Venturing Out

Into the big wild world.  These days I tend to stay at home in my own little world! 

Today we went to the Butcher, it has been about three weeks since we last went.  Have not done as big of a top up as normally do, but we have to eat for the next week or so.

The offer was still on for the Beef mince, so we bought one kilo and received one kilo free.  A good buy if you have a freezer.  Quite a few meals planned out of this.  Might do stuffed Cannelloni this time round rather than Lasagna, certainly a Cottage Pie.  I quite like the Cottage Pie mix served without its lid of mashed potato as a mains for a meal and served with sides of veggies and also Minced Beef pie.  OH though is not a fan. Might make homemade meatballs and serve with either spaghetti or one of the other shaped pastas as I have quite a stock of these. Am therefore going to have a look around to see if can come up with something a little different.

Have come back with plenty of Beef Skirt again.  Last time we went they did not have any.  A stew is therefore planned; it was before Christmas the last one.

Bought one of the Farm Shop's own Steak Pies.  It was extremely tasty and just what the Doctor ordered. I can make these myself, but wanted something quick for tea tonight as I have several things ongoing and today was not one of the days that I needed to be tied to the kitchen sink. Served this up with mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables including, finely shredded buttered cabbage, kale, carrots, cauliflower, mashed potato and lashings of gravy.  Comfort food that was very much needed.  I am not coping well with the cold at the moment.  However a nice warm meal like this warms you up from the inside out.  Did not do a pudding as there was more than enough on the plate.  No leftovers for tomorrow and so will be something different for tomorrow evening.  Probably something with mince!  

After the pie was cooked.

Pie without gravy.

Pie with gravy.

One kilo of chipolatas and bacon also came back with us. OH is happy with breakfasts I am not. I still have to watch fat content with food and in particular with dairy as it still every so often ends up making me poorly. However, I do like the chipolatas as part of a meal say Toad in the Hole for instance.  Might make individual toads in a cake pan and serve the veggies and sausages inside the toad with gravy to mix things up this time round. There is always the option of the chipolatas with tomatoes which is a favourite scratch meal here.  Might also make Roasted mixed veggies with some of the chipolatas for a change. I do need to go and get stocked up with veg as I used the last of what I had this evening.

Just a few ideas of what to make; no doubt when it comes to make dinner I will have changed my mind.  When we go to the Butcher in any event, I have an outline of what I would like to buy, and I suppose I do a lot of mental work which I do not always commit to paper. In any event sometimes they do not have what we are after and so you get what you can. Today I was looking at Gammon steaks as we have not had any for a while and I have a few tins of pineapple on the shelf.  Not that I cannot use this up in other ways. 

The Butcher I go to does have a good selection of Game, in season and I noticed today that they had Game pie packs as well as Venison in the counter.  OH did not fancy though. I am from Lincolnshire where "pie" is a classic favourite (or it was in my family).  OH is not a big "pie" man, whereas I class them as one of the comfort foods, which for me this evening was most definitely needed.  This and other reasons are why I plan ingredients, but not necessarily the meal.  I then have room for manoeuvre if we do not fancy any particular meal for some reason or if I cannot get what I am after. I go for good simple food that most of all gives good flavour and eating. There is a degree of flexibility with this way of shopping which suits us best.  If I had the freezer it would not matter as I would buy once a month and then freeze the rest and then just go "shopping" in the freezer for the relevant ingredients the night before they are needed.

The cats are quite happy now, all tucked up fast asleep in their beds.  They were not too happy with me earlier on as I had not realised we had run out of cat food.  Last time the shop did not have what we normally buy, so OH came back with what he could find.  There was only one large box, whereas I am used to being two boxes bought at anyone time.  I managed to find a sachet to share between them first thing, and then fed them again when he came back with food.

Mum Molly

Daughter Mischief

Hope you all have a lovely evening.

Keep warm, keep safe.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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