February Food Challenge - Catchup

This challenge is one that I've set myself to try to use up food we had in our cupboards and freezer, that had been hanging around for a while and just wasn't getting used.  I did a full stocktake and compiled a list of all the foods that needed using up in my original post for this challenge, and there was quite a lot of it I have to admit.  I altered my menu plan for the month accordingly, taking account of what we had already and I have been trying to buy only what I need from the menu plan. 

I have made some inroads into the list and have used the following in the last couple of weeks:

One pack of Crème Brulee Mix -  I didn't realise, but there were actually two sachets in each pack, so I had to make these twice to use one pack (shame!)  and there's still another pack to use at some point.  Not bad value for 99p though.  I added 200g of Weightwatchers reduced fat cream and 350ml semi-skimmed milk to make 4 of these from each sachet in the pack and they were actually really nice and a real treat for us all.

One pack of scone mix - I made 15 small scones from this pack by just adding some milk.  They weren't anything special, but with a bit of butter and jam made a lovely treat with a cup of tea.

One pack of Fajita seasoning. - I forgot to take a photo of our chicken fajitas, but they were very yummy and added a bit of variety to the menu plan.

One large frozen turkey - I roasted this last weekend (apologies for the poor quality photograph) and then used the leftovers for several meals over the next few days. 

 

This was my turkey leg,  and a whopper it was too.

Four from a pack of 12 frozen stuffing balls - eaten with the Turkey roast.

It was turkey curry last night with the last of the frozen naan breads and brown rice.  I used a sachet of the Ainsley Harriot Indian and Curried Lentil Chickpea Pan Soup and one packet of Tikka Masala seasoning mix- to make the turkey curry.  The pan soup on it's own didn't taste curry-like enough so I popped the seasoning mix in too which had the desired effect. It was very nice.

There's still half of the turkey left, in spite of eating it in sandwiches with mayonnaise and cranberry chutney for the last two days lunches, so I'll be making a turkey tagine later in the week using another pan soup mix and some Morrocan spices and will be eating it with some of the cous cous needing to be used.

I also used half the pack of trifle sponges, along with some of the frozen mixed berries and a sachet of raspberry jelly to make a trifle.  I added some custard and whipped cream  and sprinkles to finish.  I also made some mixed berry individual jellies which I didn't take a photo of, but which make a nice low calorie dessert.

One pack of Weightwatchers Double Choc Chip cookie mix also got used by Little Bird who made these up and they were a nice treat as we don't get biscuits in too often -  although as you can probably tell, we do like sweet things in this household.

Various other bits and pieces have also been used.  I finally got around to making some yummy butter popcorn for Little Bird's packed lunches and attempted a bit of a bento box style approach, to make them a bit more interesting for her.  I'm going to try to do this more often in future.

I used one of the money off vouchers for Morrison's when I did a shop there last week, to get £5 off a £40 spend.  Subsequently, however, I have decided to only use a couple of the remaining vouchers, as the amount you need to spend to actually get the benefit of the money off, only encourages me to spend more than I need to.  This seems to me to defeat the object, so I am back to shopping at Lidl and Asda, unless I need enough food and non-food items in one shop to match the total needed to use the vouchers.

As you can see I've made a start, but I do need to get a bit more serious about this challenge as there is still a huge amount of food to use up.   We're away in Yorkshire next week, but I'm going to take as much of the food as possible with us, to try to use whilst we're away. I think it will definitely take me more than one month to completely use up the food on the list, so maybe I can save money on food shopping for two or even three months consecutively.  I'll post again at the end of the month to update on further progress.

A Walk to the Allotment

It's getting to that time of year when I need to start thinking about doing some work at the allotment for the coming growing season.  I can't quite get on with it yet as with all the rain the ground is just too wet, but I was curious to see what state my plot was in so I decided to take the dog on an extra long walk on Friday morning and check it out.

My allotment is a good few miles away along the canal.  I don't normally take the dog on such a long walk, but I fancied a change from our normal dog walking routine and wanted to kill two birds with one stone so to speak.  In the end we had a lovely walk, my knee doesn't quite seem to think so, might I add, but I'm sure it will recover.

I didn't go onto the plot, as I'm not sure that dogs are allowed on there.  Instead I went right up to the fence, as my plot is in the corner of the site, and took a look and some photos through the fence.  The raised beds were looking a little worse for wear, but it wasn't as bad as I expected.  There were even some things that had overwintered well and that I could pick and use, namely some kale, some rainbow chard and some spinach. 

The garlic cloves I planted back in the autumn were also growing well too.

I've got my onion sets, early lettuce, broad bean seeds and potato tubers bought and ready to go in.  I've just got to wait until the ground dries out and warms up a little, so I don't cause more harm than good.  I'm looking forward to a dryer spell of weather now, if we ever get it that is!

