Eager Elephant's Effective Everyday Excursion ...

Sun_Addict

You can guarantee when one thing goes wrong more follow suit I've shrunk the t shirt on that front!

crazy_cat_lady

Fingers crossed for a very cheap fix EE

Eager_Elephant

Car went to garage today and has been fixed - yippee!!


No bill as garage are lovely and invoice me by post so will try to pay that bill next week when i pay for the washing machine to get all my spends in one day!!


As you know I post on Ninja Saving Turtles and I am doing a shameless copy and paste from the other day just in case I need to look back and remember my decision:

Someone up thread mentioned an epiphany with their evening meal and eating with their children - it must be the day for it as I have also had an epiphany about my family's evening meal.
Every evening I cook a meal of some description and about once every 2 weeks I announce I am not cooking and the family do their own tea - usually pizza or cereal.
Today it dawned on me that DD has a hot meal for school dinners and DH has a 2 course hot meal at lunchtimes (since he started working in a school) so why am I slaving after a full day at work to cook another hot meal????
So I have announced that from tomorrow I will no longer be cooking a meal that takes longer than 15mins for tea and instead I will do beans/egg on toast or even bacon sandwiches and if people are still hungry they can have a dessert or piece of fruit - DH agrees and says he won't argue. DD has announced she doesn't eat a hot meal as she is always too late for lunch - I told her to get a grip and get to lunch on time as I am not cooking in the week.

It's going well so far - I have had bacon, eggs and toast 2 nights running. DH has had hot cross buns 2 nights running and DD is on strike - last night she had an orange and so far tonight she has had nothing (I actually suspect (from the evidence in the kitchen) that she is eating when she gets in from school!!


Saving me loads of time and last night I actually had time to watch a TV programme!!

mummytogirls

You know EE I never thought of that with the lunch time hot meals!

Wouldn't work for us as kids always have packed lunches, good idea though and I'm glad its working for you guys xx

Bobarella

Yum to bacon egg and toast for tea. Perfectly good meal!

brizzledfw

Bobarella wrote: »

Yum to bacon egg and toast for tea. Perfectly good meal!

Yep. That would hit the spot for me too

I would like to do this but we host a student (2 at the moment) and my DH and I have a cold lunch at work usually, sometimes reheated leftovers. So need to sort a dinner in evenings. But....the saving grace is definitely batch cooking. A frozen HM lasagne from the freezer and salad/green veg is simple to make, v quick and we tend to eat it now once a week :T

reality_check

You should make use of a slow cooker if you've got one - I love mine!! Some great fb groups xx

Savvy_sewing

reality_check wrote: »

You should make use of a slow cooker if you've got one - I love mine!! Some great fb groups xx

I made a Thermal cooking bag after following Memory Girls blog. I make them occasionally for others now.
Basically it works like the old haybox .
Bring the one pot Ingredients up to a rolling boil, lid on, pan in the bag, tighten it up, and leave it.
No more fuel etc needed, it just cooks in the residual heat. Doesn't burn, doesn't dry out, but eventually it would just cool down.
Take mine on holidays when self catering too!

Eager_Elephant

reality_check wrote: »

You should make use of a slow cooker if you've got one - I love mine!! Some great fb groups xx

Hi reality,

I do have a slow cooker but trying to cook a meal we can all eat is a nightmare.
I only eat meat we rear and don't eat gluten, DH can't have onions and DD can be a fussy eater.
I used to do stews for DH, DS and DD and then I would have something different but now there are only 3 of us I would rather do something for us all.
I love casseroles/stews but the only gravy I can have his Bisto Best Onion which of course DH can't have and one of the only gravies he can have is Bisto.
I could do chilli/spag bol but we don't rear cows so would have to do a veggie one and that only tastes nice if you add onion.

No cooking is going well although I was craving proper food so did a roast on Saturday and Sunday!!
And this week is half term so DD and DH are not having hot meals - last night I was poorly so went to bed and tonight I have done curry using left over roast meat.
For the rest of the week I will just go back to beans/egg on toast etc.

Eager_Elephant

Still no bill for the car and only 2 days until the washing machine is fixed.
I think the third thing has broken - my desktop computer is kaput :mad:

It was working fine Sunday morning and then I decided to change computer desks (our one was large and stuck out in to the room so we had even less room to move about so my aunt gave us a smaller one) and when DH connected the computer up the monitor won't come on. We have tried a new cable and also a new monitor and still no joy.
Not sure if we have knocked something or whether it didn't like being unplugged.
It is over 10 years old so is quite old in computer terms so probably isn't worth repairing :mad:- just looking at new PC's now - a similar one would cost about £400 so not too bad but that money could go off our debts to help us reach our target of buying this house.
I am currently on DD's laptop that we brought her for Xmas and she is usually using it plus I do prefer a desktop computer - I use it everyday for MSE, online banking, YNAB etc so I am thinking it is a necessity. Might just have to bite the bullet and buy one tomorrow.