Lushious leftovers lamb pie

Living frugally is getting the most out of your shopping dollars and the most from the food you need to eat.  It also helps to make them as tasty and delicious as you can so you don't feel deprived.  The easiest way I know to save on meals is by making the most of your leftovers.  Australians  reportedly waste over $1,000 per household per year on food.  That's 8 BILLION DOLLARS (gulp) worth of food that gets thrown out each year.....I know.....ok now I've taken a big breath and swallowed that bitter pill, I'm here to tell you that it's easy and actually time saving to use up this waste.  You can watch a fab little doco that I saw first on Jo's blog Down to earth Mother here, it's only 20 minutes, please for our planet's sake, take the time to watch it.  It's about waste in general and certainly got my attention.

Why do many of us live so unconsciously? 

Back to the issue at hand, lushious leftfovers.  Take them to work for lunch the next day instead of spending $15 on a brought lunch.  That's $780 you could save just by taking leftovers for your lunch one day a week, only one!  It's alarmingly (are you ready....) a saving of $3,900 if you bothered to take your lunch everyday to forgo your need for buying lunch/coffee/water/soft drink from the cafe down the road. How good are those leftovers tasting now? Imagine that money payed down on some of your debt or it's the holiday you don't think you can afford.

Freeze portions of the leftovers for dinner another night when you know you might reach for the phone to order take away.  

Or Compost it 

(as long as it's not meat or anything else you shouldn't be composting!).  

Give it to your dog to bulk out his dog food, we all know the cat's way to much of a princess to eat it though.

I love leftovers as it means its either dinner sorted the following night, or for the freezer, if it's like bolognaise sauce or cold roast meat or pasta or salad or rice, I can make another meal out of it.

For this recipe of lamb pie, it does need some love and time but nothing too 

stressful ~ 15 minutes max.  It can make 2 dinners for you too, eat one serve and freeze another.  If you really think you are too busy, the night you make the roast, peel the extra vegies required for this then and leave them in the fridge ready for when you need them.

All up this $13 piece of roast leg of lamb fed our family of 3 (with 1 very hungry man) for 3 nights for less than $6 a night when you also factor in the vegetables from the garden and gravy, so less than $2 a head, bloody bargain!

 I've been abound with gorgeous produce from our garden.  Bright orange carrots, pearly white parsnips, onions, and herbs a plenty.  

We have roast lamb at least once a fortnight, we love it.  From a leftovers perspective, there is so many things you can do with those delicious cuts closer to the bone, and for that matter the bone and this pie from my coveted Christmas pressie  Save with Jamie are a perfect family fodder.  

*A bouquet garni of sorts...celeriac leaves, thyme, rosemary are all tied together to be taken out of the pie at the end.

Lovely Lamb pie    Serves 8  taken from straight from Save with Jamie.  My additions are in brackets 

2 red onions (I used brown onions)

2 carrots

1 small celeriac  (I used parsnip)

250g lamb kidneys (I didn't use)

optional: 1 tablespoon leftover lamb dripping (to make this, drain any juices off your roast dish, I cook my lamb over a wire rack with water in the bottom to make gravy, put drain delicious juices into a jug and pop in the freezer.  The fat will rise to the top and once it has solidified it can be spooned off and used like oil ~ heaven)

olive oil

1 bunch of fresh thyme (I used the bouquet garni listed above *)

optional: I fresh bay leaf (I used dried)

1 heaped tablespoon of plain flour

2 teaspoons English mustard

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

optional: leftover lamb gravy and bones

250g leftover cooked lamb

1 x 400g tin of lentils (I have a child so no chance of adding)

300g of puff pastry (1 sheet of pre-made of the frozen variety)

1 large egg

• Peel the onions, carrots and celeriac and trim the kidneys, then chop everything into 1cm dice and put into ta large casserole pan on a medium-low heat with the lamb dripping if you have it, or a lug of oil, a pinch of salt and plenty of pepper.  Strip in the thyme leaves (or add your bouquet garni) and bay leaf if you've got one, then cook for 30 minutes, stirring regularly.  Cooking it slowly like this will create the most amazing depth of flavour for the pie filling.

