Sunday, 24-10-21

 Hi, everyone.

It took me a while to deal with all that lamb I mentioned yesterday.  I seared it all first in spray oil and then casseroled it with the lamb stock and some onion for several hours.  I must say, it came out lovely and tender.  After straining to separate the stock and cooling, I took ages getting every last bit of visible fat off the meal.  Lamb fat sets hard after chilling so removing it from the stock this morning after a night in the fridge was a doddle.
Now I have six pots of lamb in stock to make casseroles, hotpots, etc.  Sometimes I feel like I take one step forward and two back with my freezer but at least it is now all ready to use and it's gone on my audit list so I won't forget about it.  Job done!

The house smelled wonderfully savoury.

All I need to do now is sort out what's in the fast freeze area.  Most of that is not mine, I think, it belongs to Dave and Anna and can stay there.  There's some ice cubes and the pigs in blankets which can now go in the pork bag, thinking about it.  And then all is done as the other two drawers in the upright freezer are bread products and frozen fruit and don't need clearing out.
It's takes ages but was worth the effort.

Yesterday's meals:

Breakfast - absolutely lovely!
If you have the new SW mag, take a look.  Potato cakes with smoked salmon.

Lunch - the meatloaf with a bbq sauce.  It was OK, nothing special but quite nice.  
The recipe was for six, I cut it to a fifth because that worked with the amounts and it made enough for two portions for me.

If I make it again, I will spice it up considerably - and I've just realised I should have added some beaten egg and I didn't.  Oh, well, it held together OK.

I was disappointed - the fishcakes weren't as nice as I remembered.  Maybe they shouldn't have been frozen.  I ate some of the potato/fish and the melted cheese in the middle was delicious but there were tough bits of broccoli in them and some fibrous bits of fish - goodness knows what bit of the fish they were.

Never mind - can't win 'em all!

Today's plans:

B:  cheesy beans on toast
I haven't had beans on toast for ages.  There's a bit of the bbq sauce left over from yesterday and I will stir that into the beans for extra flavour and also to use it up.
SW:  one healthy extra A for grated cheese, either one or half a healthy extra B depending on whether I toast one slice or two

L:   meatloaf, lentil and root veg soup, fruit
I found the lentil and root veg soup when sorting out the vegetarian bag in the freezer.  More soup, cheers.  It's definitely the soup season now.  I will crumble the meatloaf leftovers into it for added texture and so on as there's not enough to freeze, it wouldn't be worth it.
SW:  I'm going to count one syn for the meatloaf addition and the soup is free/speed/protein

D:  lamb shank in mint gravy, veg; yogurt
Found in the hidden depths of the freezer, this has now gone up to five syns per portion which is quite a jump but I'm hardly surprised.
I'll actifry some root veg to have with it, and use some runner beans frozen this summer.
I have a few frozen, home made individual Yorkshires which I will call one syn each.
SW:  five syns for the lamb, two syns for a couple of little Yorkshires and half a syn for dessert.

E:  I'm clearing out some of the high kitchen cupboards today so I will be up and down stepladders for a while.

Summary:
one healthy extra A
up to one healthy extra B
eight and a half syns

From the freezer:
Bread or toast, the soup, the lamb shank, Yorkshires, runner beans.  Not bad at all.
However, into the freezer:  six pots of cooked lamb in stock and some breadcrumbs in portions.