In an attempt in frugality I’ve been trying to use up items in my cupboards/freezer that I’ve had for ages in the hope that it will a) save me money and b) force me to try different things. I seem to be one of these people who always seem to have a lot of food in their cupboards yet continue to buy more “just in case”. In case of what who knows? For the sake of argument my excuse is that I’m stock piling in case of a zombie apocalypse.
This week I noticed I had a tub of breadcrumbs and a pack of firm tofu that were nearing their best before date so these have obviously been the foundation of this week’s MFM. After a quick internet search I decided on this only I used a lot more olive oil, 3/4 of a tin of chopped tomatoes (instead of the tomato sauce) and grated mild cheddar (I had no mozzarella). Those of you who are on a diet I apologise as this is definitley not for you (I didn’t even try to point it). Same goes to the vegans (due to the cheese). In my opinion this has been the best meal I’ve ever had with tofu in it as the base ingredient, it was utterly delicious and I will definitley be making this again in the future.
I’ve been meaning to take photos of the contents of my handbag for some time now after being inspired by certain Flickr pools such as “What’s in your bag?” and “What’s REALLY in your bag?”. I finally got round to taking such photo’s last night. I may do my DJ bag in a future post.
If you click on the links you’ll be taken to the individual Flickr pages which has notes over each individual item if you are that nosy you need to know what every single item is.
I’m not a great fan of New Years to be honest. I don’t get the whole “but it’s a chance to wipe the slate clean and start again” mentality. As far as I’m concerned you get that very same chance every day when you wake up.
NYE was spent DJing and it seemed to go pretty well. Lots of people having fun, lots of smiles and dancing which was nice. Woke up yesterday, surprisingly hangover free, however everyone else seemed to be worse for the wear so I spent the first day of 2010 bored and on my own. By 6pm I was going stir crazy so decided to go for a walk with my camera as I’d been meaning to try and take some photos of the Christmas lights before they were taken down. Pretty much a lonely start to 2010 if I’m honest but I didn’t expect anything else.
I didn’t take as many photo’s as I would have liked because I always get nervous wandering Sunderland on my own with my camera in the dark. I’m a big wuss.
It’s been a while since I last posted for which I apologise but in between work, decorating and getting ready for Christmas I’ve had little time to indulge in blogging. I have however been wanting to make Borscht for a while and today after going to my local Tescos for some Parsnips and feeling like I’m coming down with cold thought it best to make it, especially with it being a MFM. I know a lot of wine isn’t considered vegan and it’s traditionally served with sour cream so this is one purely for the veggies I’m afraid. If you’re following the Weight Watchers program this works out at 0.5 points a bowl, with the sour cream it’s 1.5 (I used ASDA’s Good For You low fat version).
Red Borscht
Overall I’m of the conclusion that this wasn’t worth the hassle. I spilt red wine all over my kitchen, scalded my hand whilst sieving the veg and to me it tasted as if it were missing something. I normally prefer my soups to be thicker. I also found the waste of veg a bit too much so recycled it all in a broth (I just added it all into a big pot with more water, a tin of chopped tomato, a bucket load of herbs and dried chilli and two handfuls of bulgar wheat) and to be honest I prefer that to the Borscht. Maybe I’ve done something wrong but I doubt I’ll be cooking this again. I hope you have better luck with it if you do decide on trying it however.
Ingredients
1 celeriac
2 carrots
A handful of fresh parsley
1 leek
1 onion
1 large parsnip
4 red beetroots
10 black peppercorns
2 grains of pimento (or allspice)
2 bay leaves
1 glass and a half of red wine
1 tsp sugar
2 garlic cloves, crushed
juice of 2 lemons
salt and pepper
Instructions
Put a pan with 3 pints of water on the boil. Peel and chop the celeriac, carrots, leek, onion and parsnip, wash them and add to the pan. Simmer for 20 minutes.
Peel and thinly slice the beetroot and place in a separate pan with the peppercorns, pimento (I had none but found this as a good substitute) and bay leaves. Simmer, uncovered, in 1 pint of water for 30 minutes.
Sieve the vegetable and beetroot stocks and combine the clear liquids, discarding the vegetables. Return the borscht to the heat. Add the red wine, lemon juice, salt and pepper, sugar and garlic. Simmer for 20 minutes. Serve with Sour Cream.
I decided last week that, since a) I love to cook, b) am Vegetarian and c) following the Weight Watchers program that from now on I’m going to post either a recipe or a veggie discovery each Monday and thus call it Meat Free Mondays (very original no???). This week I thought I would kick off MFM’s with my favourite ever pasta dish which is cheap, easy and best of all vegan. If you’re following the Weight Watchers program this works out at 5.5 points with the oil or 3 if you use the no points low calorie spray oil. Parmesan (dairy or vegan) is optional and obviously you will need to point it.
