Sunday 23 November 2014

Fruit and nut case

Good evening. Another wet day, but not to worry, plenty to do indoors. I must say, it's a pleasure spending time in my living room now with it's much improved layout. I can shuffle backwards and forwards from sewing machine to computer on my wheelie chair. It's got a feeling of much more space, I am not cramped up on one table. More sewing today, no pics of that because there is nothing finished yet. 
Let's talk about healthy food. I bought a lot of fruit on yellow stickers and the easiest and quickest way to eat it is to make smoothies. Yesterday was banana, melon, and grapes, with added yogurt, also yellow sticker at 39p.
Today was mango, apple, and nectarine, plus added yogurt again. There was also a little pot of red berry juice in the pack. 
It was gorgeous. Now what do you do when it sticks to the blender? Lick it off of course.

Someone asked about the exotic fruit. £1 per pack of three, yellow sticker price, 10p. Here it is, the first one is cut open. It's the size of a satsuma with a smooth orange skin.

No idea how to eat it, so I scooped it out with a teaspoon. No pips in it. Tasted very sweet and not particularly fruity. There is nothing to say on the packet what it is.

I ran out of my favourite peanut butter a few weeks ago and can't bring myself to pay the silly prices for an upgrade. My idea is to make some in the food processor. Here we go, one bag of KP nuts, 360 grm, bought from the cash and carry for £1. Nothing else added.
After a couple of minutes it looks the right texture.

I transferred it into a margarine tub and put it in the fridge. Taste wise it would have been a whole lot better if I had washed the salt off first. Oooops, I forgot. Never mind, it will get eaten, and now I know it works I will be making more, with plain unsalted peanuts, or washed salted ones.

Tonights dinner was experimental. As I had messed up the mixer I thought I might as well use it again. A few peanuts are fine in this made up recipe. A can of chick peas, drained and rinsed. One medium size onion, a few radishes and a few button mushrooms, the last limp spring onions, and some chopped walnuts. I added pepper, garlic powder, and turmeric. Chop and mix it up, leaving it a bit coarse. Then add two eggs to bind it. It seemed a bit too wet so I added two spoons of porridge oats. 
Make some scone size patties with it and grill on a low gas for 20 minutes turning them over once.

I had seven for dinner with wholegrain mustard, iceberg lettuce and lentil sprout mix. It was smashing, very filling, and best of all, I know exactly what went in them. Enough mix left for tomorrow. I have noticed that vegetarian food in the freezer and chiller cabinet has gone up in price, so I will be buying less of it and making my own more often.

That's all for tonight folks. Thank you for popping in.
Toodle pip

24 comments:

  1. Your exotic fruit look like Sharon fruit. You eat them like apples.

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  2. My old man says thats a sharon fruit. He's not being clever...just googled in orange coloured fruit ! ha ha

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  3. That's one of my go to ideas: make patties! I love them, and, as you say, I know what went into them.

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  4. Those mystery fruits are persimmons! :) Your peanut butter looks lovely.

    Laura Z

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  5. Hi Ilona, the mystery fruit is a persimmon, which I knew growing up as a Sharon fruit!

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  6. Once again you surprise us with your wonderful food creations.
    Your funny fruit is called a Sharon Fruit, btw. It`s a native fruit to the Middle East, but mainly Israel.

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  7. I think the fruit might be Sharon fruit. I tried it once and thought it was a bit odd - maybe it's the same thing! Not sure what you're supposed to do with it either! Oh well! Linda J.

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  8. It's a Sharon Fruit. You can eat all of it except the stalk, no need to peel, as with many fruits the most vitamins are just under the skin. They can be frozen too.

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  9. Your "exotic fruit" is a persimmon.

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  10. The unknown fruit is a persimon, I bought some recently, you just cut the stalk off and eat everything else but I thought they were rather dull....

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  11. Ilona, what you have are Persimmons: http://www.wikihow.com/Eat-a-Persimmon

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  12. That orange fruit is a persimmon, also known as a sharon fruit. If it wasn't gorgeous, then it was probably a bit under-ripe. I always eat them like you did, with a teaspoon.

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  13. I believe your mystery fruit is a persimmon.

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  14. Oh, that smoothie looks sooo good.It's rare hits and lots of misses at our No Frills grocery or Sobey's reduced produce cart.So have been sticking to cheaper fruits and vegetables when I get out shopping which disappoints.I will enjoy trying out the chick pea recipe-yum! Homemade, from scratch cooking is always so much better I think.You really know the bargains,Ilona.The nuts here are very pricey,and a very small bag of chopped walnuts is $3.49.I was away from the computer and just read your previous posts and enjoyed them all very much. Regards, Destemona

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  15. The orange fruit is a persimmon or Sharon fruit. Very tasty if ripe. You can just peel it , slice it and eat it . I sometimes eat it with the skin too. Nice in fruit salad too.

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  16. persimmons are lovely, best when a bit soft. great peanut butter. I got half price ricotta cheese last night and quarter price fresh juice and I thought of you, and bread nearly one third the price. Small winnings! :-))

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  17. Hi,
    I found out about your blog from this blog below, as it had a link to Frugal Queen, which had a link to you. Now, this woman hasn't written since mid 2013 and I was wondering if she's ok. Blog care?
    http://makinggooduse.typepad.co.uk/making_good_use/2013/07/lights-out.html#comments

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  18. The exotic fruit is a persimmon Ilona.

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  19. Those fruits are now called Sharon Fruits, they used to be Persimmon. I agree with you, they just taste sweet, a bit like shop cakes, all look and no substance. Well done on all the fruity bargains. I like fruit chopped into yogurt and sometimes just blitz it long enough to leave small chunks in, then a scoop of bran flakes or my muesli mix stirred in. Instant pudding or breakfast.

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  20. Wow, I love the look of the patties you made. I would fry mine as my grill is patchy at best. The orange fruit is a persimmon they come from Asia. You can eat them as you did or they make lovely chutney addition. Love catching up with what you blog about.

    Jo in Auckland, NZ

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  21. Oh yes, lfe on wheels is the way to go. In my sewing room I started off with J's office chair, but when he wanted it back, we found a padded stool on wheels, the sort the beauticians use and that's brilliant for scooting between sewing machine and ironing board. I was interesetd to see your peanut butter as another blog I follow made some last week. I buy it at the wholefoods shop, just peanuts, nothing added, but I shall try making my own when the tub is empty.
    I love it that you are an instinctive cook, just add stuff til it looks right :-)

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  22. Dear Ilona, the strange orange fruit is a persimmon. I like the hard quality you bought, and eat it in slices usually.
    There is another quality, very soft and sweet and mushy inside when ripe, but I don't like it because of its texture.
    Each of them are good to make jam, I love it.
    Thank you for your blog, I read you every day. Hugs from Italy :-)

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  23. I think they are persimmons or sharon fruit as it is called sometimes in the u.k. They make an appearance in the autumn and are used for pies etc. around Thanksgiving.

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  24. Persimmons (here in the US) and they are so good. My daughter learned of them when she was doing her "A-Levels" in England about 25 years ago - the girls would chip in and buy a couple, to share, when they went down to London. Here the price of them is very high.

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