Aldi Veggie Meal and Food Shopping

 This is another of the Vegetarian things Aldi have in each December for Christmas. 'Melting Centre Nut Roasts'. I've looked back in the posts labelled 'Vegetarian Taste Test' and can't find that these have been tried before but last year they had one called 'Root Vegetable and Brie Nut Roast' which sounds similar, just different veg this year.

I tried  one last Monday and I've still got a few of the  potatoes left from the pre-Christmas 5p pack so cut one into wedges and popped in with the nut roast to roast.

The nut roast looked OK but had a very weird dry texture - when I eat the second in the pack I'll make some gravy to go with it............or maybe cheese sauce - not sure either sounds appealing to make it better but I'll persevere! It's nowhere near as nice as the homemade nut roast I made (after buying these frozen things - yes I'm an idiot!). I know I've said before that potatoes are my  least favourite vegetables and Never eat mashed- ugh. These cheap potatoes weren't very good either - very floury texture (variety was Electra and will be avoided in future)

On Wednesday I finally got around to cooking the red cabbage which was the last of the 5p things from Aldi before Christmas, I meant to do it boxing day but forgot and we had plenty of other veg anyway. Then kept putting it off as it needs a long time in the oven to braise nicely (I add onion and red wine vinegar and a bit of brown sugar) it's delicious done like that,  I can't eat it raw. Good thing red cabbage keeps for ages.

The  fruit and veg. bought New Years Day from Tesco on the way to Son's had all gone, as had several other bits of store-cupboard stuff and my list was bigger than usual....I don't like to get too short of store-cupboard food in January/February as you never know what the weather will be.......... so I popped to Aldi on Thursday early and detoured via Tesco on the way home for a couple of other  things before the weather turned nasty again.........much rain was forecast.

I know everyone loves looking at other peoples shopping so here you go, a HUGE (for me) shop. 

Although I'm not enthusiastic enough to go through it one by one!

Not in the photo as they went straight into the freezer were 2 x 4 pints milk, frozen peas and 2 UPF  things - mini vegetable spring rolls and Proactive cholesterol reducing spread (although the latter is classed as a useful UPF).  2 other UPF's are the Aldi Cheese and Onion rolls and the tub of Bisto cheese sauce. Vegetables are mini potatoes, celery, leeks, carrots, onions and Cavolo Nero kale. Fruit is a dozen apples and  3 packs of Aldi dried prunes. Store cupboard items are 2 tins salmon, rapeseed cooking oil, brown sugar, plain flour, spaghetti, decaf ground coffee and tomato sauce. Things that go in the fridge were 2 packs of extra mature cheddar, Shropshire blue cheese and butter.

Total spend was £58.69 (total food spend to date for January £66.94) and now I don't need to buy anything  for ages as I have plenty of things for the main part of a meal in the freezer.

There was no snow or gales in this part of Suffolk on Friday just plenty of heavy rain.......all day . Really nasty dismal day, I went nowhere.

Have a good weekend - I'll be back Monday

 

January Library Book Photo

 Oh My Goodness - so many books! all these  lovely library books collected, all books I'd reserved on line and almost all crime of course.

From the left -the new book by Kate Ellis in her Wesley Peterson Devon series; Another new book in the series about Owen Archer in Medieval York by Candace Robb; The second by Sally Smith featuring Gabriel Ward KC in Edwardian London. Next is the first of three Val McDermid books in her Karen Pirie series. I was going to wait until they appear on TV but there are no plans for season 3. Next in the picture is 'Spring' a non fiction book by Michael Morpurgo which might just be a section of his previous book 'All Around the Year' . Then the latest in the series by Chris Nickson featuring thief taker Simon Westow and set in 1800's Leeds. Next in the photo is Winter by Val McDermid - no idea what this is or why I reserved it. And again no idea what 'Gunner' by Alan Parks is all about. I thought I'd read all the updated Campion books by Mike Ripley but this one isn't in my book-of-books-read. The Queen who came in from the Dark (Should be Cold  thank you to Kirsten) is another by S.J.Bennett in which our late queen gets involved in solving crimes. The small paperbacks are Still Waters by ECR Lorac a recent publication by British Library Crime Classics. The last two are Murder in York by J R Ellis which I think I've failed with previously and something I don't know at all The Bone Road by N E Solomon.

I've still got four here from the December van visit when there were 13 brought home. I've read seven, and abandoned two. The books I read are on the December 2025 page or January 2026 Books Read page.

I need to stop writing this blog post and start reading PDQ!!

Cinema Visit? Weird Aircraft and a Good Book

There is much promoting at the moment of a film called Hamnet due out tomorrow. One of my very few trips to cinema in the last 10 years was to see the film  about Shakespeare.........All is True. This was about Shakespeare's last years when he returned from London to live with his family and him finding out the 'truth' about Hamnet's death. All is True was full of famous actors but didn't have much publicity. I'm thinking about going to see Hamnet, if I can be bothered. Could have sworn that I'd read the book by Maggie O' Farrell on which the film is based but no mention of it in my Book of Books Read, so obviously not.

A loud noise and rumbling over the bungalow and I looked out to see one of these . On the Globe  Watch Airplanes Live website it told me what it was an MV-22 belonging to USA Military, a cross between helicopter and VTOL plane. The odd thing was it seemed to start from a big Country house in Gloucestershire and land by the river on the Suffolk coast. Who knows what's going on.

I'm not at all sure about doing the jigsaw I mentioned yesterday, started sorting the edges and it didn't go well. So went back to reading The Red Shore by William Shaw and finished it - a really good story by a new-to-me author. (Sure, Shaw and Shore - no wonder people struggle to learn English!!)

He's written several others previously so might try one of those. The Red Shore is the first of a new series set in Teignmouth area of Devon - a lovely part of the country and features Detective Sergeant  Eden Driscoll, a Met. detective who suddenly finds his estranged sister, Apple, is missing and he has a young nephew he knew nothing about. Upon arrival at his sisters home in Teignmouth he begins to suspect that his sister wasn't just washed overboard  from her yacht - she would never have gone to sea at night or locked the boy - Finn- in a cabin. When he starts to investigate it brings back memories of his and Apple's own strange childhood and puts him and Finn in real danger. I've made a note to look for the next book in June. 

 I did manage a letter to one penfriend and walked up to the post box - the half inch of snow has gone but it was still very cold.