The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Greying_Pilgrim

appears to be your ability to practise patience, whilst pinned under a child, who is splayed, star fish-like over your chest/lap/legs (delete as appropriate, depending on size of child), whilst waiting for them to fall asleep, before you can even begin to think about moving/reaching for a hanky/your phone/a book/etc etc without.waking.them.up.

It's been a long night and morning......................

Anyhoo, Good Morning :hello:

gallygirl wrote: »

Yes it is the firm tofu - and very heavy it feels too. Will squash the living daylights out of it :rotfl:.

Thanks

Press gently, firmly, but evenly - you don't want your tofu to crumble. Also, rather than 'slabs' i cut my tofu into bite-size chunks, (after pressing) but that is personal preference.

I'm not too sure we'll be doing much adventurising today. BG really is quite full of cold, and appropriately miserable as a result. The weather is a bit crook anyway at the moment, so we may well be indoors for the day. But at the moment, BG is snoozing and for that I am grateful. I think it's probably the best thing for them. I'm hoping this is the 'hump' day - both for the cold and for the week

We could achieve a nsd today, looking on the brightside

Tea this evening will be beetroot, lentil and mozarella warm salad with a ginger dressing. It's one of Maria Elia's recipes - so sadly no link. But I will be using up mozarella (3 'logs' for £1 from h3ron) out of the freezer - already de-frosting, go me! MrAl S6 beetroot, and storecupboard lentils.

Can't think of owt else MS, so I'm away to see if I can follow BG's lead and get some shut-eye in the daylight.

Ta for popping in. Appreciated.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

We've definitely been 'home on the range' today. Not set foot outside the door We've spent no money, neither

BG has only wanted mumma, all day long. So I took on the role of 'security blankie' and have weathered the tears, the snot, the sneezes and the strops; along with the smiles, the songs and the snuggles. It's a priveledge to be a parent.

Tea was as slated, I make a 'version' of Maria Elia's recipe for Mushroom, beetroot, mozarella, lentil cartouche. Only I don't include mushrooms, and I don't cook it in a cartouche. Basically, I cook my (green speckled/Puy) lentils, drain, then run some cooked onion/celery/garlic through them, along with chopped beetroot, and then I add a little of the ginger vinagrette. Plate up, and place sliced mozarella on top and drizzle the rest of the ginger vinagrette over. I served a portion of steamed brocolli alongside, with some sunflower, sesame and pumpkin seeds scattered over, and it was devoured I do however, have the only child that I know that doesn't like mozarella.......... (BG didn't have what we had - but I tried them with the mozzer for the umpteenth time, just in case, like......).

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

A PJ day

Help and support from DH

that sometimes I am enough

Ta for popping in and reading. Appreciated. Greatly.

Greying X

Silver_Queen

That recipe sounds delicious, I’ll have to give it a go!

Where do you get your seeds from? I always find they’re a bit too expensive to include in my shop but if you can manage it on your impressive budget I’m determined I must be able too!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

It's been a long night again....... But I think whilst we may not have turned a corner with BG's cold, we're somewhere on the cusp iyswim.

They are snoozing currently, which is a blessing. I'm hopeful we can get out and about for a breath of fresh air today too. I think it would help - as long as we're appropriately wrapped up.

Silver_Queen wrote: »

That recipe sounds delicious, I’ll have to give it a go!

Where do you get your seeds from? I always find they’re a bit too expensive to include in my shop but if you can manage it on your impressive budget I’m determined I must be able too!

Silver Queen - if you give the recipe a go, my only advice would be to look carefully at the dressing quantities. I make it by eye, rather than measuring out, but I (personally) think 75ml of sesame oil is a bit of a flavour overload. I didn't have any lemon last night, so I used orange instead, and actually, I used more orange juice than oil or vinegar combined. Not classic vinagrette formula, but it tasted nice and of course, the lentils are great for soaking up dressings. I get my seeds from a variety of shops. I think iirc you are Londinium way? Do you have h0m3 barginz down your way? I use them, and I have used GrAp3 Tr33 (phoenix company of Jul1an GrAv3s??) and i got my sesame seed in MrW - EasternEnders brand, in the world foods section. I realise that it's probably better (pricewise) to buy in bigger quantities, but as you know, seeds can go rancid. I keep my linseeds (can't recall where I got them - possibly GT?) in the freezer - which extends their life, but makes them a pain to include, because the freezer is not near to the kitchen. And I can't leave BG to wander off and go and fetch some.

