Building The Burrow!

Pearla*Merle

Habibiboo wrote: »

:wave:
Yarp, I give mine a good wash and reuse them ... it just depends what's been in them. The lids only tend to be usable once as they get soggy during the thawing, so I just use foil to cover them second time around!

Ah ha, I didn't know it was easy to reuse them. That changes things rather, I shall give them a whirl when I next get the chance.

I have a ring binder of plastic pockets I put torn-out recipes into - it's easy to take the plastic pocket out of the file to follow the recipe (and the plastic stops evil spills and splashes spoiling your page, if you're a messy cook like moi).

I also like this system because it's easy to move the pockets around to create menus - you could "meal plan" your whole week by putting the 7 plastic pockets with your recipes for the week at the front of the file, and keep the rest by category behind dividers: soups, dinners, vegetarian etc.

It also presents an ideal opportunity to get the post-its and whatnot out and indulge that inner stationery queen with a bit of personalisation and organisation!

What a genius idea to move around the pockets for a weekly plan! I have a few pocketed recipes but would never have thought of doing something so clever... and yes, I can see why this would need some serious Post-It action. Oooh! PS. Am also a messy cook, so those would help immensely too.

BlueMoo

Cooking seems to be going well. Glad you have found the idea useful.

******

I too am on a healthy eating plan at the moment, though it has been up and down for me. A month after I am exactly where I started. Plan to persevere though and hope to see long term results. Wishing it were easier though.

Pearla*Merle

I've very up & down as well, BlueMoo. It doesn't help when there are so many treats in the house and with so many grey days out there, it never feels quite right to try and force salad down. I'm trying to include more winter vegetables (easy cabbage & carrot coleslaws, carrot stick snacks etc), as that seems to make things easier. Definitely persevere though, it takes time for your body (& your mind!) to adjust and change for all sorts of reasons, but it'll definitely be making a difference even if you don't notice it markedly at first.

I know how much better I feel when I'm super good with my diet, but that never seems to be enough, more often than not it's the extra effort & organisation that's the sticking point - when you're already tired and busy, that's what upsets things. I'm trying to work out ways to make food preparation easier, I think it's just making little things into habits (clear worktops, have enough equipment to hand, make sure it's clean, prepare things in advance, divide food into portions in advance when I have time, making sure I have 'easy' healthy ingredients available that I can quickly whip up into meals - eggs, pancetta, ready washed spinach are some my staples etc) and that's definitely something that becomes easier over time as you build up and change your lifestyle.

Pearla*Merle

I was so sleepy this morning... think I'm recovering from yesterday, which was a little tiresome. My ears have been a bit strange & muffled the last few days, it seems like sinuses but always coincides with migraine stuff, thankfully an antihistamine and olbas steam seem to have done the trick, so maybe it was a little something lurking after all? Who knows! I shall continue with the same treatments today and hopefully I'll be right as rain for the weekend. What a strange time it's been lately.

Despite all this I clocked in a walk (couldn't get too far, traffic noise was bothering my ears) and another 75 mins exercise when I felt better in the evening. I almost didn't bother, but it shows how far you can get by just putting your gear on and plodding along(!)

Spent a lot of yesterday evening reading the decluttering stories on http://www.missminimalist.com, I feel even more inspired to pare things down now. I'll never quite be at their level but I'm utterly tired of seeing a solid wall (make that walls) of 'things'. If there was space between them I daresay I would appreciate them more and it would also make the space more liveable.

I thought we might be moving into a much larger place so I was hanging on for that, but now that doesn't look likely for a fair while so I might as well rethink things more thoroughly. There are trinkets I have that I'm in two minds about - we don't really have space for them here but I'm not sure I'd definitely want to do away with them, I think I might compromise for the time being and pack them away into storage at a parents house (if they let me!) and revisit them later down the line.

I half thought of being brave and just getting rid of things, but I've done the Ultimate Declutter before, and in many ways it was good to get rid of things, but there are still some odd things that I regret parting with. Now's probably not the time to make a sensible decision, so it makes sense to delay the final decision. Though in the mean time I'm sure I can shake things up a bit. :think:

Apart from updating my accounts, there's nothing much else to report. *insert shrugging emoticon here*

Calfuray

Great healthy living post. My mission is to use everything up that's in the freezer and have less waste. Especially since uni is back on Monday, I don't want to fall back into my bad habits, I haven't had a takeaway for weeks. Would help if I'd labelled stuff since most of the bags are mystery meat right now! :rotfl:

But yeah, Saturday is shopping day, and Sunday is cook things for batches for the week. Need to come up with some ideas for lunches though

Habibiboo

:wave:

Interesting link there P*M, have bookmarked it to spend some time browsing on it later!

How on earth are you managing to fit all that exercise in? I'm in awe of your persistence with it, I continually fall at the "don't feel up to it fence" (apart from walking the dogs which I consider their exercise more than mine really). My son bought me a pedometer for my birthday (at my request) and I'm horrified by how seldom I'm hitting the required 10,000 steps a day. Mind you, we had a laugh because he thought it was pronounced rather differently!

