Sunday 14 June 2020

Living on a Box - Day Three


Breakfast - One Slice of Toast with Peanut Butter and an Apple

I rarely eat apples, but when I do I tend to go for Golden Delicious or Royal Gala,  and this Gala apple was absolutely delicious.  Crispy cold straight from the fridge it went so well with the toast ... and of course a black coffee.


But it wasn't a particularly filling breakfast and after a spot of hoovering up a hoover-full of dog and cat fur ... why aren't they bald by now the amount of fur I've hoovered up recently they should be ... I needed a couple of little biscuits with my next cup of coffee before I set to to make tonight's tomatoey pasta sauce.

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Tomato and Pepper Pasta Sauce

1 pack of Passata
2 Onions, finely chopped
2 Carrots, washed and grated
3 little Sweet Peppers, deseeded and chopped finely
Garlic Granules
Mixed Herbs
Sprinkle of Chilli Flakes
A good squirt of Tomato Ketchup
Salt and Pepper
Water

Sauté the onions on their own for a few minutes then add the peppers and then the carrots and everything else.  Fill the passata tub with water from the kettle to rinse it out and add that to the pan.

Bring to the boil and then simmer gently for an hour or so.


You can leave it chunky as it is or whizz it up as I did after this photo was taken.

This made four plastic takeaway containers of pasta sauce, one went into the fridge and the other three are now in the freezer.  

Adding tomato ketchup to sauces is a genius idea.  I think I picked it up off Jamie Oliver's lockdown recipes.  If you think about it the ketchup is already a mixture of concentrated tomatoes and various herbs and spices, which when added to any recipe give a degree of rounded mellowness that I have never had before.

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Lunch - a Hummus and Salad Bun 
...with the additional bits of tomato on the side.


The contents of the bun.


Dinner - Pasta and Sausage Bake.
With peas and Cheese

I have decided that I really do not like these Heck Meat-Free Sausages one little bit.  Unusually for me they have gone straight into the bin.  If I hadn't done that they would possibly have been used again and left on the side of the plate as these pieces were,  now they are gone I will have no choice but to re-plan the menu.

I honestly would rather go hungry than eat them again.  However the rest of the pasta bake was delicious and I will definintely be making my tomato sauces with passata from now on and adding a squirt of tomato ketchup.


Sue xx
📦



13 comments:

  1. Well at least you tried the sausages. The ragu type sauce is so useful to have ready prepared.

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    1. I think it's just that I don't like sausages with too meaty a texture, and these were like that, apart from the fact that although they smelled nice they didn't have much flavour.

      Obviously when I had one in a bun the first day of the Challenge it was the onion and ketchup that gave it flavour, hence me not realising straight away.

      Delete
  2. I add tomato sauce to baked beans - they really enhance the sauce.
    Your tomatoey sauce is very similar to what I do - it tasted brilliant. Even better, when I use home grown tomatoes - then it a taste of heaven!
    xx

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    1. I've never really used ketchup this way before, it's a gamechanger isn't it. It was worth doing this Challenge just to pick up this tip :-)

      Homegrown tomatoes just enhance the flavour of any sauce or meal to a whole new level don't they.

      Delete
  3. I have used leftover ketchup for a long time - with four kids there's always that empty bottle or three in the fridge. Just pour some water, shake and finally it's empty and clean and can be put to recycling bin. I usually use some apple jam ( apple sauce), too, in tomato based sauces. Many receipes ask for sugar, and apple jam is sweet.

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    1. When my boys were growing up ketchup was on the shopping list EVERY week, they had it on everything. I've only ever used it on hot dogs or sausage butties ... until now!!

      I'm the opposite, I tend to miss out sweet additions to savoury recipes if I can as I have lost my sweet tooth over the years.

      Delete
  4. I've never tried the Heck sausages. I like Linda McCartney ones best because I don't like veggie things which taste too much like meat either. That's why I sometimes buy spicy veg burgers rather than the ones which try to imitate meat ones. Your food looks delicious.

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    1. I'm exactly the same, I don't usually like anything that tries to replicate meat. I think the 'mince' that I have for this Challenge is the first tasty thing I have found that is trying to be meat-like and that I will possibly eat in the future.

      For burgers I like the 'compressed vegetables' ones the best with bean and lentil burgers a close second. I bought some of the Vivera 'steaks' when they first came out and could barely bring myself to try them. They lived in the fridge until the date was up and then were cooked, tasted and thrown away. Never again!!

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  5. I like bean burgers, but never tried vegetable sausages, youngest son likes vegetable sausages, but then he does eat meat. I think I have a problem with things that try to replicate meat, if that makes sense, I am an odd one, as I eat poultry and fish, but no meat. Have you tried Glamorgan Sausages? I have a recipee if you'd like, it was my grandmothers and dates back to the late 1940's. I now want peanut butter, it looks so lush. Helen S.

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    1. I have, they are usually quite tasty if you use the right cheese. I find the Applewood Smokey vegan cheese is good for them 😃

      I gave up red meats first, bacon being the last red meat I ever ate, chicken was easy to give up ... once I started keeping chickens 😃

      I'm currently sat outside on the patio while Alan is making himself some bacon buns, the smell makes me feel ill ☹️

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  6. I had the exact same breakfast as you this morning and lunch (after a very long walk) will be a plate of raw veg with the last of the hummus!
    I often add a squirt of tomato sauce to things like mince or stew - as you say - it's concentrated tomato with spice so it often adds that little boost of flavour.

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  7. Snap ... it was very tasty. I should eat apples much more often than I do 😃

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  8. Shame about the sausages but it happens. A while back I bought some Sainsbury’s Love Your Veg “Green vegetable risotto balls”. So foul I ended up spitting out the food in my mouth and binning the lot. Disgusting texture and mouth-feel, and the taste was just weird. Sainsbury’s Nut Roast (frozen one) went the same way . . .

    If you want a scrummy sausage I am currently hooked on the Cauldron fresh sausages - you can freeze them, and cook either from frozen or defrosted.

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