Asides

Howdy, All.

I guess you’re all wondering if The Boy enjoyed his portable feast last night. Well, so am I. Apparently he opted to mix up one of these instead, so FML.

This morning, I put some bread into the machine and removed the meat from the BBQ chicken I bought the other day. The carcass is now in the slow cooker being turned into stock.

I went off to my normal Thursday lunch group, only to leave in a hurry when my stomach objected strongly to the smell of the fish dish being served. A few blocks away, I became reacquainted with my breakfast.

This day has not been fun.

However, I have managed to get all the flannel sheets washed and taken to the Laundromat to be dried – because, Ballarat winter. I also managed to purchase a Christmas present for a loved one (yay, forward planning!) and get the vegetable shopping done.

Fresh stuff

Fresh stuff.

I’ve also battled through the 90th straight hour of sciatica to have a bit of a play with this big boy.

23 quart pressure canner

23 quart pressure canner

I’ve managed to make buttons pop and dials move and to not make anything explode. Which is a definite improvement on the rest of the day…

So, now, I’m going to have a sachet of plain microwave brown rice with some mixed veg and hope that I can keep it down. Wish me luck.

The plan for tomorrow is not to leave the house if I can possibly help it and spend my time ironing, writing the ‘shopping’ post and trying the whole canning lark.

Wish me luck.

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So, this time yesterday, The Boy decided he was going camping tonight.

This led to a great deal of running around last night on both our parts and a lot of work today on mine.

I have packed him a rather fulsome hamper for his evening drive to parts foreign and I forgot to photograph any of it….

However, it includes a rather sweet little pasta, chicken and vegetable salad with a pesto mayonnaise. A tub of home-made hummus and a couple of tiny ziploc bags filled with julienned carrots and celery also found its way along.

There’s some air-popped corn with a chilli spice topping for when he gets the munchies. There’s also a couple of slices of that Chocaroon Layer Cake. Oh and a nice flask of made up Hot Chocolate from our home-made mix.

He has no idea that I’ve also included a pack of english muffins and some Vegemite for his breakfasts.  A few months ago I bought him this sort of double-decker Tradesman’s insulated lunch cooler from Aldi. So his dinner is in the top compartment – the pasta and dip – and everything else in the bottom.

Now, this may seem rather old-fashioned – packing supplies for my man, and all. He is quite capable of eating well on his own but, as someone with an ASD, he’s not likely to. This is my way of making sure that I don’t have to pick up the pieces when he gets back. It’s purely selfish.

I made myself a riff on a mushroom stroganoff I was given a recipe for yesterday. The Boy will not eat mushrooms due to sensory issues associated with the aforementioned ASD, so this was a real treat for me!

Mushroom Stroganoff

Mushroom Stroganoff

I managed to get most of the grocery shopping done today (in amongst everything else) so an update on that soon.

Shopping

Shopping

Assuming people want me to keep going with the daily and fortnightly diary of it all.

Let me know.

In the meantime, my new Pressure Canner has arrived and I have some user instructions to study so that I don’t blow the place up!

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Chocaroon Layer Cake.

I’ve had a few days off – you might have noticed. So here’s an update.

On Friday night we had the rest of the Store cupboard chickpea curry.

Store cupboard curry

Store cupboard curry.

On Saturday night I made Slow cooker Macaroni and Cheese and added one of the massive saveloys from the freezer.

Saturday night.

Saturday night.

And last night I cooked up a marinated asado beef roast from Aldi with roast potato and pumpkin and frozen peas. It was yummy.

Roast dinner Chez Moi.

Roast dinner, Chez Moi.

Today I made another of my Mother’s recipe collection. A Chocaroon Layer Cake. It hasn’t been tasted yet (it’s still cooling) but, my golly gosh it smells good!

Chocaroon Layer Cake.

Chocaroon Layer Cake.

If it tastes as good as it smells, I’ll post the recipe as soon as I get through the existing backlog…

Update: It’s amazeballs. Like, literally.

Chocaroon Layer Cake.

Chocaroon Layer Cake.

Then I made these “carrot cake” balls for The Boy. They need work, I think.

We had pork dumplings from the freezer for lunch.

I also have had a bean chilli bubbling away in the slow cooker for most of the day. However, it had far too much liquid in it not so long ago.

Chilli Overboard!

Chilli Overboard!

