Living on next to nought - is that the key?

little_sweetie

busymum, men are amazing aren't they? I agree with you that HE SHOULD BUY HIS OWN BATTERY! :rotfl::rotfl:

Good luck with adjusting the budget, there will probably be some male resistance but stand firm, girl! Where would they be without us?

Greying_Pilgrim

Hey all :hello:

Thanks for bouncing up and down and keeping the conversation flowing on the thread - mucho appreciated

I didn't feel like *talking* by yesterday evening and although my grump had passed by today, it needed some *achievement* at Greying Towers to finally boot it outta the door. When *Team Greying* gets going, stuff gets done, but I'm still blessed as I know how to motivate *third parties* to do the same on our behalf.

I didn't bother with a meal last night and was in bed before corrie came to a close! The advantage was that I got a quality night's sleep and awoke before the dawn chorus, which meant that I could lay in bed and listen to it - marvellous

The upshot of today is that the house is a bit cleaner and tidier more *stuff* has been put ready to despatch to the tip/charity shop - and you know me well enough to know which is the bigger pile and I feel better I've just whipped up a batch of welsh cakes for a late *afternoon tea* (DP didn't mind that they were late, didn't mind at all ) and now I'm away to make some salads for tea - the constituent components of which, may be of interest to some of you

As we've had (literally) all-seasons of weather today, I've plumped for salad and that is an end to it - you watch we'll have snow just now.........

I'm away to get a glass of wine to glue to my palm.

Thanks again for popping by - in addition to knowing the *value* of £20, I know the value of supportive chums too

See y'all in the morning.

Oh, forgot - I've spent no dosh for 2 days, think I'm up to NSD 3 now, will alter siggie figgie

Greying

satchmo1

I set my alarm for 07:30 to get up and go for my weekly 5k parkrun, then promptly fell asleep again until 08:20. Mad dash ensued but I got there in the nick of time. Unfortunately, so did the rain... cue a PB (personal best) run time. Don't be impressed, it still took me 36:57


I was so wet, I put on the car seat heating and steamed home.


Dried off and went to the local village fete, which was rather sparsely attended due to weather. We found an Italian restaurant with very good food but very haphazard waiting-on staff.


On the bargain front, I bought two evening bags. £2 for one of them and £1 for the other. I wasn't sure which one would match the formal gown I'll be wearing next Saturday evening, and at those prices (from the Lions charity shop) it was worth buying both.

Shortie

Blimey, busy day here...

After a night sleeping (or rather, repeatedly waking) on a slowly deflating air bed in the living room last night (my youngest wanted us all to 'camp downstairs' lol) I got up and cracked in while Mr Shortie was out with DS1.

Far too many tortillas made (I have unfortunately now discovered how delish they are buttered and folded fresh from the pan)

12 bread rolls made for pack ups

Aaaand... another huge bowl of yoghurt made!!

Then re-finding some of the garden that's burried under nettles and bind weed, and an impromptu but lovely BBQ with my folks and some friends at ours.

Am now pooped but looking forward to peach slices and fresh natural yoghurt for breakfast tomorrow. Yyuuuummmm... xx

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Up with the larks, another chore ticked off the list, DP made his own breakfast and then was interested in partaking of another when I said I was going to make a cooked brekkie to *use-up* things I suspect Pipster's influence :D

I've not uploaded the pic yet, but if it's any good, I'll show ya

satchmo - I'm loving hearing about your new, contented life by the sea Good on ya Well done for supporting the local fete - and bravo to the stalwarts who decided the *show must go on*, these things take mucho planning don't they? And the weather can make or break them.

shortie - you've inspired me! Yoghurt and fresh orange segments for brekkie for me tomorrow! As unlike DP, I shan't indulge in 2 brekkies Liking the impromptu Barbie - bet it wouldn't have gone any better if you'd planned it months in advance eh?

Dinner last night was good - and incorporated some ingredients that have been in discussion of late We had a salad plate, comprising; The Severnshed's Bazargan (a bulghar dish of Syrian origin, with the recipe from a restaurant/cafe in Bristol), Morrocan Lentil salad and an orange salad that actually was an amalgam of 2 salads in my Arto der Haroutunian veggie middle eastern cook book. One is Israeli in origin, the other Turkish, and as I discovered an error in the recipes, I had to make it up as I went along. If, per chance, anyone has the reprinted version of A der H's Vegetarian Dishes from the Middle East, can you shout up? I want to know if the error has been amended, and what I should have been doing :rotfl: Anyway, enough wiffle. Pic;



