Hello Dear Reader,
A million thanks to all the people who have clicked the link on the right to the MAD awards and have nominated me, if you haven’t and feel you would like to, then please nominate me as I need all the nominations I can get to go through to the voting round. Now back to my amazing revelation!
I’ve just eaten the most amazing thing………………celeriac chips! Like parsnip chips but with no points (I’m bi-lingual and can speak fluent Weight Watchers). I took a pack of salmon fillets from Aldi and smothered them in sticky soy, ginger and garlic sauce. I left them a while.
I peeled and chipped a celeriac, a quid in Aldi and sprayed them with oil and baked them in a very hot oven for thirty minutes. In the last five minutes, I put the salmon into the top of the oven and sprinkled some cherry tomatoes among our chips.
Here’s the score on the doors. Salmon 11 points for 200g and the marinade, which we have a cupboard full of from Approved Food is 2 points for half the pack. The tomatoes and celeriac chips have no points and the celeriac has the taste of parnip chips without the calories. They are utterly divine. This is not frugal and certainly not cheap, but this is my treat for the week and I’ll be back on the chick pea salad and lentil soup tomorrow.
Weight loss total for January is eight pounds and I’m sure I’m going to find one hundred things to do with celeriac at this rate!
It’s the last day of the month and payday for most of us so let’s all use the next few days to sort out meter readings, read our water meters, submit our readings online. Let’s set out budgets and check our spending for the month and put what we can into savings or throwing at debts. Let’s have a look in our food cupboards or pantry and put a plan in place to use what we have. Let’s write menus (rough will do for twenty meals, so all you have to do is rotate them.
Let’s make this the month we get a grip of our finances and make sure we get back control of what we spend and save. I’m going to give over February’s posts to taking back control of: wasting, saving, spending, eating, exercise and getting out and about.
Now, Dear Reader, do you do anything unusual with any veggies in particular? Anyone else discovered a vegetable and made better use of it? Anyone else fighting the flab and trying to shrink their waistline? Over to you and I always love hearing from you.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxx
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Beetroot pack - 39p -SS - Al.. this week. Cut into chunks - roast with other veggies - I toss mine in soy sauce + olive oil + sprinkle of brown sugar. Yummy.
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I had a great clasp on my money until an Uncle died in Preston, £140 train fare, new and first grandson due in Cambridge, £160+ train fare and car tax due at the end of Feb. Funeral is off the menu, visit to grandson OK and accounted for. Car tax already budgeted for. Roll on March.
Dianne - Hereford
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Yes, celeriac, a very under-appreciated vegetable.
Never used it as chips, just gotta try it next time there's some on the reduced shelf.
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thank you for this post. I too am doing ww and a lot of recipes want butternut squash - really sorry but i cant stand it but they put it in a lot of recipes as no points. Really looking forward to trying celariac instead 🙂
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Hi Froogs, well done on the weight loss! Looking forward to the February savings posts 🙂
Judy xx
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I started weight watchers just over 3 weeks ago . Lost 4 lbs the first week then caught a nasty flu type virus and ended up in hospital for 3 days . Stood on the scales today to find I had lost 1 stone !!!! . Pleased about the weight loss but not about the way I did it .
Have never tried celeriac chips will look in aldi tomorrow for one .
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it grows really easily for me. just let it get on with it. you could try to grow some
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Trying to lose weight too Froogs, not a good day…chocolate…still it's Lent next week and I will give it up… have done it before…Am a veggie so no meat or fish for me. Thought about joining the gym £50 a month plus £50 joining fee, wish I had the money. Congrats on your weight loss and gym visits. You are dedicated.
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I treated us to salmon tonight as well! Ours did not look as lovely as yours though- it was just whacked into the oven with some lemon and dill. I have never tried celeriac, you have inspired me to try it! Great weight loss for January- well done!
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Agree re celeriac, which is easy to grow too (and low in calories I believe)
My “problem” vegetable is jerusalem artichokes which are VERY VERY easy to grow, almost a weed! ( also low in calories) I really could do with recipes that include this vegetable. Any ideas Frugal Queen and followers?
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Got a celeriac sitting in the cupboard - can't wait to try your healthy chips out! And happy to give you a nomination. 🙂
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Do sweet potatoes and butternut squash have points as I do this with both of them - scrummy!!!
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Celeriac is a vegetable we can grow in the UK. Well we did it, even though failures in other areas!
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“I'm bi-lingual and can speak fluent Weight Watchers” - ROFL - best line I've read all year (and all of last year, too come to think of it). I feel the same way sometimes.
I'm intrigued with the idea of celeriac chips. I dislike celery quite a bit and only ever used to buy it to 'hide' in soups because I knew it was healthy. But celery in Germany almost always means celeriac - they really don't seem to like the 'stalks' here and seem to consider it a waste of a good vegetable or something. My problem is that celeriac tends to be so big I'm put off buying it because I don't know what to do (there's only so much soup I can get through and I live alone so no helpful other half to eat things). Right, am off now to see what my Good Housekeeping book says about freezing celeriac. Freezing chip-shape veg is somehow always more appealing than other shapes, somehow.
