From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

rtandon27 · 12 January 2024 at 11:08PM

Greying_Pilgrim said:

...J R R Tolkien book of 'Letters from Father Christmas'...... soooo funny...

Thank-you so much for the book suggestion Greying! I had never heard of that one & surprisingly neither had OH (nor is is in his extensive book collection) - have now added to my wish list & will keep an eye out in the 2nd hand book-shops! (Big river prices were eye-watering!)

Greying_Pilgrim · 13 January 2024 at 8:56AM

rtandon27 said:

Greying_Pilgrim said:

...J R R Tolkien book of 'Letters from Father Christmas'...... soooo funny...

Thank-you so much for the book suggestion Greying! I had never heard of that one & surprisingly neither had OH (nor is is in his extensive book collection) - have now added to my wish list & will keep an eye out in the 2nd hand book-shops! (Big river prices were eye-watering!)

Actually RT - I got my authors mixed up and thought it was C S Lewis - but it was Tolkien, (they were contemporaries weren't they?), but rather than the (physical book), which I actually borrowed from our local library, I would suggest the audio version - read by Derek Jacobi (I found it online to listen for free). I don't know if he did it before he did 'Into the night garden' for children's beebeecee, but he reads it with the same wonderful character imagination, and "twinkle" that just makes it such a delight. I remember listening to them before LG was born, and imagining that I too would write and illustrate the most marvellous letters to my child from Santa.......... Which, of course, never happened.

Well, we had hot dogs and chips for tea last night. Not the most memorable of teas, but it used up the last of the 'wrong type' of oven chips that I got from MrA. They shrank, didn't cook very well (stayed soggy), and didn't taste of a lot. We had a piece of LG's cake for dessert with a ball of vanilla ice-cream. Didn't quite manage to finish off the ice cream, but i need to move it to a smaller container, as the current container takes up too much space. The cake was OK, but I don't think Santa noticed that it was a gluten free product (which is fine) and of course, it didn't rise as well as the lovely picture on the front of the packet....... So I think it was closer to chocolate biscuit rather than chocolate brownie, and LG was very disappointed. Still, we made it, and I think the best bit is that LG is fired up to 'do better' - which we probably can if we use a recipe which has slightly more quantity (our efforts weren't helped by the cake tin being slightly too big). Following a recipe is probably more in keeping with the spirit of the school 'homework' too. I did also make a spiced orange cake. I don't follow the Le0n recipe per se - just make a normal sponge recipe, but use the flavourings/ingredients/spicing suggested in their recipe - although I didn't bother with the cardamon last night as time was beginning to tick - although I do love green cardamon.

I will try to dig out some 'light' laundry to wash today. The weather forecast is to keep dry, but there won't be much breeze, so no point in doing all the towels or heavy items.

Could be a nsd today - I have no, plans for expenditure. Lunch will probably be something 'soupified'. Tea will be curry, dhal and rice.

Mood wise over the past few days has been better. I think being mindful is helping. I have had a couple of blips - and they have been momentary 'blips', but that (to me) is an improvement over 'default exasperated', so I aim to continue/build on. I shall be like Lucien out of the Mag1c R0undabout by the end of the year......... 😉

Can't think of anything else MSE styli to report - but realise that the 'plodding' everyday, sticking to budgets type activities are equally valid in helping you to reach goals, so plod on we must! 😁

Ta for popping by. Appreciated.

Greying X

Paspatur · 13 January 2024 at 9:06PM

Greying_Pilgrim today I dipped into your first diary which I never read at the time as I was working daft hours overseas and had no access to MSE and had probably never heard of MSE
A couple of things so far

vagareli makai - sounds amazing - when did you last make this

Richard Harris/Macarthur Park reference
Very sad that when I google this song most references are to Donna Summers a version that bypassed me completely despite the fact I was 18 then compared to 8 when the original came out

Greying_Pilgrim · 13 January 2024 at 9:16PM

Good Evening MFW'rs

Well, today has been pretty spiffy - although in some ways uneventful. Wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, I'm sure, but sometimes you need 'beigeness' 🤣

I achieved a nsd. I mean, that wasn't really an achievement, as there was nothing (pressing) that we needed, and frankly, I couldn't be bothered to go anywhere to buy anything anyway, so a little bit of an 'easy' win. I don't really count nsd's, but it's nice to know that I didn't fritter any money either.

