From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Blackcats

Cheery_Daff said:

Hope today's better for you Greying xx

Ditto!  Hope the sun shines and the birds sing their best songs for you and yours.

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks Cheery 😁 and thank you Blackcats  - your comment made me laugh out loud, simply because.....

I was pegging out the washing, having forgotten that the local school is having some sort of nature ramble/environmental womble/get to know your local community type thing going on today.  The kiddos were just down the way, near to the little patch of woodedness (well, as much as you can call it a 'wood' in the big city 😉 - ie several trees together).  They were having a whale of a time, shouting, hooting, calling to their chums at the tippity-topmost of their voices....  You could hardly hear yourself think.  And yet.  I stood listening, and the local (small) bird population was having none of it - Spring has sprung and they have work to be doing 😉🩷-and by gosh, they were trilling out their toons!  Had the kids just paused momentarily, they would have heard such a rich tapestry of sound - all natural.  Still, such things matter not when you're young, eh? 🤣

I decided to not go shopping.  

I put on a wash.  It was a mix of my stuff and LG's and it is now pegged out and flapping in the breeze and glorious sunshine we have here.  

I am busy making some tempeh and black bean burgers.  I have not used tempeh before.  I steamed it prior to mixing.  Used a couple of recipes as 'guidelines', but have made a spice mix/marinade up with what i have, and have fried off some red onion, garlic, carrot and mixed peppers.  It all went in the food processor with a tin of black beans and it is now in the fridge, before I mould it into burger shapes later.  I am planning on cooking them for tea tomorrow if they work.......

Thank you for popping by.  Appreciated - as always.  Greying X

elsien

Greying_Pilgrim said:

Today has been one of them days when we just need to close the door, switch off the light and go to bed, knowing and hoping that tomorrow will be better.  

Nothing is wrong, nothing has happened that can't be fixed or changed.  We remain blessed, we have enough and we have each other.

Tea was an emergency freezer dive;  oven chips, veggie sausages and beans for DH & LG, a baked tattie, a veggie sausage and a few beans for me - it was sufficient food for us all.  DH brought home a cookie from work, and will share it with LG with some icecream.  

Thanks for popping by.  See you all in the morning.  Greying X

May I just say, I aspire to your attitude which I think is lovely.
Mine tends more to grumpily stomping around with a grey cloud lurking overhead. Which does no-one any good at all.

Greying_Pilgrim

elsien - I very much regret to admit that my default was to get "stompy moody", I'm getting a little better at not defaulting so much as I age, and yesterday I knew that a) it would not have helped, and b) that in the grand scheme of things, they were nowt but gnat-bites I was getting eaten up with. Unfortunately folk have to cope with much worse 😟  

Greying X

rtandon27

The sun is shining...
The laundry is in...
Pizza & wedges for dinner...
All is right with the world xox

(I'm sorry you had gnat-bits - but YOU make all the difference to many of us, even in your grey and stompy moods!)

Greying_Pilgrim

Dearest rt - thank you 😁  Not (consistently) dry with us here, so no laundry out, so glad that you're getting the solar rays and line time today 😁  At least my gnat bites were metaphorical, so I've no red rashes to contend with 😁 Just blessed annoying circumstances, that seemed to choose the same time to come along.  But as I say, in the grand scheme of things, nowt is wrong and nowt to worry over 😁

I popped out with a chum for a coffee this morning.  I drove, and my pal kindly bought my coffee - she didn't have to, but insisted.  So good to have a catch up and a natter.  

It'll be burger baps for tea, using the burgers I made yesterday.  I hope we don't like them, as thinking about it, they are very expensive to make..........  🤔🫤 I'm currently pondering what to have with.  Most likely it will be wedges, but that will finish off all the tatties - no bad thing, but will then have to think of 3 meals (without tatties) for Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  And yes, dear reader, of course one option is to go into a shop and buy more, I'm just trying to keep onto as much of the grocery budget as I can.  I accept that I may well not manage it, and have to just go shopping.  It's a challenge - to a point.  

