Away From The Madding Crowd

bluenose1

A lovely diary read and as usual I picked up some tips and ideas. I like the spinach tip and I also freeze ginger in portions but didn’t realise you could grate it frozen.
Went to a local Food Festival on Friday, only thing I bought was a couple of jars of peppercorn sauce as the sample tasted so delicious. Nice sunny day though and it was good to have a mooch.

Congrats on the improvement in your health, great you have reduced your blood pressure and cholesterol. To me it’s not about how many years we live, it’s the healthy quality  years that are important. Think I have mentioned before we lose  something like 15% of muscle strength and cardio fitness for each decade after 60 which worries me, so I want to try and get myself as fit as possible in advance. I do a lot of walking, do weights, meditate and eat healthy, though my nemesis is chocolate and crisps of an evening……. 

Since I retired in January this year my blood pressure has gone from very high to the normal range which I think was because I was very stressed by work and had anxiety etc, though not sure of my cholesterol levels.
My one disappointment is I haven’t lost any weight since retiring and I could do with losing a stone or two as in a size 16. Think my size 10 days are well and truly gone.

My simple pleasures
My friend taking me on a Mystery walk as she called it, to a local area I hadn’t been before and a coffee in her beautiful garden afterwards. 

Reading The Olive Farm in the rare moments of sunshine in the garden,  definitely my type of book.
Not sure if you could class this as a simple pleasure as it was a cost of £17. Went to see a local production of Sister Act last night, was brilliant, very uplifting. As good as some of the really expensive productions I have seen. We sang in the car all the way home, unfortunately we sounded like the choir before they had been taught to sing!!!! 

Humboldt

Morning @bluenose1 thank you for your kind comments about the improvements in my health.  The figures for people living with high total cholesterol levels and high blood pressure are shocking.  Like me, lots will be completely unware that they have either of these conditions until they visit their GP.   For those who are interested, I found the British He@rt F0undation and He@rtUK (the cholesterol charity) websites to be a valuable source of free information. I would also highlight that if you are a lady of a certain age, you might find it useful to gain some understanding of how this can affect your heart health. 

Well done on reducing your blood pressure levels to normal.  Health is wealth! You will see from my weekly updates that I am a fan of Fabul0us50's which is free on Y0utube.  Don't be fooled by the title, these workouts include cardio, strength and balance, and there are many to choose from.  The lady is very encouraging and offers a lower impact alternative if required. That said, I am aware that some may not be able to undertake such exercise and I am very grateful to be able to do so. 

Your trip to see Sister Act sounds a lot of fun, and I was pleased to read that you are enjoying my latest book recommendation.  

Today's simple pleasure (actually happened yesterday) - a large flock of geese flew over our house in formation. I was alerted by their honking and went into the garden to witness their majestic flight. 

Humboldt

Hello and welcome.

Motivational quote of the week

If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more.  If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough – Oprah Winfrey.

Money saving

Our monthly grocery budget for me and my DH is £250.  Week 1 spend for June was £29.33. Not a lot needed because we stretched the food bought for the family visit last weekend. For calculation purposes Week 1 for June began on Monday 3rd June.

In May we earned £3:00 Power Move credit via our gas/electric provider.

June’s premium bond win was £100 (2024 total to date is £525).

This week’s main menu - includes lots of slow cooker recipes.

Monday – Chicken with BBQ sauce (slow cook recipe), leftover pasta salad, with a fresh green salad.  This is from the booklet that was included along with my previous slow cooker. Really simple and tasty – rub the inside of the slow cooker pot with a little butter (or oil).  Wipe the chicken (I use 2 large chicken legs and remove the skin), and season.  Heat some butter (or oil) in a pan and brown the chicken. Transfer the chicken to the slow cooker pot.   Add 1 small finely chopped onion to the pan (adding more butter or oil if needed) and cook for 2-3 minutes, without colouring.  Add 2 tbsp of tomato ketchup, 1 tbsp of vinegar, 1 tbsp mango chutney, ½ tsp of Dijon mustard, ½ tsp of caster sugar and 2 tsp of Worcester sauce to the pan with the onion, and bring to the boil (not a lot of liquid, but it works).  Pour the sauce over the chicken in the slow cooker pot and cook for 4-5 hours on high, or longer on low.  I find that my new slow cooker takes less time than my old one, so you may need to adjust timings.

Tuesday – Tomato and courgette stew (G0od Food slow cooker recipe).  I will add half a chorizo (cooking it at the same time as the onion), peppers and a handful of orzo (add an hour before the end of the cooking time).

Wednesday – Slow cooker honey mustard chicken thighs (Go0d Food recipe), new potatoes and broccoli (frozen), carrots (fresh).

