Living richly; simply and debt-freely

Cheery_Daff

Yay for a nap and ice creams and letters :j :j (which reminds me, I've been carrying round a letter for weeks to post to a friend in Belgium, must get to the post office!)

Love your pictures of your tea Greying :j I really must get back to cooking - I went to slimming world tonight and had put ON three pounds in the last week :eek: Why is it so very easy to put on, and so very difficult to get off?? I've been going since last September and not even managed to lose a stone yet! :eek:

So I need to start cooking, and will be looking to you for inspiration Hope that's ok I've never been a meal planner, or recipe follower, and having been vegetarian for my entire adult life, my meals tend to default to

carb (potatoes/rice/noodles/pasta)
protein (chick peas/butter beans/lentils)
veg (onions/mushrooms/peppers/carrots etc)

all just stirred together in a pan. Makes quite a few combinations but not awfully inspired Off to make myself a mission

(oh! and the Enchanted Broccoli Forest was the first cook book I bought at university - not sure I ever made a recipe from it and it was *so* expensive :eek: but I love looking at it )

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Today has started really well - bopping around the kitchen to a Prince toon (Let's go crazy ) Baby Greying looking on indulgently.....:rotfl:

Cheery - do my meals look like they're planned? ooooh ta chuck Actually, i rather suspect our plates are made up in exactly the same manner - and you know that I am a 'dollop of this' and a 'speck of that' kinda gal I too bought the Mollie Katzen book..... and never cooked one single recipe from it......... :rotfl: I only do one of her's now - Scheherazade casserole. Her recipes are a bit ingredient heavy............

I forgot to say about the pilaf last night - Silvena's version uses short grain 'Baldo' rice - not sure if that is Italian or Spanish?? However, I always use whatever risotto rice I have to hand. Works well. I notice the recipe that I linked to used basmati.

Buddha bowl tonight Not too sure of the final version/ingredients, but Tofu will feature. I noticed that cold-dron foods firm Tofu is back up to normal price in mrW yesterday Still, the discount was nice whilst it lasted. And I have now got a few packs of paneer, so we can mix it up a bit

I have Baby Greying on my lap, and I can't work out if they want to 'help' me type, or whether they want me to get off the 'puter and concentrate on them. They are the same when I am trying to text. Makes for interesting messages!

I am definitely going to carry on with tidying the house today. I'm reclaiming it slowly but surely But there is still a long way to go.

Right, I best get started

Thanks for popping in, reading and commenting. I greatly appreciate it.

Greying X (shifting a tail-feather to lil' red corvette #itsaprincethang )

Cheery_Daff

:rotfl: glad it wasn't just me who didn't make much use of that book :rotfl: I think there may have been a chocolate pudding that I attempted? And some kind of peanut sauce for stir fry? Maybe I'll dig it out when we move

Greying_Pilgrim

Upside - I have just noticed that the fabric that I bought from the charity shop yesterday is, in fact, LaUra Ashl3y And it's 100% cotton

Downside - Baby Greying did a sideways poooooooooooo. It went everywhere, including all over the nice clean vest I had just put them in

Both the fabric and the vest are currently in the washing machine Baby Greying is asleep on my lap after their 'exertions' :rotfl:

Another typical day in suburbia...............:rotfl:

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Well, I didn't achieve as much tidying up as I would have liked today. But then I spent a bit more time up the high street than I had intended so swings and roundabouts. i decided to have a blitz of the chazzas. Mixed success. I am still bemused that chazzas charge 50p - 99p for baby 'vests', originally from the 'orange' supermercado and in one plain colour (at this price, they were used, albeit lightly. I saw some 'new' ones in one chazza shop...... £1.50+ :eek:). I bought a pack of 7 new ones from an independent shop today - admittedly they were in the sale, but they were a known 'brand' and they are different colours/patterns/logos. They were £8 for 7 or £1.14p each. I also picked up a couple of tops for 99p each from the chazzas. They are far too big for Baby Greying as of yet, but I knew that they wouldn't be about when BG hits that age range - and I liked the designs and for 99p each, they were good value (very, very lightly worn and no stains).

I enjoyed making the buddha bowl for us tea. It was a bit involved, but I liked making it - and did a bit whilst BG had a snooze and then finished off when DH was back to look after BG. I cooked up some brown rice. topped that with some steamed green beans and topped that with a 'made-up' salad. Basically, it was gingered, shredded carrots - grate your carrots, mix with fresh ginger, a speck of sugar, some vinegar (should have been rice vinegar, but I had none) and some lemon juice. Stir up, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle on some sesame seeds and nigella seeds. It was lovely - zingy and zesty.

I coated the tofu with cornmeal that had been mixed with some japanese curry powder. I have a recipe for it (you use it for Katsu curry), but I know that I amalgamated 2 recipes - so you can either use THIS version, or THIS version and it's along the lines of my mix - there is some of both ingredients in the actual mix I use. I'd also marinated the tofu in a mix of ginger, lemon juice, chipotle chilli and sesame oil to start with.

The tofu was fried until the coating was crisy and the tofu warmed through. Then I drizzled some of the Tahini, miso, citrus dressing over - I made so much of this last year, and still love it , but miso paste is now £4.10 from m&$ :eek: I used red grapefruit juice in the dressing - using one of the ones i got for 10p from mrW the other week. With the remaining grapefruit, I segmented it and put it on the side. It was lucious, a week or two in the fruit bowl has done it no harm The whole lot was topped off with some toasted sesame seeds and some nigella seeds. Picture here;



It was very involved for a Thursday night tea. But I prioritise cooking (after babycare ) - what can I say?


Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

that I checked BG's nappy when they were bluffing - it was DH's turn when they weren't....... :rotfl:

choice and variety - I know we are lucky to eat a variety of foodstuffs, even if we insist on doing it on the cheap

teamwork - even if it did mean that I had to cook and wash up at tea, because it meant that DH could spend precious moments with BG

Thanks for popping in and reading. Very, very much appreciated. Ta.

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, that looks tasty! :j

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Well we're up, showered, dressed, watered, fed........ :j Why can't it be like this every day? :rotfl: Most especially when we need to go out

Today will be tidying. A constitutional so that we can get some fresh air and a change of scene and ...... who knows what else?

Tea will be pizza and chips, but I'm cheating today. There is pizza in the freezer left over from last week, so I'm going to use that and I will use oven chips - bought a bag yesterday. I did notice that mrW have sweet potato chips. They are £2.49 for a bag - probably around 500/600g in weight? can't decide whether to give them a try or not, to see if it was the brand i didn't like from h3ron. Still, that is a decision for another day, there is no room in the freezer at present.

Right, I'm shifting my tail-feather

Thanks for popping in, reading and commenting. It is greatly appreciated

Greying X

starnac

Good work on the LA fabric. Hope BG gives you some time for sewing.

Sounds like you and DH are a good team. It makes things so much easier when you work as a team.

Greying_Pilgrim

starnac - my LA fabric has the roman numerals MCMLXXVI on it, which translates to 1976 (yes, I did have to look that up, we never studied latin at comprehensive skool.........;)) . Tell me that was the year the pattern was developed and not how old the fabric is :eek: Still, it has washed up lovely and will be useful for some really pretty bunting....... eventually

Greying X

greenbee

If it's from 1976 it's probably better quality than modern fabric GP. Enjoy your bunting