Junk Drawer

Come on, admit it, how many of you out there own a junk drawer? Bet nearly everyone who's reading this will admit to owning one. Me included. This is my junk drawer AFTER I took out 2 mobile phones and five! phone chargers.

Before

The mobile phones will be taken to the charity shop I volunteer in tomorrow. We have free post envelopes that can be used to send old mobiles away to be reused or recycled. The five chargers were taken Tuesday to Sainsburys. They have a scheme on at the moment which lasts until the end of August where you can drop off old chargers in store for recycling. I have transferred all the junk I want to keep into my new kitchen drawer using old margarine tubs to compartment the drawer for different things and make it a lot easier to find things.

After

Voila, one tidy junk drawer. It feels great decluttering something that is such a mess. I recycled lots, paper, plastic, phones and chargers. I also got rid of a bag of junk and rehomed things to their proper place like tools to the garage and paper hole puncher to the office. It always seems like a big task, but to be honest I think it took me about half an hour. Now, anyone mess up my junk drawer and there will be trouble!

For our meal tonight we had creamy pesto chicken. I was going to do boiled new potatoes but had none in so made sauteed  potatoes instead which they all loved. The creamy pesto chicken is made by mixing half a jar of red pesto with half a tub of mascarpone cheese. I then split chicken breasts and stuff the creamy pesto mix inside then coat the fillets in breadcrumbs and then roast in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil on top.

 
 We had these with steamed peas and roasted cherry tomatoes. I will use the rest of the mascarpone cheese tomorrow in a tuna tomato sauce to use on pasta. 

Back to our routine

well kids back at school and college today so back to a routine. I do like it when the kids are off. Not having to make pack ups or bake cakes for pack ups and no rushing around in the morning but it is nice when they go back and I can get organised again. So this morning I dropped daughter No2 at college then headed to Aldi and Tesco to do my shop. In budget again so pleased at no overspend.

Tomorrow I'm making a veggie pasta bake and wanted some peppers to roast. I bought some value range peppers in Tesco for only £1.05 and they were big peppers and one was huge!

Only needed to use two for roasting so will save the other for pizzas on Saturday. I roasted the peppers with onions, garlic cloves some leftover butternut squash and a courgette and rosemary from the garden with a glug of olive oil and a grinding of black pepper.

I roasted for about 50 minutes then popped them in a container to cool for tea tomorrow.
When in Tesco today I found a packet of reduced chicken wing for £1.20 so bought them to make some Jamie Oliver chicken wing gravy. I saw him once make this on TV and tried it at christmas and the gang really loved it.

On a tray place chopped carrots. Split a couple of onions, leave skins on. About six cloves of garlic, left whole.  I threw on the tops of some leeks and some rosemary.

 Add the chicken wings and a glug of olive oil and some black pepper. I cooked this in the oven with the roasted veg. After about an hour tip everything into a very large pan. I added 3 large spoons of plain flour then mashed everything up with a potato masher. Pour on plenty of boiling water and keep mashing. Let this simmer for an hour or so and keep giving it a mash.

You will end up with a pan of mush and bones. Place a sieve over a clean pan and keep pouring some of the mixture into the sieve and mash it through the sieve with the potato masher then discard whats left in your sieve. You will be left with some tasty gravy which you can add extra chicken juices to from a roast chicken. I freeze this in portions and just take out on the morning we will be needing it.

Chicken & bacon in sauce, Cheap Meal

When I did my shopping earlier in the week I needed some pancetta for the meatloaf I was making. Instead of buying pancetta I bought a packet of bacon bits at a cost of 75p for 500g. I split the bag into four portions and frozen them. A portion was used in the meatloaf  Tuesday and I used a portion today to make

  CHICKEN & BACON IN SAUCE

1 Onion, chopped
knob butter
1 tbsp oil
100g bacon bits
3 tbsp plain flour
400mls chicken stock
400mls milk
400g cooked leftover chicken
2 tsp dried parsley
salt & pepper

VEGETABLE RICE

Basmati rice
1 1/2 tsp turmeric
pinch salt
carrot, diced & cooked
peas, cooked

Fry the onion in the oil and butter for 5 minutes.
Add the bacon bits and cook for a further 5 minutes.
In a bowl add the flour and mix in the milk.
Add the chicken stock to the onion & bacon and bring to the boil.
Add the milk & flour mix and stir continually until thickened.
Add the cooked chicken, parsley and seasoning.
Cook for 10 minutes or until piping hot.
Serve with vegetable rice.

Cook the rice in a pan of cold water that just covers the rice adding the turmeric and salt.
When rice is boiling put a lid on the pot and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Drain rice into a sieve and rinse with boiling water then mix in the vegetables.

Bargain Sunday lunch

Got a reduced packet of chicken thighs and drummers for £1.79 the other day. I split the pack in half and froze them. Today I cooked half the pack in the slowcooker for our tea. I stripped the meat off the bones  and returned the meat to the slowcooker with some gravy granules.

I costed the meal and with using half a bag of green beans,half a broccoli and half a butternut squash, 800g potatoes from a large sack of spuds, a kilo of carrots from the sack of pony carrots I bought for the dog and making the yorkshire puddings the whole meal cost 89p per person. We all had a plateful and really enjoyed our meal. Wish I could find more reduced meat but the time I go in is not reduction time. Think I may use drummers and thighs like this a lot more now I know they enjoy it.

We all went for a drive this afternoon to a lovely forest which is popular with dog walkers. We'd had some sad news of someone we knew passing away yesterday so I felt we all should be together today and I had a  few moments on our walk to think of the bereaved family and their loss.

The forest was very bare and it was a dull grey day but we had a lovely walk playing with the dog.

Great present

Working tonight so need to take a packed lunch. For christmas I got a wrap-n-mat which is great. I hate using so much clingfilm to wrap sandwiches in so when I saw this on the internet I had to have one for a christmas present.

It's cotton with a plastic lining and a velcro fastener. They can be wiped clean or washed. They come in two sizes, this is the small size and come in a few different colours.

For tea tonight I'm using up some leftover bits of chicken and turkey. I soften some chopped onion, chopped mushrooms and a bit of leek in butter.
                                                                                               

 Add some flour to absorb the butter then add in chicken stock continually stirring so no lumps appear. I add some milk and some dried parsley, salt and pepper.

I then add the leftover meat and added a bit of leftover sweetcorn. They had this with boiled rice.