Coffee and chocolate

miggy

And today's culinary delight was... (drum roll please) a bit boring. Got some chicken out of the freezer and slow cooked it, heated sauce in the microwave (because the others don't like the sauce I wanted and am trying to use up) and served with sweetcorn, baby spinach and cous cous. The only thing I had to buy for it was the sweetcorn but I had to get some other groceries so today's been a moderate spend day.

Going to look on O/S for slow cookery.

miggy

I found a relevant thread on the very first page of O/S! It's full of ideas: beef stew, beef stew,beef stew, beef stew... duck. Beef, venison. Beef stew, lentil and bacon soup (aha!), chicken (done that twice myself), MARMALADE! Mm, I like marmalade... not sure it would do for a main course though.

Sausage curry - pretty good but I've done sausage casserole this week.

Pudding, porridge, tikka masala (only DD and I eat that), beef and veg soup which sounds lush with tons of veg, wine, smoked paprika...

Don't eat a lot of beef here but maybe that has to change, LOL!

Oh, now I'm getting to the really interesting stuff, including a beef and bottom-of-the-freezer stew, which is getting the brain cells turning over. There is always too much in the freezers, busy being ignored while we go and buy more. :o:o If I got some stewing steak I could add in all sorts of interesting things and the family might be so interested in having beef for a change that they wouldn't notice the accompaniments.

miggy

Getting some more ideas from the earlier version of the thread: liver and onions (with a bit of smoky bacon? I would love that!)

Fruit cobbler - yummy! I was wondering about baking.

The other thing I have thought of attempting is lasagne but I need to give that one some thought.

Freezer diving sounds appealing now but will it still call my name tomorrow? We shall see!

miggy

The beef-and-stuff-from-the-freezer turned out to be sausages-and-stuff-from the fridge-and-larder but it was very nice; for the record - thick pork sausages, a jar of bolognese sauce, a green pepper and a tin of butterbeans make a very yummy stew.

Other than that I have spent money and eaten extraordinary amounts of calories in the name of lunch with friends (but didn't feel the need to eat for a long time after), I have bought some plants very cheaply too, and replaced the plate that got broken the other week.

miggy

On the Mum side of things, I have proved I am allergic to finances! I spent a while sorting out lots of receipts (I should have done them as I went along of course) and ended up with swollen glands.

However, while I'm on a roll - and actually feeling otherwise okay despite there being 'stuff' going on in another area of my life which I can't go into here as it's other peoples' business - anyway I'm on a roll so I shall have a little look at the scary stuff and make a small start on things she has asked or I've offered to order for her. Doing the actual orders usually manages to find one or two complicationd somewhere, but some websites are better than others. Keeping track is not nice - things that have been paid for, things that have been unsuitable and needed to be refunded, things to be paid for when approved of... wish everything could just be paid on the spot and sent back if not wanted.

First stop I think will be the bedspread she likes.

miggy

Cooker ordered ... but won't be here for another 8 days! :eek:

However I did manage to :money:it and got a lot less than the showroom price .

As DS2 has to eat at some point between then and now I might cave in and get a small grill (with some of saved money!) and hope DD can use it at Uni.

Mum's stuff: can't even find the advert she gave me about the bedspread. Ordered her address labels instead... it's a step further in the right direction.

Is it just me, or does online shopping take inordinately long?

And why did it go dark just after 4 and start thundering loudly? Is it November proving a point after a lovely mild day?

Lemon_Tree

miggy - darn about the cooker taking so long but yay to getting it at a MSE price.

miggy

Today's slow cooker experience wasn't inspiring: a pre-prepared gammon joint with slices of potato and a generous topping of red onion and butternut squash. Lots of lovely tastes faded away and never really made it to the table though DH still says he is loving slow cooked food.

Other than that I've paid the milk bill which leaves very little in my half of the week's food budget (wonder if DH will do tomorrow's shopping?) and have been wading through a list of books Mum wants from adverts in her paper. I double-checked prices and can get most of them a lot more cheaply elsewhere so that's what I'm doing. So tempting, though... those 1p sirens on Amaz*n!

BILLIE

Hi Miggy - haven't been on for ages due to moving house, sorting out, packing, unpacking and that sort of stuff, but have just briefly read some of your posts and again you have me laughing. Hope life has been fairly good for you, although sorry about mum. Will try to get on more often, but never really know where peeps are. Take care

Billie xx

miggy

Hello Billie, lovely to hear from you! I didn't know you had moved. Are you settled in?

Glad I made you laugh. We aim to please.

Things are a lot better here now - Mum is better too and it's an enormous relief to know she is in good hands: the staff where she lives are great and she is fond of her room. (Sometimes she tells me she would discharge herself except that she likes the room! I tell her to take it with her, and change the subject )

Things are better on the money side, too. I was able to do a lot of overtime in the summer and we have an allocated amount to spend on food now so that's no longer running away with us. Result: bye bye overdraft! :jHaving said that - and you may have picked up on it if you've read a few posts - life still has its little dramas! LOL.

Do call in wherever you're around (I know it's hard to keep up with diaries though so I count visits a bonus and happily chunter on to myself if no one is listening) - anyway I will put the virtual kettle on for any visitors and if I'm not around please help yourself from the virtual biscuit barrel too. (Most of a packet of cheapy jaffa cakes still in there, plus half a custard cream, the bit without the cream on of course... and some crumbs).