Eating Better

I'm continuing to wage war on the contents of the fridge.

I should probably have a more rigid set of rules about putting more things in before having eaten or cooked some of the stuff that was already there, but I don't. I just need to be aware that there is not much space in there already and this evening I go to my knitting group, which meets in the coffee shop attached to our nearest supermarket. When the group winds down, most of us go for a quick wander around the aisles and I need to be strict with myself when I come to the reduced produce chiller.

Late evening is a really good time to pick up bargains in chilled food, fruit and vegetables and bread in most supermarkets. If you have the freezer space, (and we patently don't!) bread can be picked up for 30p a loaf instead of the obscene £1.45 we usually pay. Incidentally, Morrisons are currently advertising the bread we usually buy at ONLY £1.45. How can £1.45 a loaf be ONLY anything?

So, today, I give you:

Supermarket-reduced-chiller steak in leftover Merlot gravy with supermarket-reduced-chiller Chantenay carrots, which doesn't sound that great so let's call it Bouef Bourguignon. It's  a bit unseasonably warm, given the temperature today, but very tasty.



Sweat an onion in a little olive oil until soft.

Toss some cubed steak in seasoned flour and add to pan.

Pour in leftover red wine and stir to deglaze the pan.

Pour into slow cooker.

Add rest of red wine, some beef stock and trimmed whole chantenay carrots.

Cook for whole day on low.

Thicken before serving if necessary.

Follow up with:

It's-so-cheap-I-couldn't-leave-it-behind! fruit salad



Now with added mango that I could actually be bothered to prepare instead of putting off and putting off and finally sliding surreptitiously into the compost bin.

For snacking later, since Young Bloke has developed a penchant (and I have to say, a talent) for Margaritas, I have made Unholy Guacamole.



It's a bit hot, but goes well with multiseed corn chips and is very easy.

Mash two ripe-ish avocados. I don't like them so ripe they are brown. I like a bit of lumpiness to my guacamole.

Finely chop one or two chili peppers (whatever variety are lurking in the salad crisper drawer. These were a pack of mixed chilies labelled 'Mixed Chilies'. Very helpful.

Finely chop a de-seeded tomato or leave the seeds in if life is too short for that kind of thing.

Finely chop half a small onion. I used a finely chopped fiery hot red scallion, because that was what I had.

Stir into the mashed avocado. Add a little salt to season and a squeeze of fresh lime if they haven't all withered up in the fruit bowl or been used to garnish Margaritas.

Serve with chips, crisps, or vegetable crudites (a term that always makes me snigger, despite being supposed to be a grown up.)