I cooked up some brown lentils in the PC ready for Monday night's tea (lentil bolognese). I have the tomato sauce already made in the freezer, so it will just be a case of combining and warming through the pasta (which I'll cook and then cool beforehand). LG has a class on Monday that - with travel - sees us only getting home at tea-time, so preparation will help. There were enough lentils to make a lentil soup for lunch, have the lentils for the bolognese and a small portion to freeze for another dish, another day. I also used the lentil cooking water as the stock base for the soup (i had washed the lentils). The soup was a made up 'lentil and vegetable'. It looked akin to the leftover communal bathwater following a winter's rugger match in Wales...... 🤣 But despite appearances, tasted nice - even LG agreed, and we all demolished a big bowlful.

Tea this evening was a curry plate. I made Coconut, cauliflower and gigglebean curry - and yes, a big element of me having this recipe in the first place is the name! But as I only had one tin of chickpeas in the pantry 😮 I decided to make it coconut, assorted veg and gigglebean curry. This enabled me to use up the remaining third of a bag of mixed veg (MrA's essentials range - yellow bag), which did have cauli in it, but frankly, blink and you'd miss it 🙄, some chopped up little tatties out of the MrL big bag, and a couple of parsnips (MrAl wonky veg range). The peas (which LG ain't partial too 😕) made up the protein quotient left by the missing tin o'chickpeas, and the tatties thickened up the sauce, as I was a bit heavy handed with my discs of frozen coconut milk. I didn't put any chopped tommies in - as it gilds the lily a bit and I will need tins of tommies for other dishes later in the week. Served with lentil dhal and boiled basmati. Clean plates all round 😁 (despite the peas........😕)

I have put some cannellini beans on to soak overnight and I will hopefully cook them in the PC tomorrow. I bought them a good while ago YS'd in MrL. I remember they were close to their use by date then, so you can imagine, we've flown past that, and we find ourselves in a completely different year 😬But we'll see how they soak/cook. If they remain hard as nails, then I have wasted something like 69p. If they cook up ok, well then we'll have soup on Tuesday and some cooked beans for another dish. The pack was 900g dried weight, so fingers crossed they are edible.

We finished off LG's chocolate brownie at elevenses. They weren't keen on it last night - as it was a bit 'crunchy' - partly due to it containing..... rice flour (I think), and partly because I felt the recipe said to cook for too long, and one side of the cake was thinner than the other as the tin was too big. BUT I had stored the cake in a plastic container - I wouldn't normally, but i knew we wouldn't be keeping it longer than today, so no real issues with it sweating and going mouldy. But the sealed box worked wonders and allowed the cake to become soft and moist again, and LG really enjoyed their slice - and said they would like to make the recipe again. I said we could, but perhaps we'd use ingredients and a different recipe next time. I'm still not sold on packet mixes per se - but it served a purpose to get LG doing and that's important.

I did put the small, light items wash out, and was pleasantly surprised at how it had dried - OK, again, not bone-dry, and it was damp and cold when I got the things in, but the breeze had been better than I expected, and the stuff was definitely drier than I anticipated. I have put it on the airer, and I am hopeful that by tomorrow it will be dry enough to put away. No money spent at the launderette and the house not made uncomfortable with sopping and cold, washing hanging about.

So, as you can see; line-drying, cooking from scratch, batch prepping ingredients, eating from stores, eating up leftovers - all the building blocks of debt-busting, mortgage slaying or stashing savings, but quite far-removed from the lifestyles of yer 'rich & famous' 🤔

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

DH tackling DIY
tasty soup conjured up from very little
a full line of washing, drying in the breeze.

Thanks for dropping in. Greatly appreciated.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim · 14 January 2024 at 8:41AM

Paspatur said:

Greying_Pilgrim today I dipped into your first diary which I never read at the time as I was working daft hours overseas and had no access to MSE and had probably never heard of MSE
A couple of things so far
vagareli makai - sounds amazing - when did you last make this
Richard Harris/Macarthur Park reference
Very sad that when I google this song most references are to Donna Summers a version that bypassed me completely despite the fact I was 18 then compared to 8 when the original came out

Paspatur - my abject apologies, I missed your post last night.

Gosh, I haven't made Vagareli Makai in a looooooonnnnnnnnggggg time - I knew as soon as I read the name that it was a dish from the kitchens of 'Prashad' - the restaurant rose to fame on a prog that G0rd0n Rams3y did. Naturally they were set up to be his 'nemesis' as it is a vegetarian restaurant (or was?). I seem to remember that I copied the recipe as at the time sweetcorn was quite a cheap and cheerful veg, you could get peanuts from any one of the supermercados for 'tuppence' and there would have only been me and DH (DP at that time), eating it. IIRC I made it one time with some corn that was in one of the valoo/essenti-alls/baysics type ranges, and the corn was tougher than old boots 😕so I have kind of designated it (unfairly) as a 'worthy' eat in my mind, and I really can't recall having made it since prior to being pregnant with LG. I suspect that it would be better as an accompaniment, and I used it as a 'cheap' main - which was possibly overkill. Entirely my fault - but not a keeper of a recipe for us, as whilst LG likes sweetcorn, they wouldn't appreciate the mustard seeds/chilli, which is kinda what the spicy sweetcorn dish is all about.

