Living richly; simply and debt-freely

Greying_Pilgrim

beanielou wrote: »

Cake :drool:

Cherry sponge, made with the very last jar of cherries that was lurking at the back of the shelf in h0me bargins

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

I'm grateful to INOD and Fortune for talking, on their threads, about difficulties encountered with other family members. It makes me think, and ask myself hard questions about our own situation. Am I being reasonable? Am I being unreasonable? Are the 'other people' being reasonable.... or otherwise?

I've come to no clear answer yet. It doesn't seem a straightforward, yes/no, stop/go, in/out type situation. But they never are, are they?

It doesn't help, in my case, that it is family that are causing the issues. Whether they are blood or in-laws is immaterial. Society seems to implore us to treat them differently; accepting behaviour that we wouldn't entertain from friends, colleagues or strangers in the street. And yet we fret, worry and agonise as to whether we could, should or 'must' give up an hour, an afternoon or a day, to be with people who we at best dislike, and at worst.......... When I have my sensible head on, I tell myself, 'it's only an hour' or 'it won't be forever'. But when sense is absent, I tell myself, 'but's it's an hour of our lives we won't ever get back' or 'they're behaving badly and yet still getting their way......'

I am meeting up with a friend this week. I know that whether we get to chat for 30 minutes, an hour or maybe two, it is going to fly by and I'm going to enjoy their company so much. Every. Single. Minute. We're all human beings, what is the difference? And why does it impact on us so?

Dinner this evening is likely to be lentil bolognese with pasta. If you are wondering why lentils are featuring so heavily in our meals at present, then I can only point out to you that this is a money saving site and lentils are a frugal food And it means that I have successfully brought this post around back to on topic :T

Today is day 2 of the weekly meal plan. I'm still not sure that it is working yet. Yesterday's meal was supposed to feature limes, but I forgot to get some, as they didn't get transferred to my list in my purse! (Tsk!) And so I had to substitute with lemon instead. If I forget to buy pasta today - I have pasta, but it's shape isn't the best to accompany bolognese - then I think it is official. I have forgotten how to meal plan/budget and all round money save. I shall have to wear the dunce's hat until further notice .......... :rotfl:

Right, best go and seize the day

Greying X

joeyjimbles

I often don't have the 'right shaped' pasta for the sauce, and I agree that it can make a meal more successful but it often doesn't work like that for the jimbles household. On the positive side however we have discovered that we prefer carbonara made with penne anyway - apologies to Italians.
A quick heads up, and no idea if this is nationwide, but Aldee yesterday had 500g bags of 'bronze' die gourmet tagliatelle for 29p. The date is 2018 so there are 4 of them now in my cupboard for my favourite tomato and basil or blue cheese and mushroom sauces. Now I just need some ys blue cheese to stash in the freezer.
I'm sorry about your family problems, for the most part we seem to be very lucky with ours but I've seen the agony and angst of friends when dealing with their so-called nearest and dearest and I can appreciate how wearing it is.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Well, it had to happen. I was asked yesterday was Baby Greying my grandchild......... It has already happened to DH, so I guess I ought to count myself lucky. And get used to it. As it'll be asked again. And again. And again. I suppose technically speaking, you could legitimately be a grandparent from 33ish? 34? But I wonder how many 34 year olds are asked if they are wheeling their grandchild about, as opposed to their own baby.

Ho hum.

Dinner last night morphed into something different again, from what I had intended. This was partly due to the fact that the pasta that I was after wasn't available in HB - hope it's temporary, and not discontinued But also because I figured that I had better use up the remaining avocado that I had left, as it felt ripe and i didn't want it to 'go over'. So instead of pasta and lentil bolognese, we had chilli with all the 'fixings' instead

So a brown lentil & red kidney bean chilli with rice, served with an avocado, yoghurt, red onion and tomato salsa and a sprinkle of sumac;



T'was yummy. The avocado was perfectly ripe. It came out of the skin with a spoon absolutely whole - just the sort of thing you'd want if you were entertaining - but instead it'd be as hard as nails :rotfl:
The recipe for the chilli is my kinda default chilli recipe, evolved over time, so no link. But I always use cumin in my chillis, along with chilli powder, and a touch of cinnamon and a bay leaf if I remember

I was getting smoked paprika in mrAs yesterday, and I noticed that they had sumac (in their own brand spice jar) for £1 instead of £1.61 I think it was. I've not used it from there before, but i picked up a jar, as that is a good price (the jar is 50g) - so we'll see how it fairs.

It is burgers and assorted salads for tea tonight. i was going to make Jack's 9p burgers (and notice that inflation has hit and they are now 10p burgers.....) but have stumbled across a new recipe that I would like to try instead, so will give that a go.

Right, wonder what else the day will bring for Baby Greying and their 'auld' ma :rotfl: Best go and wander up and find out

Thanks for popping by, reading, commenting and joining in. Greatly appreciated. As ever.

