Greying's Gaining Ground - with Gratitude & Grace

Greying_Pilgrim

Cheery - you got some dirty-stop-out chucks!  😁  4.30pm - tsk!  🤣

ed - Gaunlet.launched.  Challenge.officially.accepted.  Tune.in........... next week....... 🤣

**shuffles orf to peruse every.single.recipe.i.have........🤔**

🤣🤣🤣🤣  Greying X 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening

Short post this evo.

Tea was as slated.  Was good & yummy, small amount of curry left for another day.

LG was  a star at tea time.  I made them eat a small bit of dhal (just over a dessertspoonful) and a half teaspoon of rice, before they had their 'favoured' pasta.  It is NOT lost on me that for many children in this world, the dhal & rice would represent a feast.  Hence why I try my best to avoid food waste at all costs.  But also it is important that LG expands the foods that they eat.  I can play my part by asking them only to finish a modest amount, so that one day, they will munch dhal without a second thought; but in going through the process, LG is not getting super upset, and we are not wasting food.  

So today, I am just grateful for LG's ongoing good naturedness.  It is invaluable, not to be abused and not to be taken for granted.   As a family, we're all in this together, and we rely upon each other to try to do our best - at all times and in all things.  Not easy for us adults to achieve, and certainly not easy for a small to adhere to.  But LG continues to try, and continues to delight.

Ta for popping by.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning!

Not too sure what today holds.  It should be a NSD.

Tea this evening will be scampi bites, chips & mushy peas.  Nice and easy, straight out of the freezer.  I shall also try to use up some manky pears and apples in a crumble.  It is particularly gauling that I got the pears from MrAl the other day - they were supposed to be 30% off at the till.  The nice lass on the till was so busy being super-nice to LG that she didn't notice the discount didn't log, so I ended up paying full price for them.  OK, so it's about 22p lost, but it's just such a ruddy fandango to get your money back in the discounters, that I let it go.  But doubly annoying to then find that some of the fruit is  mushy........

Can't think of owt else MSE/MFW.  So orf to seize the day.  Have a good one!

Ta for popping by.  Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

So that's the mushrooms prepped to go in the freezer.  I was listening to Liza Tarbuck on R2 last night and she was talking about a JO tip - cooking mushrooms without any fat.  So I have just had a go, and it does seem to make them taste 'more' mushroomy.  I added in the onion and celery puree at the end of cooking and will allow it all to cool before freezing.  I will then de-frost next Friday, and add in some chopped garlic before topping the pizza.  

I thought Rev Kate Bottley's guest - Cerrie Burnell - on GMS on R2 this morning talked a load of sense about homeschooling, ie parents who might choose to homeschool, wouldn't do it like most people are having to do it at the moment...........  

I'm mid meal-plan for next week.  Thus far I'm using everything from the freezer or storecupboards - which was the plan.  I'm hopeful that the last week in January will be pretty similar, as my £10 of grocery budget can't extend to buy much more than 'bread, milk & fruit'.  Simply because £10 can't buy much anymore.  I know some people are lucky enough to access things like YS's or 'still good enough' box/bag schemes, but we can't easily/reliably access those sort of discounts.  It would cost more in time/car fuel to access than you could routinely save.  Although as you'd expect, if I see YS'd stuff, I am (usually) happy to purchase it, if it is something that we need.  Our YS'd bread purchases were a good example of that - buying what we needed for less than half the price we expected to pay.  Still, I'm under no illusion that £150 a month for groceries is super-tight, so I am not moaning - just trying my best to make it work for us at the mo.  This too shall pass 😊

Ta for popping by.  Greying X

edinburgher

Occasional discounts are one of the things that put me off online shopping (that, poor use by dates and wonky substitutions). I would miss the thrill of being able to buy YS sausages and random proteins for the freezer!

