The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Greying_Pilgrim · 11 July 2017 at 8:40PM

Good Evening :hello:

I don't know if I have much to report in MS terms at the moment.

I did stick to my 'notional' theme of 'soup on a Tuesday' with ingredients for Bean Soup finding themselves in my fridge and freezer

I did improvise a bit with the veg, using a courgette and green beans that I had been gifted by the gardening parental, using a sweet potato from the YS'd M&$ ones and using haricot beans out of the freezer, in place of the cannellini beans in the recipe, but apart from that........ :rotfl:I didn't make scones or flatbreads to go with, as it usually is quite a robust soup. Tonight's version was no exception. Good job it is pelting with rain outside and it proved real summer fodder........ :rotfl:

011 by Greying Pilgrim, on Flickr

I'm trying to be mindful with my purchases still; fresh fruit and nuts being the only food purchases of the day

We had fish, chips and mushy peas last night, a) because the weather was pants enough to have the oven on, and b) I ran out of energy and inspiration. Thank goodness it was all sat there in the freezer/storecupboard really.......

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

people who are kind and happy, despite going through the mire themselves

that it didn't matter I got soaked whilst out and about (BG stayed dry

)

that i was able to submit my meter readings in one go :j - usually takes a protracted 'chat' with an advisor to get them registered

Ta for popping in, reading and joining in. Hopefully I'll have summat more interesting to report, next time.

Greying X

Pippilongstocking · 11 July 2017 at 9:49PM

All sounding rather splendiferous on here. Waves to all. And dusting, surely not. Loving the gratitude as always GP.

XOXO

Greying_Pilgrim · 12 July 2017 at 9:07AM

Good Morning :hello:

Bit of a late duck in from me this morn, but we've breakfasted, showered, clothed, prepped snap, delivered bestest birthday wishes to a special friend of BG's, and even found time to drink a cup of coffee and make some avocado toast with the last of the organick avocados :j I won't be buying any more of those for a while, the same batch is still in the grocers, and I had to compost one this morning, as it had quietly gone dark brown inside

33p wasted

Not too sure if I could have caught it before it went - it seemed pretty firm up to yesterday.

I've library books to return today - in time, so no fines :j I need to pick up the TV guide (I forgot yesterday, in my 'rush' to get out of the torrential rain.....) and one or two bits and pieces for the storecupboard. I've not decided what is for 'us tea' yet, as I was pondering what the weather was actually going to do. Looks as though we are set fair for the day. Still have no more clue what I'm gonna make mind..... :rotfl:

I've slipped momentum with my THT challenge, but will re-visit today. I've still achieved quite a bit, but I think we're beginning to encounter the tasks that are going to necessitate disruption to the household, so that is possibly why I've slowed down.

I noticed that tofu (cold-ron-foods brand) in mrW had increased in price by 52p, the other day. 52p!!!! :eek: In one fell swoop! Which means that mrA and mrM (currently on special offer) are the cheapest sources at present. It also means that my reasons to darken the doors of our local mrW are decreasing all the time...... I did have a little chuckle to myself, however, as our local branch have now a dedicated RTC section - although they don't call it anything as 'pedestrian' as that - theirs is a 'specially priced items' area. It doesn't seem to be making much difference, as stuff still inna shifting........

Right, best shift a tail-feather and get on with stuff, rather than nattering about it!

Ta for popping in, appreciated. As ever.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim · 14 July 2017 at 9:20AM

Good Morning :hello:

Friday again. Gosh. Time is whizzing. I'm already half way through my THT :eek:

Tea last night was a 'made up' dish, a summer version of my winter 'morrocan stew'. So instead of pumpkin/sweet potato, I used courgette. Thankfully the weather played ball, and it was just the weather for stew. It was a mix of veg, onion, garlic, celery, carrots, courgettes, tinned tomatoes, veg stock and ras-el-hanout spice (which I made up from my whole spices). Served with brown basmati (fancied that over cous cous or bulghar), and broccoli. Picture;

007 by Greying Pilgrim, on Flickr

Tea tonight will hopefully be pizza (black olive, most likely) and possibly oven chips.

I forgot to mention, I finally got around to getting Bernadine Lawrence's book - Feed your family for £5 a day - out of the library recently. I don't think that I have ever read it before - partly put off by having to pay 60p - or whatever the charge is/was - to get hold of it. Seemed to go against the grain of a budget cookbook somewhat. Whilst I did only discover 1 recipe that I want to try out myself, I was struck by how 'good' the book was as a starter cookbook for a first-time householder, a student, or someone that wanted to start to learn to cook from scratch. In 'poncy' cookery books, you never get recipes for basic pastry, crumble or basic bread. This book has everything you could need (maybe it is a bit light - understandably - for special dietary needs), as well as frugal/budgetary hints and tips. All contained in one book. I was well impressed. I was more impressed with that than I was with the 're-print' of the Caroline Conran & Susan Campbell 'Poor Cook' from the 1970's. Some of the recipes seemed familiar, so I don't know if my mother ever-tried any of them, but I don't think it has stood the test of time well. Whilst I aplaud recipes for offal, or game I just didn't really think that we need to have recipes that cook cabbage soup for 2.5 hours anymore...... Totally willing to accept that my opinion is wrong, and it is pivotal to the taste & texture of the dish, but I still ain't gonna be trying it out, anytime soon........ :rotfl:

I was saddened to see a virtually unopened copy of Jack Monroe's 'A Girl Called Jack' in a chazza. If the copies weren't untouched in our local libraries, I would have bought it and donated it to the library services. Folk are missing out on some good, low-priced nosh! Still, you can only lead horses to water......

I've got to trundle over to mrA today to pick up something for BG and only they stock it locally. still, I'll grab some exercise too.

Actually, I best start shifting a tail-feather, time-is-a-ticking, and I've not achieved overly much this morn.

Ta for popping by. Appreciated.

Greying X

Upsidedown_Bear · 14 July 2017 at 8:18PM

I made soup today. Potato, courgette and turnip soup. It was yum.

That is all. As you were.

Upsidedown_Bear · 14 July 2017 at 8:20PM

Upsidedown_Bear · 14 July 2017 at 8:29PM

Smilie is so impressed he's fainted

Greying_Pilgrim · 14 July 2017 at 10:12PM

Upsidedown_Bear wrote: »

I made soup today. Potato, courgette and turnip soup. It was yum.

That is all. As you were.

That, my darling, is super-fab.

I've some $h1t going down in RL, so please forgive my absence.

But HM soup making, with YUM results..... :T:T:T:T:T

X