Hope your ears feel better soon ~ maybe see pharacist or doc if it's not getting any better, you seem to be having a real grotty run of it lately. *hugs*

Pearla*Merle

Calfuray wrote: »

Great healthy living post. My mission is to use everything up that's in the freezer and have less waste. Especially since uni is back on Monday, I don't want to fall back into my bad habits, I haven't had a takeaway for weeks. Would help if I'd labelled stuff since most of the bags are mystery meat right now! :rotfl:

But yeah, Saturday is shopping day, and Sunday is cook things for batches for the week. Need to come up with some ideas for lunches though

I've become anal about labelling the food in my freezer now after (almost!) taking out sticky toffee pudding thinking it was stew. That would have been an interesting tea. :eek: :rotfl:

I'm always stuck on lunches as well. Sometimes I'm ok with just a few crackers and other times I need full on meals. I try and use leftovers but never quite feel like them the next day... I can't win! Luckily I'm usually at home for lunch so can be choosy, I suppose I'd need to seriously get my thinking cap otherwise, it's hard not to fall into the sandwich trap. Soup in thermos flask? Cold couscous filled with roast/chargrilled veg? Rye crackers with almond (or other) nut butters might be a good option too (filling & good protein to keep you going). Ooh, I think I'll be pondering this all evening, I've shocked myself at my good ideas! :rotfl:

Pearla*Merle

Habibiboo wrote: »

Interesting link there P*M, have bookmarked it to spend some time browsing on it later!

I can't seem to stop myself reading all the stories for other people. It's strangely addictive.

How on earth are you managing to fit all that exercise in? I'm in awe of your persistence with it, I continually fall at the "don't feel up to it fence" (apart from walking the dogs which I consider their exercise more than mine really). My son bought me a pedometer for my birthday (at my request) and I'm horrified by how seldom I'm hitting the required 10,000 steps a day. Mind you, we had a laugh because he thought it was pronounced rather differently!

:rotfl: :rotfl:

I don't know how I've managed it either(!) I've just become all determined all of a sudden. I think it's these silly health things, I'm quite sick of it all now and the best thing would be to get myself healthy again so on I shall plough! I'm surprised I've hit 60+ minutes a day though, even when I religiously exercised every day in the past I would only hit around 50 minutes, and it took me a long time to build up to it. I must be a lot fitter than I realised. :think:

But you can get so insanely fit from just walking 30 mins/an hour a day. That's all I did a few years ago and the minute I stopped I saw quite an alarming, weight-spiralling difference. Hitting 10k steps is so hard if you don't consciously plan it, it's about 5 miles isn't it? Mr M bought us pedometers as well and it was quite eye-opening. If I wasn't doing my usual work stuff about the town (which usually covered the mileage) then it was pretty hard to build it up during the day. Obviously the flip side of that was that something I did a few times a week quickly saw me hit the target (it was about 40 minutes walking there and back), so then it's a case of working out how to do that every day. I really miss having a dog, they're a great way of getting to your step target. Just add another 5 minutes or so every few days and you'll soon be hitting it

Hope your ears feel better soon ~ maybe see pharacist or doc if it's not getting any better, you seem to be having a real grotty run of it lately. *hugs*[/COLOR]

The ears are practically back to normal again, hurrah! :j

PS. Habibiboo, I'm long overdue a visit to your diary! I shall darken your doorstep again soon, I promise

janineh1982

Pearla*Merle wrote: »

I've become anal about labelling the food in my freezer now after (almost!) taking out sticky toffee pudding thinking it was stew. That would have been an interesting tea. :eek: :rotfl:

I have to admit to being AR for years about my freezer
I have a label maker with everything programmed so it's easy to whip up a few labels for new freezer friends + a printed list of everything I have in it, stuck to it, with quantities and colour sections (meat, fish, dessert, frozen meals etc) .... I wish I was slightly more embarrassed about the silly lengths I go to - but I love it :j

Well done with the exercise too, a Herculean effort to be applauded in this dank and dismal weather !!!

Pearla*Merle

After all that talk of exercise, I didn't do my full on aerobic stuff today in the end. Although I did spend a lot of time walking around the house and tidying up/throwing things away/cleaning/decluttering/you name it. Plus my hip (oh dear, another ailment!) has been a bit sore today so maybe a rest day is for the best.

I ended up walking up into town later to meet Mr M for some apr!s work M&S shopping, so that's ticked off a couple of hours exercise anyway. :j

M&S twas good! £25 spent, lots of yellow stickered loveliness brought home with us (including pittas for 25p, which formed tonight's pitta pizza tea - another batch slung in the freezer for another time). Three for £10 on meat. Again we bought 20 sausages which will be going into many, many meals. I'll put some in the freezer and they'll be teamed with my red wine icecubes to make risotto (boozy bright purple sausage risotto is number 1 on my list of hilarious meals, it never fails to make me laugh ~ I was first served it at a train station restaurant in Bern on a bitter winter's day, I think they'd slung half a bottle in there, I was tipsy by mouthful two :rotfl:). Burgers & chicken also purchased which will be split up into multiple meals a well. Veg for our roast tomorrow and lots of other milk & bits I now forget. Oh, and £1 on a bunch of roses. :smileyhea That's V Day sorted. :rotfl:

Made an apple & mincemeat crumble this evening, so utterly delicious. Two portions have gone into the freezer and the rest is going to be gobbled this weekend.

Tesko vouchers have arrived! Shall try and quadruple them up for restaurant vouchers (we have a gift card for one that needs using, so hoping that'll help contribute). Shall do some plotting of the best deals with my coupons as well.

Off to do some VO surveys, I know how to roll on a Friday night. :rotfl: