The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Good Evening :hello:

We've been having a swell(tering!) time Lucky enough to spend Father's Day together as a family. Mucho fun and laughter was had And egg sangers, no-sausage rolls and HM cake........

I'm delighted to report that I took baby steps towards achieving my challenge targets again today. It was toooooooooooo hot to be outside, so we stayed in the relative coolness (I did say relative......... ) of the house, and Baby Greying decided that snoozing was really a good way of beating the heat I was able to work around them, pottering with mini-tasks that had either been sitting and niggling for yonks or which will contribute to helping us achieve the BIG stuff on the challenge list Every little helps us along

I was sad to learn of Brian Cant's death. As others have said, he was one of the sounds of my childhood. 'Pugh, Pugh, Barney Mcgrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb' :D:D:D:D:D

Tea this evening was a made-up pasta dish - at least I think it is made up - that I have been cogitating on for a while. I bought some straight (rather than elbow) macaroni from MrM last week, with the intention of making it into a pasta dish. And I don't know why, but I wanted to add mini mozarella, black olives and green beans to it. So I did I also used the italian dressing recipe to dress it all, with some garlic thrown it. I wish I had microplaned the garlic in, it was a bit harsh But overall it kinda worked, and sort of looked like the picture I had of it in my head. Picture of DH's plate;



Today i am grateful for these 3 things;

refuge from the heat

reminders of childhood

re-awakening my mojo - hope I can keep it going

Ta for popping by and reading. Appreciated.

Greying X

rtandon27 wrote: »

Small giggle for you...

Tried to click on your first link & work computer said it was a forbidden site! Hovered to discover it was called 'frugalvillage' - obviously work thinks being frugal is a no-no!?!;):rotfl:

rtandon - I can only imagine that your 'corporate' computer is saving you from yourself and encouraging you to remain in the consumer mainstream! :rotfl: I've just had a little canter around the Frugal Village site - looks quite good actually, and there are sub-sections for 'Frugal Canadians' and 'Frugal Europeans' (assume the site is US) - obviously subversive activity, swapping jam recipes and knitting patterns!!

But EH - it was never through the round window Always the boring square window or the slightly more architecturally interesting arch window! Surprised someone didn't write a PhD on the times each of the windows were picked, or not

Ach, I think BG has got overly hot or bothered today or something, they have been a niggle bottom all morning - although they were impeccably behaved when we were out - for which I'm grateful. They are having a snooze now, hopefully they will relax and unwind and wake up refreshed.

I picked up the TV guide, some bananas, a cucumber and some cherry toms, up the high street. I was niggled to find that one of the salad tommies that I got in Aldee on Sunday was going mouldy. I cut the top off and used it in my sandwich for lunch. I know that they were only 49p for 6, but still. It's definitely going to be squeaky-bum with the food budget this month. Clearly I cannot bulk buy bags of rice out of the month's budget, without it having an adverse effect on cash-flow later in the month. It does irritate me though, as the food I have bought has been predominantly 'good' stuff, you know; fruit, veg, nuts, pulses, yoghurt etc. I think the only 'luxury' stuff I have bought has been some halloumi and I've bought some (frozen) cod to try a new recipe. Not exactly 'eating like kings' nor' dining on junk' are we? Oh, thinking about it, I bought into the mrL cheese offer too, so there is another £8 that was spent on food that will last longer than just this month (now that I'm back in charge of cheese rationing :rotfl:)

Right, I best make hay whilst BG naps.

Ta for popping in and chatting. Appreciated.

Greying X

Good Evening :hello:

:wave: to beanie

Well, I've had to do a cash adjustment and 'repay' my current month's food budget the money that I paid out for the rice and cheese. It's still going to be squeaky, squeaky as it is, just buying the basics. Ah well. Suppose it would be boring if it t'were easy........... :rotfl:

I have also put in a bit of a 'float' for the 'bulk buys'. The money has come from my savings account, but I need to cut myself a bit of slack. Hopefully when it is up and running, it'll all even out and there will be money in the 'bulk purchases' pot each time they need to be made/opportunities present themselves.

I popped into the market 'all just to use the loo But couldn't resist going past the 'outrageously priced greengrocery stall'. Lemons there are now 25% more expensive than m&$ :eek: I bought some lemons from HB - 5 for a pand.

My shopping in HB came to just shy of £10 - it was just for nick-nacky bits - no real 'food' as such; herbs, coffee, lemons, risotto rice, coconut milk etc :eek:

Tea last night was as described in my post of the morning. It was OK - you have to like pulses to like it I think..... And whilst it was room temperature, it probably was a bit too heavy for the weather...... Picture here;



Tea this evening was a bit of a bodge. I knew I wanted to use rice, and then I figured I'd use the remaining pieces of smoked aubergine bake out of the freezer and throw together some salad. I boiled up some brown rice. Defrosted the bake. Luckily DH managed to snag the last bag of wild rocket in mrL for 45p (PotW), and I knew I had tomatoes and cucumber to do something with. I did my tried and trusted oil and balsamic dressing for the tomatoes, and just let them sit, but I knew I didn't want to do a 'creamy' cucumber side. Orf onto the 'puter I went and came across a recipe that sounded fresh and different, so I had a bash at The Best Cucumber Salad - yeh, like eva*......... :rotfl:I made a yoghurt/mayo dressing with diced,roasted red pepper and smoked paprika to 'drizzle' (or should that be drip :think:) over the bake and rocket leaves. Threw it all on a plate and it looked a bit like this;



The cucumber salad is a keeper for me. I didn't have any dill, so I crushed a little bit of fennel seed up and mixed it with parsley - apparently dill is a member of the parsley family - to add to the sliced cucumber. I didn't have salad onion, but did remember to microplane the garlic tonight - made the world of difference :cool: The salt draws out the cucumber 'water' and it really makes a nice salad.

Today i am grateful for these 3 things;

wonderful kindness and thoughfulness from a stranger

for seizing the initiative, rather than waiting for others to act - helped us take a tiny step forward with our priorities too

for a relaxed conversation with my husband at the tea-table - a real treat for us both, even if an hour did evaporate into the ether.......

Ta for popping in, reading and joining in. Appreciated.

Greying X

* releasing my inner teenager - soz! :cool: