Food: Storecupboard Challenge: Day 8

Breakfast

One of my favourite Autumn/Winter breakfasts is stewed apples. My Dad has an orchard, so every Autumn I freeze up bags of cooking apples. The way I do this is to dunk the peeled and cut pieces of apple in some cold salted water and then scoop the chunks into a bag. Squeeze as much air out as possible and pop in your freezer. There are so many lovely things to do with them.

So, as I had already defrosted some apple yesterday for dessert, I had a portion of that for breakfast. To make, I just tipped the bag of frozen apples into a saucepan and cooked for about 15 minutes. You can add sugar if you prefer. Keep stirring. When it has defrosted and the apple has started to break down, you can add in some sultanas and a sprinkling of mixed spice.

I ate this with a cinnamon and raisin bagel (freezer).

Lunch

One of the things I love to freeze is soup. Usually a homemade soup makes about 4 portions, so if my husband and I have it for lunch, there is usually at least 1 portion that can be stashed away in the freezer. I have about three other soups frozen (2 homemade, 1 shop bought). I usually write on the lid what it contains, the date and the calories. 

Today’s soup was Roasted Roots & Sage (BBC recipe here) which has got maple syrup in it, which lends a nice smoky depth of flavour. 

I ate it with the last 3 of the crackers that I bought for Christmas and are now beyond their best before date.

Dinner

And so to my final supper on this challenge: Crab Linguine. It's my go-to solo dinner when there isn't much in the house, and is the reason that I always have a tin of crabmeat in my pantry. It's simple and it's quick. The recipe I have I can't find online - I snipped it from a magazine, but it has pepper, onion, chilli, garlic, parsley and lemon juice in it - there are lots of variation on this theme if you do a quick google.

I still had a pepper, onion and half a lemon in the fridge, and I always have garlic paste. Luckily the herbs in the garden are one of the few things that haven't really suffered in the heat, so I picked up own parsley, and even added a little bit of the samphire plant which I bought in the Spring.

To finish, I ate a piece of homemade pumpkin pie (freezer) which I made last Autumn. Again, I am the only one that likes it, so a whole pie (even a small one) was always going to last a while!

Summary

It has been an interesting week of highs (fish chowder - day 3) and lows (banana & peanut butter muffin - day 2). I honestly think that with just a small top up shop of fresh fruit and vegetables, I could have extended this for another week or more, however, the family are back tomorrow and catering for 4 adults is very different to 1. I have managed to achieve my 5 a day on most days.

Total cooking time: 18 minutes (hob - lunch & dinner)

Total fruit/veg portions: 4.5

Total food waste: 1 chilli, which I was going to use in the linguine but it had gone squidgy (I used chilli flakes instead)

Total calories:1,345

Love Mrs Jones x