• Stir the flour and mustard into the pan then add the Worcestershire sauce, 1.5 litres of boiling water and any leftover gravy and lamb bones from the mothership lamb recipe (also in Jamies book), if you have them.  Reduce to a low heat, cover and cook gently for 1 hour, or until thickened and reduced, stirring occasionally.  Remove any bones, season to perfection, then remover from the heat and leave to cool.  Preheat the oven to 180c/350F/gas 4.

• Once the pie filling is cool, shred the lamb into the ban then drain and add the lentils and mix well.  Tip into a pie dish (roughly 25cm x 30cm) (I used 2 smaller dishes to freeze one for another day as it was only feeding 3 of us.) On a flour-dusted surface, roll out the pastry so its slightly bigger than your dish and the thickness of a pound coin, (or use frozen ready rolled puff).  then score very lightly in a criss-cross fashion.  Beat the egg and brush around the rim of the dish.  Roll the pastry around your rolling pin and unroll over the dish.  Press to stick, then brush the pastry with more eggwash and bake for 30-40 minutes as the bottom of the oven, or until the filling is piping hot and the pastry is golden brown.  Delicious served with seasonal greens and an extra dollop of mustard.

this dodgy looking leftover roast lamb will be transformed from the dog bone, to lushious lamb pie!

I mixed the mustard together with the flour to form a paste

leftover carrot and parsnip mash from a previous night will help thicken this pie sauce.

One I did with a criss cross pattern, then other with some cut out stars.

We had the pie with a rocket and parmesan salad.

Both leftover roast Pork and Chicken will work just as well in this dish too.

Do you make the most of your leftovers or do you bin food even when it's good or leave it in the back of the fridge to grow legs?  I hope I can inspire just one person to make a change and save some of your hard earned cash.

Oh, I almost forgot, it's week 14 of the 52 week money challenge, and if you ditch your lunches for the weeks until the end of the year that will be over $5,000 saved!!!!!

Ciao, Jan.

Decluttering for December

Its on again, the Decluttering challenge.  Why? Well I was looking in some places I had decluttered in the August challenge and some of them are looking like a dogs breakfast.  Where does this stuff come from! It has to go.  I tend to stick to this challenge if I'm accountable on my blog so I'm here to stay on track and hopefully to motivate someone else to do the same.  Yes it is December, and yes people are busy, but it's honestly barely 5 minutes a day.  Set the timer if you don't believe me.

Each Monday during December, select five items to declutter and place them
into one of 3 boxes - bin, op shop or family/give to friends.  If you want you can have a pile for ebay or gumtree too, up to you. I'm not as I don't want it hanging round nor do I want even more time on the computer :)  

Then, on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, select one item a day and add it to your boxes.  It could be a pile of magazines as one 'item', don't just move one mag at a time!  Same as a draw or a cupboard may be one thing if you have lots you want to get through.  Continue this rotation until the last day of December. As I said, set the timer and go hard for the time you allocate. 

The areas I personally want to tackle are:
1. The amount of my daughters art work I have stashed.  A thing that I'm planning to do with the precious artwork, is to take a photo of it as I've got such a sentimental streak I hoard this stuff like a mad woman.  But will she really want to go through the boxes when she gets older, I don't think so.  The problem for me is the art work symbolises steps in her development, but a scribble on a page at aged 2 isn't really worth clogging up my life, a picture stored on the computer will be perfect.

2.  THE kitchen junk draw.  I did this in August and I'm afraid it is back, not as bad as before, but its slowly getting out of hand again.
3. The plastics cupboard.  Dear Lord, this stuff just multiplies on its own, but never bares the right lid!
4. The car.  Enough said.
5.  The front of the fridge, I bet your's is the same.  I can't see the actual fridge from all the photos, magnets, artwork and more artwork and post it notes.
So 4 weeks, 5 areas. Easy...yeah right!

