Living richly; simply and debt-freely

Good Evening :hello:

How are things with you?

They are ok at Greying Towers.

I was thinking of INOD yesterday - quite a regular occurrence actually I had finally got round to sorting out my CD's and bagged them up - something that had been on my kondo list before I even discovered about kondoing! I took them into the charity shop yesterday. Sure, I could have got 30p a disc from that online place, and I know it would have been the :money: thing to do. But do you know what.... I find the whole putting in of the CD equivalent of an ISBN a little bit soul-destroying - especially when the answer is *30p*. Can it not once have been 42..... pence? :rotfl:

I've kept about 10 CD's. I'm in two minds about several of them, and then there are several that I probably will keep, for one reason or another - ABBA 'Gold', because you can sing along to every track and not get bored of them; Miles Davis's 'Kind of Blue' - because I remember where I bought it..... a record store, in the Twin Towers, NYC 1999; Buena Vista Social Club - just because :cool: ................... But the rest? Not played in yonks, and not missed. I'm finding that with a lot of the things that I've parted with. I'm not missing them, I didn't use them, they were just taking up space, which I'm afraid begs the question, why the h*ll did I buy them in the first place?

We just watched the second instalment of Kevin McCloud's prog about folks who've decamped to other parts of the globe in search of a simpler life. He mentioned; whilst putting adobe onto a wall of an earth ship house, that human beings tend to fall into 2 groups: buyers and consumers or makers and creaters. I thought as he said that, are many of us guilty of just buying stuff to *fit in*, or keep up with fashion? I'm not sure that I ever liked Britpop. I'm really not sure why I even bought a couple of CD's from groups that are supposed to have defined the 'era'.

If we ever do get to move, our next abode can be ever so wee; we'll have nowt to put in it! :rotfl: I have just read Francine Raymond's book (all the back garden chicken keepers will know who she is ), about moving from Suffolk to Whitstable in Kent. She says the same about having too much stuff, getting rid at the 'old' home end and then still having unopened boxes at the 'new' home end, that eventually become 'stock' for carboot sales and Christmas fayres. I think starting on the decluttering route is the key, not necessarily how quickly you complete it, unless for some reason there is a strictly imposed deadline. I think having started on the decluttering at Greying Towers, I have actually got rid of far more stuff - and been 100% about everything that has gone - even if it has been a longer process than I thought it would be. I even managed (finally) to declutter equipment that has been at the parentals - since I left home! It brought back some wonderful memories, as I looked through it all, but the next morning, it went straight to the charity shop - where I hope it has sold, and is now bringing joy to someone else.

Dinner this evening should have been soup - according to the planner, but now the avocadoes have finally agreed to ripen, and I had some asparagus to use up, I decided on a salad bowl instead.



I used a peeler to peel the purple asparagus, which is nice to eat raw - tastes like raw peas This was tossed in some vinaigrette. The avocado was chunked - although the one in the pic was just roughly broken up by hand - a lovely big avocado disappointed a little, since the stone inside it was HUGE and the avocado flesh very thin :rotfl:I steamed some millet and then shoved it into a mould to make it look poncy There is mixed salad leaves (mrL) with a boiled egg on top and then a yellow and red tomato basil salad. Sesame seeds and nigella seeds are sprinkled over, with a little sumac. And I couldn't resist making some citrus miso dressing and drizzling a little of that over as well. Funnily enough, it was quite a cheap bowl of food, using up gifts and leftovers

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

that sometimes I remember to just get it done - rather than pontificating about the why/wherefores and unfairnesses.........

being able to do a good deed for DP - he does so much for me

good customer service

Thanks for popping in, reading and joining in. I do appreciate it. Greatly.

See y'all later.

Greying x

Good Evening :hello:

Well, I'm about fit to wilt. How are you?

So today's MSE *win* was remembering that I had no citrus - and considering that our dinner was to have an Asian twist, this was a bit of an oversight on my part - and subsequently dropping into mrW on the way home, to find that they'd YS'd their limes down to 10p each :j I bought 4. That did, of course, then leave me with the dilemma of; do I make tea as planned? or do I make mojitos and invite gallygirl round? :rotfl:

Having snagged a bargain on the limes, I'm not convinced that our meal actually constituted an example of 'frugal fayre' It was a little bit pricey, and considering it was in the vein of a Buddha bowl, I think that I may have to revisit 'Frugal Food 101' - lessons for dummies

I got the inspiration for our meal from a dish on the menu of a Vegan Bar in Portland, OR, USA. No, I have not been there But I like the look of their menu, their drinks list and their decor I wish I was a hipster

The dish that captured my imagination was termed the 'Samurai Bowl'. I looked up what the characteristics of a Samurai warrior were purported to be. According to the internet, so it may not be true..... they were; justice, loyalty, self-sacrifice, refined manners, sense of shame, purity, modesty, frugality, martial spirit, honour and affection. Not a bad list. I perhaps am more Samurai warrior (re-cycled) than hipster, as I am currently a little shameful of something that I have done. I won't go into detail, but it's not my finest hour. It can be summed up as taking on a *fool* and getting dragged down to their level, where they soundly beat me by their vastly superior experience Isn't that how that saying goes? Whilst they have probably forgotten the encounter, I am still smarting that I lost my composure, even if I believed at the time that my intentions were honourable I'm in need of a *re-boot* on so many levels. Or perhaps I just need a boot up the bum?

Anyway, I had popped the 'name' down on the meal-planner with no real idea of how it would be interpreted. Although I knew that I wasn't going to use nutritional yeast - it's not something I have in my storecupboard and the budget is blown I bought some tofu - not cheap, and by the time you've pressed it, it is about half the weight that you started with as the water comes out. I had some sushi rice, bought cheap in HB, so that was the 'starch'. I bought a pointy cabbage (49p mrM) and cut the leaves away from the stems. I chopped up and steamed the leaves and put the stems (chopped) into a kind of stir-fry with some onion and garlic, YS'd carrots, a few frozen peppers and a few frozen green beans. This veg was then dressed with spicy miso chilli sauce (lots of versions on the net). I then sliced up the tofu into 4 pieces (DP's portions were larger) and used a mix of rice flour, cornmeal, sesame seeds, onion seeds, chilli flakes, crushed coriander and cumin seeds to coat the tofu pieces. I fried these off in a bit of oil. Whilst the tofu pieces were cooking, I made up a tangy coriander lime dressing, which I actually added an avocado to it as well (the remaining 2 really ripe ones are round, which seems to indicate a large stone and little flesh, so not a lot of avocado really.....). I think that my *drizzling* technique needs a load more work - i've got to repurpose a *squeezy* bottle from somewhere - but the result was this *Samurai wannabe bowl* (Greying Style ).......



It took ages to make, and it's not really a dish for a week night because of the prep - and DP will tell you, because of the resultant washing up..... But I'm glad that I had a go, and I would make it again. Let's hope that all the 'good stuff' that went into it, elevates me to a higher plane.........

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

the loan of some equipment - try before you buy

NHS care for the parentals

culinary exploration - needed time in the kitchen this evening

Thanks so much for popping in and reading. I do continue to greatly appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying x

PS - perhaps the re-boot has started. I did make yoghurt yesterday and it turned out successfully overnight. I had got out of the habit of making it (silly me ). Funny how DP - former king of 'synthetic' yoghurt with neon pink 'strawberry' or anything described as 'toffee' being the preferred options, bemoaned the lack of plain, HM yoghurt! :rotfl: So DP's a happy bunny once again this evening. I got something right I'll amend my siggie figgie accordingly