Nice not to be hungry...

5^th October 2018

The happiest people in life are the givers not the getters.

Well Alfie has just drove me mad following dogs round the estate, it’s embarrassing, it really is but hey if that’s the hardest part of my day today, I’ll take that. 

I’ve been overwhelmed with the food donations so far for my Food Bank drive, let’s keep it coming in and keep it going further than Christmas, people are hungry year round.

When you stop obsessing about food, it’s amazing how much time you have in your head for other thoughts.  When you’re cupboards start to empty, it’s also interesting to see what you can concoct with what you have.  I’ve put the majority of what was in my cupboards in with the food bank stuff, if it had been there longer than a couple of months.  The other stuff I’m using, today I’ve defrosted some basa fillets that I bought on a whoopsie, Carol gave me a cauli and some broccoli yesterday, she’d bought in on a whoopsie 10p each = bargain.  I’m going to make some kind of creamy sauce to enjoy it with, maybe have spaghetti with it too or rice.  Nah I’m going to make egg fried rice with a pack of rice, so don’t want rice twice, although, if mom doesn’t want any, then half a pack each meal not so bad.

Apart from the cooking demo food, I’ve barely bought anything for the last 2 weeks and for the last 7 days I’ve only bought bread, this is for me, I’m not going to lie, I did buy mom a packet of biscuits this morning but she’s not part of my frugal food drive.   I can now go and fill a trolley full of food for the food bank and pay for it with the money I would’ve spent on a good food shop, I reckon I can get a lot of food for my buck!

I love to try and find healthy meals that are cheap to cook, whilst still being delicious.  Veggie food is most definitely a cheap option because meat is expensive.  Pasta is definitely a cheap eat, curried lentils or chickpeas, I have both in cupboard so maybe I’ll give them a go over the weekend.

 Half Hour Curried Chick Peas

Total Cost Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil (8SP)
• 1 med yellow onion   
• 2 cloves garlic   
• 2 cans chickpeas, drained   
• 1 bottle or can passata   
• 1 cup water
• 1 Tbsp curry powder
• 1/2 bunch fresh coriander

Instructions

1. Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Cook the onion and garlic in a large pot with olive oil over medium heat until softened (3-5 minutes).
2. Drain the canned chick peas and add to the pot. Also add the tomato sauce, water and curry powder. Stir the pot until everything is evenly mixed. Bring the mixture up to a simmer over medium heat.
3. While the chick peas are simmering, rinse the coriander and pull the leaves from the stems. Roughly chop the leaves and add them to the pot. Give everything a stir and continue to simmer until the sauce has reduced to a thick consistency (about 20 minute’s total). Stir the pot every few minutes to prevent the sauce from burning and sticking to the bottom.

I’m going to have a play and just through stuff together in a pan, might go do it now, I have 2 carrots, onions, chick peas, lentils, sure I’ll have curry powder or I have a jar sauce (I could cheat!)

Here’s to re finding food, good basic foods that make absolutely delicious meals!  You with me?  Any money you can save, you could use to buy a few tins for my food bank….

Have a very, great day knowing you’re lucky enough not to be hungry. xx