Meat-Free Sausage Rolls

 

Last month I bought a packet of these meat-free sausage rolls from Sainsbury's, they were price matched to my favourite frozen sausage rolls from Aldi, but would they be as good?

In a word - NO!!

Although they are supposed to be the same weight as each Aldi sausage roll, the filling to pastry ratio seemed a lot different.  Much more pasty on these and not even a delicious enough pastry to make this acceptable. 

Strangely, even though the Aldi ones are higher in fat they are lower in calories so of course I had to check this out.  It turns out that the Sainsbury's version are higher in sugar and overall higher in carbohydrates by quite a bit.  They are also higher in protein but strangely left me much less satisfied than the Aldi ones usually do.

Why this obsession with sausage rolls you may be wondering ... well when we were up and down the motorway visiting Mum in hospital we made a few stops at Rivington service station, which is one of the services that has a Greggs Bakery and I may have partaken of a few of their famous vegan sausage rolls.  😀

Now Greggs make delicious meat-free sausage rolls, even loved and purchased by meat eaters as the spicy mixture they contain is delicious.  They are more expensive than either Aldi or the price-matched Sainsbury's versions, as you would expect a product cooked for you and ready to eat would be, but they are still relatively cheap at £1.50 each or 4 for £4, which is an ongoing offer.

So in order of superiority of taste and satisfaction my ranking is:

Greggs

Aldi Plant Menu

and if I really, really have to ... Sainsbury's Plant Pioneers.

Now usually of course I don't live on a diet of sausage rolls every day, or even every week for that matter, but when I do decide on a pastry treat it's nice to know which are the best isn't it.

Have you taste tasted any different versions of your favourite foods recently?

Sue xx

Last Week's Shopping, Freebies and Flowers

Last weeks only shopping trip was a little different than normal.  

I literally only bought one food item and that was from our local garden centre where we went for a coffee.  I bought the bread rolls off the food display as we walked out, as they looked (and were) so tasty and fresh, along with a couple of sprays of silk flowers to dot around the Lodge.  The book came from Amazon, as I had read some good reviews about it online and was tempted, it was there waiting for me when we got home.

Bread Rolls - £1.80

Flowers - £5.65

Flowers - £ 6.25

Book - £11.99

Total Spend - £ 25.69

The little yellow flowers were to go in my Pug jug, which currently has my first birthday card/freebie stood next to it.  I think they add a nice little bit of Spring colour to the shelf.

The birthday card is telling me that I have two free coffees and cakes or scones to enjoy at our local Dobbies.  That will be a nice afternoon out sometime this month at no cost to us.

Later the same day I got an email from Booths telling me that I could pick up a free slice of cake from the café to go with a paid for cup of coffee at anytime during my birthday month.  They rarely have any dairy-free options there, but if Alan buys me the coffee he can have the cake.  😁

The blue coloured flowers were added to this jug to refresh the ones that have been in there for the last couple of years.

It was hard to get a good photo in this light but you get the idea.

A final freebie that came last week were the three packs of seeds on my last subscription copy of Kitchen Garden magazine.  It's been a good year of gardening magazines, but to be honest with me wanting to read more of my books I was struggling to find the time to read through it, so I won't be renewing my gift subscription. 

It has reminded me though, that it's time for me to sow a few seeds to pop on the windowsill.  For now I'll just be sowing some courgette, spinach and kale seeds to be getting on with, as I only have half of my smaller raised bed available for planting in.  The onions are nowhere near ready for harvesting yet, although the garlic won't be far off.

Sue xx

Freebies ... and Dahl Ingredients (Recipe Edited)

 

I was thinking about the freebies that I have acquired up to now during this year of eating cheaply but well, and decided to start listing them at the back of my diary so that at the end of the year I will be able to see how I benefited from them.

Obviously most of them up to now have come from cashing in my Nectar points and using my M&S vouchers, but some have been the Booths card holder offers that give you a free product or a sample of a 'new to you' product.

But I also still pick up the sachets and various items that you get given when you eat out, and Alan does like to go out for a bacon butty at Booths at least once a week and for a coffee somewhere else on another day,.  While I rarely eat out now, I would never turn down the offer of having a nice coffee bought for me, so I usually accompany him.

This week after a tough couple of days away and a nightmare of a drive back from Berkshire late on Tuesday night he wanted to go out for breakfast on Wednesday.  This time I did join him in having some food, and I had a toasted teacake while he munched on a very full bacon bun.

