The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

beanielou

Hope your admin goes as you hope.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

A lovely day has been had The day started off well, as apropos of nowt, BG clambered up on mumma's lap ( I was sat down at the time ) rested themselves across my body and into the crook of my arm and just lay there........ not moving, not falling asleep, just content in my company. They stayed like that for at least 15 minutes. Bliss :smileyhea

We got our walk in and had a big gulp of fresh air. BG fell over and got themselves muddy again..... Thing is, they were on a path - I wouldn't have thought to put them in their waterproof onesie, for fear of it ripping on the rough surface. But I'll have to rethink my approach, as another load of washing had to be done today.......

Lashings of fresh air made the baby sleepy and so mumma made hay whilst the sun shone, and made that phone call. I'm glad I did, it's not sorted owt, but I needed to make the call. Perhaps it may yet jumpstart someone into action. I have made myself some additional admin as a result, but at least something that is seemingly heaping unfairness onto unfairness may be attended to.

Tea this evening was the pumpkin chowder (made with BNS) from the Economy Gastronomy book. I can't find a link to it online, but basically it's pumkin, garlic, ground coriander and cumin, chillies (or not, depending on your liking), veg stock, coconut milk and chopped fresh coriander. Blitz or leave chunky, according to preference. Our UK grown BNS was nice - very, very orange inside I added onion into my soup, and a touch of turmeric. Just because Simple enough recipe (I baked my BNS before hand, but the recipe didn't call for it to be - you can cook the BNS in the veg stock before adding the other ingredients), tasted nice and used up ingredients I already had (I wasn't making the recipe quantity so just used up coconut milk l/o from the freezer).

Today I am grateful for these three things;

simple pleasures seen through the eyes of a child

simple food

that i simply stopped prevaricating and got *it* done...........

Ta for popping in and encouraging me. Appreciated. Greatly.

Greying X

apple_muncher

I know you can roast BNS with the skin on and then use it all (apart from the seeds, of course!) in a soupy thingy. But can you do the same on the hob? I've always peeled mine but since turning all arthriticky and feeble at times, especially in my hands, I find wielding a large sharp knife to cut through a BNS almost beyond me. If it didn't need peeling, then I could 'coax' dh into simply chopping it up for me to use...

Greying_Pilgrim

apple_muncher wrote: »

I know you can roast BNS with the skin on and then use it all (apart from the seeds, of course!) in a soupy thingy. But can you do the same on the hob? I've always peeled mine but since turning all arthriticky and feeble at times, especially in my hands, I find wielding a large sharp knife to cut through a BNS almost beyond me. If it didn't need peeling, then I could 'coax' dh into simply chopping it up for me to use...

I don't know is the short answer.

BUT........ Would steaming chunks cause the skin to come away easily from the flesh - like it does when roasted? Would microwaving do the same thing? I would have thought 'searing' BNS chunks in a pan would take forever, would result in you stinking out your kitchen, and probably only make sections of the skin come off - rather than the whole thing?

I know exactly what you mean about getting into the BNS - DH asked me a question as I was trying to get a knife through mine last night! Yeh, like I'm gonna divert my attention from trying to push down a large knife into a rock hard bns!!! :rotfl:I found that a serrated peeler helped peel the BNS when I have to peel them for a dish - but I appreciate even that would possibly be of little use with arthritic hands.

Greying X

apple_muncher

It seems like the 'roast it in the oven first' approach may be the simplest, as it renders it soft and squishy and easy to cut up

Thank you x

starnac

Oh GP I must confess I laughed at BG finding the only bit of mud to fall into again. Kids have a certain knack don't they? DS fell over this morning on the way to school. Came off his scooter. He also managed to find the only bit of mud to fall into! Thankfully our school is amazing and his TA took him straight off to clean him up, hands, coat and uniform too. I am so grateful as DS would have hated spending the day in a dirty uniform.

And my heart melted hearing you tell of the way BG climbed into your arms. Bliss indeed.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon :hello:

starnac - the more annoying thing was that actually, it was a wet path - that to the naked eye looked..... cleanish. But when i got BG upright, the tale on the coat and trousers was a different matter! And to top it off, when we had been there the day before, *near* to that spot, someone had allowed their dog to make a *deposit*, now, as far as I'm aware, that was cleaned up, but.................................... So the washing was as much a precaution as a necessity.

Gosh, we've been round and about this morn. I spent some money in mrAl - and got some of the celery in the S6. The beetroot looks nice too, may well splash out on some of that, before the offer ends.

BG is currently napping. So I made hay and had my lunch, as I was starving having skipped breakfast - tsk! I had leftover soup from last night.

