13 Moons ... ( *** Off, I'm Fabulous )

Souk08

Lula, glad you're feeling better (if a bit snottery!).

My chilli recipe is thus: Brown a packet (500g) of lean mince and drain off the fat :A
Fling it in the slow cooker with a tin of tomatoes (or two, haven't made it for ages), some extra water, kidney beans, sweetcorn and any other veg you like and also your chilli powder and a wee drop of cumin if you have it.
Let it cook for about 6/8 hours
Eat with a bit of natural yoghurt/soured cream and rice. Keep some for tortillas for school/work and freeze the rest.

Voila! Thanks for the other info btw XXX

RosaBernicia

Glycerin usually available from local chemists. I usually fix coughs with the following but be warned it is not for the garlic-fearing or faint-hearted...
Chop an onion and a couple of cloves of fresh garlic. Put in a jar that you don't intend to ever use for anything else. Add several spoons of sugar. Leave for a few hours, while the sugar draws out the juices from the veg and forms a syrup. Take spoonfuls of the syrup - the onion is expectorant to help clear the cough and the garlic is antiviral and antibacterial. Chew parsley or expect to be avoided by co-workers!

Rosa xx

Lula-Hula

Hello lovely people,

thanks for all your good wishes & fab recipe ideas too ... keep em coming for the slowcooker . Think I might invest in the Hamlyn slowcooker recipe book I saw on amazon. I remember using Hamlyn books at school & it was all quite easy.

RosaBernicia - that cough remover sounds quite intense ... the fact of no one at working talking to me could actually be an added benefit

Karma - forgot to say earlier that it's only the crushed egg shells I'm composting eeeeeuuuuuw to putting the actual eggs in :rotfl:

Moving on, I cooked up a feast earlier & everyone was very satisfied ( although I have yet to hear whether the 8 year old tin of blackberries has had any after effects although both DD & I are fine.) I did feel slightly guilty but literally opened the tin, smelled & tasted it & then immediately put in the dish with some apples, topped with crumble & cooked in hot oven. Those little blackberries didnt have time to think about how old they were before they were eaten :rotfl:.

I'm less sure about using some 2008 vintage condensed milk but I do love a lemon cheesecake & would never normally buy the stuff so might just risk it at the week end ( or next time DD1 & her bf come over ).

We had a nice relaxed afternoon; played on the wii, chatted & munched & the lovely bf helped me through a bottle of wine . I though it might relax him enough to have a go at the dance game but he stuck to football instead. I've forgotten just how huge the glass are, we only had 2 each & the bottle was empty :rotfl:.

Once they'd gone & I'd ushered DD off to bed I did a full fitness workout & was suitably 'glowing' afterwards. I did weigh in this morning & I have gained the 4lbs I lost so am starting again from scratch but hope that once back at work & sticking to frugal vintage diet it will start to come off again. 20lbs to go & I've made a pledge not to buy any new clothes until I hit the target weight & size . Stupid clothes challenge, whose silly idea was that :doh:

Not looking forward to work at all but will be nice to catch up with the guys & hear their exploits.

One good thing I have achieved in the time off is to cut the caffeine out again. I cant remember when i posted that it had been 3 days since i had any, but I've not had any since. It's not that I dislike it - au contraire mes amis, I love it but too much is bad for me, my stressiness & my sleep patterns.

Another good thing that I've achieved today is a NSD - too busy cleaning & tidying to got to the shop. I got all the ironing done too so definitely deserved that wine

Just to add a bit of topping to that, I have made a payment of £125 to Uncle Richards Red Card which means the balance is now £2875.

It's sad but I'm actually really pleased at this :j. I know I got below £3,000 previously , but that didnt really count as I knew I had the other CC .

This is it now, I only have the one card & that balance is going down. Havent' even though about a holiday for this year; nothing that isnt already in progress or budgeted for out of the funds is happening until that CC debt is gone.

G'night
xx

Souk08

Well done lady and glad you liked the recipe. X

Shoe_Gal

Fab news on the CC payment - well done you :j

Lula-Hula

Ooh getting up was tough today, but not as tough at will be tomorrow

I woke up at 4 this morning with banging headache, blocked nose & shivers - all the excitement of making the CC payment meant I'd forgotten to take the knockout nurofen. Took ages to get back to sleep & consequently struggled to wake up when the alarm went off.

