Making food go further

Yesterday evening I made a lovley little pasta dish inspired by watching a Nigel Slater TV programme called 'Making food go further' (is on BBC iPlayer). It involved using very few ingredients, all of which I already had in the cupboard/fridge/freezer.

Ingredients

1. Pasta shells
2. Frozen peas
3. Margarine/butter
4. Cheese
5. Fresh basil

Method


1. Cook pasta and drain
2. Cook peas in microwave for a few minutes
3. Put a generous scoop of butter in frying pan and heat until melted
4. Take butter off the heat when begins to bubble. Pour in peas and torn basil
5. Pour butter mixture into pasta, sprinkle over grated cheese and serve

What I loved about this recipe, besides its simplicity is how the peas sit inside the pasta shells. This week I also want to give a Jamie Oliver pasta recipe a go; red onion, sun dried tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. Though I don't have these store cupboard ingredients at home at the moment.

I also plan to treat myself to some earplugs as these are a necessity at my house which seems to be a bit like Charing Cross station at times with two shift workers living there (silent grr!) and living on top of shops this morning a lorry driver seemed to be revving his engine for ten minutes interrupting my sleep- and I love my sleep! Rant over.

January blues

I think I, like most people am experiencing the post-Christmas January blues. You know the feeling when payday seems sooo far away, and there's less going into your savings at the end of the month because of the festive period.

Rather than getting on with it like I have been doing for the last year and enjoying the little things I keep getting preoccupied with buying stuff, stuff I don't really need and that I know won't make me happy. Stuff like Kindles and touch screen e-readers, iPads and getting my hair cut and coloured even though I only had it cut in late December. It's not that I'm feeling particularly unhappy as such, it just seems that because of buying the computer which ate up £440.00 and having to pay out for some of my annual season ticket (just over a couple of hundred) and the BF still owes me £200 it kind of seems at the back of my mind its like to hell with it this month, in for a dollar in for a pound.

Then Miss Sensible comes along and explains that its silly to think like that, and once the £200 is repaid to me, I get my season ticket loan from work and my sister gives me cash for my vouchers things will probably be ok and I can stash away a couple of hundred into the ISA at the end of the month- eeking me nearer to a total of £7,000. Not a huge sum of money but I'm kind of pleased that its making progress, slowly but surely.

Whats making me feel a bit better is that most people seem to be in the same boat with many of my co-workers discussing plans for the weekend involving nothing too exciting, complaining that they're broke. Last night one of my best friends came over and I cooked home made nachos with cheese and salsa to start and then home made, from scratch chicken and sweetcorn pizza. We chatted on the sofa eating away, and even though my dough didn't rise for some reason, making the pizza extra thin and crispy we ended up feeling sleepy, stuffed and happy.

Today I had plans to get up bright and early to go to a Zumba class at my gym, but yesterday I forgot to book and it was full at 8am this morning. Instead, I started a lethally addictive game of Simms 3 (borrowed) which I sat glued to for the whole morning. I forced myself to switch it off as the bedroom needed sorting out, and other house bits needed doing.

When everything was done I made another big batch of soup, which made five portions. Considering the whole bag of carrots cost 75p I think that's pretty good going.  All I needed extra was a couple of sweet potatoes, a stock cube, half an onion and one roasted pepper (from the jars). So that's lunch sorted for the next week. I also picked up some pretty good bargains (I think anyways) in the Sainsburys local opposite my work. The big Christmas boxes of Jacobs crackers were reduced to £1.20 so I bought two, the carrots, four or five apples which were pretty nice for £1 and a six pack of McCoys crisps a snip at 94p.

At the moment I feel a bit like that fish from the Disney film Finding Nemo who is told 'just keep swimming... just keep swimming..just keep swimming...' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmyUkm2qlhA

If anyone else feels the same feel free to let me know.....xx