Hummus and Carrot and Lentil Soup Lunch/Dinner, Food Diary

 

For lunch we have two types of hummus, carrot and lentil Soup with ginger and some lime squeezed over it, oven baked naan with some thinly sliced salami and the Lidl extra mature cheddar. 

Well it's more like two different dates of hummus. The older one is spicier than the one I put together yesterday. I made a big bowl of it and there are now two containers filled to the brim with hummus in the fridge which will last for a week at least.

I soak and cook my own chickpeas because I like to mix all the ingredients for the hummus while the chickpeas are still warm. This does something to the taste, I guess it's the garlic, olive oil and lemon juice that get all jiggy when you do it that way.  And I started using peanut butter instead of tahini. Call me crazy but I really, really like it (and it's a lot kinder to the wallet).

Today I baked the Naan in the oven instead of in the frying pan. I didn't use all the dough for the naan and added more wholemeal flour and warm water and mixed the old dough through the mixture for the next batch I'll make. By incorporating the old dough into the new there's a bit of magic that happens and no matter what you do with it afterwards always seems to behave better. 

The lentil soup I make is the simplest version ever. I rinse the lentils and cook them until they fall apart. It's only then I decide on how thin or thick I want the soup and add water and stock cubes to taste. If I don't have stock cubes salt to taste works just as well. It sounds boring but trust me on this one. Give it a try and you'll be surprised.

I eat lentil soup a lot so I often cook a batch of plain lentils after which I portion it and do my adding extra ingredients after. Today it was the carrots I cooked with ginger last night. I also then added stock et voila a lunch is born.

Even if I say so myself it was delicious. We both had one and a half bowl and polished off the naans with salami and cheese. At the end of it all we're so full that dinner never happened.

One thing though. No matter how often I rinse my lentils the farting remains inevitable.

Lidl Groceries, Stock up on the Veg Ma", Money Diary

 

 

A net of onions, a bag of carrots, a bag of sugar, a big piece of ginger, 2l of milk, 2 tins of baked beans, garlic, 2 nets of limes, 2 trays of pears, 3 aubergines and a pack of almond fingers, 2 peppers, a block of extra mature red cheddar and chocolate chocolate-chip cookies and a cheap priced down loaf of brownish bread. All for the price of €14.40 and we got €2.35 in discounts.

 

Because there's two in the house now and the second person is my offspring the least I can do is try to be as wild as I possibly can (don't laugh! I can hear you snigger all the way from there). 

One of the things she always complains about is that her diet back in South Korea isn't very vegetable heavy. She turned into a committed vegetarian at age 11 and then ended up in a country where Vegetarianism is something that's mainly practiced in temples. So indulging in vegetables is something she well: enjoys. 

 

"Stock up on the veg ma," I hear her shout after me as I head out to go and do just that. 

Onions we needed. Carrots where on offer for €0.49 as were the peppers, the limes and the pears, after which I found the aubergines to be the same price as well, so happy days. The most expensive bits from the vegetable isle are the ginger and garlic. 

 

I can see some kind of carrot salad, a spicy pepper and aubergine soup, an aubergine dip, a pear and lime salad or maybe even a few more poached pears in your future."

We ran out of sugar because I poached the little firm pears for on our porridge yesterday. The sugar will also be used with the bread and the milk to make one of the Offspring's favourite desserts: Bread and Butter Pudding.

  

 The milk will also make pancakes and if there's any left together with the cheese may even become a cheese-sauce for on the broccoli which is waiting to be picked in the garden.

The baked beans are for that Irish Breakfast she is so longing for (Korea in the end turned her into a meat eater again) and then the cookies. Well, we got 3 of them from €1.- instead of €2.- I couldn't let her not have them. And finally the almond fingers, they came gratis and for nothing.

I'll leave the sweet stuff for the young one except for those poached pears I can clearly see them in our immediate future now.

 

Breakfast for Two, Overnight Oats and a Simple Fruit Salad, Food Diary

 

Another day another spring my father used to say. Every morning is another opportunity to start over and this morning is no different. The sun is shining with gusto and instead of one breakfast there's two of them cause the Offspring is home!

They're from the dry-batch I prepped two weeks ago. One with coconut and turmeric the other with coconut and ginger. Both of them topped with a fruit salad which I made yesterday from fruits that pleaded to be cut up when I checked on them. 

The Offspring made a list of things to eat while she's home and at the top of that list is a full Irish Breakfast. I'm partial to a fry up but am really enjoying the combination of the overnight oats and the fruit salad too much so she'll have to wait.

I made the fruit salad last night from fruit that had been hanging out in the kitchen for too long. I made enough to last us for a few days because salads like this get better over a period of two or three days.

Simple Fruit Salad

3 pears 

2 kiwis 

3 small apples

1/2 ts of grated lemon rind

A splash of lemon juice

Cut up all the fruit and mix with the grated lemon rind and juice. Cover and keep refrigerated until use.

This salad will improve over a period of 2 days as the juices infuse with the lemon rind and juice. After that it'll start to disintegrate. It'll still be edible but become less appetizing to look at and the texture will become softer which I personally don't enjoy. 