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Butternut squash Chips are sooooooo yummy too & free… Enjoy!! Hugs May x x x
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Delicious recipe! Salmon is so healthy and yet feels a bit extravagant. I always feel like a queen when eating it. As for veggie recipes, I find roasted veggies are the best. Everything seems to carmelize a little. (Roast peppers (red, green, yellow, orange) with potatoes, a little olive oil, yum!)
Pru
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Many vegetables can be made into oven baked chips or wedges. Roasted but looks like chips. Cut the vegs. Place in a bowl with a spoonful of oil. Stir and toss until coated. Pour onto a tray and bake in the oven while everything else happens. I learned this years ago in Weight Watchers. Less fat than bought oven chips. Try sweet potato, parsnip, beetroot and/or pumpkin. Try other vegs. It should work and you will get to know the temps and times that suit your oven.
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I love celeriac. It never appears on our home menu as last time I saw one it was over $8 Aus. Sounds like a lovely meal. Celeriac can make the most velvety soup and sprinkled with blue cheese it is lovely and a gizzillion points. My grocery bill was over $300 for the five of us this week but it was time to shop as I hadn't topped many things up since before Christmas.
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I've never tried celeriac, but will look for it. This meal looks yummy!
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Years ago I made sprout crisps from a Naked Chef book I think, seperate the leaves, apray wuith oil and bake in the oven. Reallhy intense sprout flavour. A friend who said he hated sprouts had them with his Christmas lumch and ate most of them
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We discovered the joy of roasted veggies this summer, besides potatoes which I have always done because they are my hubbies favourite thing to eat.
I started with beetroot after seeing it in the Good Food magazine. I also do carrot strips, sweet potato chunks and parsnip strips. All delicious. I don't bother with any oil though. Just in the oven, stir round half way through cooking. They all taste much sweeter when they are roasted.
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We discovered the joy of roasted veggies this summer, besides potatoes which I have always done because they are my hubbies favourite thing to eat.
I started with beetroot after seeing it in the Good Food magazine. I also do carrot strips, sweet potato chunks and parsnip strips. All delicious. I don't bother with any oil though. Just in the oven, stir round half way through cooking. They all taste much sweeter when they are roasted.
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I don't do anything 'unusual' with my veggies, but since discovering that most of them taste sooooo much better when slow roasted in the oven (especially onion wedges) that is the way we cook them the most. Once roasted they can be eaten as they are or added to so many other lovely dishes, pasta, pizza, quiche etc etc.
I must try it with celeriac, I haven't up to now and as lots of folk are saying they are SO easy to grow.
Sue xx
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Sometimes I make a roast chicken'n'veg dish which I think would be low in points: Put chicken bits(I usually use thighs,skinned) on a big oven tray with cut up root veg-turnip, carrots, squash, celeriac, whatever you want, and some whole garlic cloves, unpeeled, and an onion,cut up. Put in a tablespoon or so of oil,some salt and pepper, herbs,dried or fresh, and rub in. Bake in a medium oven about 30 mins or until nicely done. Hey presto-complete dinner. Squash the gorgeous garlic cloves over the veg and chicken.Delicious. You could serve it with a yogurt type dip.m
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Nominated! 😉
I recommend mashed cauliflower with or without the innards of roasted garlic cloves. Either way, it's an excellent substitute for potatoes, and also freezes well - and is a good thickener for soups. Yum!
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Hello Froogs,
I wanted to share an idea with you and your readers. I live in Dallas TX and twice a year, a church in Dallas, hosts a clothing swap. You fill grocery bags with your unwanted clothing and take them to the church two or three days ahead of the swap, or on the day, before doors open. You are given vouchers for empty bags equivalent to the amount of full bags you have taken and can then fill them with whatever you like. Similar to a jumble sale only no money changes hands. They have all sorts, ladies, mens, childrens, teens, bags and shoes. I have come away with some really nice things.
You can also buy empty bags to fill for $5, if you do not have clothes to donate. Most times I give more than I bring away, the leftovers are donated to charity.
They sell tea, lemonade and cookies also to make a little money.
Its a fun experience, I have been away from the UK so long, I do not know if you have any such events, but I thought I would mention it as food for thought. It could even be done on a small scale with a group of like minded people.
Love your blog, I voted for you!
Pam.x
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I have a new love - roasted carrot sticks. The roasting process brings out a rich sweetness in the carrots, delicious. I also love baked kale chips. They come out crispy like potato chips but are much better for you. I recently tasted these at a “raw foods” booth at a farmer's market. They had been made using a food dehydrator instead of the oven (but since I don't have a food dehydrator, I'm sticking with my oven)and they were also good. I love gazpacho soup too as it's a great way to use a bunch of veg.
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