Soaking Pasta

 

On a blog post I did the other week about me eating pasta when I 'Cooked Once and Ate Twice', Happy Introvert commented on a way of preparing pasta that I had never heard of before.  So I decided that I would give it a go for myself.

You literally just put however much pasta you want to cook in a bowl, and then leave it to soak well covered in water for a couple of hours.  The amount of starch that comes out of the pasta is amazing, and I found myself giving it a rinse in fresh cold water before I actually put it on to cook.

Doing this shortens the cooking time by a few minutes, so as well as making the pasta more easily digestible and slightly healthier, and you are also saving money on fuel.

While it was cooking I found that the pasta didn't clump together at all, and once cooked I tasted it before adding any sauce to the pan and found it to be a better texture and slightly tastier.

Yes, this particular pasta meal looks boring, I was concentrating so much on the pasta that I forgot to drop my peas into the cooking water like I usually do.  It was a nice cheese sauce though.  😄

A few days later I decided to try it again with wholewheat spaghetti this time.

At first I was wondering what to put it into to soak, and then I realised it could just go into the central section of the sink.  It worked a treat.

Not as much starch seemed to come out of the brown pasta during soaking, but once cooked it was a still a better texture and somehow tastier.  I'll definitely be doing this from now on.

Thanks for the tip Happy Introvert.

Sue xx

Dinosaurs for Christmas?

These dinosaurs seem to be in all the garden centres and lots of gift shops this year.  

Sue (in Suffolk) mentioned them a couple of weeks ago on one of her posts.  This month in Dobbie's they have been added to, and now we have leather jacket, sunglasses wearing guitar playing dinosaurs too. 

Will I be buying one, absolutely not, I won't even be buying a cute Highland Cow ... these are also appearing everywhere once again.

But each to their own, and if you want to rush out and buy one while  they are on the Black Friday/Week/Month offer, knock your socks off and enjoy your prehistoric Christmas.

Sue xx

Stodge, Dry Crusts and Fresh Bread

 

I've been concentrating on not buying anymore bread for as long as possible and using up what I had in the freezer instead, mostly because my last loaf was used up very quickly and the last couple of slices went into the freezer when they were only suitable for toast, and I knew there were so many other bits and bobs in there too.  So for this past week or so I have been taking all the random single buns etc out of the freezer and using them instead.

Yesterday I found this pack of breakfast muffins with two left in the bag, so that was breakfast sorted.

Two halves with just spread and two with a tiny bit of spread and marmalade.  Gosh they were stodgy, and I won't be buying them again, even if I do spot some with yellow stickers.

Late last night just before I went to bed, there was a knock on my living room doors and Alan was stood there asking if I had any bread, he was hungry and fancied some toast.  Aww poor thing ... we laughed about it this morning!!  I gave him the last of the loaf from the freezer, knowing that I would be having weetabix and fruit for breakfast.

As he was going to Booths to get himself a new loaf, he suggested that we have breakfast there and both buy some bread ... so we did.  Well he had a bacon bun and a coffee, and I just had a coffee.  Then he paid for my bread and crisps along with his shopping and gave me the tomato sauce that he didn't use in the café.  

I did quite well out of giving him my dry crusts didn't I.

Sue xx

Compromise

 

I really only needed a couple of things this week, so my shopping was very minimal.  Somehow though I spent £10.15.  The shopping did also include another packet of cough sweets, but we tipped these out into the little pocket in Alan's car, as that's where we mostly eat them.

When I took this photo I really had a thought about the cost of the various items.  Should I be buying cheaper eggs, should I have bought some more of the cheaper washing up liquid that I have been using and not really liking?

And then I saw what it said on the bottle of washing up liquid ... 'Cleaning Without Compromise', and that made me realise that while I do want to be saving money, I want to do so without making too many compromises on the things that I buy.  

To achieve this in a sensible way I have decided to really narrow down what I buy, not having a cupboard full of all sorts of different things that I have perhaps bought on a bit of a whim.  But buying a core stock of the things that I enjoy eating regularly and purchasing new packs etc when things are on offer or when I really have to.  Of course I can't really remember what is at the back of the lower part of my food cupboard yet, so that could be a nice surprise and one that hopefully feeds into this way of keeping myself stocked with food on a budget. 

It's funny how such a small shopping 'haul' can get me thinking so much isn't it, but nice that it helped me to make a decision.

The reason we were in Booths was that Alan wanted a bacon butty and a coffee from there, so while he was in the queue to place our order I browsed the upstairs book table and while tidying it up I managed to find myself what looks to be a really interesting book.