Greying X

LotsOfTea

All this talk of Friday night pizza has made me rethink tonight's rather boring plans for tea. I'll go and bung the bread maker on to make me some dough and my DS will be delighted! Pizza is a firm favourite of his and although we don't have any pepperoni, which is his preferred topping, i can put some sweetcorn and red pepper on (and olives on a section for me). DH is away for work and not due back until tomorrow so it's nice to have a Friday treat for just the two of us. 

I sympathise with the stompiness. I'm prone to it myself, especially when things go unexpectedly wrong. It's hard to conquer, even when, like you, I know my life is blessed compared to so many. Your posts help remind me to be grateful for the sun shining, the birds singing, the roof over our heads (that no longer leaks, which it kept doing for many years until we could get it more than patched up) and the ability to make pizza should I want to. 

I hope the gnat bites stay away today and you have a better day.

Greying_Pilgrim

LotsOfTea - all round to yours for a yummy tea! 😁  

You are right, we must count our blessings and notice the small joys, it doesn't stop any niggles, big or small coming along, but it does help to put them in perspective. 

I did end up popping out for a quick shop before the school run.  I spent £8.23 (have updated siggie), but didn't get any more tatties.  I can always go for a walk over the weekend if they become critical to our existence.  I did get some more cheese, as we're now on vapours and sangers are needed for lunches on Monday, even if we can style it out with soup over the weekend.  

I did get a couple of bags of the carrots in the PoTW.  I didn't notice until I got home that there were rotten carrots in both bags and the carrots were very wet 🙄 I ditched 2 carrots, and dried the remainder in the home that they won't keel over and go mouldy 🫤 The 20p "discount" wasn't worth it.  I won't buy anymore.  IF all the carrots i have remain useable, and I don't throw anymore away, I will have shaved a few pence off my grocery bill.  If I can get away with spending no more than £3.15 before c.o.p on Monday, well then I will have "saved" £50 of this month's budget to take forward to May, but I am going to be the first to say that it is getting harder and harder to come in under budget.  

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning MFW'rs

DH is going out to work just now.  

I've a wash of workwear on, hopefully it will dry.

Burgers last night were OK.  They still didn't achieve the more toothy 'boing' I was after, and ate the same as if there were breadcrumbs/oats in them - which when you've shoved the burger in a bap, isn't such a great sensation.  LG said they liked the burger, but not the beans....... 🤔🤪 I don't know what that meant really, as you couldn't taste the beans.  The taste of the burger was one of it's best features.  The tempeh didn't make a difference, you couldn't tell it was there. and given tempeh isn't cheap, I don't think I'll bother again.  I'm glad I gave it a go, as it's worth trying to cut down UPF ingredients in our diet, but I didn't improve on shop-bought plant-based burgers this time.  

LG and I have a list of chores to complete in Greying Town.  We've to get a (small) raffle gift for school.  It doesn't have to be expensive, but there is a specification attached to it.  LG is not on board with the specification and is getting "stompy" about the whole thing 🤣 apples dunna fall far from trees I guess 🤣

I think I will get milk whilst out and about.  

Can't think of anything else MSE at the mo, so I'll shove off.

Greying X

LotsOfTea

Years ago I found an American veggie burger recipe which I tried (although I had to ignore some ingredients which were obviously things you could get easily there but not here like 'liquid smoke') and it turned out to have a really good texture that didn't fall apart and felt more solid. It turns out that vital wheat gluten was the magic ingredient and I used up the bag I'd bought by adding some to my own chickpea and sweet potato burgers and it really helped. I haven't done it in ages so I don't know how pricey vital wheat gluten is these days but I know you can get it in health food stores and you don't need to add a lot to the mixture each time, maybe a dessert spoon or two. It's the part of wheat that causes bread to be bouncy and chewy so it helps with texture.