Thursday 2 October 2014

Frugal Food

Both children are out on Thursday teatime, one at choir and one at dancing. Consequently, there's only me to feed. I really look forward to it. Not because I'm going to eat some fancy dinner or unhealthy junk food, but because I get to eat leftovers :)

 That sounds a bit crazy, doesn't it? Not if you saw me cooking normally. The Girl is now vegetarian. Me and Boykin are not. Neither child seems to have inherited my taste buds - or at least not for the same dish at the same time. Consequently mealtimes here can look a bit like variations on a theme. Veggie vs meat sausages. Potatoes vs rice. Garden peas vs processed peas.

I've now developed a bit of a routine with Wednesday's tea being something and mash potatoes. I always make way too much mash because in my previous life (i.e. the one with only one child who ate everything) they were a favourite staple in our house. Now, my two youngest eat next to nowt when it comes to spuds :(

As well as loving mashed potatoes, I also loathe chucking food in the bin. It feels a bit like a sin - especially if meat and fish are involved. So on Thursdays, not only do I redeem my foodsoul, I also get to eat my favourite all-time potato dish - fried mash potatoes :) I usually chuck in all the leftover veg from the previous evening and make a bit of a fancy bubble-and-squeak. However, yesterday, they ate all the veg. Hooray!!

So tonight's delicacy consisted of all the left over spuds fried in butter (yes, I know it's bad for me - but it's so yummy); a large dollop of cream cheese spread; an egg; some fresh spinach and rocket from the garden. I mixed them all up together and fried them until they went brown and crispy. Then I slid the whole lot onto a warm plate and sprinkled it with black pepper. Lovely!


Now I'm going to enjoy eating the left over random fruit crumble served with evaporated milk. Can you tell I was a child in the 70s? ;)

What's your favourite left-over potato recipe? Maybe you will come up with something that will tempt even my spudless children :)

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like my house-usually there is someone who doesn't like the food. I often use left over potato in leek and potato soup which some people really like and others won't touch!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wouldn't it just make life so much easier if they all liked the same thing at the same time? I love leek and potato soup. especially if I get into really-good-mum mode and make some bread to go with it. Thanks for your suggestion :)

      Delete
  2. Yum, Sounds lovely. My favourite leftovers dish: If we have a roast chicken, I use up any bits of leftover meat, with all the gravy. I mix it with some braised leeks (if there's not much chicken I use more leeks) and sometimes any leftover veg too, and put it in a big dish, then make a crust out of dumplings and bake in the oven. Everyone likes it. I didn't know your M was veggie.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That sounds delicious! I love dumpling crust pies. I can see more variations-on-a-theme with that one :) The Girl has been wanting to be vegetarian for a while now, but I told her she had to find out about nutrition and healthy meat replacement. The Vegetarian society provided loads of information and she's been veggie for a while now.

      Delete