(Yes, I came home with a tomato ketchup and a spare serviette too.)

That's what it's called, as the title is only written on the spine of the book.  It was originally published in 1947 and then reprinted a year later.  So all the wartime information should be fresh in the writer's memory.  After a bit of research I found that The McFlannels was a Scottish radio series in the 30s, 40s and 50s.  I've not read it yet, but I'm thinking The Archers, but set in a Glasgow tenement building.

It was when I saw the chapter headings that I decided that even though I'm saving money, I would spare a whole pound for a book.  It's actually the first one that I have bought for quite a long time, I've been very good recently.  😁

Sue xx

What Is a Good Jar, Food in the Bin ... and Big, Big News

 

What is a good jar ... well in my opinion it is one that releases it's label without a fight or a second thought. 😃

It's also nice and big, with a lovely wide opening and if it has a 'pop-up' button, just in case I want to use it for jam in the future, this is the absolute cherry on the jar lottery.  

I do love a good jar.  🫙

I bought a box of the now 2 in a pack Jumbo Sausage Rolls from Aldi last month and I had promised that I would do a food review of them when I got around to cooking them.

I put them on to bake in the Remoska, which for the record, is the way that I always cook sausage rolls, got on with writing a blog post, reading my way around blogland etc etc and only when I got up to go to let Ginger out did I feel the heat of the Remoska and realise that I hadn't set the timer.  Just one of the downsides to having absolutely no sense of smell ... there are perks too, but not as many!

I don't know how long I had left them cooking for, but obviously just enough time for a half-cremation.

In a bid to not waste too much I scalped the sausage roll of all it's burnt bits, and had the smallest lunch ever.  Luckily I still have the other one in the freezer, so I will try to do the asked for food review on another day.  A day in which I put it to cook, set the timer and keep my wits about me.

I didn't put the burnt bits out for the birds as I wasn't sure if birds can actually eat charcoal, so on this very rare occasion I actually put some food in the bin.  😐

In other news, much bigger news in fact, we've done something pretty amazing this week, scary yes but also amazing.  Alan won't be wondering what to do with all this spare time in his retirement for the next eighteen months anyway, and I've been coppering up as I cannot afford to dip into any more of my savings in the run up to me eventually getting my state pension next May.

Happily my little money box had a grand total of £13.40, enough to go towards this weeks shopping.

I can't go into too much detail yet, but we bidded for and won a property at auction this week.  Homes Under the Hammer eat your heart out, we think we have our future-proof forever home ... well the shell of it anyway.  🏠

Sue xx

Lunch at Booths, and a Comparison

 

When Alan was feeling a bit better by Friday lunchtime last week and he said he fancied a bacon bun, so we drove round to Booths as they do an all day breakfast sandwich there.  

He really enjoyed it and I kept him company with a bowl of chips, and of course the obligatory cup of coffee.  There's not actually much that I can eat on the Booths menu, so chips with mayo is a good standby.

I sat looking at the receipt, and thought to myself I'll check out what I could buy for that amount once I'm home.  Well of course I didn't do it straight away, but yesterday spotting the café receipt on the worktop I pulled up the Sainsbury's website and filled my shopping trolley with everything I would need to make the exact things that we had eaten and drunk for lunch.

It was a bit of an eye opener. 😐

So if I made the lunches that we had both eaten, I would have left over - virtually all of the spread, most of the mayo, three quarters of a bottle of dandelion and burdock, three quarters of a bag of frozen chips, six slices of bacon, three bread rolls and virtually all of a jar of coffee.

I do love a good comparison.

But it's also nice to go out for a simple bowl of chips every now and then, and Booths is looking very festive with all their garlands across the main door and all around the store and café.  The front door is looking even better now with stands of wreaths and Christmas trees on the left hand side.  🎄🎄🎄

Sue xx

Cook Once, Eat Twice ... and Then Make Cake

 

I have a pack of salmon fillets in the freezer ... proper posh ones from M&S ... I must have picked them up when we went house-hunting to Cleveleys.  

We thought it might be a good town to live in with it's bustling high street and a good selection of well known shops, including an M&S Food Hall.  Also with it being by the sea but nowhere near as overrun and touristy as Blackpool which is just down the coast, it looked very promising.  Anyway after viewing the property and having a good look around town we decided it was too busy for us, which is ironic really as my son might be moving there from Blackpool as it seems so very quiet to them.  

