The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Here we are at the start of the week again.


I was thinking if the weather holds I would take a small FB donation over to the community hub this morning. We'll see how things pan out.

Lentil bolognese and pasta for tea. I am trying to sit on my hands and not buy pasta specially, and steel myself to use up the ancient tagliatelle that has been rattling around in the cupboard for eons. I know that it is the mse thing to do, but i'm still wavering

At least we ate the l/o curry up for tea last night. Sweet potato jalfrezi, made-up chickpea curry (which I wish I'd noted down the ingredients of, as it was delish - second time around), dhal and basmati rice. Filled a hole and was quick to heat up etc, so I wasn't locked in the kitchen at the end of the day.

Right, I can't think of owt else MS to prattle on about so I had best vamoose.

Thanks for popping by, reading and joining in. I do appreciate it.

Greying X

greenbee

Either use the tagliatelle or donate it to the food bank. Sounds like it needs to be gone!

I'm trying to use stuff up in the hope that at some point soon the builders will be back to do my kitchen, so therefore the less stuff there is in it, the easier it will be to empty... lots of lentils, buckwheat, rice and various random things like ground rice that I need to work into the menu over the next weeks/months - and not buy again if I'm not going to use them! I've had a lot of money tied up in consumables for the past year or so!

Greying_Pilgrim

greenbee wrote: »

Either use the tagliatelle or donate it to the food bank. Sounds like it needs to be gone!

It's an opened packet greenbee so it is up to me to buck my ideas up and use it. Stoopid really, i mean it'll taste fine, it's just difficult to eat - although I will smash it up a bit. Very first world problem to have

Yes, know what you mean about money tied up in consumables. I am on a mission to try to reduce 'choice' available at any one time, without necessarily limiting the type of things that we eat say, over the course of a year.

I got carrots, parsnips and potatoes (King Edwards mini roasters) from mrL yesterday. Hopefully there will be some caulis, white potatoes and leeks left in the mrAl offering this week. At 29p a bag, they fall into my affordability range. Although as a repeat of similar offerings by both shops at Christmas time, you can't hep wishing it was Christmas/Easter every other week to help with grocery costs!

I must catch up with my spending diary today. I've kept the receipts, but not entered them. It is proving such a useful tool in my household expenditure/budgeting that I don't want to get out of the habit - it'll mean I go back to the bad ways of overspending in my categories.

Greying X

maggiem

Sounds as if you had a lovely day out - swallows and all. We had a long very warm walk on the coast via woods which were covered in bluebells and some wild primula - just lovely.

My kitchen really needs decluttering - a bit scared to look at dates on some of the herbs and spices. I must sort these out as DD sometimes buy too (naturally without checking if spice is in the cupboard). Lo curry sounds lovely too.

EssexHebridean

maggiem wrote: »

Sounds as if you had a lovely day out - swallows and all. We had a long very warm walk on the coast via woods which were covered in bluebells and some wild primula - just lovely.

My kitchen really needs decluttering - a bit scared to look at dates on some of the herbs and spices. I must sort these out as DD sometimes buy too (naturally without checking if spice is in the cupboard). Lo curry sounds lovely too.

So don't look at the dates - open them up and give them a sniff. If they smell and look as they're meant to, they'll be fine.

Sounds like some lovely days out being had there!

mcculloch29

EssexHebridean wrote: »

So don't look at the dates - open them up and give them a sniff. If they smell and look as they're meant to, they'll be fine.

Seconding this suggestion from EH re not chucking herbs and spices (or indeed anything) if smelling and looking ok. The date has worn off some of my Aldi spice jars.
Logic and memory tells me that it was probably 2015, but my nose and palate tell me that the ginger, ground cumin and turmeric, at least, are absolutely fine.
Curry comes up on the McC menu quite often; not as often as GP's but I'm not vegetarian so do have a wider range of choices.

I do like to have at least one vegan or vegetarian meal a week, though.