I could have thickened it up with some cornflour and served it over rice, but I decided to make a cornbread cobbler instead. This will soak up the liquid and add a carbohydrate.

And, indeed it has, lo!

Chilli cobbler

Chilli cobbler.

Life is still pretty good.

Mañana todos.

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Store cupboard curry

Hiya,

I spent most of the day elsewhere. First I made a couple of pizzas with this guy.

Masterchef Kai

Masterchef Kai.

We were at my weekly lunch with the Intercultural Womens Network of Ballarat (free plug!) and they were my contribution. He was the only three-year old there and scatters toppings really well. 😉

Then it was off to replace my blood glucose monitor – which I appear to have left in the car from the driving assessment yesterday.

Dinner was never going to be complicated. Ever.

I hadn’t got anything out of the freezer and I couldn’t be bothered doing so when I got home. I just opened the pantry and pretended I was a teenager doing a survey of the refrigerator – you know exactly what I mean, don’t you?

I spotted a jar of Tikka Masala simmer sauce and thought, “Well, that’s a start.” That was emptied it into the baby slow cooker and followed with a tin of lite coconut cream.

Tikka Masala simmer sauce.

Tikka Masala simmer sauce.

I chopped up half a red capsicum, then peeled and chopped up the seed end of half a butternut pumpkin and stirred that through. The crock was getting a little full, and I’d realised that I’d left my run a little late for using the slow cooker, so I transferred it to a Dutch oven on the stove top, where I added a tin of drained and rinsed cannellini beans.

I realised I'd made a strategic error and transferred it to the stove top at this point.

I realised I’d made a strategic error and transferred it to the stove top at this point.

It really only needed to simmer long enough to cook the pumpkin through so, while it did that, I put some rice on to steam and added some millet to the pot for something different. That came out looking like this.

Jasmine rice and millet.

Jasmine rice and millet.

The curry was looking a little ‘samey’ so the freezer was raided and a bag of mixed frozen vegies was used to add some more texture and colour to the curry.

Frozen vegies make life easier.

Frozen vegies make life easier.

When they were heated through, the curry was spooned over the rice and served.

Store cupboard curry

Store cupboard curry.

A meatless dinner with minimal effort and plenty of leftovers. That last point is important because we’ve got a long day in Geelong tomorrow, starting at stupid o’clock, and it was likely to end with takeaway if we weren’t careful.  Now that’s not so likely.

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Today I was told I could keep my licence and I probably wouldn’t have to be reassessed in the near future.

Yay.

Mind you, I did the driving assessment while in severe pain and after a night of no sleep due to aforementioned pain. It has been a painful time in my life.

I’m also still very cross about being made to pay for the whole thing, but there you go. Peeps, I am no danger to you on the road.

Happy now?

I came home and discovered I’d left my blood monitor in the testing vehicle. I reacted to this in two ways (in my exhaustion):

  1. I made myself a rather large serving of loaded potato chips (I’m not sorry) and,
  2. I took advantage of an online special and bought myself a pressure canner. (Still not sorry.)

The Boy came home from the office with news that the muffins were well received and a nice piece of rump steak.

To clarify, the steak didn’t come from the office. It came from our local butcher, John Harbour. The Boy had decided we needed a bit of high living for a change and this would fit the bill.

He was right.

He also brought home a bag of spinach and some mushrooms – which was very thoughtful. So, I put some potatoes on to boil for a mash, sliced up the mushies and dug out my cast iron grill.

Now, it wasn’t a massive steak, but it was a very good quality one. I covered one side with a few sea salt flakes and a whole heap of freshly ground pepper and grilled it until it reached our level of perfection -we like it crispy on the outside, and moist-but-cooked-through on the inside.

Perfectly grilled, moist steak.

Perfectly grilled, moist steak.

Then, I put it aside to rest for 5 mins while I used the grill pan to sauté the mushrooms, before adding a few good handfuls of baby spinach leaves and a shake or two of nutmeg.

Waiting for the spinach to wilt.

Waiting for the spinach to wilt.

While we waited for that to wilt down, I mashed the potatoes with some buttermilk and sliced the rump.

Vegetarians look away now.

Slicing the beef gives the appearance of abundance.

Slicing the beef gives the appearance of abundance.

Then everything was plated up and the jus from the ‘resting plate’ was drizzled over the meat. In addition, I squeezed half a small lemon over the meat and the spinach, then served.