Note: 

Use firm pears rather than soft ripe ones for texture. 

After the Binge and Lid's Rathdaragh Irish Extra Mature Cheddar

Once I start I can't stop. 

There's excuses everywhere and the knee jerk reaction every time is: to eat. The news gets on my nerves so I finish the sweets in one bag. Then I find my Twitter feed full of incomprehensible nonsense and I polish off the chocolate caramel bits. 

The offspring sends a message telling me she's coming home because of an expiring visa. The thought of her having to travel gets me eating in front of the fridge with the door open and obviously it's not the chicken stock I'm after.

For two whole days I graze my way through cupboards and pantry until there's nothing left that I can just pick up or open and eat.

There's still sugar, flour and butter I could make a batch of shortbread and caramel.

The ingredients on the counter are ready to be transformed. I realize the deciding factor in all of this is going to be the dishes. I don't want to do them. 

Phew, that really was a close call. I've been known to sit down and eat caramel out of the pan and not stop until it's all gone, add ice-cream and -

The offspring arrives in a flurry of excitement:

"As we drove up there was this massive fox ambling by. Broad daylight and all. Look, I have him on video...!"

The sinkhole inside of me screaming for more is gone. No more gaping abyss. 

The dishes get done. I soak chickpeas and cook up a batch of red lentils with carrots for soup, the sourdough gets fed. 

We sit out back and I watch her eat the hummus and naan I made especially for her and one of the things she's missed most: cheese. 

I know it's all the rage to be into farmhouse cheeses and man, if I'd have the money we'd have cheeseboards every day for the duration of her stay. However we agree that Lidl's 'Rathdaragh Irish Extra Mature Red Cheddar' is the bomb if you like cheese but you don't have a lot to spend. In fact when we were all still travelling I used to bring blocks of it to my friends in Amsterdam. 

At first they laughed, sure Holland and cheese. They produce one of my all time favourite cheeses: Old Amsterdammer. And then there's all the other hard cheeses from rich to lean, young and creamy to creamy and sharp or old, blow your socks off crumbly varieties with cumin, nettles or walnuts of the cow and the sheep varieties. Some from the islands, some from the North others from the East.

But then as we serve the cheddar thinly sliced on fresh brown bread with unsalted butter you can see their pupils widen and the smirks drop.

"That's really good!"

"Don't I know it."

It's not surprising to me that they won top spot in both 2016 and 2017 at the Irish Quality Food Awards.

And you know what the price is even better: €2.05 for 400 grams. At that very reasonable price you get a crumbly, strong cheese that makes all savoury dishes that are better with cheese even better. 

I do have a word of warning, do not confuse this cheese with any of the other Mature Cheddar Cheeses of the same range. The Extra Mature Cheddar doesn't come in a white version and both the Mature White and Red Cheddar don't come even close to the 'Extra Mature Red Cheddar'.

Although the cheese is said to be available in Europe under the' Milbona' and in the UK under the 'Valley Spire' brand it seems to have a limited distribution for I've never been able to locate any of it outside of the Republic.

It's really nice to have the offspring home and even better to have her asking for dishes and a little more cheese on the naan. 

"Sure beautiful child."

"Can you slice it really thin?"

"Of course," I say. It's all good so. I'm back to cooking again.

The best cheap and cheerful mature cheddar

The St Patrick's Binge, Food Diary

After scoffing all the chocolate I promise myself that it won't happen again. It's just a tiny setback because, you know, it's around St Patrick's Day which always falls within lent so. It's all out of the system now and I can go back to cooking and looking after myself. Like I have been doing over the past few months.

I'll use the vegetables to make salad and I'll make some dahl and lentil soup. 

Full of good intentions I go and meet my friend for a catch up outside of the ice-cream parlour. We have a coffee and chat the clouds out of the sky.

"So what's for dinner tonight?" she asks as I get up to go home.

"Oh I don't know," I say, "I bought chocolate yesterday and then went home and ate the lot. So I'm going to try and -"

I know that whatever it is I was planning to say is going to be a lie.

"I'm going to try and do better. But I think that's not going to happen."

Before heading off to the chipper I sneak into the Londis, they've got bags of sweets for a euro. I buy three packets and some chocolate after which I keep walking along until I come to the turn that'll bring me up around the back of the house and where my favourite chipper trades.

"How can I help you?"

"Oh... let me see... Yeah. May I have a Chips cheese and garlic and five tenders with BBQ sauce please?"

Honestly, I haven't been in here for at least two months. I gave up on the fast food. I was not going to spend money on people deep-frying things for me anymore. But here I am joking with the guy behind me in the queue about having the wrong glasses on his head. 

"You can borrow mine," I say. And we both chuckle as he tries and read the menu with his prescription sunglasses.

I'm handed the brown bag with my haul in it and I turn up the hill.

Hootch with chocolate after a large feed of chicken and chips. So nothing has really changed.

"Tomorrow," I say to the cat as I put down the empty box with garlic sauce all over the sides.

 

 

"I'll tag along" groceries Money Diary

I think it's all that talk about food and chocolate. 

