The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Greying_Pilgrim · 1 August 2017 at 6:51AM

Welcome The Arrowmaker

I agree wholeheartedly - I had missed the east of the county, and the NT delights, which is daft of me, because we have parked at Studland bay and we have explored Corfe Castle (regrettably only finding the NT carpark for that after we ventured into the railway carpark where the man on the gate couldn't see why we wouldn't pay some riduculous amount each to ride on his stoopid choo-choo, when we knew there was a perfectly good footpath to the castle! We ended up just paying to park - which was entirely allowable - he was just trying it on, making out like you could only use the carpark to use the train :mad:

I haven't been to Brownsea Island though. Partly because we always seem to stay/camp more to the west of Dorset, so it becomes quite a long day trip. But you're right, all those places are up for grabs and for exploring in future years

Greying X

Verbatim · 1 August 2017 at 7:06AM

There's also Montacute just in Somerset near West Dorset Bridport/ Beaminster area. Off A303.

Greying_Pilgrim · 1 August 2017 at 7:17AM

Good Morning :hello:

Verbatim - I've heard of Montacute house, never been though. Dorset isn't in our plans this year

so we're unlikely to visit it anytime soon

Tea last night was indeed the courgette bake (l/o), rocket salad (rocket leaves, oil, balsamic, salt & pepper) and the potato salad - using tinned pots - from the meat free monday cookbook, which is an oil/vinegar base, chopped gherkins, red pepper, grain mustard, salt and pepper. Remarkably filling as a meal.

Tonight we're sticking with soup. I have copied out a recipe for pinto bean soup. I haven't got pinto beans in stock, so I'm improvising with the mixed beans i got from mrW, and batch cooked a month or so ago. Hope it'll work, not made it before.

need to get the TV guide today. Other than that, I don't think we need anything, but I better check.

Right, must vamoose, need to sort something whilst DH is on hand to look after BG for several more minutes.

Ta for popping in.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim · 2 August 2017 at 6:49AM

Good Morning :hello:

Tea went OK last night. I'm afraid there isn't a picture - I did take one, but it was either because of poor light, or because the battery ran out half way through, none of the pics were pin-sharp focus

Anyway, it was but glorified bean & veg soup - with a nod to Mexico in the spicing really. I used a mixture of beans, rather than just pinto; onion, garlic, celery (not in recipe), carrots, courgette (not in recipe), tinned tomatoes, cumin, chilli and bay leaves, cooked up in stock. The recipe said to serve with shredded lettuce, yoghurt lime and.... summat else.. salt? I just had limes, so we squeezed lime juice into the finished soup - didn't feel in the mood for yoghurt in it, and certainly wasn't going to buy lettuce for 'ponce' effect.

I'll keep the recipe, it's the sort of thing that I'd have a version of the ingredients in at any one time, so.....

Tea this evening was going to be Nohutlu - or chickpea street pilaf, but in looking to see if there was a link to the soup recipe last night, I stumbled across another recipe in the cookbook I'd used (some of it is online, but not the soup recipe

), and it would enable me to use up the rocket that I bought at the weekend, and needs using... We'll see what the weather brings.

I bought some eggs as well as the TV guide yesterday. I forgot to say, I did have my first ever really, and I mean really bad egg on Sunday _pale_ I won't name the retailer - this egg had been around a looonnnnggg time, so it is the packing station that is at fault

I've ended up losing 4 eggs, as I suspect another in the pack was potentially bad (sloshed when shaken _pale_) and of the two I cooked up, they seemed alright, but when cooked, i thought I could detect a faint eau de farmyard - it probably wasn't, but I wasn't going to take any risks. There were definitely no 'obvious' cracks in any of the eggs in that box - I checked them carefully, so it either was an egg that had been around along time and shouldn't have been collected/packed, or had the tiniest hole/damage that bacteria had got into.

We've got a birthday card to write/send off today. I think we're mostly OK for food shopping, but one or two bits are needed from mrAl, so DH will be tasked with grabbing those. I'm setting myself the task of cleaning a small area today - a 15 minute (at most) job. I need to tackle a room, and keep on getting put off, thinking of it as a 'room', so 'bite-size' is the way forward, and we start (hopefully) today!

Other than that, can't think of owt else MS to report, so I had best vamoose.

Ta for reading. Appreciated.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim · 2 August 2017 at 9:01PM

Good Evening :hello:

Well, I did it! I actually managed to do the clearing/cleaning of one little bit of the room of doom

Took about 20 mins, but once I started, I wanted to do it right

Pathetic really, but I can only do things like this when BG is safely elsewhere as I'm using cleaning products and need to be able to put stuff down on the floor without it immediately being seized as a new best toy......

