Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

oldtractor

I've just flung a load of carp into the bin. Bliss.

vhalla1478

A bit fishy, oldtractor!

mrssnowy_2

Evening All
Lovely day-despite the rain which started when I was doing my volunteering stint and the washing was on the line!
Bathroom cleaned,but I still haven't fixed the toilet seat. Vacced(?)and lightly dusted downstairs.
Made 1 large wholemeal seeded loaf and 3 rolls.
Turned 3 manky lemons into 3 and a half jars of yummy lemon curd.Fantastic free range eggs from a friend,random sizes but deep yellow yolks.WI recipe which needed half pint of lemon juice to half pint of eggs,only quarter pint juice out of my lemons so a bit of adjusting was called for.
Roasted an elderly squash with garlic, in the oven as the bread was cooking,then turned it into the most delish curry with 2 small onions,curry powder,tin of chopped tomatoes and 2 blocks of frozen spinach-5 portions and there is only me,so a few in the freezer for another day.
Lovely friend has a birthday tomorrow and she has invited a few of her friends round for afternoon tea-she always makes fantastic cakes.
Nearly finished another pair of fingerless gloves today,usually takes an evening to knit then sew up the next day,usually do stripes as I seem to have loads of odd little balls of wool.These are my seventh pair so will start on stripey welly socks next,I have got a pattern to knit them on 2 needles saves wrestling with 5.
Sorry about the long ramble,I am watching the sewing bee at the same time-really couldn't do that sort of pressure.Well done them.
Take care all
mrss
vhalla-good ideas for leftovers,mine all seem to end up as soup or a pourover sauce.

janb5

Hi Mrs Snowy- your curry recipe sounds fab- could you write it down for us all to enjoy please? xx

cheerfulness4

Finally got on here! My lappy is misbehaving badly at the mo and I'm so clumsy trying to post on my tablet but I've been catching up on all the posts tonight. See, you're not the only one that has pc troubles, viv. Also photobucket has decided to play me up and won't resize my photos even though it promises it has. The little liar!

I was also watching the Sewing Bee tonight and was thrilled that Matt won. Not sure if he was the best sewer but I just thought he and his little family were lovely.:D

DH goes back to work tomorrow night so I'll be able to catch up with linking the recipes on the first page tomorrow afternoon when I have some quiet time.

How's everyones seeds coming on? I've got some tomatoes up, broad beans doing well, (don't you just love the big leaved veg; so impressive when they first come up) and my parsley will soon go outside in my little plastic greenhouse.
My thyme is slower but very healthy. I thought my lettuce was rather slow. We've been watching it carefully for days. But... dawned on me I forgot to sow it. :o I watered the compost and then got it in my mind I'd sown them. :cool: My mind is mush these days.

Must get my spends up to date. I'm rather proud of them.
I'll pop them in the post beneath in case it decides to play me up like it did you Viv.

cheerfulness4

TUES 10 MAR
DAY 10

Money Spent Today - £0 Vouchers Spent - £1.80
Money Spent in Total - £26.55 Vouchers Spent in Total - £0
Money left in purse - £3.45 - Float left- £1.98/£15
Jan non-foods left- £8.35/£15

The only spent for Tuesday was £1.95 on loo rolls from the non-foods budget.


Wed 11 Mar
Day 11

Money Spent Today - £6.45 Vouchers Spent - £1.80
Money Spent in Total - £33.00 Vouchers Spent in Total - £0
Money left in purse - £0 - Float left- £1.82/£15
Jan non-foods left- £8.35/£15

We spent £2.77 in Aldis on 2x milk @ £1.78 and 1 pk of 8 cumberland sausages @ 99p.
Later in the morning we popped to Morrisons and found some great YS bargains in the produce departments. We got 2x 2.25kg bags of potatoes @ 19p each, 1x 1.35kg of carrots @ 19p, 2 x big bags of mixed apples @ 39p each, 1 x large bag with 12 large tomatoes @ 45p (none of them squidgy either!), 1 x bag of 20 plums @ 39p and 1x bag of 4 grapefruits @ 45p. So that was another £2.64 spent very well we thought and lots of lovely fresh goodies in the fridge.