But anyway, we shopped in M&S and Alan paid.  Now and then I seem to have a tendency not to always post photos of the purchases when Alan pays, and as these went straight into the freezer no doubt they were 'out of sight and out of mind', so they were a happy find.

I'm cutting right back on fish these days so I made one salmon portion last over two meals, with lots of fusilli pasta in a lovely homemade sauce. 

Cook once, eat twice ... and this is actually nice hot or cold, but with it being so chilly recently the second portion was also heated up in the microwave the next day.

Hobbit breakfasts continue, with fruit and a single weetabix followed an hour later by toast or something on toast.

While I had a dish of peaches in the fridge I decided to treat us to a Peach Cake.  It was just my usual recipe -

2 eggs

+

their weight in:

SR Flour

Spread or Butter

Sugar*

+

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Mix everything together in a bowl and then pour into a lined or well greased cake tin.  Top with sliced tinned peaches ... or any fruit of your choice.  Cook for around 20-25 minutes in a medium hot oven.

*I emptied out all the demerara sugar sachets from my stash for this cake and it made for a lovely crunchy texture.

Absolutely delicious with a coffee mid afternoon.  

We had two slices each, over two days ... well I have to repay Alan in some way for all the food he's been buying me in dribs and drabs on our outings.  😄

Sue xx

Remembrance Day

 

Today we will remember all those who gave their lives during the two World Wars.  All those who fought and returned, men, women and animals.

We will remember all who in any way were changed by any of the wars that man has brought on this world, and we will honour them.  Each of us in our own way.

We will give thanks for those that returned, whether they be family, friends or townspeople and show our respect for what they did.

My husband.

My son.

Our town remembers.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.  🌹

And we will pray that all this killing will stop ... will man ever learn. 💔

Sue xx

Saturday Shopping

 

Alan has not been very well this week, so I took myself off nice and early this morning before he had even surfaced to get myself the few things that I needed, and a few easy, treaty type things for him for the weekend.

My shopping came to £33.64, but almost ten pounds of that was for the toilet rolls.  They were on special offer again this week and as I have only five rolls left I thought it would be prudent to pick up a new pack, just in case they are not on offer again until well after Christmas.

I must have had Christmas somewhere on the back of my mind as I bought a pack of mince pies, happily the date is well into the New Year so I can try and save them until Christmas.  They were £3.50 for a box of twelve, so I doubt I will be buying too many boxes this year.

I was most likely being Christmassy due to watching television with Alan last night.  Unlike me he watches live television and lets the adverts run, and every bl**dy advert break had Aldi's Kevin the Carrot pushing their Christmas message, then up pops Dawn French and the M&S food adverts ... oh how they pull you in!!

The things that I got for Alan came to exactly £12, this was mostly due to a few of the things being on Sainsbury's offers and I bought him a meal deal which saved me £2.40.

I remembered to date the things that went into the cupboard.  😁

To make all this affordable in my current really tight budget I used all the Nectar points that I had available, and managed to get £27.50 off the total amount.

It all helps.

One thing that stopped me in my tracks was spotting this Nescafe offer.  I almost fell for it, and got myself another jar to stock up the cupboard.

Then I spied the larger jar directly next to the 200g one, which was actually 31p per 100g cheaper.  Always, always, always check the shelf edge label.  It did make me wonder how many times in the past have I just gone for the offer without a closer look, not too many I hope!!

Sue xx

Free Coffees ... and Comparison Shop

 

Enjoying our free coffees at Burnside Garden Centre last week.  

We tend to go about once a month so it made sense to join the loyalty scheme and, occasionally, qualify for two free coffees a month and money off our shopping.  We just managed to get there on the last day of the month to claim October's free drinks, lets hope we aren't so last minute this month.  😊

After yesterday's post you just knew I would have to check up on what the £3.50 challenge shop of 2023 would cost me right now didn't you.  I did, and while the grand total was £3.48 back in March of 2023 ...

Yesterday if I had been going to Sainsbury's to do the exact same shop it would have cost me £5.41.

Now that doesn't seem to be a huge amount of money, but, as Nelliegrace pointed out on yesterday's post, we should bear in mind that these are the most basic of foods and usually bought by people that can't afford to splash the cash on just anything that they fancy.  So a £1.93 rise can be the difference between riding out a full week of eating or scrimping even more than usual.

It was an eye-opener, but sadly one that I expected.