Tea this evening will be barley and beetroot risotto. It's a Jack Monroe recipe - I think it's available on her website - I'll have to check - but I know that I got it from the Royal Marsden Cancer cookbook, that I checked out from the library one time.

Don't think I've owt else MS to report, so Roger, over and out from me

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

You'll be pleased to note that I have breakfasted this morning :D MArm1t3 on toast x 2. Let's hope all those added B vitamins make me invincible......... :rotfl:

I slept through the night again :j but did wake up with the 'hang over' effect again. I do wish they would call it something else - most unfair when you've not had so much as a sniff of alcohol! But it does feel like you've been on a 'session' so an accurate description I guess.

Got to try to shoe-horn in some more admin today. Wish me luck i want to do it, I need to do it; but having a small about the place makes concentrated efforts....... difficult But I wouldn't be without BG in my life now, so I am most definitely not complaining

We need one or two staples again today, so money will be spent. But we'll just buy what we need.

Tea this evening is going to be Morroccan Stew, which will use up the remaining piece of BNS. The chickpeas are soaking and will be cooked in the PC later. I will grind up some whole spices, to make a mix and then cook it all together with onions, garlic, celery, tinned tomatoes, stock, seasoning etc. I'm aiming to serve with brown rice.

Right, can't think of owt else :money: at the mo, so best vamoose.

Ta for popping by and reading. Appreciated.

Greying X

System

Reading your diary uplifts me , you have such a way with words.

Have a good admin day with BG . It’s very frosty here GP but looks beautiful if that makes sense.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

I might just catch meself up just now. Phew, there's a lot on at the mo.

I did my admin task YAY! :j That has now been sent off :j

I'm trying to maintain good exercise levels on a daily basis, and so far, that is working well. But as you will all concur, regardless of what exercise you do, it munches time.......

Tea last night ended up being a serendipitous success. I had banked on making Morroccan stew with brown rice. But whilst idly wafting through a magazine 'aimed at a certain demographic'.......... kindly donated to me by the non-gardening parental; which had been gifted to her by the octogenarian sister of her neighbour......... I spotted a recipe for a BNS 'salad', which looked appealing. Now, whilst I didn't have all the same ingredients and I didn't want to open my bag of Quinoa, whilst I had opened bags of cous cous, bulghar, rice etc, I improvised. And it worked out quite well.

I roasted the remainder of the BNS (bulb/seed end) and made an apple crumble to fill up the oven. I fried up some onion and garlic and then added the cous cous, stock, dried cranberries, 3 remaining dried apricots that had been reproachful every time I opened the cupboard - chopped, cooked chickpeas and parsley. And let that cook/steam. I then diced up the cooked BNS and put it into a bowl to which I had sprinkled some Ras-el-hanout spice and a drizzle of oil and combined them. I had bought (only because I had a voucher) some new dressings from M&$, designed 'specifically' to run through grains. They were a £1 a (small) jar, but were on 3 for 2 and there were 3 varieties; preserved lemon & mint, Beetroot and cumin and mango and chilli. I used some of the preserved lemon dressing on my cous cous, and I have to say it was 'ok'. Not too sure I'd buy the product again, but neither would I rule out buying it IYSWIM.

I then put the cous cous mix in a dish, topped it with the spiced BNS and topped that with a dresssing made from; youghurt, yellow miso and clementine zest and juice. All this was topped off with some chopped almonds.

Delish. There is leftovers (I was over enthusiastic with my cous cous pouring ) But I'm thinking now that instead of pizza and wedges for tea, we'll have 'picky bits' and use up the remaining cous cous and BNS. For one thing, it'll help to disassociate Friday, Pizza and a 'Glass o red' - not that I've actually got to the stage of missing a drink yet. I suppose I think the diversion of the cash to the boiler servicing fund is a better option

The apple crumble was served with custard

I must admit, I took to having a look in M&$ to see what they have in their food offering, and they have gone 'big' into the superfoods/grains/salads lines. And I do find it interesting to see what they have come up with. I'm glad that I had the voucher, and that it gave me the option to 'try' a new product. Also, thinking of 'new' lines - I'm probably late to the party, but in having a wander around mrAl the other day, I see they have taken to stocking things like; spirulina powder, cacao powder etc. Which I didn't know that they did. I think these are now 'stock' items. I did also see organic; coconut flour and coconut sugar - but wasn't too sure if these were 'special' items rather than basic stock? I realise that this is a divergence away from the stock that mrAl used to have, and it won't please all MSE'rs, but anyone who uses these products might find them to be cheaper than other sources. i don't routinely buy them, but I got the inkling they were priced very competitively - forgive me if I'm wrong with that assumption.

Right, best go and seize the day. That's if I can find it, amongst the mist and murk...........

Ta for popping by. Appreciated. Greatly. Always.

Greying X