We picked up a couple of things today, stock cubes for the storecupboard and our 'fish supper' from h3ron for the weekend - that is now safely in the freezer.

i'm glad that we got out and about today - we weren't rained on :j and the weather was neither too warm, nor too cold. It was 'just right'

Baby Greying has been an utter delight today - i'm proud to be a mother

Even if I am geriatric by NHS standards :mad: - thank you Lemon Tree for reminding me how disrespectful our NHS is to more mature mothers........

I made a red pepper and lentil bake this afternoon - which utilised the YS'd mushies I got for 35p on Sunday. It cooked in the oven with 'us tea' which was cod in papillote and baked sweet potato. The cod pieces were 'tails' and part of a pack of frozen cod that I got from h3ron for £2.99 for 4 pieces. I shall be honest and say that you don't have to have any qualms about where this stuff is processed and packaged...... I'm not too sure where I'm standing on that point at this moment in time........ I teamed the fish and baked potato with a rocket salad and a citrus, tomato and olive salad. The cod and sweet potato inspiration came from THIS book, the salads were 'use ups'. Picture here;

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

'use up teas' - they're the best :j

a couple of subtle reminders I'm doing OK -thank you, you know who you are

that age is just a number

Ta for popping in, reading and cheering me on. Appreciated.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim · 3 August 2017 at 8:28AM

Good morning :hello:

I should have said, I fully realise that the fish last night was wholly overcooked. A combination of me not being used to cooking fish, it being frozen and needing to work tea around baby care. No excuses, just how it is. But I certainly wouldn't have served it to Rick Stein...... :rotfl:

Not alot MS to report I don't think.....

We've bananas to buy today. And I've an idea what's for tea, but trying to figure out how to make it happen without alot of 'expensive' ingredients appearing on the plate for one meal........

I've got to pay the credit card bill - only a 'smallish' amount, W1ckes delay in refunding my money for the 'lost' delivery meant that I'd paid a fair wodge in advance for this bill

Best vamoose.

Ta for reading. Appreciated.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim · 3 August 2017 at 3:26PM

Well, I've sorted out the credit card bill

And we've bananas in the house

I purchased some oven chips to go with our pizza tomorrow night, some (frozen) brocolli and some jarred red peppers. That's all we needed today, and I'm about to write it up in my accounts book. I was updating it earlier, and we are all tickety-boo and balancing :j - and yes I realise it is only the 3rd of the month, but I usually manage to go awry somehow. Mind, I haven't bought anything without a receipt yet, from a market/the grocers etc, so as long as i keep onto the receipt, I'm less likely to miss things.

Our clubcard vouchers have come through, we've earnt a fiver. Which given that's not on food shopping as such, is pretty OK. DH wanted to know if there was enough now to purchase breakdown cover with them. I think there is - I'll have to double check, but we had to 'purchase' breakdown cover last year

the downside of not spending as much in mrT I suppose. But then we can't afford to do a 'whole' shop - nor even a 'substantial' shop with them anymore, so that's the way it is.

I've still not honed in on what's for tea. I hadn't thought through my original idea, and whilst we're currently getting 4 seasons weather in one day, it isn't really 'salad' weather anyway.

Right, best away and update my purchases book and do the washing up from lunch. 'Playing' got in the way, but BG is currently snoozing, so I've no more excuses!

Greying X

Hiddenidenity · 3 August 2017 at 4:06PM

I'm a real lurker and come here to [STRIKE]drool[/STRIKE] look at your delicious food.

I think your food budget is amazing, you eat 'well' and healthy. I'm amazed you can do it on so little (that seem's the wrong word when you're being so harsh on yourself for it)

I can't compare really as we eat meat

but your food always looks so good! You should be very proud.

I'll go back to [STRIKE]stalking[/STRIKE] lurking now x

apple_muncher · 3 August 2017 at 8:15PM

We got a grand total of £4 clubcard vouchers, so you beat us:T! And most of that came from dh doing valued customer surveys, or summat like that. Our nearest store is a bus ride away - so already £3 spent in bus fares if only one of us goes- and we only go for their gluten free stuff, which costs the same as our walking-distance-sainz, so it is rare that we darken their doorstep. Our phone top-ups are linked to them and we try to use dh's cc with them, all to earn points, which we'll convert to train travel (2x) or pizza place food (4x).

beanielou · 3 August 2017 at 9:14PM

I too no longer shop at Tesco & could cry when I think of all the money wasted there in years gone by.
However that was then & this is now.
Actually closed my Mr T CC the other day :j :j

The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free