Looking at price rises and wanting to do everything that I can do for myself to keep eating well on a budget is one of the reasons that I now find myself rescuing every available freebie that I can.  Bringing leftovers from any snacks or meals that we eat out home with me to use in future meals and recipes.

I realise how very lucky I am that whenever we go out Alan pays for coffees, snacks and meals.  If it were left to me I would rarely eat out as I struggle to find things that are suitable, and while I realise that the prices include the premises, staff etc etc as well as the cost of the food, I still baulk at the prices of something as simple as a toasted teacake and in my head there is the thought that I could have bought a pack of four for that price and a jar of jam.  But Alan has always really enjoyed eating out so it is something that we do.

But claiming the free coffees, and rescuing the bits off mine ... and now occasionally other peoples trays ... help me to rationalise things for myself.  I'm doing whatever I can to keep myself sane at the moment.

What have you rescued recently or claimed for free, or is it something that you just don't do?

Sue xx

Too Many Notebooks ... and Old Challenges

 

I was sorting through my stationery drawers the other day, and NO in great big letters I do not need any more notebooks of any description until I reach at least 100 years of age.  Nor do I need any pens or pencils if all the ones in the drawer are in good working order.

Anyway one notebook really caught my attention, it was full of loose bits of paper alongside many, many filled pages.  It turned out to be the one I kept while I was doing a number of my Challenges on my other blog.  

Eat for £25 a week, eat for one pound a day, two pounds a day etc etc.  But the most interesting challenge was the Eat for £3.50 a Week Challenge, that I actually only did back in April of 2023.  I ended up dropping everything else that I was doing and reading through all of my notes.

Sorry that the photos are so blurry, but I'm sure that you get the gist of it.

It really got me wondering if that would be possible right now.  I honestly think not, but I think I will go onto the Sainsbury's website and see how the prices compare with this months prices.

Now while the paper exercise of the challenge looked very promising, with lots of food being able to be bought for the budget, the actual Challenge itself panned out more like this.

The Eat for £3.50 a Week Challenge

Sue xx

Enjoying Mother

 

'Mother', the Christmas cacti is in full bloom and looking amazing.

She's a very old lady, originally owned by Alan's great-great-great Scottish Grannie, but every now and then she really surprises us, and this 'almost on time' blooming has done just that.  She is obviously loving being sat in Alan's hallway window and getting so much light on her old leaves.

She spent many days over the course of the Summer sat outside on the patio drinking up the sun's rays, and then enjoying cooling showers from the hosepipe before returning to her happy place.  Maybe that has helped rejuvenate her even more than usual.

Happiness can be as simple as enjoying the pretty flowers on a treasured plant.

Sue xx 

My Food is Dated ...

 

My food is dated ... that is the food that I bought over the weekend has now had it's Best Before dates written in marker pen on the front.  Now I can actually see the dates on it without having to resort to reading glasses and turning the light on, on these dark late Autumn evenings.

Not that much of this food is going to be eaten for a while!

It's all been added to the bottom part of the food cupboard, ready for bringing out when virtually everything in the top part has been used up.

I spent random moments over the course of a weekend earlier this year, sorting through all my foods and adding the dates to the packs, and only left the things that were either out of date or that needed using up during 2025 in the top cupboard, everything with a longer date went into the bottom part of the cupboard.

Over the course of the last few months I have put some newly bought things into the bottom part, and taken some things out as I needed them, but always I have been mindful of the dates.  I decided over the weekend that I will concentrate on eating up the foods in the top part of the cupboard this month, ready to move things from the bottom up to the top in the New Year, or maybe before if I make lots of space.

Christmas has now arrived at Greggs ... and the new festive cups are lovely cheerful.

We stopped at the services on the way back from visiting Mum yesterday, for our usual strange Sunday lunch.  This time I got a free vegan sausage roll off the Greggs app and we treated ourselves to a doughnut each for pudding.  Don't worry Alan didn't go without, he was over at Subway buying himself a ham and chicken salad roll while I was taking this photo.

Last night I was so lazy, and because these lovely chips were in the fridge I simply had a couple of chip butties for my tea.  In a bid to stop that happening again, I set to this morning dividing the remaining chips into little bags to pop into the freezer.

I now have seven portions for the freezer, safely bagged and stashed, and a few of the little odds and sods which I will have alongside a 'beef' burger on a bun for my tea tonight.

I am wasting nothing.

Even the trays that the chips came in are being repurposed,  I am going to use them as trays for open freezing other foods on.  Better to reuse than simply recycle, for as long as they last.

Sue xx