The questions I will be asking myself if I feel stuck and feel too attached will be:
Do I love this?
Do I really need this? When was the last time you used it?
and this one I love
If the house was on fire would you grab this?

The next day - the weekend- you can take your boxes to the op shop bin or where they have to go, making sure you come home with empty bags/boxes.  And you should have some more time for this.....

"Don't let your possessions overwhelm or control you.

After all, you're really their custodian, not their owner.

Look at them differently.

You can't take any of them with you.

So only keep things that are useful or beautiful.

Live simply."

By Patrick Lindsay

I'm away for most of this week, hence why this post is early, but it gives you time to prepare yourself!!
I hope some of you come along for the ride :D

Ciao, Jan

The weekend wrap and my first rally

It was a beautiful weekend in my parts, sun was shining and the kitchen was kept busy with lots coming in from the garden.  So I thought I'd just show you some pictures of the goings on....

My girl had lots of fun making these little pizzas with my christmas cookie cutters....ham cheese and prawn if you don't mind!

Potato & Rosemary for the grown ups

Free-range roasted chicken (yep thats butter under the skin, diet starts tomorrow!)

An easy herb 'pesto' although there is no cheese, just herbs (coriander, mint,parsley), walnuts, sunflower kernels, s & p, evoo and lemon juice

This pesto is a perfect addition to this broadbean, silverbeet and feta frittata.  We have silverbeet coming out of our you know where, but I love it put through its paces.  I just use it where you might find spinach in a dish.  For this frittata, take 6-7 freerange eggs, a good dollop of pesto and whisk together with a few slurps of soy milk, or regular milk, lets say 1/3 of a cup

gently steam 5 or 6 silverbeet with the stalks removed and roughly chopped  with the broadies for around 3 minutes.  Wring out any excess water and allow to cool slightly before folding through your eggy mixture along with some salt and pepper, don't be stingy

Grease a flan dish and pour in egg mixture and dot with a good feta.  I used this local Apostle Whey feta from a producer an hour away

A perfect match for my chutney

Away from the kitchen, Sunday was national day of climate change action and there was a group action in my home town.  I went with my daughter and a friend to show our support but was disappointed that there was only a small group of 50 or so considering our towns population of over 30,000 people.  But, from little things big things grow.

This ladies sign is 14 years old and was made for a World summit rally all those years ago

Everyone was encouraged to wear hot summer colours

sign the petition

Advance Australia fair!

While we are on the sustainablity mantra, I brought a box of new loo paper which arrived last week.  I'm here to tell you I'm really impressed. The company is called Greencane.  It is made from the residue left over from sugar extraction, so aims to minimize deforestation and is made to world standard eco accreditaion.  I shallowly love the whiteness of this paper and its more luxurious feel and look.  I do prefer it over the who gives a crap toilet paper if I had to choose, but I love the idea behind both of these companies and will alternate between the two though to throw my support at both.

Had some time for relaxing with some foodie mags, many a cupa and a yummy afternoon tea of fresh mango, greek yoghurt, walnuts & chia seeds (I'm addicted to them)

I've also found my knitting mojo and have completed my first poppy for the 5,000 poppy project, I'm loving the process, its a quick and easy pattern, I might keep going past the original aim of 3....

So thats it, a lovely quiet yet productive weekend.  Now that Monday is here, there is lots coming up on the blog as my creative juices have been flowing.

Did you attend the climate change rally in your area?  I saw some pictures of the one held in Melbourne and the numbers looked impressive which is great.  I'll leave you with one of the speakers lines which have been ringing in my ears, it was a lovely speach but 3 words that made me stand up straighter and pay attention were "I condemn ignorance", I'm making it my duty to become well informed, will you?  

