The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, that looks just like my soup Greying :j Wish I had onion flatbreads to go with mine too. Did you make yours?

I confess I abandoned soup for lunch and used up the last of the pancake mix instead as I was working at home today - that's saved the soup for in-the-office days. I've put a couple of bags in the freezer, and couldn't find my small plastic soup carrier, so I've ended up with 2 days worth in the giant one and it can just stay in the work fridge tomorrow night. Good stuff

Sorry to hear you had a bit of a weird day - we did too, maybe there was something in the air?? Mr Cheery in an odd mood, I had to go to the garage twice and deal with a house full of workmen (well, two, which was quite enough, even though we know them and they're pretty cheery), and plenty of work for me to do too. Both of us feel quite discombobulated this evening (although I have been slightly more er, bobulated by sausages and mash for tea and I've changed the sheets so looking forward to getting into bed :j

Hope tomorrow goes more smoothly. Thank goodness indeed for the NHS - I am at the docs TWICE tomorrow, at opposite ends of the day. Good job it's not far from either home or work!

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Yes Cheery the flatbreads were HM. I made the dough whilst DH was having playtime with BG and then cooked them whilst DH was putting BG to bed. Unfortunately, BG proved a bit boingy and so tea was eaten in shifts, but that's life

Today we've bits and bobs to get from up the high street - including those not purchased yesterday. I cooked the chickpeas last night, so they are in the freezer, ready to be turned into falafel, using a new recipe - which might prove more faff than it's worth, but you have got to try these things, no?

I've some more banking to do - for BG this time.

Tea this evening will be mixed bean chilli and rice. Not really the weather for it (thus far), but it's inexpensive, cheerful and can be made in advance, so it gets my vote

I must double-check my library book dates - think the first is due back on the 10th, and prep my order for the food co-op.

Think that is pretty much it on a MS vibe.

Have a great day.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

We're up bright and breezy this morn First tranche of chores attended to, we're all fed and some of us have had a nappy change.......

I need to shape the falafel so that I can pop them in the freezer so that they will be good to cook for us tea later. It's going to be a falafel salad/buddha bowl. As it is using up store ingredients, don't think I've bought anything specifically for it, I suppose it constitutes a buddha bowl I won't bother with the recipe that I followed again. It makes a humble dish overly complicated, and although I wrote the recipe out from a library book, I didn't notice, until I came to make the mix that there were absolutely no spices in the version! Who ever heard of falafel without some sort of spice? I'm afraid I diverted from the recipe at this point and put cumin, coriander, pepper and parsley in. Whilst I may well put lentils in a falafel mix again (depends how they taste), this recipe is pants, and is of no use to me. I would use lentils if I had some ready cooked. To have to cook them, and have chickpeas and have hummus is a nuisance, unless you have all pre-packed - which means you are starting to turn a street-food into a budget busting morsel...... I'd like to try out continental green lentils or brown lentils I think - I've currently used green speckled (Puy was specified in the recipe). We'll see how they turn out, anyway.

I think we have everything else that we need for the next couple of days. The weather looks a bit grey, but I shall try to get out and about for a breath of fresh air.

I did manage to do everything that I needed to up the high street yesterday, although HB were OOS of carrots and red kidney beans, so I might take a wander through today to see if they have restocked.

Um, can't think of anything else MS, so I had better vamoose.

TTFN, Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Hope you have had a wonderful day - as have we.

I bought some eggs from HB today - I noticed that they no longer have the 'temporarily housed indoors' sticker on their boxes. The first box that I picked up had an egg that was actually quite badly cracked, but it was in such a way that it hadn't split the membrane, so there was no obvious indication that it was cracked - just managed to spot it. I gave the next box a thorough check - hope I don't find that I missed something. I'm due 6 useable, fresh eggs, thank you very much!

HB were still OOS of carrots and red kidney beans - there clearly had been a delivery of neither item. Heron were still OOS of the oven chips that I buy, so we're not doing terribly well on the spending front! I did buy a YS'd red cabbage in mrW though. We've eaten half of it for tea

I did a 'quick pickle' of the red cabbage, after putting it through the food processor. I didn't use a recipe as such, but did take inspiration from the 'Happy Pear' cookbook from their recipe for fermented red cabbage. I didn't have apple cider vinegar, so used a spot of balsamic and some lemon juice instead. Worked well. However, a quick check of the internet shows that I did nowt new, and THIS recipe is virtually what I used - with the exception of the vinegar - plus I grated some apple into it.

