Today I'm making a veggie soup for lunch, using a pack of ready diced carrot & swede, 40p in the supermarket. 40p is cheap anyhow, but it's an absolute bargain for the convenience of having it peeled and diced ready for use. I'll add a couple of handfuls of red lentils and a chopped leek, with some homemade stock from the freezer, it'll give us 2 or 3 days' worth of lunches.
For dinner it'll be bubble and squeak, with a fried egg and baked beans. Bubble and squeak, for overseas readers who haven't heard of it, is cooked leftover veg, from Sunday roast dinner usually, chopped up, mixed together and fried until crispy. It almost always contains roast and/or boiled potatoes and Brussels sprouts, but can use up any cooked veg you have kicking around. I freeze even small amounts of leftover veg until there's enough to make a decent bubble. You can add shredded leftover roast meat, or chopped bacon, or serve it alongside sausages. It must always be drizzled with spicy brown sauce, though! (Well, it's a must for me, husband hates brown sauce). Today's B & S consists of cooked roast spuds, parsnips, sprouts, cabbage, broccoli and carrots. Sometimes I cook it all together as one big mash up, sometimes I form it into individual patties...today it'll be all done together. It's proper old fashioned comfort food and is worth cooking extra veg for, just to make sure you have enough and a good excuse to make bubble and squeak!
Thank you for comments. Marlene made a comment yesterday about the recipe I'd used for my risotto being different to the one she'd used - it was the same recipe actually, I'd just added a few different things. More often than not I'll change a recipe....leave out something I don't like or don't have, and substitute something else. Or just add something I think will also work well in it. I suppose I view recipes as an idea - that's not to say the original recipe won't work, I'm sure it will and no disrespect to the writer of the original. It gives me ideas, I suppose, and I like experimenting.
Nothing wrong with experimenting, your food always sounds very good indeed. Some nice frugal meals today.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I rarely make a recipe as the original. There's always something I need to sub or would like to add. It's what makes cooking creative and personal, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteYour food for today sounds wonderful.
xx
My hubby does most of our cooking, and he adds what we have, I love to make Paella, but it's not the same as the recipe I started with.
ReplyDeleteBubble and squeak-love it!! The sound of it I mean! I don't cook meat for myself but sounds fascinating! Love your food blog which is an education in itself! You could make a cookbook of your changed reviles-I never follow one perfectly! Lent to lunch with my son in law and one granddaughter-others are out of town-I ordered a lovely mixture tray-advocado wraps yummmmm-spinach dip and chips-yummm-passed the wings to son in law to add to his meal and cheese sticks to granddaughter to add to hers- we all had enough leftovers for dinner-delicious!!
ReplyDeleteHi Brenda, bubble and squeak is a mixture of leftover vegetables and potatoes, usually but not always greens. Mixed together and dry fried in a frying pan to get a brown crust. Toss, brown crust again, eat. I agree about ipad typing.
DeleteNot only are my eyes getting worse from cataracts, my poor fingers are too crippled to type correctly lol
ReplyDeleteRecipes
Apologies-I use iPad or iPhone
I figure you probably don't have a written recipe for your baked beans.
ReplyDeleteWe have something here we call pork and beans and it comes in a can already seasoned. And we call them baked beans. I wonder what you are talking about when you say 'baked beans'