Free lunch - 12th October

It's been colder this week - which leads to more interesting and varied lunches.
Ok, I still started the week with all-the-salad-possible wraps; cucumber, tomatoes, homegrown chutney, onion, beetroot, and a bit of cheese (not home grown!)






Tuesday, I tried something slightly different - popping a mini sweetcorn cob from the freezer in the oven to warm through while sausage rolls cooked, all with one of my coleslaw salads of tomatoes, cucumber, beetroot and cabbage.






Wednesday - proper cold weather food - leek and potato soup.










Back to the wraps but this time with the yellowy bread and butter pickle made from our cucumbers





Friday - Salad to use the spinach and radishes picked that morning at the allotment

Sandwiches and salad for the weekend

One 'free' evening meal this week - goulash with homegrown tomatoes, onions, peppers, potatoes and beans.

Free Lunch - 2 weeks to 4th October

It's just been another fortnight of sandwiches, wraps and salads made up of the usual suspects - cucumber, tomatoes and either cabbage or spinach.





Occasionally, I've had radish or beetroot to add to add, and one day I tested the 'bread and butter' pickle ie the very yellow cucumber and onion below.

Having too many tomatoes (and no space in the freezer) plus my own peppers, courgettes, beans and potatoes, I made 'goulash' one evening - it's getting to be a regular feature!

Rainy Monday

Yesterday was a really wet, generally horrible autumnal day - and so I got busy in the kitchen.

First, my lazy passata which is basically skinned tomatoes,cooked for a while, then when I think everything looks thick enough, pop it in jars, and re-boil them to seal.

Next task - freezing runner beans. These were so big and tough that a lot of them weren't fit to keep, but they did have beans inside which I've kept.

They look quite pretty when raw....





but boiling them turns the pink-shelled beans grey so I popped them out of their skins.

On to dinner - an almost free goulash-style meal using our allotment-grown squash and red pepper, onions, mixed batch of cannelini and borlotti beans, tomatoes and potatoes.

I used a small amount of smoked paprika, instead of my normal home-grown chilli which can be too hot, a small piece of pork from the Sunday roast, some left-over breadcrumbs and cheese for topping - so very nearly a 'free' dinner.








And, last thing before settling down with my knitting, setting up cucumber and onion to soak in brine overnight before pickling tomorrow.

Free lunch - and a dinner - 6th July

I've been trying to reckon up and I think this is about the twentieth week of trying to get a free lunch. They've not all been free but I think most weeks, apart from holidays, I manage about 5 or 6. Some days though it's just too easy to open a tin of something or put a sandwich together. This week has definitely been an interesting week - with 'surprise' salad ingredients - turnip and courgette.
Monday - my usual salad of lettuce, cucumber now the plants are cropping well, raw broad beans and peas with grated turnip. Not sure it was a success as it turned a bit 'mushy'...


so for Tuesday I chopped everything up with some 'cabbage' (actually leaves from a brussel sprout plant) and made a huge coleslaw







Wednesday was back to usual but with two sorts of cucumber - a green one (you can see the skin) and a yellow crystal lemon which I peeled

Thursaday was a quick sandwich day :(

Friday - testing raw courgette (at the top of the pic) along with cucumber, beans and peas. nice and crunchy with a good dollop of salad dressing so I think this is going to appear a lot!









Saturday - strawberry salad, another 'discovery' which I love.

...and also homegrown dinner - goulash of sorts - tomatoes and courgettes from the freezer (still using up last summer's), fresh broad beans, dried chillies and garlic topped with new potatoes - only had to buy the chorizo.

Lunch from lottie #13

 I haven't been regularly posting my 'lunch from the lottie' status as it's still mainly a case of trying to provide a twist on salad - a few extra-hot 'blue' radishes or some yellow tomatoes

 but we have had a few different things for evening dinners -

a goulash using our tomatoes, pepper, chillies and potatoes

 a dish from the Abel&Cole cookbook called Swedeaphobia which helped use up some of my turnip glut

and a home-grown (apart from the fish) fie pie with lots of beans, peas, potatoes and, yes, turnip!

I meant to take a photo of this cooked with the final layer of potato all golden brown

but hubby served it up too quickly!