I had some giant couscous that I had bought from mrAl, so I boiled that up and ran through a range of sauted veg; onion, garlic, mixed peppers and green beans. I sliced up some cucumber and grated the last 2 carrots and made a sauce out of tahini, lemon juice, yoghurt, sesame oil and honey. Fried up the falafel - which didn't hold together as well as my normal mix, but hold together-ish, they did. Put it in a bowl and it looked like this, with sesame and onion seeds chucked over;



DH liked the giant couscous, I was a bit indifferent about it. I would 'pickle' the red cabbage like that again, but I'm not using that falafel recipe again.

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

BG has discovered day-time napping :j It's amazing what you can get done

a kind cash gift 'just because' for BG from the pensioner around the corner:D:o

DH made it home a little earlier and had extra play time with BG

Ta for popping in and reading. Appreciated.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

I've a boingy Baby Greying on my lap, this could be a short note!

Well, we've made it to the end of the week Planning and preparation is going well thus far - although as with anything in life, it's the sustaining the behaviour that is key and the hard bit! But we have got a little bit back to how we were before BG - but with the blessed added bonus of BG in our lives - how rich we, eh?

Tonight's tea is pizza pasta buffet. I have all the pizza in the freezer, just need to try and get a selection out, rather than 47 pieces of cheese and tommy! I bought some YS'd mushrooms in mrW the other day, so they will form a pasta dish, and I may do one other (only small portions), we'll see how the day pans out.

I will go up the high street to see if HB have had any carrot deliveries, but as DH said, today looks like it is a shaping up to be a spiffing day to go exploring in the recreation area. I suspect everyone else will have the same idea. We must write a thank you note for BG's monetary gift, also.

If I can squeeze a bit of tidying/de-cluttering in today, then I really will be beginning to get myself on a new track Wish me luck!

Right, talking about luck, I'm probably riding mine with BG's patience, so I had better vamoose.

Ta for popping in and reading. Greatly appreciated. Always.

Greying X

TalesfromtheAvenue

GP, your lovely updates never fail to cheer me up. I just wish I could create such wonderful meals as come out of your kitchen, I would be a happier and wealthier Ave!

Hope your day is full of loveliness.

Ave
x

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Doesn't time fly when you're having fun?

Tea on Friday night was pizza/pasta buffet. Black olive and Cheese & tomato pizza out of the freezer, garlic mushroom pasta and marinated olives. The mushrooms were YS'd, orzo pasta from store. The olives were mrL, marinated in orange juice and herbs and we had a mAgnum black expresso (3 for 89p H3ron f00ds) to follow. Picture here;



Saturday was spent looking after Baby Greying and I also managed sorting and tidying :j I decided to be ruthless with rubbish, but try to put things 'away' too, rather than 'aside'. It has highlighted (yet again) that we've not enough storage in terms of 'cupboards' or 'drawers'. But then I live in a house that causes mould to grow on wooden furniture, dust to gather on anything plastic and tiny corners into which the oddest sizes, only, will fit..... ho hum

We had curry for tea on Saturday. Sweet potato jalfrezi, dhal out of the freezer and rice. No pic I'm afraid as BG was determined not to go to sleep and it took shift work to get them to go to sleep.

Yesterday we couldn't really take advantage of the glorious weather, due to prior commitments, which was a shame. Would have loved to have taken a sanger to a Natty Trusty place, but still. We did pop into 2 (yes 2!) different M&$ at different times. Got some YS'd things, and with a trip to mrL and mrAl, it meant that we could have (for lunch) smashed avocado on sourdough toast with rocket and cherry tomatoes :j Scrumptious! The second M&$ spree yielded some of their 'posh' individual salads knocked down from £2.20 :eek: to 25p each. I got spiced aubergine with couscous x 2. I didn't hang around the YS'd section the second time, I'm afraid there were some very silly people being very very selfish, grabbing anything and everything for themselves. Their need was clearly greater than anyone else's so I left them to it. It did mean that instead of the fush chups & mushy peas, slated for tea, we ended up with a salad bowl. It used up bits and pieces I had or had bought yesterday, and for once, given the weather, was just the job! Clockwise from 12 noon there was; wild rocket (mrl PoTW)the spiced aubergine cous cous salad with dressing - yoghurt, orange and sumac,mixed cherry toms (red = mrL, yellow = over-priced on some things greengrocer 75p for 250g punnet), tzatziki, potato salad (made with mrL tinned tatties), HM hummous and a boiled egg. sunflower, sesame and black onion seed scattered over. Picture here:



I'm glad that i didn't pay full price for the prepped salad. I thought it lacked flavour, and I'm not a fan of undercooked cous cous. But the dressing was nice (a little sweet, but there wasn't much of it), although the contents had settled, all the sumac etc was in the bottom of the teeny cup - impossible to redistribute - especially as these things are designed to 'eat at your desk' or take on a picnic. I've been pleased with the HB eggs I've purchased very recently. The shells seem much more robust, so there probably is much to the benefits of birds being outdoors .......

I've got to get some weetybicks today. I'll go to HB/h3ron, they're about the cheapest at £2.49/£2.50 for 36 for the branded item.

Tea this evening could be fush, chups & mushy peas, although if the weather stays spiffing, then I'll perhaps conjure up something more salady. We'll see.

Think that is possibly about it from a MS perspective.

Have a great day - we're gonna try to.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon :hello:

Gosh, i'm that late, I'll catch myself up just now.

Hope the day has got off to a spiffing start for you. I was able to start making some veggie (well, technically vegan) sausage mix and cooked some black-eyed beans whilst Baby Greying napped. And then I carried on forming the sausages after BG awoke from their nap. They were content to watch mumma and listen to music - some of which was toe-tappingly good, some got a full bounce! :rotfl: The sausages are now in the freezer, and I'll be using them for tea. It should be soup tonight, but making these sausages -it's a 'Happy Pear' recipe - has got me so intrigued as to what they'll taste like, that I've swapped round to tomorrow's dish of 'jambalaya' so that I can use them.

I timed it right for 'first flash' YS'd reductions in m&$. They had 3 members of staff on yellow-stickering..... So, nothing outrageously reduced, but I won on bananas today, as they were actually better than the loose bananas (nicely ripe) and I got 1.150kg for 70p, versus 75p/kilo loose price. Sometimes it works..... I also got the biggest British whole cucumber for 45p. Not super cheap compared to the discounters, but cheaper for bigger I think on this occasion.

HB have decided to not stock the handwash I use - I dislike how they arbitrarily withdraw things. So I had to pay 20p more for handwash.

I got a raincoat for BG from a chazza. I'm not overly sold on the colour, but it's an outdoor brand, good (enough) quality, and if all else fails, it was priced well enough to be thrown in the car 'just in case'. It's for when they are a little older at any rate.

We had fush, chups & mushy peas for tea in the end last night. By the time we ate - after 8pm - it wouldn't had been right for salad anyway. I didn't take a pic - I'm sure you know what convenience food looks like I teamed it with quarter of a leftover lemon each, some hm tartare sauce and a tomato cut into a rose for 1970's ponce effect...... :rotfl:

Can't think of owt else MS. So I had better shuffle orf.

Ta for popping in and reading. Appreciated.

Greying X

rtandon27

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

..We had fush, chups & mushy peas for tea in the end last night. By the time we ate - after 8pm - it wouldn't had been right for salad anyway. I didn't take a pic - I'm sure you know what convenience food looks like I teamed it with quarter of a leftover lemon each, some hm tartare sauce and a tomato cut into a rose for 1970's ponce effect...... :rotfl:

Every meal needs a bit of ponce!:D:D:D

We had much the same dinner on Monday - fish, wedges & local baby asparagus (they arrive but once a year!);) - cheap & convenient - oven to table in 25 minutes!

ETA - mmmmm - just saw the pics of your pizza/pasta buffet - yum! - looks sooooo good!

apple_muncher

Just read elsewhere on a thread that tesc0 have frozen avocado in store. No idea how much or which store,but maybe worth a gander...