Dropped DD at school & headed off to work feeling very calm & quite looking forward to seeing the guys again.

That feeling lasted about 2 minutes as it appeared that Gropey was still in the same bad mood as last year. My new years vibe is to be as nice a person as I can be & to remain chilled & calm at all times so I just let it wash over me. He is a silly man.

Grumpy on the other hand has had a holiday in the sun & was looking very tanned & happy.

Halfway through the morning Gropey disappeared to work in another office & when the guys there asked him why, he said that there was too much illness in our office which I assume meant me

He reappeared at lunch time so I produced a coughing fit which had him running upstairs again & Grumpy in fits of laughter. We spent the rest of the day having alternate coughing fits each time Gropey approached :rotfl:

I paid another 2 cheques in to my personal spends account ( now have £140 ) & then headed home to find that the home-work horror wasnt anywhere near as bad as I expected so got on with that while DD did her homework.

Finally sat down to eat dinner & watch tv & thought it felt really chilly. Checked the boiler to find the light had gone out & inspite of several attempts to reset & relight it, it fires up & then goes out again. Realised that DD s bath was the last source of hot water in the house & no way was I doing a workout & then having a cold bath so filled p here hot water bottle & sent her off to bed then made myself a hot chocolate & have been in bed myself since 9.30 :rotfl:

Apparently I will have an engineer round within 24 hours ... Brrrrrrr.

The bizarre thing is that on my way to work I was at traffic lights & when I spotted a fan heater box next to a dustbin at the edge of the kerb, I actually thought to msyelf that I should probably get a couple of those as we have no other heat source :idea:.

There are far worse things to be without so I'm not complaining, yet.

It's been an NSD & I'm about to clunk a gold coin into my sealed pot then go for wander around the diaries before remembering to take the nurofen.

xx

Karmacat

You're ill and you have no heating? Aargh - hope you remembered to take the nurofen, and that you're a little bit better today. LOL at producing a coughing fit to send Gropey running :rotfl:

Shoe_Gal

Hope your day is going well and your heating working

Lula-Hula

Thankyou,

nurofen remembered & effective until about 6 this morning. As it was a bit 'fresh' in the bedroom I realised this was an opportune time to get back into the early morning yoga habit & warm up a bit too.

Mission accomplished & then the process of boiling the kettle to have a wash, while remembering that it's not such a hard process really. Not like I had to walk 3 miles to get the water in the first place .

Woke DD & then for some reason started to fiddle with boiler ignition again, reset the switch & it burst into life :j the place heated up & it all seemed to be acting normally so I phoned to cancel engineer, only to be told that it was too late as the call had gone out so someone would "definitely call today" but to explain what happened & they may still want to check it out.

Dropped DD at school & headed off to work with phone in my pocket ready to speak to engineer.

Work was fine; Gropey still keeping out of my way - was quite surprised he didnt issue me with a bell or paint a cross on my desk to show my unclean status. I had a coffee today :eek:. It was very nice & I made sure I snuck on here at the same time ( highly proficient 'window switcher' here ) to make it a treat.

No call from engineer but chose to wait until I got home & see if heating & water worked when due to come on. Arrived home to discover he had turned up while I was at work. I had explained to the duty manager that I would be at work today & gave both my mobile & work number, was told I would be called to arrange the time for a visit & yet still no call & one of those annoying 'we couldnt gain access cards'. All irrelevant now as heating & water came on at the right time, but I would have been furious if it still wasnt working & had missed the visit.

Anyway, am greatly relieved & much appreciative of my 'modern facilities' & can do a workout tonight & be assured that I wont be barred from the office for being really unclean .

Along with the annoying card, were a couple of nice cards from peeps & a very interesting letter from Halifax inviting me to apply for their sexy black, red or white CC with 0% balance transfer for 10 months (+3% fee of course).

Not really tempted by that offer as I still have 16 weeks of 0% with Uncle Richard . I am however, quite tempted by the 0% on purchases for 10 months; If I use it to buy the cooker &/or new sofa in May when the other CC cleared, I would still have 5 months at 0% to spread the payments over, meaning I get to put some money into savings earlier than planned.

The other benefit being that the usual interest rate is 3% lower than Uncle Richards.

I shall of course amble over to Quidco to see if there any deals to be done there first.

I could get quite a buzz from becoming a card tart :rotfl:

Shoe_Gal

Glad you have heating - gone really cold again here 'oop norf!