Ciao, Jan

Fruit Storage

I received my first box of organic mixed fruit today from Port Fairy Organics, it was very exciting! But there was one problem ~ too much fruit to eat in a few days. I thought I'd run through easy ways to store your fruit so you can still be enjoying it for a week or more.

Apples: pick through your apples and do a rating of their individual quality. Put the best ones in the fruit bowl, enough for a few days, and the rest into the fridge.  If there are any with bruises or blemishes, put them aside to cook or bake with or what I love to do is to grate one onto my cereal.  You can store apples for a lot longer if you individually wrap them in newspaper and put in a cool place, good to know if you are lucky enough to have a tree or have a box you need to store, as they can stay this way for a month or two.

Kiwi fruit: pick through your kiwi fruit and any ripe ones are best kept in the fridge or a few in the fruit bowl.  Any unripened ones can be stored with a banana which will help the process along.

Bananas: any ripe bananas can be stored in the fruit bowl, or in the fridge for a few days.  Another great way to store ripe or over-ripe narna's is to peel and freeze in ziplock bags.  Slice them up and defrost as you need them, great if you use them in smoothes (no need to defrost) or for banana bread or muffins.  Any under-ripe fruit can be kept longer by keeping them in a dark, cool place and away from other fruit.  On a plate in one of your pantry shelves would be fine.  Likewise, if you want the under-ripe fruit to ripen quickly, put them in the sun or in with your other fruit.

Strawberries: these unfortunately only have a short shelf life but you can help them stay fresher longer by doing a few little things.  Take them out of their plastic containers and put them in a tupperware, or the like, container lined with paper towel.  Don't be tempted to wash them, they are like sponges, wash them before you are going to eat them.  Go through them and discard any mouldy or blemished ones.  Place in the the fridge and you should get a few extra days out of them.

I hope that helps you enjoy your fruit for a bit longer anyway.  I'm eyeing off the strawberries as we speak!

Ciao, Jan

homemade green cleaners

A few weeks ago, I swear I did serious harm to my lungs cleaning the shower.  The fumes I was ingesting as I was trying to holding my breath, counting to ten then leaving for 5 minutes so the chemical smell was gone to start the ritual all over again, its disgusting and I've had enough. I've been thinking about making some of my own cleaners as all this reading about a simpler life has lead me to read some really easy recipes.  Just put lemon cleaner or green cleaner into pinterest and see for yourself.  I tossed my bathroom mould cleaner as I'd had enough of coughing up a lung, and seeing as my orange anti-bacteria spray is almost all gone,  there's no time like the present.  

So to clean my shower now I'm using bi-carb soda mixed with water to a paste consistency and use either an old toothbrush or scrubbing brush and put in some elbow grease and rinse well.  I couldn't believe how wonderful this worked on my silver shower taps especially, you could see your self in them.  Although it wasnt a pretty sight, I have been doing this before my shower, and it doesn't take too long.

Some of you will be thinking the next time you see me I will be wearing tie dyed hippy pants and will have grown underarm hair, but I assure you its still the old me, I'm just on a steep learning curve and I'm an avid student!

I was given a gorgeous haul of lemons, oh how I'm blessed with true friends, so started the process straight away.  This recipe is the for a lemon all purpose spray however you can use any citrus peels like orange or grapefruit.  Great to use on your benches and stove tops, to wipe over the toilet, bathroom handbasin but don't use in on marble bench tops  if you are lucky enough to have them!

All you needed is some lemon peel (off around 3 good sized lemons), white vinegar, a jar or bottle with a lid and time.  Really? Thats it? Yep too easy campezy.  For the meagerly price of around $1 you can probably make around 500mls of spray, that's a win right there.  Try $4-$7 for the supermarket variety.  Don't forget to keep your original supermarket branded spray bottle, you may as well use it rather than toss it out saving you buying a new spray bottle, just give it a good hot wash.  You can also put aside a jar for orange peels you may collect over the week, then at the end of the week do the same.  I was too impatient and peeled the lemons straight away, but I have saved the juice to use as the week goes by, in a recipe or two, or I could freeze the juice in iceblocks to use later down the frugile road.

