Beef and bargains

One of the things I love most about my OH is that he will help anyone.  Many times he's stopped on the road to help people with punctures and move/carry stuff.  He sweeps his neighbours' driveways when it snows, clears out gutters and so on.  He's got a heart of gold 💑 

One of the young guys from his TKD club recently bought himself a motorbike (OH has had a bike for 40 years!) Unfortunately it had a few things wrong with it so OH has been helping him get them sorted out.  Then a few weeks ago the young guy had a wee accident (skidded on black ice) and the bike got damaged.  So OH helped him sort out the issues and gently encouraged him to put the bike away for the winter on his step dad's farm.

As a thank you, the step dad (who I think was secretly relieved) gave OH a huge frozen joint of beef and a pack of ribeye or rump steaks!!  We're having the beef joint tonight.  It's almost 2kg in weight and will give us loads of leftovers for meals.  And I love the fact that the animal was raised just 2 miles from me.

These are my bargain beetroots from the other day.  I wrapped each one in foil and roasted them for about an hour.  I rubbed off the skin (wearing rubber gloves!!), quartered them and doused them with balsamic vinegar.  I had them with a couple of my meals this week.  Delicious 😋

I had some really squishy leftover bananas so made some pancakes (recipe HERE ) and some ridiculously healthy tasty muffins.  They don't have any sugar/honey/sweetener but still taste sweet.  They're based on a Fit Couple Cooks recipe.  I use their recipes a lot!

Banana Muffins (my adapted version)

3 mashed bananas (really ripe)
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
pinch of salt
1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup cornflour
1 cup ground almonds
1/2 oats
1 tsp vanilla extract

Gently combine ingredients and bake in muffin tin for 15 - 20 mins at Gas 6 or 200C

I got 9 muffins with that mixture.  Seriously tasty for a healthy sugar free muffin!

I also made a version of Elaine's Golden Lentil and Coconut soup (recipe HERE ) without the ginger and coriander as I didn't have any.  I had half a tin of coconut milk leftover from last weekend's Turkey Curry and I used up some of my bargain 10p carrots.  It was really good.  I've frozen a few batches for next week's lunches at work and gave eldest DS some too.

I carefully cooked my bargain turkey crown in my slowcooker but it still ended up rather dry.  Maybe I should have used all that butter the recipes suggested!! Ah well. However, it's all sliced/diced and frozen in portions to make quick healthy lunches/dinners when I'm back at work.

I popped into Lidl this morning and spent a grand total of £3.63 on potatoes, peppers, celery and apples.  My freezer and storecupboard are well stocked so I'm hoping that for the rest of January all I'll need are a few more top ups of fresh fruit and veg like this morning.

Serious saving has begun 💰👍