If we start with the Bazargan, I used the coarse bulghar for this. I too use veggie stock to soak it in, I had bouillon powder, so used it, but a stock cube is just as good I did have to substitute, because I didn't have all the ingredients, but I still thought it a very nice dish I hadn't got pinenuts, so substituted sunflower seeds. I hadn't got pomegranate syrup, (although if you have pomegranate juice, you can make syrup, in effect you just boil to make a reduction. I think I picked that up from Nigella), so substituted some honey and put cranberries into the dressing. I also didn't bother with the tomato puree, and wonder whether the dish was any the less for it's actual omission......... ? ..... Also, as I was using lemon in the other salad, I substituted lemon in the dressing with orange juice, using my oranges from mrAl. This is definitely a keeper of a recipe, I used the cauli out of a pack of mixed frozen veg, and it's such a good, tasty recipe, makes quite a bit, and if these are the sort of ingredients you have, then I don't think that it is a mega expensive dish The recipe can be found HERE (I should add, I only made up about 150g of bulghar, as it was only for 2 as part of a plate - there is a portion left, as it expanded. Easy to feed a crowd with this one )

Next to it is the morrocan lentil salad. I used what I had for this dish - in terms of lentils, which were brown. But I hope that this inspires anyone with a green lentil mountain :whistle: to perhaps have a bash at it Very, very simple to do. Rather than just use the onion/garlic to flavour the lentil cooking broth, I cooked the lentils in water (soaked them first, just to speed up the cooking time) and fried up the (red) onion and garlic, incorporating in the spices and making a warm dressing. A very economical and tasty dish. Recipe HERE if you would like it

For the last recipe, I did improvise, but basically it is fresh oranges peeled and segmented (can you tell I've watched far too much readystedicook! in my lifetime??? :rotfl:) mixed with a handful of green olives, cumin, cayenne and salt served on top of a mix of lettuce and rocket leaves, and then topped with natural yoghurt and sumac. I've never made a citrus salad before - if I can get hold of good citrus (these Valencian oranges are brill) I'll make it again for sure

Hope this is helpful for anyone wanting to use new ingredients in their kitchen I have got hold of some more green/brown lentil recipes, out of my notebooks, I just need to match them to internet links. Watch this space

Thanks so much for popping by, reading, commenting and not mentioning dire football performances.......

See y'all later.

Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

Brekkie; HM soda farls (not toasted, but I should have done, they would have shown up the scrambled eggs better!), scrambled eggs using the last of my YS'd mands eggs with u/b date today, asparagus out of the freezer and using up the rest of the olives from last night.

YUM

Greying

EssexHebridean

Now olives, I like....but olives for BREAKFAST?! No. Sorry. Not sold on that!

Glad to see you're still here...and the food (other than the olives for breakfast thing) still looks good...!

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, home made soda farls?? How does one make those please That might be a bread I could manage without ruining it

Greying_Pilgrim

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Ooh, home made soda farls?? How does one make those please That might be a bread I could manage without ruining it

Hi Cheery - they are easy as wink. You can make them with plain flour, mixed wholemeal and plain or 100% wholemeal, they all work. The recipe that I use is (please see edit note in blue before clicking on link) HERE, and the only thing that I do differently - which is a tip I picked up elsewhere on the internet - is that I always cover the pan when I'm cooking them. The farls rise so much better - it's incredible And no, I've not got a lid for my fry pan, I just put the pizza tray over the top Also, no I don't buy buttermilk to make these, I should have used some of my yoghurt to make those yesterday, but instead I just put some white wine vinegar into the milk and left it for 10 mins - it *clabbers* (think that is the term) and works a treat, although I do also use the whey if I've drained some of my yoghurt to make labneh - some thing that I should get and do now that I have my own muslin cloth

I thought that I had posted this recipe on the thread before, and I just tried to find the relevant post, but to no avail, however, I did find a post where I talked about having soda farls for brekkie slathered in garlic butter leftover from the night before - Shhhh! :shhh: Don't nobody tell EH, lest she thinks I'm well weird or something ............. :rotfl:


:wave: EH - so glad you are back safe, sound and solvent So very much agree about the pleasure that can be felt from not awaiting the cc hangover - hope we can emulate your budgetary brilliance on our hols just now

I'm calling it a day and getting an early night. Today has been full on and manic, and it looks like it's going to be like it for the rest of the week - just when I didn't need it to be :D:p Ah well

Dinner was a salad bowl, a combination of leftovers and made-ups. DP was out late at a training *thing*, so I wound down pottering with flavours and textures whilst trying to empty the fridge. I did take a pic, but haven't uploaded it yet.

I did snag a NSD today :j

Right, I'll love ya and leave ya. Afore I fall asleep on the keyboard........ :rotfl:

Ta everso for popping in, reading and commenting. Mucho appreciated, as always

See ya'll later.

Edit: if you can't see the recipe on the link - but a white page with yellow boxes - click the refresh icon (or F5) and it should appear - sorry, not sure why it is playing up

Greying

Hopefuljoy

Hi there all! Had a slow day today doing exam marking online but just logged on to see the Moroccan lentil dish. Will deffo try tomorrow as it looks delicious and easy. NSD day tomorrow but not today. All the petrol food and treats money has gone for the week so only forty pence until Saturday am. Had Jacks fish paste pasta for dinner! My DD seems to be better at cost cutting than me so far but I am feeling liberated not carrying any debit cards and realised just how much I have been frittering each week! Love to all!!:A:T