Day 6 - my spending so far!

Tuesday was unusually warm and sunny so mini and I headed off to the beach to meet friends. This turned out to be quite an expensive trip, especially due to the gorgeous beach side brasserie!

Trip to Langland:
Car park £2.50
Bucket and spade £2.50
Coffee, squash, chips £7.40
Ice cream for mini £3.95

Total £16.35

This was definitely unnecessary spending but as I'm sure you've noticed the sun has the effect of making people spend money. I didn't feel too bad as I hadn't spent anything so far and I was on a foraging trip that evening which I felt would balance it out.
The foraging trip itself was excellent and I would recommend it to anyone. The trip I went on was with WI so we had a guide but you could easily DIY with a book from the library (an excellent source of freeness!). We went to the woods in Parkmill,Gower and our guide Dawn told us what we could and couldn't eat and the best way of preparing our foraged goodies, I even ate a raw stingy nettle and it was great tasted like runner beans which I love. I came away with a bag full of wild garlic, wood sorrell, nettles and ash keys all free courtesy of natures larder.

Wednesday turned out to be another day of spending with a trip to the shops necessary as we had run out of mini's favourite Dora the explorer pasta shapes, at times these are the only thing he will eat so we cannot be without them (disappointing for a foodie mum like me but thats another blog!). I spent £24 in Sainsbury's, which although a chunk of my budget was on essentials - Okay okay and £4 on the union jack bunting bag for life that seduced me.
I had 3 meals planned using my foraged goodies the first of which we had today, nettle and wild garlic soup. Sounds scary but it was delicious, even my very fussy husband enjoyed it.

Nettle and Wild Garlic Soup Recipe:
This makes a vibrant green soup that is both delicious and nutritious!
Quantities are not exact and they needn't be with soups like this. Soups are an excellent way of using up things youve got hanging around.
2 onions finely chopped
large handful wild garlic finely chopped
large handful of nettles scalded (scalding removes the stingy part)
1 tablespoon pearl barley
1 tablespoon lentils
1 knorr chicken stock pot (any stock pot/liquid or cube is fine)
olive oil

lightly fry the onions in the olive oil to soften, you don't want to brown them just spften until they become translucent. Add the pearl barley and lentils and again fry lightly for a few minutes.
Next add the nettles and wild garlic mix well with other ingredients and continue to fry lightly.
Dissolve the stock in a pint of boiling water add this to the saucepan and top up with a further litre or so of boiling water.
Bring to the boil, leave to simmer over a low heat for about an hour.
Blitz soup to remove the lumps.
The soup can be served with cream as a cream of version but I prefer it without.

Potato can be used instead of pearl barley and lentils, thats just what I had lurking in the cupboard.
This soup went well with the wheaten soda bread that I found at the bottom of the freezer, and was very filling.

Thursday. With father's day on Sunday we needed to get a card and present sent to my father in law in North Yorkshire, cue more spending.
Mini and I made him some yummy hazelnut cookies with ingredients we already had so they cost us nothing - so far so good. To send these first class recorded cost £3.65 and the moon pig picture card was £6.45 including postage. This is a lot less than we would normally spend but still £10.10 which means I have now gone over budget and spent £50.45.

Today's main meal was a Spanish omlette:
My version of the Tortilla Espanol using wild garlic, chorizo and Jersey royals.
5 eggs lightly beaten
6 potatoes boiled and cooled (ideal for leftovers)
Chorizo ring sliced (I used half a ring)
1 onion finely chopped
Handful of Wild Garlic finely chopped
sea salt
Black pepper
Olive oil

Wood Sorrell to serve

Use the olive oil to saute the onions and chorizo in a frying pan until the oil starts to be released from the chorizo, add the wild garlic and thinly sliced potatoes and mix thoroughly until all coated with the oil.
beat the eggs and season with salt and black pepper.
Pour the egg mixture into the pan completely covering the other ingredients.
Turn the heat down and cook on the hob for approx 3 mins.
When the egg is cooked about half way through place frying pan under a medium grill for 4-5mins to cook the top.
When the top is golden brown your omlette is ready.
Tip out onto a plate and cut into wedges and serve with freshly foraged wood sorrell (or salad!)