Your mushrooms sound yummy! I like them pan fried with a lottle butter and garlic 😋

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning

edinburgher said:

..........Your mushrooms sound yummy! I like them pan fried with a lottle butter and garlic 😋

ed - the advice that JO had apparently given, was to dry fry to get the mushrooms caramelised.  i'm not too sure if JO has access to a big non-stick pan.  I used an ordinary pan, and although I got a bit scared initially that the mushrooms would stick/burn,  it did clean up ok.  But what I found was that once I had cooked the mushrooms (got all the excess water out) i put them back in the pan, and added the celery & onion that I want for my particular dish (only didn't add garlic as I was freezing), so I wonder if the mushrooms would taste enhanced if cooked 'dry' and then put back in the pan with butter and garlic once they had got rid of their initial water?  I wonder if all round the tastes would be deepened?  I think I would try it like that if I was making a mushroom risotto.

Here we are again.  Start of the week.  We've the plumber round today to do the boiler check.  The one advantage is that we won't have the bill to pay, but then it should have been done 3 months ago...........and it's a really carp boiler that takes ages to heat anything, and is poorly located in the house.  But hey.  Rental problems. First world. Not important.

Today should be a NSD.  Tea is going to be really retro - cheese & onion rolls, beans, mash and broccoli.  LG did really well with their tea last night.  They ate mushy peas without a whimper, and although they initially said that the scampi bites were 'yucky' (without attempting to try), they did eat every single morsel, and declared tea 'good' at the end....🙄  The crumble was extraordinarily yummy. i didn't have to cut out much of the pears, so there was little waste, as I left the skin on.  We had the last of the vanilla ice-cream with our crumble, and there is a small portion of crumble left for LG and DH to have tonight. 

Right, best get a wiggle on.  Appt with Mr Wicks today too - unless his hamstring hampers him?

Ta for popping in.  Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening

Another NSD today - YAY!

Only a couple of new properties added online today in our price bracket.  But a) they were more towards the top of our price bracket, and b) not in areas we would even consider buying in, for a variety of reasons.

LG has been a delight today.  They tried their best at everything asked of them, and for tea, they had 3 things put on their plate that they are 'not fond of' and one thing that they are 'indifferent' about.  The quantities of the first 3 items were miniscule really, but the important point is that if it is on the plate, it is expected to be eaten.  Whilst there were a couple of 'whines', everything was eaten.  Clean plates.  This situation is a vast improvement on the scenario before Christmas where tears and tantrums reigned at teatime if a 'new' food was expected to be eaten.........They are now tucking into the last of the fruit crumble with a little natural yoghurt.

We did the Joe Wicks workout this morning.  LG is getting less enthused by it - which is a shame, but I always try my best 😉

Today I am grateful for;
1) getting stuff sent off that I'd (unnecessarily) been procrastinating over
2) Managing to get the wash load 3/4 dry outside, and a short walk completed.
3) a cheap but filling tea, and for LG's perseverance in eating a (marginally) wider range of foodstuffs.

Ta for popping by.  Appreciated.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning!

Goodness, what will the weather hold in store for us today?  I was messaging with a friend earlier and they are already preparing for flooding to ingress their property 🙁  Fingers crossed their barriers hold.  

Soup for tea - carrot and coriander.

Today should be a NSD.  

Can't think of owt else particularly MSE/MFW.

Ta for popping by.
 
Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Looks like rain and gloom is what'a in store Greying! I do hope your friend's house stays intact We will likely get a little river down the drive and a pond outside the gate, but the house itself should stay dry (unless the well in the cellar rises again, but it doesn't seem to cause any damage, just rise up then go back down again!)

Have a good one x

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning

Things not going too well here.

Computer issues, which in turn mean equality of access issues, which in turn means LG misses out.

We have never been so poor.  We have never been in such a precarious position financially.

I'm fed up.  Can't find the good in this situation.  Although LG continues to be a trooper.  Especially since they are being failed so spectacularly by a situation that is none of our making.

Ducking out for a while.  Might be back, but home ownership seems so far on the horizon, diary may be obsolete long before it's relevant anyway.

Greying X