Simple and delicious.

Simple and delicious.

This, Ladies and Gents, was gourmet.

The dinner conversation was whether I should do a post on how to cook a steak. I know many would consider my steak to be overcooked – preferring to chew endlessly on rare beef. Others would consider it underdone, although let me assure them that this is nothing resembling rare. (It looks red, it doesn’t taste it.)

Let me know, what you’d like.

There’s a comments box immediately below this post, leave your feedback and I’ll take it from there.

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Chocolate soft serve ice-cream.

I spent yesterday in various parts of Melbourne, so there was very little done in the Budget Bounty kitchen. Although I did pop into one company to price containers for some food-based products I’m thinking of selling in the future. Maybe. Perhaps.

Anyway, leftovers were the order of the day when we got home and we were very happy to have those porcupine meatballs to warm up and serve with a quick mashed potato. This is a picture from the night before, when we dished them up onto a bed of sweet potato that we had cooked in the slow cooker.

Porcupine meatballs, cooked in the pressure cooker.

Porcupine meatballs, cooked in the pressure cooker.

Both times they were yummy!

Today I kept myself a little busier. I have been given more lemons, so more lemon butter was made (natch!).

Lemon butter anyone?

Lemon butter, anyone?

I made a double batch, because I wanted to give some away and I wanted to make these. Hidden Treasure Muffins, but made using the lemon butter instead of Dulce de Leche this time. The Boy was keen to take some into the office tomorrow.

I wanted something low fuss for dinner, so I filled my small crock pot with my Lentil and Barley Hot Pot.

That’s smelling luscious and I’m looking forward to tucking in soonish. I also decided to do something with a bag of frozen, over-ripe bananas that are taking up space in my freezer and annoying me.

And don't they look attractive?

And don’t they look attractive?

So I turned them into chocolate ice-cream. The Boy came in as I was finishing and decided it was his duty as The Man of The House to lick the bowl.

Chocolate soft serve ice-cream.

Chocolate soft serve ice-cream.

He declared it to be “good.”

Yes. I will be posting instructions for this very soon. I’m going to have my dinner first though.

See you all soon!

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Bringing home the bacon...

I didn’t post yesterday due to an existential crisis.

So, today I’m posting about what I did yesterday – welcome to time travel.

I had planned to head off to the local Farmers’ Market down at Lake Wendouree, and so I did.

I spent about $15 there on this lot.

My treasure from the market.

My treasure from the market.

What? It doesn’t look all that exciting? Really?  Huh.

Let me go through what I’ve got here. In that bag at the front, in the bottom left hand corner, there are Golden Linseeds.

Golden Linseeds or Flaxseeds.

Golden Linseeds or Flaxseed.

I like to add a couple of tablespoonfuls of that to my bread mix. There are already linseeds in the mix that we buy, but I like to boost it. Linseed is full of fibre and Omega 3s. However, unless you grind it, the Omega 3s aren’t available to you and the seeds pass through your body undigested.

So, I use a small electric coffee grinder to break them up a bit and add them through the nut/seed/fruit dispenser in my bread machine.

Next, there are Navy Beans. I buy a lot of these – usually 500g at a time.

Navy Beans

Navy Beans.

They cost around $8 a kilogram. Now with that 500 g, or 1 pound, I can make a batch of baked beans to keep in my freezer for quick and nutritious lunches. That batch will make about 2 litres worth of beans.

The Boy and I are in discussions about maybe buying a pressure canner so I can keep them in my pantry instead…. stay tuned.

Next, we have black lentils.

Black lentils.

Black lentils.

I love to add lentils to mince meat dishes or any slow-cooked dish. My collection of different colours and textures is slowly growing and is so different from the large brown and green lentils that used to be all that was available in Australia. (Yay!)

Next, you’ll see some Red Basmati Rice.

Red Basmati Rice.

Red Basmati Rice.

I hadn’t ever seen this before, so I grabbed 250 g of it. Basmati rice is a little lower on the Glycaemic Index (GI), which makes it much better for keeping my blood sugars stable (and yours too).  I have no idea what it tastes like and I’m looking forward to finding out.

Lastly, there is black barley.

Black barley.

Black barley.

I was really happy with how it turned out in my Barley and Lentil Hotpot and have decided it needs to be a pantry staple in the Budget Bounty household. So there.