Just when I thought we had spent enough we nipped into Tesco unexpectedly around 8.40pm after being with friends and found a lovely stash of YS bready goods. We bought 2x Warburton whml loaves @ 10p each, 1 x kingsmill whml 6 pk rolls @ 10p, 1 x Hovis white @ 10p, 2 x 6pk Hot cross buns @ 10p each, 4 x pks of stir fry vegetables @ 10p each and 1 pk of watercress @ 10p. That little lot came to the princely sum of £1.20.
Now that meant that I was 16p over what was available today so I decided to take that from my float budget to balance my books as I had monies available there exactly for that purpose. If I see YS bargains then the float should be used, NOT for sweet treats constantly as I have been using it. Tut tut.


THUR 12 MAR
DAY 12

Money Spent Today - £1.55 Vouchers Spent - £1.80
Money Spent in Total - £34.55 Vouchers Spent in Total - £0
Money left in purse - £1.45 Float left- £1.82/£15
Jan non-foods left- £8.35/£15

Quick nip to a little Asda store to get Lr bag chips @ 75p, 1 x 4 pack of YS All butter crossiants @ 30p (sats breakies sorted!) and a pk of 5 custard doughnuts @ 50p.

cheerfulness4

Just remembered. Was rather pleased with myself as I didn't know what to make for my tea. They were having sausages but I don't eat those often.
I had a chicken breast defrosted so I decided to use one of the bags of stir fry veg to have with it. I opened a little tin of pineapple in juice that I've had months and blitzed it in my mini blender with an inch and a half of fresh ginger and a teaspoon of HM chilli jam. (I'd drained most of the juice from the pineapple. I added salt, pepper and a slug of olive oil and then marinated the chopped up chicken breast in it.
Heated my wok and cooked off until done through and then added my stir fry veg for the last 3-4 mins. I was shocked that it was so delicious. It seemed to form a light 'gravy' that was so fresh tasting. The ginger really came through with the gentle heat of the chilli jam. A lovely cheap tea for me using up things that had been hanging around too long.

mrssnowy_2

Oh heck,janb5
I do a lot of wing and a prayer cooking,all edible but not always reproducible!
Here goes-
Peel and deseed a butternut squash,cut into mouth sized chunks put on baking tray with unpeeled cloves of garlic(5-6) roast in oven till softish. If using for soup then the skin can be left on cos it will soften.I like the roasty flavour. 30 -45 minutes in med to hot oven.
Squash can also be sauteed in saucepan,if the oven isn't on.
Roughly chop 2 small to medium onions,saute in pan with very little olive oil or fry spray oil,not too small as chunky is good.
Stir in quite a lot of curry powder and I also added garam masala-probably level tablespoon of both,cook it out a bit to get rid of the powdery feeling.
Tip in a tin of chopped tomatoes.
Add 2 mini blocks of frozen spinach,cook for 5 mins.
Now add squash and squeeze garlic out of its skin and add.
Add water to make it a consistency that you like,not too sloppy for me.
Serve with plain basmati rice.
Makes about 5 generous portions.

If I have the oven on for something I will always try to fill it,bit of a pain as I am on my own and the oven is big.Quite often roast all sorts of veg with garlic,makes lovely lasagne.
I keep a bag of HM crumble mix in fridge and will also pop in a pud for me with(usually)blackcurrants out of the freezer.
HM oven chips,ie baking potato not peeled cut into wedges,children used to call them 'big !!!!!!s'-sorry!
Hope you can follow all this
mrssnowy

Herbyme

Cheerfulness, well done with your seedlings. Mine still stunted. Is it cos theyre such elderly seeds?!

kittym

Morning all, up with the birdies this a.m.

Just catching up with you all. Had a rough couple of days, having to start biological meds at end of mth as my treatments not working. (lucky me) I'm going from taking a load of nasty meds to being pumped full of nasty meds. Oh well at least I managed to finally get some gardening done.

Your posts have had me chuckling out loud especially the rescue from the freezer by the 6"2 hunk. The way you all describe the places where you live and go sound fab. We are very lucky to have such lovely places even though I sometimes forget this.

Still doing quite good with making do. Tea last night was HM quiche with leftover veg, some stewed wrinkly fruit with meringues made from vhallas recipe (mmmmmmmm) they come highly recommended.

It's cold and wet here today. Having to go to town today for DD. Thankfully she's spending her own money (she's a super saver) I will be window shopping only, fingers x.
Have a lovely day what ever your all up to. xxxx