Usually when he has this at Booths they automatically give him two brown sauce sachets and I bring them home, as he's not that keen.  As you can see from my little 'freebie pot' in the first photo the brown sauces were building up nicely, so I told him to start asking for tomato ketchup instead when they went to put the sachets on his tray.  They had already given me two little pots of Flora for my teacake when we placed the order, so when the teacake arrived with three more my eyes lit up and I didn't send them back.

As you can see from this photo I also bring home any unused napkins that we have, and have recently started picking up any I see on the other tables on our way out.  Waste not want not, I usually use them for things like catching potato peelings or wiping up doggy dribbles off the floor ... Suky is a very messy drinker, and this means that my paper towels last so much longer than they used to.

I just hate the though of unused items being thrown away, as they are when they are left on tables.

When we got home my Booths quarterly voucher was lying on the doormat, the highest one I have ever had.  Twenty whole pounds to spend before the end of the month on anything I need or want.  There was also a little list of the freebies that are available this month and next.

It all adds up to me not having to spend money on a couple of things, although Alan will benefit from the teabags as I don't drink tea.  It's only fair to share some freebies with the man who buys me coffees.  😄

I was asked via email for the recipe I used for the large pan of dahl I made the other day, and this photo shows the ingredients that I used this time.  Dahl is very forgiving and you can play around with amounts and alter the ingredients to suit the flavours that you like.

This time I simply used one and half onions, two tomatoes, three cloves of garlic, a couple of heaped teaspoons of cumin along with red lentils.  I topped the pan up with enough water to cover everything, and once it was hot I dropped in a couple of spinach pellets from the freezer (not shown in the photo) and gave it all a good stir.  I added more water later to stop the lentils from drying out.  Once it was cooked I seasoned with salt and black pepper until it tasted just right for me.

Now I have to get one of the tubs out of the freezer to thaw in time for my tea, as just writing about it has made me want to have some more.  It's very handy to have a ready made stash.  😀

Sue xx

Filling the Freezer ... and Perhaps NOT Shopping in April !

 

I made a huge pan of dahl the other day, I didn't mean for it to be as big a batch as it turned out ... no wonder my freezer is filling rather than emptying.  I was very heavy handed tipping the red lentils in.

It was tasty though, and it made me realise how much I have missed having a meal of tasty but simple homemade dahl and rice, and yes there's lots of rice ... I like it that way. 😁

Now there's rather a lot of it in the freezer, because after three days of dahl for either my lunch or tea I decided that as well as the little pots, some of the larger container of it had to go into the freezer too.

Then in a bid to use up the carrots and some of the other vegetables in the fridge drawer I made a similarly large pan of vegetable soup.  After two bowlfuls for myself and fobbing two big bowlfuls off on Alan, I only ended up putting this little glass container into the freezer.

I think April should be the month where I don't go shopping and instead go back to menu planning from the freezer, in a bid to make some space for anything else I decide to make too much of.  😄

But just in case I do decide to shop I have drawn this months £100 out of the bank and put it into my purse.  The £42.17 that has been carried forward from the first two months of the year ( I went over in March)  is in my little kitchen drawer, ready for any food emergencies that might arise ... which of course won't include buying any soup or dahl.  😄

Sue xx

The Books That I Read in March

 

Ginger looking so peaceful, fast asleep next to one of my March books.

Grounding by Lula Ellender

This book has rave reviews in so many places.  

I really enjoyed reading parts of it and other bits just made me want to skip over the in-depth research done on people that I just wasn't that interested in.  But on the whole it was a good book and one that I am keeping.

So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan

This is such a small book, around a half hour to read but wow, it's so well written and I am glad that I bought it.  Although, quite a few of the reviews on Amazon are by people that thought while the writing was good, the length and size of the book were not.

I will be looking out for some more of Claire Keegan's work.

Fast and Fresh by Miguel Barclay

I took a break from stories to read through another of Miguel Barclays books. I was going to make something from it, but with one thing and another I have not gotten around to it.  March was a tough month.

The Wild Year by Jen Benson

I am currently reading this book and it's proving to be good, very good.

I will most likely mention it again in the round up of April's books when I am more than a quarter of the way through.

So that was it for March.  Not many books read unfortunately, but at least some time out from work and hospital visiting for some reading, and that was good.

Sue xx

I would just like to point out, that although I provide links to Amazon for all the books that I read each month, not all my books are bought from Amazon.  If they are some of them were bought from the Used section rather than full price.  

I share the links so that you can learn more about the books that I write about for yourself, or read reviews from others that have read them.  Of course most of the books I talk about would also be available from your local library, and if you are very lucky you might even find them in charity or thrift shops.  

There are so many ways to bring books into your home if you love reading. 📚