Let the peel and vinegar infuse for 2-3 weeks, so you do need to be a bit ahead of the game, then strain into a spray bottle and dilute it 50-50 with either water or vinegar and away you go!! Great for bench tops, stove tops or any general cleaning really.  N.B. I actually wrote this post a few weeks ago and since then I've also made a citrus blend, using orange peel and lemon peel.  The first batch should be ready next week!!

Do any of you use your own cleaners?

Ciao, Jan

10 things you can do today to help our planet

For some of us, being green can seem all too hard. Did I just hear you sigh? We are too busy, too set in our ways, too use to the easy option of living thoughtlessly, over spending, over buying and filling our bins to the brim with it all.  There's no doubt that change can be hard for most of us.  I'm no hippy, not in the slightest, I still own a shaver and dye my hair but I'll admit to hugging a tree. I just feel there are little things we can do on an individual level that can really make a big difference.  I'm not breaking new ground here, we've heard that phrase a million times before. But where can you start without being overwhelmed? 

These 10 things I think you can easily do and start TODAY, that will help our planet and can also start a more thoughtful connection to your life if that's what you are chasing, I know I am.

1. Buy a water jug with a filter and ditch the bottled water.  Refill your bottles on the way to work, the gym, going out and about.  While you're buying the water jug, buy a refillable takeaway coffee mug too, better still, take the extra time to relax and enjoy that coffee at your fav cafe.

2.  Turn off your lights, heater, central heating and air conditioner.  Not only will you be helping the environment, you will be saving money.  Its not really that hard to go and put on an extra jumper, grab a snuggly blanket, crack open your blinds or move to a brigter spot instead of turning on every light in the house. Open a door for some fresh cool air when its hot, or take a layer off, don't scare the neighbours with a nudie run though.  It amazes me the lack of thought that goes on in the minds and homes of some people, just pure and utter waste of our precious resources. 

3.  Dry your clothes using nature not the clothes dryer.  With the weather improving there really isn't any reason you should use the dryer. Invest in some drying racks or use your old hills hoyst.  Oh but I'm too busy I hear you moan, well get the kids to help or your partner or get up 5 minutes earlier, it doesn't take that long. Think about this, are you one who uses the dryer and leaves them in there only to have to then iron the crinckled up clothes? There's your time saved right there people, don't iron, line dry them instead.  

4.  Turn the water off when you brush your teeth and wash them in the sink not in the shower.  Simple one really. While you're at it, turn the shower off while you wash your hair, its hard to do this in winter, freezing your toosh off, but with the warmer weather coming its fine.  Have a think about the water setting on your washing machine, do you ever change it fit your needs? Water is such a precious resource and we waste it by the gallon.  If you really want to make an impact, buy a water tank, imagine the taste of your cups of tea made with pure rain water...

5. Walk more.  Can you walk to work even one day a week? Can the kids walk, ride or skoot to school?  The good old chestnut of parking your car further away is a good one too.

6.  Grow a lettuce or a herb.  Start small if you are scared.  Mint is hardy and unforgiving as is rosemary, parsley and sage.  Buy a plant that is already established, pop it in a sunny spot but I'm afraid you will have to remember to water it.  But if you have to remember to water one pot why not water 10? It will put your compost that you're about to make to good use too.

7. Compost.  Ok this isn't exactly a sinch, but won't take you more than an hour or so to set up.  Start by putting a good sized container either on your kitchen sink or under the sink in the cupboard, an old icecream container would do.  Put in it any vegie and fruit scraps, egg shells, spent coffee grounds, old bread, tea bags, but definately no citrus or onions or garlic~the worms don't like them. You can buy a worm farm that will also have a tap you can get worm juice out to put on your plants as a liquid fertilizer, but you can just pick an unused spot of grass, around a metre square would do. You want to encourage the worms up out of the ground into it to help compost down your mound.  Put the scraps, lawn clippings, newspaper on the ground with  something over the top like a dodgy old piece of carpet, an old blanket, some old boards. Keep adding to it, lifting the cover each time by the way, and til it over with a rack once a week or so.  After awhile you will end up with a lovely rotted mix to put with potting mix, rack it around your existing plants, or dig it into your soil.  This is composting at its most basic form, do some research if you are really keen.