I am old, but I wasn't born when Rich did his recording, but I have been brought up in a household that tuned into R2, and we still listen to it today - so my musical tastes and references are nothing if not eclectic! Mind, some of the music and lyrics of the 60's was a bit bonkers...... 🤣

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim · 14 January 2024 at 12:03PM

Good Morning MFW'rs

A good start to the morning here 😁 The beans soaked well over night and had plumped up, so looked promising. I cooked them in the PC for 8 mins and they turned out OK. I have just drained and sorted through them, and whilst there were some that were still small, hard and wrinkled (so I discarded them) - to be fair, there weren't that many in relation to the size of the packet. So, it was definitely worth buying the packet, moving house with it 🙄and giving myself a kick up the bum to cook them today! 🤣From 900g of dried beans (well, that is what the packet said - it may have weighed more), I got 2.057kg of cooked beans - which I think is pretty spiffy 😁 I will make fasolada (Rose Elliot's version), on Tuesday, freeze the other large container and use the remaining beans for soup for lunch today - white bean and potato, as those are what I have most of at the mo.

DH is cracking on with DIY with help and 'assistance' from me & LG..........it's not going very well.........😕

I put a wash on as the breeze had got up. But just as the machine finished, there came a shower of rain 😕even though none was in the forecast......... So I hadn't pegged out (only a few white items anyway). It's gone brighter again now, so I'll peg out just now.

Today should be another nsd - we don't need anything.

Can't think of anything else MSE worthy at the moment. So I shall shuffle off.

Ta for swinging by. Greatly appreciated.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim · 14 January 2024 at 8:12PM

Good Evening MFW'rs,

Today has been even quieter than yesterday - and that was beige..... so I'm not expecting anyone to be reading this. However, here goes;

DH finished off 2 DIY jobs - both small today, but I'm glad that they're done. One was blocking up holes left after the plumbers endeavours, and not only were they potentially letting in cold/a draught, but in time they may have appealed to birds or beasties investigating nesting or roosting potential, so are better filled up.

DH is going down with a cough/cold so chose not to do much this afternoon (fair enough). He was listening to LG read their school library book and it was so enthralling (!) that I ended up sneaking a cheeky wee nana nap....... DH's fault as he made me a hot water bottle and I had to use a blankie to keep it warm and my eyelids got heavy and, and, and........

I must admit, I feel better for it - even though I have been sleeping better than i have for a while this past week.

For tea I made mushroom and root veg stew with mashed tattie and swede. I used up the last lump of the 15p Christmas turnip.  LG did turn up their nose at the stew...... I thought they might, as whilst they claim they don't like mushrooms, I think it's more a case of they aren't necessarily amongst their most favourite vegetables. However, it was funny, as LG sat there with a bit of a pout on, whilst DH and I tucked in. Then they stuck their finger in the gravy and tried it..... and their demeanour changed.... and they stuck their finger in again...... and again...... then you could see that they were sat there, wondering how to start eating without losing face..... very funny. The stew was onion, celery, mushrooms and garlic fried together. Then I added in small diced carrots, swede and parsnip. Added in some stock and a small amount of gravy and cooked together until the veg was soft, whilst i made the mashed tattie and swede. To finish off the stew I put in some worcestershire sauce (probably not veggie, but I do like it in stews/on cheese on toast), and some cranberry sauce along with mixed herbs. There is a portion of stew left over - probably not one to palm off on LG - and we ate everything else, and LG did clear their plate - which I am pleased about (and did tell them I was).

I have made up some jelly for dessert tomorrow.

I have knitted a bit more on my charity blanket - getting towards finishing now - need to work out when to start the top border and how cavalier to be in a game of 'yarn chicken' 🤣

No money physically moved to anywhere today, but it was a nsd and all meals were made from stores. I need to keep up with doing things like soaking/cooking beans to enable future meals to be prepped from stores and - fingers crossed - budgets at least kept to. Anything under budget is, of course a bonus.

Mood-wise I've not been too bad today. The nap did help.

Sorry if this reads a bit pedestrian.

Ta for dropping in. It is always greatly appreciated.

Greying X