Here’s our menu for Day 12 of the All You Grocery Challenge:

Breakfast: We both had fruit.

Lunch:

We had toast, orange slices, salad, and eggs scrambled with seasonings and flaxseed. I know, I’ve been putting that flaxseed into everything since I got it! I like it because it’s nutritious and has a good flavor, so it’s a nice “extra” to toss into dishes.

Dinner:

For dinner, I wanted to do an approximation of a traditional English meal – meat & potato pie, mushy peas, and bread. First, I made a pie crust, then filled it with two cooked, chopped potatoes, cooked beef cubes, and 1 cup of gravy. (Normally I would add a lot more gravy, but the packet I bought didn’t make much!) Then I topped with a few dollops of butter, covered with a top crust, and poked the center with a fork.

I usually do my famous oil crust, but recently I’ve been making shortening crusts. Here is the recipe I used:

Shortening Pie Crust

Recipe from Betty Crocker’s Cook Book – makes an 8 or 9 inch one-crust pie

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening (I got a huge tub of palm shortening to review on Contest Corner, so that was what I used!)
2 to 3 tablespoons cold water

Measure flour and salt into bowl. Cut in shortening thoroughly. Sprinkle in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing until all flour is moistened and dough almost cleans side of bowl. (1 to 2 teaspoons water can be added if needed.) Gather dough into a ball and roll out.

I cooked the pie at 350 degrees for about half an hour or so – just until the pastry looked done.

In the meantime, I started making mushy peas. Now, you’ve heard me talking about these before – it’s a traditional side dish in Northern England, and I swear they are delicious, despite the somewhat unappetizing name and my sorry attempt at re-creating them last year! Thankfully, fellow ex-pat Clair of Mummy Deals sent me her tip for making mushy peas stateside. She takes regular dried split peas, boils them with a little extra salt, and covers them in malt vinegar. I followed her lead, and it turned out beautifully! Thanks Clair!!

I made a loaf of homemade bread to go with the meal, and then packed everything up in the insulated bag you see in the background and took it over to a friend’s house for dinner. This made a lot of food, so it fed 3 of us plus seconds and leftovers.

Here’s our menu for Day 11 of the All You Grocery Challenge:

Breakfast: Confession time: We ate ice cream for breakfast. And it was glorious.

Lunch:

We had grilled cheese sandwiches made with homemade bread, along with grapes and carrot sticks.

Dinner:

I defrosted two of the steaks I froze last week and heated them up for a quick dinner, served with salad. I used the same seasonings on the salad as I did the day before, and it was great. Super easy and delicious dinner!