I find tagliatelle very frustrating to eat as it is, I usually manage to flick sauce over something whilst trying to fork it up elegantly. I'm with the smash it up option too. GP.

rtandon27

We also have some lingering nests of tagliatelle in the stores - they are whole wheat to boot - what was I thinking?!?:eek:

Smashing them up is a great idea! - might have to combine with the whole wheat spaghetti which never seems to get used up!;)

Somthing like this vegan kale casserole perhaps?

(Would put an end to the bag of frozen kale that keeps surfacing in the vegetable drawer of the freezer!):rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

maggiem - are those spanish bluebells or natives - aren't they early? I thought we went bluebell hunting in May in previous years..... Or is everything speeding up with global warming?

rtandon27 wrote: »

Somthing like this vegan kale casserole perhaps?

My goodness rtandon, wholewheat pasta and kale? That'll be your fibre intake for the year sorted then....... :eek::rotfl:

Well, today has been good and odd in equal measure. I'll gloss over the odd, as it's just......odd! The good included making it over to the community hub to hand our little donation in to the foodbank. The volunteer door was open, so we didn't see the nice receptionist again But the volunteer smiled and thanked us for the donation, so that was nice

I received an obviously heart-felt compliment about ....... well, I guess my abilities as a parent(?) from a complete stranger, who physically stopped me to tell me one or two things that they admired about BG...... was a little taken aback, and I didn't know what to say...... So said, 'um, OK, thank you.....'

We saw someone that we've not seen for the longest while. Hopefully it will encourage them to see us more often.......

The day has run away with us, but luckily I had got tea 90% prepped before oddity no.2 of the day happened, so we DID eat the tagliatelle :j and it has now, gone, gone, gone! :j And I'm not buying anymore, ever again. Even if I make Leanne Brown's lovely courgette pasta dish, I am NOT doing it with tagliatelle! And yes, it will be inauthentic, but I ain't doing it!

Tea was lentil bolognese with tagliatelle and parmesan (still on the 89p block from h3ron f00ds). Picture here;



The upshot of using the pasta was that it has freed up quite a good sized clip-lid box for something else, so that's an unexpected bonus

Today i am grateful for these 3 things;

kind words

for the reminder that money doesn't necessarily buy happiness nor grace

for love

Ta for popping in, reading and joining in the conversation. Mucho, mucho appreciated. As ever.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

We need bananas and I'll get the TV guide today. So a walk up the high street is on the cards.

I was going to make soup for tea, but we have been gifted some eggs, so I think i had better start making inroads into them, so that they are utilised fully. So some sort of crustless quiche. I have plenty of bits that I can put into it - just need to make some sort of concerted co-ordination, rather than a 'dog's breakfast' approach. Come to think of it, we are all out of green veg too, dang, there were some YS'd sprouts in m&$ yesterday - should have grabbed them I passed up on the YS'd asparagus as it was produce of mexico, and as the UK asparagus season is now in full swing, there is no need to buy produce that has flown half way around the world to get here.

I'm going to have a check of the kitchen cupboards to see that there are no more culinary oddities lurking anywhere. I don't think that there are now, i think we are back to items that we use daily or at least regularly - but complacency is apt to creep into my household management, so I had better check!

Oh, come to think of it, I've some banking that needs doing, we have rejoined the natty trusty and I need to ensure that the money is in my bank a/c to meet the membership payment. Mmmmm, must put that on my list pronto! Otherwise easter will come along and cause matters to be forgotten!

Right, enough from me for the minute - onwards and upwards!

Greying X

maggiem

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Good Evening :hello:

maggiem - are those spanish bluebells or natives - aren't they early? I thought we went bluebell hunting in May in previous years..... Or is everything speeding up with global warming

You certainly learn stuff from this forum - I had to look up the differences between Spanish bluebells and 'our' bluebells - think the ones in the woods were ours and others are Spanish. My neighbour today said his wisteria is coming out so maybe things are early this year.

I will sniff the herbs and spices as recommended - think that's what bothers me as putting in cumin which has lost it's smell and potency seems like a waste of time!

Lovely weather here though today, long may it continue - makes such a difference with the sun out, don't mind if it is very cold but bright rather than grey cheers me enormously! Hope everyone else is basking too!