Cherry takes the reins

NoOneAround

I had a head start Cherry -2nd fridge freezer was new before Christmas, so i'd filled for Christmas, used everything up, filled again, and we've got through everything again:)
Am determined not to leave things in there too long,as I'm not good at labelling:o
Sometimes we are all eating different things but its worked and my supermarket shop has been 80/week max for the last month:T
have a good day
NOA
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WannabeFree

Have a lovely day Cherry

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Cherryfudge

A little less freezer space and a bit more spending today. I had a watermelon going overripe and not enough space in the fridge for it so I made it into cubes and blended them with some sweetener in the hope of making a passable sorbet. Never tried this before so we'll see. That's a whole ice cream box in DS's freezer drawer though so I will have to make further inroads into the rest of the freezer before he notices. I did manage some chicken and roast veg from the freezer for tea together with store cupboard pasta and sauce, so not too bad at all.

It snowed till about 2pm here... pretty. Mostly melted now though but it was nice to have a good excuse for a lazy morning! I went out in the afternoon to my piano lesson, the shops and later to a friends for board games and snacks, to which I contributed a dessert. I was going to count that under the food budget but it occurred to me it's more like hospitality or entertaining. We had a lot of fun and far too many calories. The fourth day in a row that I've had to estimate calories but still been well over what's good for me. I don't want to gain back the weight I lost last year.

Actually the whole going-out budget this evening is a mixture: I bought some cheap drinking glasses to present the desserts in but we get to keep them... still that can be 'entertaining' as I wouldn't have bought them otherwise. I also chose cream instead of the same-price-but-smaller alternative as the 400ml 'spare' cream I have left over will make 'free' butter. I am missing my butter as I've been using a spread and it just doesn't melt as well on toast!

Spends:
Piano lesson £10.00
Toiletries £7.48
Housekeeping £2.59
Hospitality/entertaining £6.20
MS stuff:
'Free' drinking glasses, butter, buttermilk, small amount of custard and two portions of pudding from today's entertaining.
Found hair mousse and toothpaste in the £ shop - saved a few pounds.
Confession time:
There was probably a possible cheaper dessert but I didn't have time to find ingredients.
Bought an unplanned leave-in hair conditioner.

Cherryfudge

I've realised this is my last proper day off for a while: next week's are all claimed either by usual activities plus I've invited friends round for a couple of hours, or by another trip to work on Mum's house. I therefore need to get the house in better shape than it currently is, and prep things to make work days easier, as well as anything I need to sort out for going to the house.

I woke up with a cold but so far it isn't too bad and the sun is shining so I can do things, by which I don't mean sit in front of the computer all day.

So far today:
Cleared the medicine cupboard of the out of dates, they are in a bag to take to the chemist.
One load of laundry done.
OOD milk still smells okay so thrown together a rice pudding for DS
Made spare cream into butter and buttermilk.
Turned the remainder of yesterday's fruit fool into an experimental ice cream.
Tried yesterday's watermelon sorbet and it tastes a bit funny - maybe that watermelon was further gone than I thought!

Still to do:
Drop old meds off at the chemist.
Replace cough syrup and painkiller gel in case we need them.
Buy hay and a cucumber for the guinea pig.
Plan dinner for tonight.
Clean area of kitchen ready for primer.
Do some cunning scheming to target housework so the place looks better.

This last is because the house is in great need of some decorating! DH is part way through papering the lounge but had to stop when his father wasn't well last week and since then we've only managed to get one piece of paper up. (Layout of the room is complicated). We did make a start on some paper and paint for the kitchen too and as my friends will see this when they come, I suddenly have an urge to make it look more finished! Other than that any decluttering and tidying may get logged here in the interests of making me see progress.

Cherryfudge

The afternoon update, in which I haven't done anything I said I would...

