Hello Dear Reader,
Just the two of us today, sometimes it's lovely to just have time to ourselves. Dearly Beloved has been out and about in the garden, I've finished another quilt.
If you want to see any pictures of it then pop over to my Instagram page and check out the pictures I shared today. https://instagram.com/frugalqueen/ If I add too many here then it takes too long for some people to load. I hope you don't mind.
Thanks for all the lovely comments from when Dearly Beloved posted about getting free magazines from your local library service. If you have an ipad, then download the BBC food app, it's my 'go to' recipe book. I found today's recipe for Greek Lamb there today. Simply go to App store, search BBC food and download the app.
My celebration menu today was: Greek lamb with potatoes and buttery greens with Tropical Mess, like Eton mess but with fresh pineapple and lemon curd.
I will start with the super easy dessert. You will need, one meringue per person, a teaspoon of lemon curd per person, a quarter of a fresh pineapple, cut into cubes and a quarter of a pot of cream per person.
Beat the cream until it forms stiff peaks. Stir in the pineapple, broken meringue and swirl the lemon curd through the mixture. I find that if you give it a good stir with a fork, in the jar, then you can change the texture to pourable. Pineapples are 68p in Aldi, the pot of cream 69p, a quarter of a jar of lemon curd is 13p and the meringues were 8 for £1 in Asda. We will eat it over today and tomorrow, I really believe in stretching out days off and really enjoying them. Our dessert was 50p per portion and that's a great price for a special celebratory and completely indulgent pudding.
Plonk a few chunks of pineapple on top and a dollop of lemon curd and it's a yellowy, spring like dessert.
Lamb is a really good price at the moment and we bought our leg of lamb for £3.97 a kilo! So our leg of lamb was just under £7 altogether and we'll get six generous portions of of it and will be eating it for the next few days too!
To cook the lamb, you will need a leg of lamb ( a shoulder would be fine!)
6 garlic cloves,
2 teaspoons of dried oregano
zest and juice of one lemon
6 tbsp of olive oil
1kg bag of new potatoes - we bought ours in Asda, who have the same price veggie offers as Aldi and had 1kg bags for 39p, we also stocked up on parsnips and other vegetables such as leeks and spring greens. I steamed the greens and leeks and then tossed them with a knob of butter and some freshly ground black pepper and it was meltingly spring like to have with the lamb.
To cook the lamb, mix the ingredients and rub all over the lamb, cover tightly with foil or a lid of a roasting dish. Cook low and slow on 180 for two to three hours. Cook for just one hour if you like it rare. I like it to fall off the bone.
In the last hour, I added the 39p bag of potatoes and coated them in the herby oil and allowed them to roast.
I washed and finely shredded a pack of spring greens and a pack of leeks (Both 39p a pack in Asda!)
and steamed them both together. I cooked them all in one go as I always cook on a Sunday for Monday as well as I give myself a day off cooking. I'll also have plenty left to make bubble and squeak for breakfast one day.
A slap up lunch for £8.17 in total. It will run to four roast lunches at £1.36 each, which we'll eat today and tomorrow. It will also turn into shepherd's pie with a bubble and squeak topping which will make four portions so 68p per portion for that.
When I stand in the supermarket and look at a joint of meat for seven pounds it always seems too expensive but then I stretch into into several portions and other meals and it's not as expensive as I originally thought.
We've another week of our staycation and I hope to finish another quilt, have a day out in St. Ives and get some work done around the house. To be honest, I've really enjoyed early nights and getting up late; it's been wonderful to recharge our batteries.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxx
