Convenient Dinner

So much for a healthy dinner cooked from scratch.

I softened some lazy garlic in some oil.  Lazy garlic is the worlds greatest invention.  Nothing smells of garlic except the food, it lasts forever and there is no waste.  Bear does not approve as he says that it is a wasteful and expensive way to buy garlic.  One jar of lazy garlic costs, at time of typing, £1.50, or roughly a penny a gram of garlic.  I can get 8 inexpensive cloves of garlic for that price, but that is not the greatest quality and I wouldn't get as much actual garlic bits for the food.  Also, my hands, knives, garlic press and chopping board do not smell of garlic.

Then I added some frozen chopped onion.  I may go back to chopping my own onions after I've finally passed my test (three hours again today, no casualties but I'm on my knees), but at the moment I consider frozen onions a lifesaver.  It doesn't go off before I can use it all, I can use a teaspoon full for a single omelette or a very large handful for a chilli or pasta sauce, and there is no waste.  At time of typing it is £1.00 for 500g or around a pound.  Fresh, wonky onions from Morrisons are 60p per kilo, and even with losing the peel they are considerably less expensive, but at least I won't see any of them rot because I haven't got around to doing anything with them. 

I then added 250g or around half a pound of lean mince.  Once that was browned I added some gluten free beef gravy granules, some mixed herbs and a large dollop of brown sauce.  Once I had stirred it in, I added some boiling water from the kettle and a generous amount of frozen peas (always cheaper than fresh peas and always available unlike fresh).  Then I added some chopped up tinned potatoes. 

I love tinned potatoes.  They are perfect in frittata, they are easy to store, they never sprout and go green on me, they don't need pre-cooking and a large tin of around 500g or a pound drained weight costs 35p.  At the time of typing, Morrisons' wonky potatoes are 94p per 2.5kg, which makes them slightly more expensive (although still inexpensive in themselves) and that is before they are peeled.  I warmed it all through and dished it up from the one pot I used.

Bear and DH practically inhaled it and have asked for it again soon.  I think the secret is in the brown sauce.  Apart from some worries about salt, it isn't as bad as a takeaway, is considerably less expensive and took only a few minutes. 

I think that once I have a little more of my time back, and I've sorted out things like the new downstairs windows and the re-wiring, then I will go back to buying fresh onions and potatoes.  It won't save vast sums of money, but it will save a few pennies and, after paying for all these driving lessons, I will be glad enough of that.  I don't think I will give up my lazy garlic.

Writing Stuff - not much to report today.  The October Frights is over, and I am catching my breath, but the 31 Days of Halloween is still running and today there is a teaser of what looks like a spooky take on the war in Iraq.  Things should get a lot quieter once we get to November.