Wednesday 29 April 2015

Day 2 - Live Below the Line



My cupboard at the start of the week.


And once I had prepped the bread by opening each pack and separating the slices slightly, and laying the little garlic breads on an open tray to freeze them so I can remove bread slice by slice and so the garlic breads didn't freeze stuck together ....


... this was what my shelf in the freezer looked like.


Last nights tea.  Rice and half of the tin of baked beans.  

I cooked just under half of the bag of rice, so I can save time later in the week by just taking out of the freezer and zapping it in the microwave, but I'm not happy with how it turned out.  Fingers crossed it's edible.  I always cook rice by the absorption method, which didn't seem to work as well with this cheap rice.  It's very claggy and clumpy even though I was careful to rinse a lot of the starch out before I put on to cook.  The beans however, were a revelation!!  I don't eat beans very often so maybe I just enjoyed them as a complete change ... but they were very tasty.

It was a filling although rather bland meal, but I had had a very busy day and only sat down to tea at 7.40pm when all the chores were done,  I left the rice to cook while I was walking the dogs around the paddock and watering the polytunnel, so it was at least, very nice to finally sit down with a plate of something warm and reasonably tasty.


So now I have half a tin of beans in the fridge and three bags of clumpy, claggy rice in the freezer.  If they come out inedible I will have to try boiling some more of the rice in lots of hot water and then draining it.  I really don't want to have to share my rice out between the chickens and the dogs, but at least I do have enough in reserve in case this has to happen.


This mornings breakfast.

Two eggs scrambled on two slices of toast.  I was careful to slightly undercook the eggs to leave them moist .... as I don't have the masses of butter I normally slather on my toast.  I like that it looks like a big meal but this is a small plate and my bread is small, even so it was satisfyingly filling.  :-)

Massive thanks to my two donators yesterday, Sharron Harris and Pamela Dungar, who have taken me to within sight of my target.  You are inspiring me to keep going. Thank you again and HERE is the link to my official Live Below the Line donations page, every donation no matter how big or how small is one step closer to helping keep someone that is hungry fed.

Sue xx

4 comments:

  1. Sue, thank you enormously for your donation to my Live Below the Line attempts. It's cheered me up faced with yet another glass of iced water rather than my beloved cups of tea!
    Sorry your rice is claggy. I've had that problem with value rice. Recently had bit more success by following the instructions of the packet religiously - rinsing in a sieve with cold water before putting it in the pan, boiling up with loads of water, and then rinsing with boiling water after draining.
    Realise that's not the Aga way, but it's only 10-12 minutes boiling on an open top plate.
    I had a go at risotto with value rice last night, adding ladlefuls of stock one at a time, and it worked pretty well. Hopefully should have a photo up on http://muchmorewithless.blogspot.co.uk/ later.

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    1. I know .... I should have followed the instructions on the packet, I think I will give it a go tonight and leave the rice that is in the freezer there, if I don't need it by the end of the week the dogs and chickens can have it.

      I might try some risotto, I don't have any stock but I could water down some of the soup and use that instead. I love that this makes us more resourceful, you are doing so well. I'll be over later to see what you're up too next. Good luck. xx

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  2. If you pour boiling water through your rice to defrost it the starch ought to wash away. In the past I have used clumpy rice in a mixed veg stir fry and stirred into my mushroom and chickpea roast,

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    1. I'll try that, I did pour some through the rice I ate last night, but it stayed definitely clumpy :-(

      Oh well at least it was edible, and I was pleased about that.

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