8. Recycle and reuse.  Come on, its a no brainer really.  Recycle bins are supplied by most councils these days.  Here's a quick rundown on what you can recycle: most plastics, bottles, glass jars(but if you live near me I'll take them for my preserves), newspapers (although you can use that on your compost heap or start reading your news online), magazines (give them away to people don't throw them out), letters, envelopes, junk mail (better still get a sticker and stop the junk), and cardboard.  If in doubt, google it!  Reuse things, or donate them or give them to a friend, get the kids to make 'craft' out of it.  Use face washers instead of wipes.  Put your used paper towel in the compost or any letters or any paper for that matter.  A good use for any gardeners out there is to use toilet rolls for your seedlings. Fill them up with potting mix and add a seed or seedling.  Once the plant is a bit bigger, plant the whole thing straight in the ground or pot, the toilet roll will compost down and will keep your plant nicely protected from planting stress. I could go on......oh I could.

9.  Take your own bags to the supermarket....needs no explaining.

10. Don't wash your clothes as often.  Are those jeans you wore today really dirty? Is that pair of socks your baby wore today really muddy? I doubt it.  

Damn, we are already at 10, I have more things! But that should start you off nicely. Only you can do this, take responsibility for your part in this life and think of what our actions are really doing.  Its really not hard, its living consciously. Kids especially love this stuff.  My girl knows to put things to the worm farm, recycle bin and the like, because its just what we do.  

I can hear some of you moaning.  But seriously, is there even just ONE of these you could implement today? Your planet will thank you later.  If like me you are chafing at the bit to get started and want more info, check out this eco blog, its full of inspiration and some witty eye opening posts.

I'll leave you with this quote I read recently.

When we destroy something created by man 

we call it vandalism....

When we destroy something by nature.... 

we call it progress

Ciao, Jan

Being a tight arse

I hate being a tight arse and if I'm honest I'm not very good at it.  I love nothing more than the odd day here and there looking for pretty things, a wine with a good view with friends, trips to the city to explore and holidays away.  Its more in the day to day running of our house that I'm trying the frugal living approach, although sometimes I think we are living high on the hog as it doesn't seem we are sacrificing much.  I can go most weeks without spending a cent apart from on groceries and gas for the car, well maybe a coffee or two.  

We eat almost all meals at home or taken from the kitchen to work, and its with no deep breaths or thoughts of dread, its joyous actually.  I love feeding my family, friends and loved ones nutritious and hopefully tasty food from my heart. Yes there are days that I am sick of dish pan hands and there are times when a meal out is heaven sent, but mostly give me my kitchen any day.

                       

                                                                                               

Its the little things everyday that you can do to save some pennies that will add up and also add to your cooking.  Some of the things I do are making stock out of a roast chicken carcass and freezing it for some soup or a stew another day. Baking snacks for your childs lunchbox instead of buying pre-packaged ones, one large slab of cake cut up into portions and frozen or a few dozen muffins will surely save you money. I bake bread every other day, something that is now a lovely ritual that never ceases to thrill me each time a gorgeous loaf comes out of the oven.

This batch of rock cakes are made for a few dollars

stale bread and over ripe tomatoes become tomato and onion pie

Peanut butter and vegie rice paper rolls made for next to nothing

Weekend lemon & sugar pancakes, a hit everytime

And finally a motto I live by is this "Use your best things everyday, don't wait for special occasions.  This is your life; enjoy your good silver, china, fancy soaps, bath oils, these things aren't for decoration, they're for using! Amen.

                                                  

Ciao, Jan