We're with Octopus Energy for our electricity and gas, and for the last few weekends there has been an hour of free electricity. Alan has made it his mission to use as much energy in that hour as possible and I've been joining in, maybe with not quite so much gusto, but joining in nevertheless.
Over the weekend just gone we had one free hour on Saturday, so I did all the usual, charging my laptop, camera, phone, vacuum cleaner etc, putting one load of washing in the machine, alongside making twice as many cups of coffee as usual and boiling a kettle of water to wash the pots instead of firing up the boiler for hot water ... looking at that little lot perhaps I have been as obsessive as Alan.
Anyway late on Saturday night Alan got another email telling him that there was to be a further two free hours on Sunday. What else could we possibly do to take advantage of it?
Well I decided that for my lunch I would cook the Rainbow Vegetable Parcel which requires one hour and twenty minutes of cooking time in the oven, and I had been putting off using just for that reason.
We also decided to quickly prepare all the apples off our little tree in the garden. Now they are lightly stewed and in six 'takeaway' containers, three of them in each of our freezers.
I also decided to descale my kettle.
Usually I use vinegar or lemon to do this but I had neither, so I 'borrowed' a sachet of descaler off Alan. He has the most well stocked, chemical fuelled array of household products under his kitchen sink. I literally have a couple of well used favourite products.
With free electric for the full two hours it meant that I could boil and re-boil the kettle numerous times to get it nice and sparkly clean and not have to worry about the cost. Then I boiled it a few more times afterwards to make sure to get all the nasty chemicals away, pouring the boiling water down each of my plugholes one by one, my preferred way of keeping the drains clear.
So ... what did the Rainbow Vegetable Parcel taste like?
It was dire!!
I think you can see quite clearly from this photo how compressed the layers of 'vegetables' are in it. I put the word vegetables in quotation marks here because they were pretty unidentifiable as vegetables flavour-wise in my opinion. They were supposed to be spinach, butternut squash and red cabbage ... well what can I say, they were the right colour at least. 😕
I had cooked them alongside the last of my leftover boiled potatoes from last week ... thank goodness I did, at least I got something for my lunch.
It looked promising on the plate.
The one saving grace was the pastry it was lovely. In future, for a much quicker version I will wrap my own leftovers in pastry, perhaps in layers or maybe just simply mixed together and have a homemade version, as the idea is one that I do like.
Oh well, at least I now have a nice big space in the freezer, one that I will be filling this week with some cooked homegrown rhubarb.
Sue xx
Well done on maximum use of electricity-do you have a smart meter? We’re with Octopus too but don’t get these offers. Shame the pie was inedible but agree that it would be simple to make your own delicious version. Catriona
ReplyDeleteYes we finally have a working smart meter. We were with British Gas for all our power until six months ago and they fitted smart meters. They never worked properly. So we changed to Octopus and they have sorted out all the problems with two visits and new meters.
DeleteI think leftover veggies in pastry will be easier and cheaper, and I'll know exactly what's in it. 😃
Well, I won't be looking out for that pie next Christmas - the idea was good but a shame it didn't live up to it.
ReplyDeleteA homemade version is on the cards from now on. The idea is good, just not this particular version of it. 🫤
DeleteIt was a very pretty pie! I get five hours half price electricity every Sunday and I organise like a military operation! Like you!!!
ReplyDeleteIt looked the part, such a shame it tasted SO bad. 😐
DeleteI think I would run out of things to do in five hours ... but I would give it a good go. Alan also did almost two hours of shredding documents and there's enough left to do on our next free hour. 😀
Oh, dear, what a shame about the colourful pie. However, the 'free' electricity was a definite bonus!
ReplyDeleteI don't know how they can so consistently get it wrong and make everything so bland.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think that parcel looked very appetising on the packaging, it looks like somethinga child made with Plasticene!
ReplyDeleteWe're with octopus, they're great, aren't they? We had a few issues with the smart meter but all's well now. xxx
Perhaps a batch of homemade vegetable pasties for the freezer would be better value?
ReplyDeleteI used up one of the large marrows we were given in lentil and tomato soup which has been good with cheese on toast.
At least the crust was pretty :)
ReplyDeleteWow I didn't know you could get free electricity! But it seems its only free if you have a smart meter so my husband informs me!
ReplyDelete