Hypno's "just for today" diary of rediscovery.

gallygirl

savingmore wrote: »

'For instance, a gingerbread man decorated with two chocolate eyes is exempt from VAT, but if it contains any more chocolate, standard-rated VAT is charged.

Right. I'll have mine naked to be on the safe side

Karmacat wrote: »

I would truly love to see George Osborne's DFW diary

'Dear Diary, have had a dreadful month spending wise. Need to rein it in, everything supposedly necessary but over-budget. How can a quote of 3 billion for some IT stuff come in at 12 billion :eek:. Aiming for a NSD - must get my act together'.

'Dear Diary, :eek:. Forgot about Trident, doh :eek:. 110 billion instalment has gone out of bank account. Was sure I'd cancelled it. :think: Wonder if I could invoke the DD Guarantee & get my money back :think:. Otherwise that's another £50 overdraft charge. Think I'll try Hypno's envelope system after all. Anyone know if I can get a billion quid in an A4 envelope '

InaPickle

Karmacat wrote: »

Hi there - nope, it didn't affect me other than the £1000 extra in personal allowances - tho I can't remember what VAT is *on* - I seem to remember its on phone bills.... but it could be worse.

I would truly love to see George Osborne's DFW diary

Me too!

VAT is on nearly anything that isn't absolutely essential, but sometimes it isn't noticeable, like the phone bill. The fun bit is in noticing the discrepencies (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/22/vat-rise-average-shopping-basket), like biscuits and cake. Apparently cakes are exempt, but biscuits are not, so the Jaffa Cake people, fighting for their VAT rights, took a pile of Jaffas to court when they were told they had to pay it to prove that Jaffas are indeed a cake and not a biscuit as they go hard when they go off as opposed to biscuits, which go soft. Bet the judge loved presiding over that case 'So, hand me another packet of those things to munch while I make up my mind'.

EDIT: oh pants - someone got there before me cos I took so long to write the message. It sends out quite a message to children, doesn't it? You can eat tons of Jaffa Cakes VAT free, but you have to pay VAT on the toothpaste to stop your teeth from rotting afterwards! Maybe it's a cunning ploy to keep the dentists in work...

Souk08

Hypno what do you do with your chicken legs (apart from eat them) and how do you do Spicy Rice? Thanks, just trying to do a rough months menu plan ahead of my big shop at Asda on payday (Thursday)

hypno06

Today I took the skin off my chicken leg (being good, you see, although kept skin on for the others), and coated it with low fat creme fraiche and dijon mustard, and roasted it for about 50 mins.....then I stir fried some frozen roasted veggies and some cherry tomatoes, and added some couscous to the pan so all the yummy juices mixed into the couscous from the veg.

And serve......and enjoy! Yum yum yum!

I often use chicken legs as they are really inexpensive, and you get loads of meat on them! I usually marinade them in whatever falls out of the spice cupboard first, whether it is chinese 5 spice, piri piri, or tandoori paste and natural yoghurt.

For spicy rice, I use this failsafe recipe.....

Serves 2.

1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 tsp oil
7oz/200g button mushrooms, quartered
1tsp hot curry powder (I generally make my own, but shop bought is fine)
half tsp cumin seeds
half tsp black mustard seeds
4.5oz/125g basmati rice
half tsp salt

Soften the onion in the oil for 3 mins then add the mushrooms for another 3 mins. Stir in the spices and rice and cook, stirring for 1 min.

Add salt and half pint/300ml boiling water, bring to the boil, stir once then cover the pan and cook on a very low heat for 15 mins without lifting the lid.

Fluff up and serve - good enough to eat on its own, or makes a fab other accompaniment to curry or chicken etc.....

3.5 points if you are doing WW.

Chuck in some other veg, peppers, courgettes, peas, sweetcorn etc if you want it a bit more of a standalone meal.

Never fails!

hypno06

I do have a whole cupboard of spices.....is expensive when you first stock up, but they last for ages and make a real difference to "cheap" cooking!!

I buy mine in bulk from Fox's spices.

Souk08

Thanks love!

Karmacat

I like the sound of that, Hypno - trouble is, when I buy like that, the spices stay in the cupboard

hypno06

I do quite like proper cooking, so mine do get used, but I know many people who buy them and don't ever use them.

Right, all this talk of food leads me to Paul McKenna for 20 mins of brainwashing, talking me into the belief that I want to be in control of my food more than I want chocolate and cake! Catch you later!!

macgirl

I've got that book and CD - is it any good? Might have to dig that out and stick it on my iPod.

InaPickle

Got a link for Fox's spices, please, Hypno? Are they cheap?