I had a few dollars left from the $20 I had been prepared to spend, so I bought some Bok Choy as well.

Then I came home and saw to the meat. The chuck steak was diced, placed in a zip lock bag and frozen as is. I already have a few bags of marinaded diced chuck in the freezer, so I thought I’d leave this lot plain for now.

Diced chuck. (Sorry, Chuck!)

Diced chuck. (Sorry, Chuck!)

The Osso Buco was also frozen as was. It’s there ready for a nice, warming casserole in the future.

Osso Buco

Osso Buco

The sausages were placed into a large ziploc bag – being sure they weren’t touching – and frozen. Once they were frozen through, the bag was shaken down and folded over.

Pork Sausages

Pork Sausages

By freezing the snags like this, I will be able to remove one or two at a time without having to defrost the whole lot. With this style of sausage, I’ll only need a small number to feed the two of us.

Bacon pieces

Bacon pieces

Then, I processed the bacon rashers, cutting off the tails and dicing them and leaving the “eye” part whole. They were frozen in separate bags and small portions.

Although one portion was immediately used to counter the Antarctic vortex currently enveloping most of southern Australia. I added them to a fine luncheon of Loaded Hot Potato Chips. Yum! They really hit the spot!

Bringing home the bacon...

Bringing home the bacon…

Bread was made, as was a batch of Apple and Oat Bars. I dined on leftover risotto and The Boy ate chicken soup.

Tonight he is making Porcupine meatballs in the pressure cooker and using some of the red basmati in it too!

Eat well, everyone.

 

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The major haul.

I have shopped.

It was a remarkably uncomplicated shop as half of it was done at the butcher’s.2015-07-09 16.00.44 This butcher appears to be a local institution. You’ll often find him mentioned on menus in restaurants around here: “Made with John Harbour Porterhouse Steak,” that sort of thing. Apparently he grows and butchers his own beef and pork and he clearly loves his trade.

I spent  just under $40 on meat with which to stuff the freezer. There are:

  • 6 English pork sausages,
  • 500g chuck steak,
  • 600g Osso Bucco and
  • 3 of their own saveloys ! (the largest saveloys I have ever seen!)
    Doesn't look all that appetising, does it?

    Doesn’t look all that appetising, does it?

    Now, I could have bought an awful lot more for that $40 at Aldi, but it wouldn’t have been of the same quality. I had the money to spare this fortnight, so I spent it. This is going to make at least 12 meals, if not more, so around $3 a meal. Which means it’s actually affordable.

The major haul.

The major haul.

This is the rest of my purchases.

First, I stocked up on pasta and sauces and from Woolworths I bought:

  • 1 x 5 kg bag Laucke Multi-grain Bread mix   $12.57
  • 1 x 250 ml Chipotle sauce                                     $2.79 (my new thing this shop)
  • 1 x 500 g  Molasses                                                    $3.49
  • 1 x 320 ml  Hoi Sin sauce                                       $2.39
  • 2 x 500 g “curls” macaroni                                    $4.90
  • 1 x 500 g “Risoni” pasta                                          $1.10

Total = $27.24

Then I popped into Aldi to get the rest of my bits and pieces. These were all pantry staples being replaced or topped up. So:

  • 1 x 250 g Shredded parmesan cheese   $3.69
  • 1 x 500 g Dairy spread                                   $2.99
  • 1 x 500 g unsalted butter                            $2.59
  • 1 kg brown onions                                         $0.99
  • 4 x 400 g tin diced tomatoes                     $2.36
  • 2 kg white sugar                                              $1.79
  • 1 kg sweet potatoes                                      $1.99
  • 2 x 400 g tin kidney beans                           $1.18
  • 1 x 200 g Bicarbonate of soda                   $1.79
  • 2 x 250 g Microwave Brown Rice              $2.98
  • 1 x 500 g squeezable honey                       $5.49

Total = 27.84

So that comes to $95.08 all together. I have yet to buy eggs, which will use the last of the money allotted.

However, I’ve decided to go over a little anyway.

I want to go to the market on Saturday and stock up on some beans and grains. But, even if I go utterly berserk, I won’t spend more than $20 there AND those things will last for months.

Ahem.

You may have noticed a lack of fresh veg. Well, our crisper is still well-stocked and we have oodles of frozen vegetables as well. Don’t fret.

 

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Howdy do. I made it through part one of my driving assessment (they were happy for me to drive home) and I have the practical on-road test next Wednesday.

