Dear reader,
Snow still thick here, roads slushy and I just can’t be bothered to go out in the cold. I did check on a couple of older neighbours. One doesn’t go out anyway and the other was already up and shovelling his driveway. I hate the stories this time of year about people on their own or can’t afford the heating bill when we give so many millions away to other countries. (Some who don’t even want it) hey, I’m getting political. I’d just like to see this country sorted and then we move on to help others. Here’s a little snippet from the internet. Approx 9,000 people died last winter as they could not afford to,put the heating on. That’s horrendous.
I’m trying to save money this month and the first thing to tackle is the food bill. Too easy to just wander round the supermarket and pick up what I fancy so am making a conscious effort to use up what we already have.
What to eat? My go to leftovers dish, dirty rice. Not sure why it’s called this but it is a Cajun type rice dish and we love it.
A broccoli stalk, half an onion, clove of garlic, fresh chillis x2, lamb mince ( yellow sticker-organic reduced from £5.50 to £1.20) and some saved and frozen pork belly strips, herbs and spices and stock cube. Couple of eggs if you like egg fried. Cooked some rice in the rice cooker which is brilliant if you eat a lot of rice.
You can just chop and add whatever veg you have. I save and use cauliflower stalks, broccoli stalks, spring onions that are a bit shrivelled, tomatoes that are soft, carrots, cooked leftover spuds, sprouts, cabbage, peas, honestly this dish will take anything.
Fry onions, garlic, chilli in a little oil, add mince and diced pork belly, add your spices. I used spicy chicken rub and some BBQ powder and a beef stock cube.. Fry until golden and meat is cooked through. Add some water just to wet it, perhaps a mug ful and let simmer. Add more chilli or whatever you like to flavour. Ketchup, salt and pepper, soy sauce are all good. I went for a spicy, Cajun flavour.
I also made a thin omelette from 3eggs, rolled it up and chopped into squares.
I Fried the rice in oil and garlic paste and added the meet mixture until rice coated, added the chopped egg omelette.
Very very tasty and a really good way to use up leftovers.
This recipe can easily be adapted for vegetarian eaters and slimming world followers.
What your use it up dish? I’d be really interested to know.
Have a good evening.
I have a bag in the freezer that collects broccoli stalks. When there’s enough I make broccoli and Stilton soup. A chef once told me the stalks make a better flavour and texture. I just buy the value Stilton. Tastes really good.
ReplyDeleteThat’s a good idea. I like the broccoli and cauliflower stalks just as much as the heads. Never throw it away, even the green leaves of the cauliflower are nice. I’ll have a go at your soup, bound to be a surplus of Stilton in the shops after Christmas.
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