make do and mend for tougher times

Popperwell

fuddle wrote: »

Good morning

An email this morning says my halogen oven has been dispatched I wonder how long it takes to come no more than 10 miles?

I think you will have your oven by Wednesday(probably sooner)

Popperwell

fuddle wrote: »

A couple of questions if I may?

I buy my milk for the month and freeze it in the garage freezer. This takes up an awful lot of room. I can buy 4 litres for £1 so 44p a litre. Smartprice UHT is 49p/litre so slightly more expensive. Do you think it's worth buying this for the month and putting it in store, leaving room in my freezer for bulked meals? In a dilemma here, don't know what to do for the best and actually worried about UHT taste.

Well, you have a family and try to avoid the cost and difficulty of reaching the shops without access to a car. So it makes sense to store milk...

I usually have 2-4 litres of fresh in the fridge and 6-8 litres of UHT. If i get through the fresh I can fall back the UHT but if even if I don't use all the fresh, to try and avoid extra shops for basics I can use the UHT again...and that does not take up space in the fridge/freezer...until it's opened.

But again a bottle/carton of UHT in your home will probably be used quickly. I don't really notice much difference in the taste to be honest.

Popperwell

SpikyHedgehog wrote: »

I was thinking about your frozen milk the other day - we use soya milk & I get long life so only give fridge space to the open cartons. - it could be you could use them on cereals & for cooking & keep fresh milk for the girls to drink?

That went through my mind...in tea, coffee and baking I don't any difference would be noticed and if chilled I am not sure even being dunk as it is any difference would be noticed.

Popperwell

grandma247 wrote: »

Fuddle please don't give your children skimmed milk. They need the fat in milk to process calcium for their bones. The UHT will be fine for you and dh. If you are at all concerned about their fat intake cut down on other fats.

I have seen semi-skimmed and skimmed UHT milk and UHT Whole Milk somewhere...

ginnyknit

GQ, sounds like your eatste is very similair to ours only we dont have a tower block, just maisonettes which have had some very strange characters living there over the years. Such are the acoustics here we seem to hear everything that our neighbours don't :eek:I have many colourful and scary tales that would fill a book. Luckily we have a front garden which acts as a barrier to the fray but have had many near misses. Joy riders abound and I cannot count how many cars have ended up ion the hedge on the corner - usually some poor unsuspecting family passing through and ending up there avoiding the maniacs. We have often run out to apply emergency first aid. Several times over the years our children have rung us because the streets cordonned off and the police are stopping anyone coming on to the estate because of an 'incident'. We are usually oblivious as we gave up looking out the door when we hear anything since I was nearly shot by a crew of yobs with guns who were cruising the street!


Kidcat, the group you went to was for ASD wasn't it? then surely they are trained in how to deal with children, then Im sure the way they targetted your boy was not in the manual! I do hope someone gives you some support on the matter. Compassion, patience and understanding are usually stock in trade for any child.

Have a huge list of jobs to do, sewing , window cleaning, changing curtains and many more but want to do it all today thus leaving myself free to relax tomorrow :rotfl: ahh well I can dream

Popperwell

fuddle wrote: »

I have been bulking out my mince meals with lentils, however I have read that oats can be used effectively too. Which is better nutritionally?

I know oats are good for lowering cholesteral(sp?)and very healthy...

prepareathome

Fuddle if you are planning on freezing full fat milk I would do a trial run, ie. freeze on carton only and defrost after a couple of weeks as all the fat in the milk doesn't freeze properly and sometimes when you defrost it, it might taste a bit different and certainly will look different, but that can be sorted with a very,very long hard shake. So you want to be sure that the children will drink it after it has been frozen.

Usually milk bods say freeze skimmed and semi-skimmed but not fresh due to the high fat content.

All of mine had milk allergies when young so I actually was given soya milk on prescription for them until they were about 7 when we slowly introduced milk but only semi skimmed then. Then you could not buy soya like you can now it was a rare thing hence it being on prescription - it was in cans and for daughter called Galectimun -this was a powder and had to be made up like baby milk)and for sons Procobee (this was much better came ready made up just open can and pour) (not sure about the spelling of either after all this time) and was heavily fortified with calcium and other vitamins and minerals. Daughter was allergic to protein in milk and sons the lactose(sugar).

Thankfully they all outgrew it and none of their children have it.

Katie you would expect the fact no electric safety certificate plus the other problems so basically let illegally would nullify the contract toot sweet, surely council can do this.

