The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Well, we have been the recipients of more 'love' already today. We have been given some very welcome, much needed items of baby paraphenalia, for which both DH and I are sincerely grateful.

Tea last evening was mixed bean curry with dhal and rice. I substituted the tomatoes in the original recipe for some l/o coconut milk that I had and a YS'd pouch of thai green curry sauce that I got in m&$. I also threw in a yellow chilli, thinking it would be fruity..... it wasn't, there was steam coming out of our ears. And yet it was only little....... Picture here;



It did taste nicer than it looks, honestly. It used things that I had in the freezer/store cupboard, so was a thrifty meal.

I have done some shopping for food and non-food items this morning. I've not totalled up my reciepts, but I've spent at least £30. I bought another weigh scales - it still uses those blessed button batteries, but I'm hopeful that it will be better than the over-priced branded one that never worked properly from the get-go (and yes, i should have sent it back). 'Achieveable' (?) weightloss is a feature of the 'me' bit of the challenge. I'm going for 7lbs again, which I would be delighted to achieve, quite frankly!

I was most pleased with my mrL shop. I seemed to get plenty of 'good' stuff to eat, and it came to £11.33. Their cherry tomatoes were 39p a punnet, so I got some of them. Their family nets of tomatoes were down to 99p, so I got one of them - we've a stack of tommies, I got some(salad) tomatoes from m&$ because they were cheaper at 70p than HB!!! (79p). And yes, the same thing in mrL was.... 57p? I should have waited..... but didn't want them to be oos.

I managed to drop a jar of olives in mrL at the till - I was so lucky it didn't smash! As much as anything, do you know how rare it is to get the black olives in stock for 59p! I'd had to move 2 trays of green to find them as it was (perils of 'mixed tray' stock presentation) :D

Tea this evening will go on a salad vibe, as I want to try out a new - to me - recipe with the melon. The weather isn't wholly conducive to salad, but we'll pretend it is, and carry on...... :rotfl:

Right, ta for popping in. It is appreciated. Today. Everyday. Always.

Greying X

Good Evening :hello:

Whilst love and compassion may win out, I know that I would not be able to begin to sense victory, if me or mine were caught up in any kind of atrocity. Which doesn't mean we mustn't stop trying, but acknowledge that it isn't simple.



The weather decided to come good later this afternoon, and we have had a sunny end to the day. Which was rather fortunate, given that we were having salad for tea.

We had a plate made up of recipes that I had not tried before, alongside a couple of old favourites and some YS'd lettuce that I got in mrS. The lettuce was 'red something' - basically a narrowish leaf, green at the base going to dark red/purple at the tip. Ys'd to 49p from 70 something. I should have checked it earlier, as it could have done with being put in some water to rejuvenate, however, it perked up a bit with washing and spinning, and I stuck the heart in a bowl of water to perk it up a little for future use.

So, from the top we have YS'd lettuce, falafel, Black lentil salad (no pea shoots, tzatziki or avocado), carrot dip and marinated mozarella and melon salad. All topped off with spicy tahini sauce.(scroll down to bottom of article) Picture here;



The 'basic' lentil salad was good and the recipe a keeper - even without the accompaniments. I used green lentils, as that is what I had. The melon salad was nice. It would have looked better if I had used watermelon and if I had a melon baller in my life. But hey, I use melons in my meals only a few times a year, a melon baller would just take up room in the drawer, and the galia melon that I had was deliciously aromatic and 'worked', so I've no complaints.

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

more preloved gifts, freely given

for the sun, and the breeze and the rain, and then the sun again

LIFE

Ta for popping in, reading and joining in the conversation.

Appreciated.

Greying X

Good Morning :hello:

We seem to be making good progress, I'm pleased to report positive happenings at Greying Towers.

I have had feedback from the delivery company about the 'no-show- debacle. I e-mailed the ceo. The reason given for the 'no-show' is mind-boggling, and I'm not going to repeat it here. Because there is a very serious aspect to it, aside from utter incompetence. And whilst I am not, and never have been a wangler of 'com-pen-say-shun' it does leave a bitter, bitter taste that I can never get Friday 'back'. I no longer feel able to 'waste' days of my life. None of us know how many we have left to enjoy. Expediting any future delivery for me is not really helpful, as a) I'll try to avoid this company and b) there shouldn't be need to treat people 'special', every customer should get their goods when they are expecting them.

DH is currently enjoying some time with us, so I've set 'im to work :rotfl: That isn't strictly fair, he is doing some chores, but then I can care for BG - and we do swap over So I'm trying to do my fairshare too. I spent money yesterday. I got what I wanted. I don't think that the one thing - a microwave - was possibly to the penny the 'absolutely cheapest' I could have got it, but for once, I just wanted to walk up to the shelf, pick the product off the shelf, pay for it and take it home and USE it.

I have just checked, I could have got the microwave for £10 cheaper, on the same industrial estate . So slap my wrists . I really need to be drummed out of Club MSE :rotfl: It was just easier to get it where we got it from though. The next option to save £10 would have involved a drive to the next town along, so the diesel costs would have consumed any saving. However, I am guilty of 'buying convenience' - I am not a good MSE'r....... DH has just said I need to save £10 'extra' on the next thing we buy - fair point, I think

It does feel good to have started ticking off chores on our challenge list though. This is all stuff that has been needed/wanted/required for ages - dare I suggest, years........

Tea last night was frugal fare, as I had Monday's tea for Sunday's tea IYSWIM, and we're keeping our 'ready meal' of fish & chips for when we have a day trip out - seem sensible. We had baked tatties (m&$ 'chopin' YS'd tatties - nice) baked beans (mrL 4 for a pand) and a 2 egg omlette (HB eggs - much better since the FR ban has been lifted). I didn't take a pic, as you know what all that looks like

I'm trying a new soup recipe tonight. We actually had soup for lunch yesterday - 'cream' (actually the dregs out of the yoghurt pot) of tomato with HM foccacia. Sometimes my tommie soup tastes like battery acid, but this was really nice, clean plate city! And it was certainly the weather for soup - where has summer gone to?

Right, quick-sticks. Must get going. Lot to shoe-horn in today.

Greying X