Tea this evening was slated to be 'falafel bowl'. Whilst the chickpeas are ready cooked and in the freezer, I'm not too sure I can be Rsed to make falafel today........ We'll see. We will need some bananas and we are all out of other fruit I'm going to bust my budget today Which is a nuisance, after trying so hard to 'eat up all the things'. Still, we can go for 'damage limitation' eh? We don't have to go daft.

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

Ta for popping by. Appreciated.

Greying X

WannabeFree

I'm behind because I'm only just catching up.

I think you do amazing on your food budget. Your meals always sound amazing.

At one time I was trying to feed the smalls of £10 a week and it was boring, same rubbish unhealthy food constantly.

I think finding the balance between fitting the budget and still a nice variety is hard. Even now I think my smalls get fed too much to similar things (admittedly slightly healthier)

I think you're too harsh on yourself

Hope you and BG are feeling much better x

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Aw, WannaBeFree - I shall take that as a compliment of the highest order - you work wonders with your lil' family :T

So, we beat the rain and got out and about - even getting a speck of sunshine on us cheeks too BG was definitely better for the breath of fresh air and things to see and point at

So I have bust my grocery budget, but I'm not - yet - over my 'household' budget, in other words, 'non' groceries are currently bailing out groceries. I stocked up with fruit/veg, getting; apples (2.4kg) £2, easy peelers (600g) 89p, lemons x 5 - 89p, carrots 1kg 39p and bananas just over a kilo at 83p (I think). So round about a fiver spent.............. I got some other bits too and did the 4 for £3 on shampoo in HB. But it does feel good to have fruit in the house again :j BG snarfed a clementine in double quick time for lunch!

Tea this evening turned into a 'sort of' salad plate. I used up the last 2 eggs to make some individual frittatas, using flour/cornmeal/baking powder/eggs/milk/chopped sun-dried tomatoes/chopped green beans, the last of the YS'd cottage cheese and bits of herbs and seasoning. These were cooked in the oven with an eggless lemon cake, which was a recipe for a 'plain sponge' with lemon juice, lemon zest and 25g of almonds (whizzed up) to replace 25g of the flour component. I think the original recipe may be a Leah Lehmann one, but regrettably I didn't credit the source in my recipe index.

Then I used the last of the 'bambino' YS'd potatoes to make a 'conventional' mayo tattie salad with mint running through. I grated carrot, toasted; sesame, linseed, pumpkin and sunflower seeds with some flaked almonds and put the seeds/nuts in with the grated carrot, and some clementine juice then gave it a whirl with a scant dusting of cinnamon and cumin. That, actually, was super lush And lastly I made beetroot tzatziki, the recipe for which I got from Elly Curshen's book 'Let's eat', but which I can't find a link to, but THIS one is v v similar, but I didn't put any vinegar in mine, and I didn't have dill - which I think is anise flavour? so I subbed in a little ground fennel instead. The tzatziki is a keeper of a recipe for me - very simple and very nice. I used my garlic puree - which is proving invaluable for this sort of thing, as it is so smooth, and Elly's recipe has toasted cumin seeds in too, which is a good touch - as would caraway seeds be.

Although we're in the midst of winter, it was a nice colourful bowl - and even DH asked if I had taken a picture of it! :rotfl:It used up lots of leftovers, and put the purchases I made today; oranges, carrots and lemons, to good use :j

BG's appetite is returning slowly - they even tried a small piece of my 'Kay-kee' and said, 'nom' so I think it's ok.........................:rotfl:

Today i am grateful for these 3 things;

Getting out and about again

a friend followed my suggestion to offer something they were finished with, to a new mother, who took it - love keeping stuff outta landfill

that a frugal-ish tea 'from scratch' was achieved and that BG looked on contentedly whilst I worked - much less stressful

Ta for popping in. Appreciated.

Greying X

System

Morning GP!

Thought of you this morning when I drove past the brand new mrL they're building and saw they were stocking the shelves! Is it sad I am excited to do my food shopping there? The 2 MrL's we currently have (yes we have 2 in a 2 mile radius and one is closing because of this new fancy one) are really run down and dingy so I hate shopping in them!

Your salad plate sounds lovely with loads of variety! We had vegan spagbol last night using the veggie mince from farmfoods (which I really rated, took the flavour of the sauce and condiments I used nicely and didn't taste like quorn which I can't stand!) but at £2odd a bag I don't think we'll be using it often - a treat once in a while. I am not the biggest fan of lentils and OH loves them so I'll be making him lentil spagbol on evenings where I have a non-vegan dinner.