Wish me luck.

I’ve started thinking about this fortnight’s shop and there’s really not much that needs to be bought! We’ve got several days worth of meals as leftovers in the refrigerator-in fact, I’m about to pop the remaining pork belly in the freezer. There’s enough vegetables and meat in the freezer to see us through yet another fortnight, and the pantry is almost fully stocked. Which is a nice place to be.

Imminent starvation is not a risk in the Budget Bounty household.

So, I’m going to get ahead with some things and pad out with others. We’re in no risk of running out of bread mix this pay period, but I think I’ll buy a sack anyway. It’s a big enough expense ($12) that I notice it when it comes up. So it will be good to get it while I don’t desperately need the money for other things.

This is my idea of heaven.

This is my idea of heaven.

I’d like to replenish my sauces as well; they can make all the difference to a dish. Pasta could use some refilling, and I’m going to my favourite stall at the local Farmer’s Market this weekend and buying big on beans and pulses.

There are so many to choose from, but I really need to restock on Navy Beans at the very minimum so that I can make my Cider Baked Beans. Our favourite lunch around here is a microwave baked potato topped with these beans and a touch of cheese. That recipe will be posted soon.

...and this looks like Christmas morning...

…and this looks like Christmas morning…

I’d also like to get a bit of meat that isn’t minced beef. I mean I’d really like that.

For tonight, I’m intending to have the rest of the chilli con carne with some corn chips and The Boy is tucking into some chicken soup that was just dropped off by a friend for my cold. (MS and soup are natural enemies. I don’t want to end up wearing my dinner.)

Then it will be an early night. Yesterday’s gardening combined with today’s outing have me yawning already.

Sleep well, All.

 

 

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Our refilled biscuit barrel.

Okay, so my driving assessment didn’t happen today, because reasons. I have to go back tomorrow.

I came home and worked off the cumulative fury in my front garden, pruning pretty much 7/8 of the rose bushes off. It worked.

The bushes look like they’ll face the next growing season much better too!

Anyway, when I came in I remembered that a request had been made for some more cookies, preferably ones with chunks of chocolate and a touch of salt. So I thought I’d try a new recipe and made this one here. Coconut chocolate chunk cookies with sea salt.

Coconut chocolate chink biscuits

Coconut chocolate chunk biscuits.

The Boy says they are good. I haven’t tasted them yet. If I agree with him, then they may end up on a post sometime.

Pasta and other things mixed in a baking dish.

Pasta and other things mixed in a baking dish.

I decided to do a pasta bake for dinner. So I threw a few handfuls of pasta on to cook, diced up a zucchini and a capsicum, drained a can of chickpeas and cut up some of that BBQ chook we’ve got in the fridge. When the pasta was cooked, I mixed them all together in a pyrex baking dish with what was left in the jar of pesto we had. (Another thing for the list.)

Make a quick cheese sauce to bind.

Make a quick cheese sauce to bind.

Then I made a white sauce and mixed through a few handfuls of grated tasty cheese and some mixed Italian herbs, salt and pepper. The whole lot was placed into the oven (which had been on for the cookies) and baked at 180°C for about 40 mins.

The end result.

The end result.

At that stage, I took it out and sprinkled the top with some home-made wholegrain breadcrumbs that I keep in the fridge – for added texture. It was baked a further 10 minutes after that.

Then we tucked in. I had a small serving so I could follow it up with a bit of the leftover chocolate fudge pudding. The orange flavour from the zest was even more pronounced and it was amazing!

Dinner is served.

Dinner is served.

There was enough pasta left for two or three servings. I love cooking things in that glass dish. It is one of a set of three that I bought from Kmart some time ago and which came with clip lock lids. They don’t seem to have the sets any more, but you can buy singles like this one.

Hot fudge pudding and ice cream. I'd earned it.

Hot fudge pudding and ice cream. I’d earned it.

They’re very affordable and it means that, when the dish is cool, you can pop the lid on and put it in the fridge. No fiddling with cling wrap, no transferring to a different dish, easy to reheat in – gotta be happy with that. 🙂  They are available in square and rectangle and several different sizes and I’d recommend them, especially to those just starting out. You want stuff that is versatile and that you love using. I think perhaps I should do a post on this…

Anyway, I am now very tired from my gardening exertions and ready to crash.

TTFN

 

 

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