And there was me thinking I settled into the search of the perfect homemade naan and duet, maybe even trio of  hummus.

Say chocolate and it's like my wolf found an unsuspecting herd of sheep. 

Anyway I'm pondering the craving and see the bottle. It's been there for ages, it's something strong winking at me. 

I'm stalling the next paragraph for as long as I can. 

I take the cap off the bottle and fill it: Dutch courage.

I fill it again. Potent. I glow and the well starts brimming. 

I will not eat the chocolate cause I just wrote down that it wouldn't last beyond 24 hours. So I'm not going near the chocolate. Not before dinner. Not before anything. 

Will I take a break from writing to have a coffee outside?

Yes.

When I arrive at the bottom of the hill there's a pre-Paddy's-Day-party happening including cans of beer. When was the last time I had cans on the street? When was the last time I had shots with a beer chaser? There's a smile on my face and I'm engaged and I'm here. When we're heading off I'm not ready to go so I tag along and end up in Lidl once more. 

It's okay. I was going to get some more vegetables anyway and I'd like more meat because I was talking about meat and chocolate and I'm hungry.

Once I'm in the shop I realize what's happening and I run through the isles. This is not good but there's no way I'm leaving without meat and more chocolate.

I pick up another bar of chocolate. Chicken wings, chicken nuggets, an aubergine and two courgettes.

The vegetables is grand, and the chicken in all guises I could really have done without but obviously it's too late for all of that. I want chicken in the soup I started making yesterday. And the chocolate, well, now I know there really is no way it's going to go for any longer than daylight hours.

chocolate, chicken, courgettes and aubergine

 Type of shop     :            Groceries.

Name of shop     :            Lidl

Items                  :            5

Reduced items   :           5

Total Discount   :           € 0.65 

Total Spend        :           € 4.50

Breakfast: Overnight Oats with Turmeric

 

Overnight Oats with Turmeric

Breakfast today is Overnight Oats with Turmeric from the large batch of jars with all dry-ingredients-just-add-water-overnight-oats I made two weeks ago. They're the best breakfast ever and as cheap and cheerful as you can possibly get. 

This one is a little different in that I added turmeric instead of my normal ginger or cinnamon.

It was surprisingly good. I like turmeric in lentil dishes and dressings but mixed with some coconut and sunflower seeds it's a surprisingly aromatic and fruity rather than spicy experience. And of course the colour is just wonderful. 

I ate mine with no added topping and/or sweetener because I was too lazy to peal the pear I wanted with it. It would have been a wonder accompaniment.

Ingredients:

!/2 cup of oats

1 tbs desiccated coconut

1 tbs sunflower seed

1 ts psyllium husk 

!/4 ts turmeric

Method:

Put dry ingredients in jar and store until needed.

Add water to your liking and let sit for a minimum of 2 hours.

Add fruit, sweetener or any other topping of your choosing. 

Enjoy!

Overnight Oats with Turmeric

Groceries Spontaneous Spend, Money Diary

 Type of shop      :            Groceries

Name of shop     :            Lidl

Items                  :            5

I wasn't going to get anything today but at the bottom of the hill once the feet are going I end up in Lidl. There's money off on chocolate I saw and the sun is shining and I don't buy chocolate anymore because it isn't part of looking after myself (or so I keep saying) and it's half price so I'm going to get it. 

The good news: I'm not carrying a bag so I won't buy more than I can carry.

Spontaneous spend

I walk out with: half a pound of butter, a jar of peanut butter, a net of organic lemons, a bar of fruit and nut chocolate and some coated chicken fillets.

All of it comes at a reduced price because I had a € 0.50 off voucher to start with. The items I get an even better price on are the butter for which I had a 20% off voucher, the chocolate had a 50% off voucher, the coated chicken fillets were in clearance for € 0.90 cents and the lemons were in weekly vegetable deals for € 0.49 cents.

I get away without too much damage. Okay the chocolate. That's really outside of the budget which is: as little as possible. And yes, the meat. Buying meat that has already undergone any kind of process is something I'm trying to get away from. So most of the time I don't buy meat and eat pulses instead. Then there are the days that I really would love to eat some meat. That's how this chicken happened. 

So what am I going to do with all of this?

The butter has no destination yet. The offspring will be home at the end of the week and I'm sure there'll be need for some baking. Butter is good for baking.

Peanut butter: I made a spicy hummus yesterday and am planning to make a mild one by the end of the week. Sesame paste is definitely outside of my budget. However since I'm not allergic to peanuts they can do all the same things and are a whole lot cheaper. So I'll be adding peanut butter into the hummus for that nutty taste in the back.

The chocolate: no plan apart from making it last longer than  24 hours. Right now I think the chances of that are zero.

Organic lemons: will be used for the next batch of hummus and any possible salad dressings.

Coated Chicken fillets: Because they're clearance I'll be cooking all of them later. The chances of me scoffing the lot with some of my home made naan is very likely.

Reduced items    :           5

Total Discount    :           € 0.94 

Total Spend         :           € 5.-

Receipt