurt as they were 2 for £2 and this stuff is yummy.
They also do milk at £1.20 a carton. 5p more than Aldi’s version but still cheaper than the Lactofree brand, which tends to be around £1.45 a carton.
Food intolerances are flipping expensive!
Bread making
The older I get, the more I struggle with IBS. It can be stress related, but for me it is definitely aggravated by various foods. I currently avoid dairy (although hard cheeses are fine), soya, onions and leeks, cabbage and sprouts, beans and lentils (not ideal as a vegetarian) and recently found to my horror that mushrooms cause issues. I love mushrooms!
The doctor tested me for Coeliac disease and thankfully this came back negative. However, I can’t eat too much bread or anything containing flour. My sister has similar problems. She has found that spelt bread is much lower in gluten and gentler on the stomach.
Bread or spaghetti?
I couldn’t find anywhere selling spelt bread when I went hunting, but found some flour so thought I would have a go at making a loaf. Such fun! I made the dough in my bread maker and could see it rising and looking fab. However, when I went to take it out to bake it in the oven it had gone a bit soft. I turned it onto a floured board to knead it and it looked like spaghetti!
Perseverance being the key, I kneaded it anyway and stuck it in a loaf tin to bake. It came out tasting pretty good! I would say it was a little on the heavy side, but I ate it anyway. It was pretty nice toasted and much superior to any gluten free loaf I have ever tried.
However, I clearly need to practice as I don’t think I quite have the technique. Apparently they sell a 100% loaf in Waitrose so I will try some of that to see what it should taste like.
More DIY
I am writing this to put off another day of DIY. We have pretty much finished now so I need to get on with it. Just a wall to paint, the curtains to go up and a thorough clean of the floor today. We still need to find a rug and a nest of tables and we are done. Hurrah!
If I could afford to pay someone to do the decorating, I certainly would!
How has your week been? What are your frugal achievements?
I’m linking up with this Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Five Fabulously Frugal things I’ve done this week’ linky. Pop over and have a look see their five frugal things.
Julia says
Shame about soya – Cauldron sausages are the nicest I’ve tasted, but do contain soya.
I know Sainsburys do spelt spaghetti as I have to be careful not to pick it up by mistake for wholewheat spaghetti as they look identical, but the spelt version is more expensive (£1 vs 85p)!
This has certainly NOT been a frugal week for us, but on the plus side the decorating has moved on nicely because of it! The channels gorged out of the wall have been filled, a section of plasterboard wall has been patched and now the corner is almost ready for plastering.
Then the salvaged dado rail & skirting board can be patched in to the existing sections, and that corner re-papered!
Then the painting and new carpet will be all that’s left to do! 🙂
Will still take the best part of a month though!! I’ve been watching the Amanda Lamb Selling Houses programme on Channel 4 and am always amazed at just how much these sellers can get done in a week!! The one I saw yesterday had one man do an entire bathroom from scratch and a garden makeover which included him building a deck and pergola – all in a week!! It would have taken me longer than that just to do the weeding! 😮
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
They probably have a tv team helping!
Julia says
Mostly it seems to be whichever friends and family they can rope into help them, though some hire a professional for the bits they can’t manage themselves, but this one did it just him and his sister!
At the very least they must take the week off work!
Jane says
If you have IBS, which is a miserable condition, try looking at FODMAP diet. It’s weird but it has certainly worked for my daughter. Not cured it but so much better.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Thanks, yes pretty much on FODMAP. At the moment. Not completely gluten free but low gluten and don’t eat a lot of the foods they recommend. Definitely helping! A pain going out to eat though
christy says
i suffer from IBS and the best things I have found is to eat a lot of fiber . and I also take probiotics. find a place that keeps the probiotics in a cooler (keeps the strains alive). After a couple of months I was able to add back in the foods that caused problems. The only attacks I get now are from stress (when I swallow air) and they are much less severe and much less frequent.
ratnamurti says
I am allergic to tomatoes, and get sick (as in have to go to bed), with capsicum & I’m terrified to ever eat eggplant again. And there are heaps of other foods which make me unwell; I sympathise. It is difficult, but it does sound as though you know your body really well, what suits it & doesn’t.
Sausages: grind sunflower seeds, add a splosh of some sauce like soya or (gasp!) tomato,etc, some finely chopped onion, some breadcrumbs, & yoghurt to mix. Roll in breadcrumbs & cook.
vego patties/rissoles/burgers: grind some beans, except kidney or soya. You can add some wheat germ, nutritional yeast, etc, or rolled oats, if wished. Soak, say, 1 cup of mix with 1 cup water & a splosh of soya sauce or some other, or stock cube.
Sorry, I don’t know about measurements.
Joy of crafting says
I’ve made Broke Burgers, with adaptions.
The original recipe is
broke burgers’
Ingredients:
1 egg
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup cottage cheese
1 packet onion soup
Method:
Mix all ingredients together and fry them as you would with burgers or meatballs. These are great the next day too.
I made the lentil ones and used chickpeas instead of lentils, I used bits and pieces from all the variations, like BBQ sauce from one, other grated vegetables like cauliflower, zucchini and sweet potatoes and just wrapped in the puff pastry To make sausage rolls, ‘meat loaf’ as well as burgers, I think they’d also make nice ‘meatballs ‘ for spaghetti or hedgehogs
1 cup cottage cheese ( or 1 tin drained lentils or chickpeas)
1 cup oats
1 carrot grated
1 zucchini grated
1/2 cup BBq sauce & chutney mix
seasonings
parsley & chives
1 egg
Joy of crafting says
Sorry, forgot to mention I got the recipe from simple savings
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Interesting! Like the broke burgers
Fiona Adams says
I work for Waitrose. I don’t know which is your nearest branch but we stock several spelt breads. If you would like to let me know via my email address which your nearest branch is then I can have look and see what your nearest branch stocks which would save you wasted petrol. I make what I call leftover fridge soup regularly 🙂 Never the same twice!
Joy of crafting says
I’ve used them for sausage rolls and had compliments from carnivores that didn’t realise they were meat free, so thought you might be able to use them for sausages, if anyone queried the lack of skin, they could be chevati (?) those Eastern European skinless sausages. The bbq sauce colours them beautifully, I got some oat bran cheap and will try that next to see if it changes the texture or flavour at all.
Savannah says
Glamorgan sausages, easy to make, freeze beautifully and you once you’ve got the cheese and leeks in, you can add anything to flavour them. We like them with loads of chilli flakes! That usually kills cold germs in their tracks.
Cass Bailey says
I do the same as you with the soup bit never though of using frozen mashed potato as a thickener so thanks for that. 😉
Thanks so much for joining in with last week’s linky, I’m so sorry I’m late with commenting and sharing. x x