Pops I agree with GQ unless you are going to start doing major alterations to your clothes or go in for making new ones or soft furnishings you don't need a sewing machine just needle and thread to take up your trousers.

We have had two shootings round here. One was in the cafe our hardware shop evolved into, it was where taxi drivers used to go and the other was literally round the corner a drive by at a house. Both drug related and thankfully a good few years ago.

I also had a BB pellet shot through my bedroom window once, hit pc table and went bouncing round the room(I needed a crime number to get glass replaced and police never even bothered coming round just gave me number over the phone) and also had campervan blown up - at that time gangs were going round blowing up mailboxes, vans and buses....that was a night to remember bomb squad, police and other army bods crawling all over my side garden. Sadly no one was ever caught so we couldn't claim for value of van, as van had needed work and so hubby had Sorned it and left off insurance. A police chase once ended with the stolen car being driven into neighbours garden bringing down the fence and he then got out and legged it down the road towards the fields with lots of police after him. With this not being an estate but normal road there is no way police can close off the area without setting up blocks on about 10 roads if it was just my part of the road they wanted to close off, more if its the whole road.

I honestly do live in what is classed as a nice middle class area but with having the main road into the city outside my door we have nutters come past.

We used to have the police helicopter hovering overhead a lot with the fields being nearby that is the way a lot would go towards, but it was decommissioned a couple of years ago to save money so it is no more

Well sun is shining and I have not moved from as Recovery calls it Kingdom of Bed, which I love and might pinch.......

Hugs and Love

Possession

Just had success with Weezl's gnocchi recipe, loved by all the family and very filling and just pennies a portion. I rather underestimated how many gnocchi a pack of instant mash would make though, and how much flour they would absorb so am feeling both totally pooped and surrounded by mountains of gnocchi and I've only cut up half! Even DS who doesn't like gnocchi said he would eat them though. DH thinks they would go very nicely with stirfried cabbage and bacon so that's next on the list.
Just need to do the other half and I'm open-freezing them all which I presume it was Weezl does as I understood she batch-cooked everything.

prepareathome

Whoopee my sewing patterns arrived - I got the same one as fuddle:o sorry but I love gilets and also the fleecy pjs/gown one as I spend so much time in pjs and comfortable clothing I thought they would be great to have a go with but am thinking of turning a cotton sheet into the gown rather than fleece as in pattern,rather like a kaftan as I have always loved them and only own one at the moment

The trouser pattern I can see if I can get sewing machine working, me using a lot as just loose elastic pull on trousers which I love.

Thank you fuddle for finding and sharing and sorry to be a copy cat.

Hugs and Love

fuddle

Possession wrote: »

Just had success with Weezl's gnocchi recipe, loved by all the family and very filling and just pennies a portion. I rather underestimated how many gnocchi a pack of instant mash would make though, and how much flour they would absorb so am feeling both totally pooped and surrounded by mountains of gnocchi and I've only cut up half! Even DS who doesn't like gnocchi said he would eat them though. DH thinks they would go very nicely with stirfried cabbage and bacon so that's next on the list.
Just need to do the other half and I'm open-freezing them all which I presume it was Weezl does as I understood she batch-cooked everything.

Oh I'll give them a try, thank you. I bought instant mash but the girls don't like it so i'll try using it that way.

I wonder if instant mash would be ok in a corned beef and potato pie?

prepareathome wrote: »

Whoopee my sewing patterns arrived - I got the same one as fuddle:o sorry but I love gilets and also the fleecy pjs/gown one as I spend so much time in pjs and comfortable clothing I thought they would be great to have a go with but am thinking of turning a cotton sheet into the gown rather than fleece as in pattern,rather like a kaftan as I have always loved them and only own one at the moment

The trouser pattern I can see if I can get sewing machine working, me using a lot as just loose elastic pull on trousers which I love.

Thank you fuddle for finding and sharing and sorry to be a copy cat.

Hugs and Love

Yey pah hey don't worry about getting the same. I promised myself anything I bought would be practical and that pattern will last till eternity! I' won't get my fleece till next week then I'll play. A bit jubious cutting out :eek: I'll have to wait till i'm child free before I can do that.

I feel really bad. I am knee deep in cleaning the house and rearranging furniture. My hair slicked back, no make up on and indoor working clothes on. The kids still straggly haired and wearing yesterdays clothes. We're meant to be at my friends little girls party at 3 but I don't want to go and enjoying just getting to grips with the house in my own little world. I've told her we're not coming. I do feel really awful but I just don't want to go.