Putting my Money Where My Mouth Is.

That is what my Granny used to say if someone was pontificating, telling us all how "it" should be done. "Stop talking about it, put your money where your mouth is and go and do it"
Well yesterday I ran on about food thrift and blogger recipes, today is a dreary and damp day so it is Play Time in the kitchen.

First of all, those fancy sausages that I bought in Beckenham, not worth the price, not really tasty and quite chewy, so what to do with them.
The Italian and French ones were very samey, just a slight difference in size and seasoning, I dry fried them ready for the slow cooker treatment.

Once they had some nice brown markings I put them into the cooker and started on the veg.

2 carrots, 1 small onion, 1/2 a small swede and half a soft red pepper, a little sizzling and into the cooker.

The end of my last butternut squash, a lonely leek and a stick of celery, a finely diced red chili and some garlic were next, duly sizzled and added to the pot.

I pulled some home made passata from the freezer and used a tin each of chickpeas and chopped tomatoes, these were either 4 or 5 for £1 in Sainsbury,s last year, I filled a trolley! I heated these up and added a heaped spoon of smoked paprika and a tsp of dried herb mix. They went into the pot with a good grind of black pepper and enough chicken stock to just about cover everything.

On low for 5 to 6 hours, as the sausages were quite expensive and huge I will cut them into chunks when cooked, that way they stay in nice firm pieces. This lot will make 8 or 9 meals and will be served in Yorkshire Puddings, with rice, cous cous, pasta or mashed potato, depending on how I feel at the time.

When ever I see these sort of prices I pounce, the chili bags go straight into the freezer, I just take what I want out and chop them up frozen. The carrots will be mostly used today and any left will go into veg hash and be frozen 

These are some of the seeds from my squash, I will wash the fibrous flesh off, drain and dry them before sowing them in pots. I pick the best squash and then the fattest seeds and sow many more than I need. Then I once again select the best looking plants to grow, the rest go to neighbours and/or the charity shop.

Reasons to be grateful.

1. Lots of tasty dinners to be squirreled away.

2. The day may be wet but it is warm.

3. I had a parcel from up the Amazon this morning.

4. Marina is still holding firm, she will never get better but is not giving in or up.

5. I picked up a £2 coin in the car park yesterday.

I have a pan of minced beef and veg simmering away, that will make shepherds pie and some double crust pies for the freezer. I used the same mixture of veg as the sausage  casserole just diced finer and browned it off with the mince, added a squeeze of tomato puree and some stock. I will thicken it then chill it down and portion it out. Then decide what to make and how many servings I want. I use 80/20 % mince as it has more flavour than the very lean. If too much fat renders out I drain it off and use to  fry off veg for another meal, why waste all that flavour.

Here it is, browning nicely.

Oh yes, my parcel, I almost forgot.

Inspiration for using my scrap pile and at just £1.20 a steal. Full of good ideas that will use all my little snippets.

TTFN                                                  Pam