Thursday – Breaded frozen fish, small portion of oven chips, sweetcorn (tinned) and peas (frozen).

Friday – Red cabbage (bought previously, keeps for ages when wrapped in foil and stored in the salad drawer of the fridge), parsnip, orange and date salad (R!ver C0ttage Veg recipe), lamb kebabs, homemade hummus, vegetable couscous (chopped red onion, cucumber, peppers, etc).  I will replace the parsnip with carrot.  Lamb kebabs were reduced in price and frozen until required. BBQ food if often reduced after a wet weekend and freezes well.

Saturday – Slow cooker vegetable curry (G0od Food recipe) with chapatti.  I will add more vegetables i.e. sweet potato, broccoli, and a handful of red lentils.

Sunday – Smoky chorizo one pot (G0od H0usekeeping recipe).  I will use the other half of the chorizo, and add carrots and red kidney beans (just so we get more veg). 

Breakfasts will continue to be mainly oat based. Lunches will include various salads and homemade soups from the freezer.  Often our salads include tinned fish, i.e. tuna, sardines, mackerel, etc, which is an economical way of increasing our fish intake.

Healthier lifestyle

Completed 1 free workouts via Fabul0us50’s on Y0utube last week.

Step count last week was 51,230.

Completed 5 free meditations last week.

Simple pleasures

More cucumber seeds have germinated and more summer pots have been planted.  I was pleased to be able to reuse my overwintered geraniums this year.  I read somewhere that you can overwinter salvia’s too, so I will try to buy some at a car boot sale. Last year I cut up small plastic water bottles (donated by friends) to make the collars that successfully protected my sweet pea seedlings from slug/snail damage. I have decided to reuse them for my vegetable seedlings and petunia’s.  Fingers crossed they will work.

A coffee with the last of the homemade chocolate truffles (G0od F0od recipe).  When making, I divide the mixture in two, adding baileys to one half and Curacao (holiday purchase) to the other, I then roll them in a good quality cocoa powder (another holiday purchase). I freeze the truffles and defrost a couple at a time to enjoy as a treat now and again.

Enjoying reading a magazine whilst sat in the summer house. I only ever buy a magazine at the airport when going on holiday, so it was lovely to be gifted some from a friend. When I have read them, they will go to another friend, who will pass them on again.  Great to share the joy.

Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to read my diary.

tiddles

Thank you, Humboldt. I find your diary both interesting and motivating.

uralmaid

@Humboldt - as usual I am in awe of your menu planning.

Humboldt

A very big welcome @tiddles and thank you for your kind words.

@uralmaid minimum effort on my part this week.  I just scrolled the Go0d Fo0d healthy slow cooker recipes on their website.  Hope that you are now feeling much better.

Today's simple pleasure - whilst eating my breakfast this morning I saw a rainbow. Nice start to the day.

uralmaid

Thanks @Humboldt feeling a lot better.

Katiehound

This week's free wildlife pleasures!

saw a hedgehog scuttling across the road when I was out with the dog at dusk. Half an hour later was closing the bedroom curtains & saw the same prickly crossing back across the road. The owners of the garden tell me they sometimes see one on their camera. I haven't seen a hedgehog round here for years.

Another night saw a bat

Different day, suddenly spotted a bluetit feeding on grubs on one of my climbing roses.That's a very rare sighting in my garden: no food out, cats everywhere so I no longer encourage birds (or rats!)

last night 3 swifts ducked & dived outside my bedroom window.

Humboldt

Morning all. 

@Katiehound thank you for sharing your fabulous wildlife pleasures. Sadly I cannot tell you the last time I saw a wild hedgehog.  There was an informative segment on the latest series of Springwatch about creating 'hedgehog holes' in our gardens.  If it is of interest to anyone, the Wildlife Trust website has a guide on how to help hedgehogs get around by making holes and access points in fences and barriers to link up the gardens in our neighbourhoods. We regularly see bats flying at dusk, especially on a summers evening. Our garden borders are fairly established now and provide cover for the birds as they feed on the slugs, snails, greenfly, etc. The blackbirds in particular, have become quite used to us being around and have no issue with us being in close proximity to them. 

Today's simple pleasure (actually yesterdays) - the heady perfume of the roses carried on the wind as I walked past the park.

bluenose1

Morning all, just back from a week in Northumberland, lovely time and all family got on really well, was sad when we all went out separate ways. The birdsong up there was incredible as was out in the sticks. 

Got some inspiration from the decor in the cottage, definitely treating myself to decent handtowels
Just been out pruning roses which are still in full bloom, look lovely, though unfortunately no scent from mine.
Cant remember last time I saw a hedgehog or bat, though not sure I would want to see bats….