The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Good Morning :hello:

Well, the day has only just begun and I've already learnt something about chitinase allergy/intolerance over on muddy's thread. I can't eat kiwi fruit, they immediately make me feel sick - so that is worth knowing, in terms of whether there is intolerance to it in our family history, to bear in mind for Baby G.

Ay up brizzle :wave: - DVD's are something that we've never got into, although I realise that that could ALL change But if you apply the same scenario to the menu on the tv prog recorder box-thingy we've got....... #overload......

Tea last night ended up being a curry-mix bowl. I used up the last (cooked) batched of '10 bean mix' from mrW (still got one uncooked bag left) in Lobia Masala. It's a very simple curry - but I can never make bean curries that look super-dooper attractive. Tastes ok though I got a bit of l/o aubergine curry, and a bit of l/o chickpea and kidney bean curry out of the freezer and teamed it all with basmati rice. I managed to boil the rice dry and some of it stuck to the saucepan bottom I scraped off the top layer and we ate that - didn't taste too smokey..... :rotfl: - and put the pan on to soak. Luckily the burnt stuff lifted off........ perils of cooking on gas I didn't take a picture, as the colours of the curry don't really lend them selves to late-summer evening light levels But it tasted OK, wouldn't be something you'd ordinarily be able to order in a takeaway (this is possibly a good thing.... :rotfl:) and used up odds and ends, so equals a thrifty meal I was half-listening to L1za Tar8uck as I was cooking tea, and her listeners were writing in with, 'what we are having for us tea' and she said it seemed to be a curry or pasta night. Glad to know we're keeping up with the zeitgeist at Greying Towers

We popped our items across to the chazza yesterday arvo. It's a bit of a faff of a car journey, and there is a shop nearer. But the staff are so different at this store - I got help to take the things into the shop and I was thanked. It's all you need, isn't it? Such a simple thing, and yet so often over-looked. I realise that we only ever try to give good, useable/saleable stuff - I know that some people use chazzas as fly-tip central, but it's nice to be thanked, and certainly yesterday, an extra set of hands to be proffered.

We called in on the parental estate on our way back. We got tea, kit-kats,HG courgettes and runner beans and BG got some money for their piggy-bank. A pleasant way to spend an afternoon - I hope we were able to give something back by being there.

Tea tonight will be my 'boxed delight' of fish, chips and mushy peas The rest of the day is up for grabs, but will most likely involve 'boring' household chores. We are both zonked, but needs must. I need to do my meal-plan for this coming week too.

Think I've possibly wittered on too long.

Ta for popping by.

Greying X

Good Morning :hello:

Monday morn has started well. We've already had an item delivered - which means we haven't got to stay in all day Allegedly the parcel could be tracked, but this is a company that thinks it is 'enough' to say 'it's left our depot'. How can they compete with companies that tell you where their van is at this precise moment, and how far that is away from you? I don't understand.

Still, it's here, I'm grateful

Tea last night was fish, chips and mushy peas. It was ok, but I'm getting fed up of it now...... Yes, I know I should be grateful to have food on my table/means to cook it etc. I'm trying to work out whether I am truly fed up of it, or whether having oven chips 'twice' on the weekend is what is the problem. Because I do value the 'ease' of the meal, even though we didn't particularly go out adventurising yesterday (walked round and about and to the municipal park for a breath of fresh air). I must admit, I'm not especially bothered about eating fish - perhaps I've been on a vegetarian diet too long?

Tea tonight will be a 'cobble' involving one of the leftover bakes out of the freezer and anything else that stands still long enough to be chopped up and put in the pot!

I shouldn't need to buy anything today, I don't think. We're stocked up and have the essentials to last us today and tomorrow (ie bread/milk).

Can't think of owt else MS, so best go and do something constructive.

Greying X

Good Evening :hello:

Well, today turned out well

I can actually, legitimately claim a NSD :j The first in goodness knows how long

BG and I went out and about for a pootle, returned some library books that I haven't even opened, so they might as well go back, as sit here with me forgetting about them and wrack up fines. I did enjoy the book I had to pay 70p to request. I consumed that in a couple of days or so. I saw mention of it on Jaymee O's instaFeed. Not entirely sure I agree that it is a 'book for foodies', it's much, much more than that, and has some very upsetting passages in it. But it was a good book, I enjoyed it.

We pootled around the municipal park again - but went to a different part this time and saw some really interesting things. All free fun in the sunshine

Tea was as slated. We ended up having the leftover red pepper and lentil bake, with red pesto'd new potatoes (tinned ), carrots & runner beans (gifted), with another stab at that 'version' of muhammara sauce. Used up things so another thrifty tea I do feel as though I am doing better on the grocery spends this month - I don't know why. The gifted produce has helped, we've eaten everything that we've been given, and we've been gifted a little more today. Perhaps it helps to eke meals out? Not sure, but so far so good. I do think that it is the influence of the UFM-J that has kept me on the straight and narrow a bit more. I wish the same could be said of my THT - but there have been things going on in the background that have derailed that slightly. I rather thought that they might

Sorry, no picture of tea - it's the weather, but also it was all but pitch black (slight exaggeration) by an hour ago

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

for the opportunity to see interesting things up close with BG - who was looking the other way most of the time, natch :rotfl:

an early parcel delivery, goods intact and as described

help with a query - here on good, auld MSE :money:

Ta for popping by. Appreciated

Greying X

Good Morning :hello:

INOD - I've never made (deep fat fryer) chips at home. I've no room for a 'standalone' fryer and I've no intention of filling a saucepan with cooking oil and then setting a flame beneath it :eek: I can't think of a good chipper in Greying Town - and I've never got round to researching to see if I'm right - which is possibly a good thing

greenbee - good point, well made as ever. I shall be honest and say that the issue I have with fish that is not covered in breadcrumbs and presented in a box is one of affordability. I have used frozen fish - don't know if I was overly impressed with it. I keep meaning to see what mrL has on offer in the chiller cabinets, but........ I do get your point about small bits of fish. It's like uses of meat in some european cookery - it's as much about a taste, or even a seasoning of a dish, rather than having a great hunk of protein in each mouthful.

We will need one or two essentials today, and the TV guide, so money will be spent.

Tea this evening will be......... Well, ordinarily, it would be soup, and I have one in mind that would use up things that I already have. But I'm concious that I have some courgettes that are still fresh, but I want to make sure that we use them - no point in people kindly giving them to us otherwise. So I may well make a dish based on them. I only get to make it about once a year, so maybe that once is today I don't have any 'parmesan style' cheese, though. Mmmmm :think:

Can't think of anything else :money: so better push off.

Ta for popping in, reading and commenting. Appreciated.

Greying X