Hope BG has managed to beat his rotten cold today! I'm coming down with the snuffles but I'm hoping a good nights rest will mean I don't spend my weekend under the weather. We have a little sunshine here, hope you have more than us!

Greying_Pilgrim

.....it's Friday......................

Afternoon all :hello:

We've had another bad night. Not any worse than the night before, nor any better, just disrupted in a different way.

I'm bushed.

I am, tentatively hoping that we are now plateauing, and we're on our way to betterment. Please let us be on our way to betterment.......

Highlights of the day already include a toddle in the sunshine. Which allowed BG to 'see' more things close up, have some exercise and be in the sunshine - for which I am grateful I wasn't going to bother with any shopping - the fresh air and exercise being enough. But I ended up nicking into M&$ for a gander, and got some YS'd (55p) fresh coriander that wasn't dead - unlike the grey, mouldy basil that had an optomistic '£1.05' YS on it......... and a 335g punnet of cherry toms for 90p. The toms were probably on the slightly expensive side - but as the 'Over-priced on some things' greengrocer wanted 65p for 250g punnets, t'other day........ Also, I've changed what we're having for tea slightly. I am intending to do Walnut, Lentil & Beetroot burgers - and yes, gally they were on my meal-planner before you mentioned beetroot burger, t'other day but it's nice to know that I'm keeping up with the hip&trendy continental crowd :D - and had originally slated to do sweet potato wedges and a green bean salad with them. But I'm using up the last 2 brioche burger buns from the freezer, and didn't want carb overload, so I'm now going for burger buns with salads instead, and will do a tomato and basil salad as well as something carrotty and something green-beany

I've stuck loads of seeds into my burgers too and pulsed the ingredients for more than the recipe suggests - otherwise the burgers really do fall apart. I also put some lemon juice in. I held off with the smoked paprika, as I managed to burn the walnuts as I was 'gently toasting' them Teach me to try to multi-task

Right, BG has gone down for a well-deserved nap. I don't think they have any idea how tired they are. Hopefully they will carry on getting better whilst sleeping and get fortified. They aren't eating much again at the moment, and I know I shouldn't worry, but I do...........

Ta for popping in, and dangling 'shiny, new MrL's' under my nose Appreciated

Greying X

Busy_Mee1

I love your diary GP and I love that you live your life at your toddlers pace allowing them to toddle and look and point...just lovely. You see so many children being ferried here and there and pushed around shopping malls at their parents pace and I just want to scream “take them to the park” But I don’t because I am a nicely brought up girl !

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Busy Mee1 - I agree with you, but wished I could spend more time letting BG explore, but sometimes there just isn't the time, or sometimes, I'm not convinced it's safe. There have been 2 episodes this week alone - where dogs sizing each other up for a fight, and rough sleepers getting involved in violent argy-bargy, that I was glad that BG was in the pushchair and we could high-tail it out of trouble. And as for people trying to walk straight through BG when they are toddling by my side - or forgetting that their shopping bags, are just at toddler height........

So tea has been munched. It turned out OK I did the burgers. I served one in a brioche bun that I had firstly put chipotle, smoked paprika mayo on the base, then the burger, then some (hm) sweet pickled red onion. DH had 2 burgers - one in a bun, one out, and the 'out' one had the remainder of the mayo & onions put on top. I did tomato salad with (dried) basil, oil, balsamic & cider vinegar, a speck of sugar and a speck of salt & pepper. I steamed the green beans and then dressed them in a miso/sesame oil/olive oil dressing with sesame seeds scattered over - the beans were warm and so took the dressing coating well. I also grated some carrots, ran some chopped coriander through and made a french dressing to which I added a peck of cumin. Filled a plate, filled our tummies without overloading and we didn't miss the carb overload of pizza and wedges (sorry rt )

DH was ill in December for a couple of days, so this month's pay is down. Not entirely unexpected, but a 'bump' none-the-less. What magic can we conjure up with less? *sigh*.......... *takes yet another glance at imaginary grocery inventory.......* :D

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

Sunshine, glorious sunshine - it made it all seem better

for bathtime giggles from BG - it seems so long since we've heard them...... (not actually that long, it just seems like an age)

a culinary pootle - that meant tea was ready within 10 minutes of the baby being bathed

Thanks for popping by and encouraging me. Appreciated. Greatly.

Greying X