Achievements:
Great rejoicing at Wannabe's diary coming back to life after trolls got it deleted. Go MSE techies! And human kindness. I hear other diaries are back too - I do hope SunAddict's is among them.
Two lots of washing on the line, so while I may be crumpled, I will at least be clean.
Made two batches of no-cook pickles.
Discovered 3 chubby caterpillars hiding in the cabbage which I'd stored out of doors (colder and roomier than the fridge) - caterpillars are in a vases with a few chunks of cabbage while I wonder whether to put them back out of doors. I'm pretty certain they weren't there when I put it out so maybe caterpillars can move about in the winter?
Baked two batches of pastries (croissants and cinnamon swirls) from left-over Christmas supplies. No, I don't need the calories.

Not yet achieved:
Drop old meds off at the chemist.
Replace cough syrup and painkiller gel in case we need them.
Buy hay and a cucumber for the guinea pig.
Plan dinner for tonight - though I'm sort of thinking curried veggie pie?
Clean area of kitchen ready for primer.
Do some cunning scheming to target housework so the place looks better.
Any ironing whatsoever.

Cherryfudge

In the end all I got done was a massive lot of cooking! No money spent, though. There is still half a curried veg pie for another day, plus two jars of pickles, some butter and buttermilk, two portions of soup, a jar of ginger syrup and some croissants (the cinnamon whirls are all gone, as is the rice pudding and the fish fingers DH had for tea).

A few bits have gone to the compost heap and the guinea pig had some tasters but wasn't too keen as it wasn't cucumber. I tried to put together an online order for the trip next week but there's plenty in the cupboards already: I only need fresh stuff so I'd better get that in the village. I can't justify a full-blown order for three nights.

A couple of things I want to buy: one is apples to try a parsnip and apple soup. I'm not sure if that's a thing but it sounds as though it ought to be. The other is a spike, or possibly two spikes! Someone mentioned them for collecting receipts the other day and I remembered my parents having one. I thought they went out with the ark! No, it seems spikes are still around and despite my new habit of throwing out as many receipts as I can, I know there are always a few that need to be kept at least for a while... and then I have to keep stuff to do with Mum's estate until it's all sorted. So I want a couple of spikes. They don't cost much but I'm not going to spoil my NSD for them.

It's been freezing outside all day though it was good to get out of doors enough to put the washing on the line (didn't need to tumble it as it will finish on the airer). The heating's been on at 18 all day but I still feel chilly, though DS is in a tee shirt. (DS is always in a tee shirt).

And... I've found a recipe for parsnip and apple soup! It's in my Cranks Cookbook, source of various good veggie ideas. I don't know if I'll get round to it tomorrow: depends if and when I go to the shops. It looks straightforward enough...

Right, I'm off for another scout round to see if there are any more 'lost' diaries reappearing!

Honeysucklelou2

DD2 made parsnip and apple soup yesterday for the student restaurant! It's one I've always fancied trying but know it will just be me that eats it so will have to wait until I have room in the freezer to freeze portions.

I'm impressed at your getting the washing outside. My whirly gig washing line was a casualty of the last gale so our laundry is missing that outside freshness smell.

NoOneAround

Morning
I've always thought a spike would be useful - never seen one in shops though, and never searched - await with interest :rotfl:

Have a lovely day
NOAx

Onebrokelady

Yum parsnip and apple soup is my favourite,I havent made it in ages and I also have a couple of Cranks cookbooks knocking around my kitchen somewhere I think,unless I got rid of them in the last big clear out I will have to have a look,my daughter brought home a book a couple of years ago called The Busy Mums Vegetarian Cookbook and when I do cook something from scratch it usually comes from there,sadly Ive got out of the habit of cooking from scratch and have been living on jars,packets and ready meals,this will have to,stop now though as its so expensive and now I wont be gallivanting around town spending money I dont have I will in theory have more time for cooking,Im thinking of making a banana bread today but I only have two bananas and the recipe says three so Im not sure if it will be bananery enough,they need using though and I dont want to waste them

WannabeFree

Morning

Have a lovely day

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