Greying X

Fortune_Smiles

Blimming cheek! Although someone asked me if I was pregnant last year :eek: I'm 50 and a size 12 :rotfl:

Must be my buddha belly

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

Oh how very cheeky GP! :eek: Bet they were absolutely mortified Just shows you should always think carefully before speaking. Mind you - I was once asked if a friend was my daughter - I was 34 and SHE WAS 42! :eek: :eek: (she does look quite young, but still :eek: ) My mum was once out with her sister (2 years younger) and her sister's baby daughter - and my mum was asked if she was grandma (making her, presumably, her own sister's mother). And Mr Cheery was once asked for ID in the supermarket aged 45! :rotfl: :rotfl:

I think people are just pretty crap at judging ages xxx

I also think people are pretty impertinent when it comes to asking questions and making judgements about other people's children too, so I imagine a thick skin is necessary to be a parent!

As for families - yes, quite. I sometimes fret about the relationship I have with a couple of my family members whereas I wouldn't fret at all if they were aquaintances. Sometimes it's easier if I just think of them as acquaintances (bit sad when one of them is a parent, but hey ho). Lots of love to you all xx

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello: (just)

I think I am going to have to just dip in and dip out here today - not content with computer/internet connection problems (not sure if it is the system or my kit) that mean everything is taking ages, I also have Baby Greying perched on my lap. They clearly have ants in their pants, they are being such a fidget bum!

Anyhoo, just wanted to share the recipe that we had for 'us tea' last night. I came across a recipe for Walnut,beetroot and lentil burgers, it's from a blog called 'Hell yeah it's vegan' (not now updated?) and as I had all the ingredients in and they are some of my favourites, I figured combining them would produce something yummy. I was not disappointed I didn't follow the recipe to the letter - i used oats instead of rice for a start, as although I am pretty sure that I have some leftover rice in the freezer, I couldn't see it, and I couldn't be bothered to cook some up specially I used my burger press to make the burgers even sized (100g each). Definitely a keeper of a recipe. If I had had some pears, I either would have grated some pear in too, or if I was making burger baps, I would have thought a grilled piece of pear on top would have been nice Accompanied by (not the assortment of salads that I had intended ) some brocolli, meat-free monday potato salad (a version of) and some celery with caraway seed, vinegar, oil and a spot of yoghurt. Picture here;



I've no idea what's for tea tonight - I left a gap for flexibility, but now we've reached the gap...... :rotfl: It should involve courgettes though, as there are 2 in the fridge that need using

The electrickery company have finally worked out how much we owe - they were wrong to reduce the D/D as we are now technically in arrears - booo hiss! But luckily, I budgetted as normal, so have the money to cover the bill. I need to sort that out today and then get looking at alternatives :money:

Right, must go and do a bit more.

Thanks for popping in, reading and commenting. Very much appreciated. Fortune and Cheery thank you for your posts. I'm glad it's not just me, but we do have to take a sharp intake of breath and count to 10 on occasion don't we?

Greying X

Fortune_Smiles

Hold on Greying, still counting... 1092, 1093, 1094

Fortune x

Greying_Pilgrim

Fortune_Smiles wrote: »

Hold on Greying, still counting... 1092, 1093, 1094

Fortune x

*snort* :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Fabulous Fortune, just fabulous! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Well, i ended up making pilau/pilaf for tea last night. A perfect vehicle, thought I, for using up the remaining courgettes and just the thing to top with a thin omlette. Hmmmm, one-bathed baby later, and when we were tucking into us tea..... I remembered the courgettes languishing at the bottom of the fridge.... :rotfl: We also didn't have an omlette, as I hadn't checked the egg situation. There was actually only one egg, and i decided that was better served as egg mayonnaise in a couple of snap sangers, rather than trying to have an *accent* of egg with us tea..... ho humsky...... :rotfl:

What's for tea tonight is anyone's guess - dare I speculate that courgettes will play a part? Or am I saving them to mount on a plinth in honour of fantastic value supermercados? We won't be having what is on the list, as i used the butter beans in the Martin Morales recipe and I've none left. I have actually got plenty of bits and pieces dotted about the homestead. It's a case of bringing them all together into something edible!

I'm trying to slowly but surely reclaim the house back from the baby. We've let things slip and have taken to just popping stuff down, rather than dealing with it, or putting it away. I did the kitchen yesterday. Not too onerous (Our kitchen is tiny), but DH commented on how much extra space there was this morning so it must have needed doing

Right, best get up and at it There's always plenty to do So best get and shake a tail-feather Save some £'s trying to come up with a meal-plan for next week and shift a few lbs by being active around the house and vicinity of Greying Towers

Sounds like a plan

Thank you for popping by. Much appreciated. By me. Always.

Greying X