Some comfort foood was required. Also, it’s cold, so I decided to use the oven.

Grated cheese. That’s all I needed to buy, and it was 1,24€ for a small packet which covered the mashed potatoes and goodness inside. I used a 250g packet of Céréal Bio vegetable mince “façon Bolognaise” which was in the cupboard. When I get round to replacing it, I’ll end up spending 2,54€.

  • Mince (of some kind)
  • a large onion
  • garlic
  • celery
  • carrots
  • mushrooms
  • tomato purée
  • potatoes
  • cheese
  • parsley
  • Herbes de Provence

Chop the onions, celery, carrots, and mushrooms roughly (this is a rustic cottage, remember) and fry in oil or butter with chopped garlic until starting to look tender. Add the vegetable mince and a squirt of tomato purée, the herbs and seasoning. Add some water or passata if it’s looking a little dry. If it’s not Dry January, perhaps some wine.

Meanwhile, boil the potatoes, then mash them. Keep some of the water to add back if you want them creamy.

When ready, pour the vegetable mixture into an oven dish and then spoon the mashed potato over the top. Sprinkle with cheese (if necessary) then cook in the oven (set to “on”) until the top is starting to brown.

I’d have added paprika too for some earthy, but I don’t appear to have any. Frozen peas go nicely in the mixture as well but my fridge is having some kind of existential crisis and the freezer compartment is now a solid block of ice in which, somewhere, old things lurk.

Eat.

There has been shopping. I went mad in SuperU on Tuesday and bought some biscuits, bread, and milk: 6,91€ (there were reductions). Yesterday I bought some fruit and veg from Biocoop (11,69€) and some sundries from Intermarché including more Baked Beanz (8,95€).

This brings the month so far to 60,22€ which is 4,63€ a day.