Carrot Pasta
If you like you can use flavoured oil (I sometimes use garlic infused or chilli infused olive oil) or you can use the low fat spray oil instead. Also ASDA do tins of chopped tomatoes with chilli which work well with this if you fancy your meal with a bit of a kick.
Ingredients
120 g pasta (dried)
4 medium carrots
1/2 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons of Olive oil
300 g Passata / 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon fresh or dried herbs
Instructions
Boil a pan of water (for the pasta) and whilst waiting for it to boil wash and peel the carrots with a vegetable peeler. Set the pasta off to boil and slice the carrots into thin slices (literally as thin as you can make them). Finely dice the garlic and the onion.
With another pan, coat the bottom with oil and heat on medium-high heat. When hot, add the carrots, stirring frequently. When the carrots start to soften, add the garlic and onion. Keep stirring for a couple of minutes until some of the carrots get brown around the edges and the garlic is golden. Next add the passata/tin of chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper and herbs until it’s all warmed through and serve with the cooked and drained pasta.
Preparation time: Roughly 30 minutes if that.
Serves: 2
If you like the idea of MFM or you actually cooked this dish then I would love to hear from you. I do love this pasta dish and must eat it at least once a week.
I love this time of the year, despite the cold weather. This week I’ve practically lived on Pumpkin, Chili and Lentil soup which was made from the innards of my Halloween pumpkin (I would post the recipe but I made it up as I went along I’m afraid) and on Thursday myself and a few friends went to the local fireworks display where I took the following photo’s.
A few friends and I with sparklers.
A Sky Flower.
The rest of the photos are, as per, on my flickr page.
Today is the 20th Birthday of Wallace and Gromit. This makes me feel very old. It only seems like yesterday that ‘A Grand Day Out’ first came out and I’ll have been 10. Fast forward a few years later whilst at uni, I went to a guest lecture conducted by a nice lady from Aardman where I had the opportunity to meet Gromit (well one of the many models of him anyway). Good times. The ‘Cracking Contraptions’ are my favourite Wallace and Gromit animations, the best of which is “Shopper 13″ in my opinion and my other favourite Aardman character is Angry Kid. A quick web search spat this out from last year which I think is fabulous and Google have also wished the two cheese lovers many happy returns too. I think I’ll be getting my Niece this for Christmas as I have no idea if she’s seen any of the Wallace and Gromit animations but I do think they’re definitely something that she’ll enjoy. If she doesn’t then I’ll just steal it back.
I didn’t get as many hats as I wanted to do for The Big Knit but I did some (well 5) and that’s all that matters in the end. Since I’ve started knitting with some form of regularity I’ve noticed that compared to most I’m a really slow knitter. I’m wondering if speed is something that comes with experience or is this it. I used double pointed needles for the first time whilst knitting one of the hats as an experiment and although fiddly to do, makes the finished object look a lot more “professional” in my opinion. The pink hat shown below was my favourite.
My cat Lemmy.
Whilst on the same subject I stumbled across this video by a French band called Trichot Machine (which is knitting machine in French I do believe) on YouTube. It’s made entirely from knitted frames (I can make out around 718 at the end). I bet it took an absolute age to make.
There’s a Schuh store opening in Sunderland soon and being the rather poor shoe whore that I am I applied for one of the advertised management positions with themselves a few weeks ago. Last Friday I received the rejection letter and joking aside with regards to the choice in typeface used I was aghast. Not only have they mentioned a totally different position to the one that I applied for in said letter, but the spelling and the grammar on it is shocking too (not that I can talk). Hardly an appropriate formal letter in my opinion. Quite glad I didn’t get the job now, although I can’t deny that I would have liked the discount.
* Microsoft have done it again with the really bad cheesy adverts. This even beats the horrible Songsmith one. I’d love to know who their target audience is with these.
* Learn how to use Illustrator. I don’t have much experience with Illustrator but I have always wanted to learn how to use the program properly. I’ll probably give these a whirl at some point.
I'm Lolly and I like art, design, photography, tattoos, cooking, needlecrafts and music. I’ve just finished a degree in Design Multimedia and Graphics at Sunderland University and am currently in the process of trying to get my creative mojo back. :P
for Christmas as I have no idea if she’s seen any of the Wallace and Gromit animations but I do think they’re definitely something that she’ll enjoy. If she doesn’t then I’ll just steal it back.
