A sachet of golden syrup porridge bought ages ago from Approved Foods, a few yellow-stickered blueberries from Morrisons (100g packs for 19p, I bought 6, gave 3 to DD2 and froze the other 3), and half a tub of Shape blackberry yogurt (2 x 4 pack for £2 in Morrisons). No milk because I added the yogurt once the oats were cooked.
This is my very green soup.
Yellow-stickered courgettes (25p for 3 large ones in Morrisons), a small onion from a 49p bag from Aldi, 50g frozen peas, a clove of garlic, dried chives and tarragon, salt and black pepper, and 2 potatoes sitting at the bottom of my veg basket. Boiled up in my soupmaker with a veg stock cube and some water and then blitzed until smooth. I'll stir in a couple of tablespoons of fat free fromage frais before reheating for my lunch.
This is the lentil bake made in my halogen oven. I made 2 so that I could freeze one.
I now have 2 of these ovens, the one from Aldi and one I bought on an excellent offer from Ideal World after watching their demontsrations. I loved my first one so much but wanted the rotiserrie function on this one. I haven't used my stove top or gas oven for weeks now, using a combination of the halogens, microwave, slow cooker and soup maker. I find the halogens are excellent for most things that need grilling or baking (although DH's birthday cake took a bit of juggling until it was cooked right through). My Aldi halogen makes excellent chips because it has a stirring paddle, but the Ideal World one seems to cook things like sausages and other meats better and it gets to a higher temperature.
I am a little disappointed that the coating in the Aldi one is already showing a few scratches. The Ideal World one seems to have a tougher coating. I have even made macaroni cheese from scratch in the halogen, putting the pasta in boiling water and cooking it uncovered for about 10 minutes and then stirring in half fat creme fraiche and the cheese and chopped chorizo, and topping it off with more cheese. The halogen does grill cheese amazingly well and so quickly compared to my regular grill. I quite often do cheese on toast in it.
Lastly, these are the roses I rescued from Morrisons.
Not having a garden I often look at the flowers in the supermarkets and fancy treating myself to a bunch, but even £2 seems an unnecessary extravagance. These lovely roses were yellow-stickered at 29p yesterday, just stuck in a bin with very little water and looking extremely wilted and bedraggled. I took pity on them, brought them home, clipped the ends off and split the stalks, put the plant food that came with them in the water and voila, they soon started to perk up and look lovely this morning. I'm really pleased with my inexpensive treat.
Okay, now I'm off. It's only 10.30, I've been up since 7.30, done all that cooking and a load of laundry and now I'm about to hang a second load of laundry and then nip to Aldi for a few bits. This afternoon I'm out with DS2 for a couple of hours...and I still have my Xmas cards to write and post the few that can't be given by hand.
At least the weather's cleared up; it's cold but sunny here at the moment. Hope you all have a good day. Love, Helen xx
Wow, those Roses were a bargain. When I saw the post title I thought you meant the chocolatey sort but they are even better, The soup and lentil bake look delicious. I'm still trying to persuade DH we need a Halogen oven. Not sure about yoghurt in porridge but I might give it a try. Some people in my Slimming World mix yoghurt with cooked pudding rice. I tried it but really didn't like it myself. Rice should be creamy not sharp tasting in my opinion! x
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