The Week That Was

It was a  strange week last week, with a mix of good and not so good happenings.  Whilst not wanting to sound negative, included in the latter were a missed hospital appointment that we never knew we had, a trip with Little Bird to the A&E (nothing too serious thankfully), missed classes at the gym due to them being fully booked, Little Bird missing swimming classes due to an injury sustained at school, Little Bird feeling the need to depart from the debating club and my sustaining a knee injury whilst walking the dog, to name but a few.   I realise that we are still very lucky, our house was not flooded, we have food to put on the table and we are all in good health, but it has been quite a week and one I was definitely glad to see the back of.  I was relieved to get to the weekend, which was thankfully incident free.

After spending a pretty lazy Saturday at home (other than catching up with the ironing), Sunday was quite a bit busier.  In spite of my knee injury, I managed a class at the gym in the morning, followed by an afternoon washing the dog basket and blankets,  thoroughly hoovering and mopping the floors of the hall, stairs and landing, tidying the sprawling shoe basket and cleaning the downstairs toilet. It's a nice feeling knowing I've deodourised the doggy smells and put the downstairs to rights.

After walking the dog, we settled down to roast turkey with all the trimmings.  This was a frozen turkey left over from Christmas that needed using up.  I'd bought it with the intention of cooking it on Christmas day and then we decided to buy a fresh one.  I'm looking forward to making various dishes with the leftovers, which should feed us for much of this week.  It's like Christmas all over again, especially as I made a trifle this weekend too, in an attempt to use up what I had in the cupboards.

After a bit of a random week, I'm looking forward to starting a new week.  My shopping and to do lists have been written, my menu plan sorted and having caught up on all my jobs, I will hopefully have freed up some time to get on with lots of other things I didn't get done last week.  Hoping for a more or less normal week this week.  Fingers crossed.

52 Projects - Making a Pinboard for the Sewing Room - Week 6

For quite a while now I've been wanting to make some sort of pin board to attach all those little bits and pieces to and give me inspiration when I'm in the sewing room trying to get crafty.  A couple of months ago now I bought this largish piece of chipboard from B&Q which cost about £6 I think (can't quite remember)

with the intention of covering it with wadding and fabric, but after a search on Pinterest the other night, I decided to approach the project in a slightly different way.

As previously mentioned, I was going to make a fabric covered, ribbon pin board where items are tucked behind lengths of ribbon criss-crossing the board, but when I saw some alternative ideas pinned I decided to just paint the chip board to match the feature wall, as we still had some paint left, and nail  clips and a string of pegs across the board instead, to hold all those pictures, postcards, photos I want to display.  The nature of the chip board, being so hard and difficult to pin into with drawing pins, meant I needed clips suspended on nails which would allow me to change or add to the display without having to constantly get the hammer out and make lots more holes in the board.  Any other spaces that need filling I intend to use washi tape to tape things to the board, hoping of course, that it doesn't peel the paint off.

Anyway, whilst out at our local mall the other day, I bought a couple of large bulldog clips and several smaller bulldog clips from WH Smith.  They weren't very expensive and cost me about £4 in total and once the paint had dried on the chipboard I nailed them on as securely as I could.  I then raided OH's tool/nail cupboard and found some small screw-in eyes to tie a string across the board, from which I could suspend things, using some tiny wooden pegs I'd bought very inexpensively a year or so ago.   I also decorated the pin board with some white lace I had in my supplies, staple gunning it on for an added bit of decoration.

Once I'd finished, I added lots of bits and pieces to it.  Most are reminders to me to do things, such as go to more exhibitions (i.e. tickets/booklets from great exhibitions I've been to in the past), buttons I'd like to use,

stamps I'd like to do something with, leather/fabric I'd like to make something from, kits or patterns I'd like to use. 

I also threw in a few little drawings done by Little Bird when she was small.  She's always an inspiration. 

I really like the finished effect.  Here's a picture of the full board.

Joining in with Dreamer at Living a Slow and Simple Life in her 52 Projects challenge where the aim is to complete a task a week that you've been meaning to do for an age.  This task wasn't on my original list posted at the beginning of the challenge, but is one I have subsequently remembered I wanted to do and added to the list. 

A Day in Margate and a Visit to the Turner Contemporary Gallery

Last Sunday we spent a lovely day in the seaside town of Margate in Kent.  We've visited a few times over the years and had some lovely summer days on the lovely sandy beach there.  We used to take Little Bird when she was small as she enjoyed the trampolines, swing boats and the sea water swimming pool on the beach, and of course the amusements along the front.

When we mentioned to someone that we were going there, we were told in no uncertain terms that it wasn't a very nice place (to put it politely).  We happen to disagree.  We've always found Margate to be a very nice place.  A lovely traditional seaside town.  It may not be as quaint and gentrified as Whitstable or Broadstairs, but it has it's own charms and merits and with the building of the new Turner Contemporary Gallery, we were keen to return and check it out.

We arrived at around 11.30 am and took a walk along the beach with the dog for an hour.  It was a lovely sunny day with bright blue skies.  The dog loved running up and down the beach chasing after a ball she found.  It was fun watching the tide come right up into the little harbour which it did very quickly.

I noticed that on the far side of the harbour around from the new gallery there were some bars and cafe's which I haven't noticed before.  They may or may not have been new and I apologise if they have been there a while and I've just never noticed them, but to me it seemed like there seemed to be some signs of regeneration going on in the town, which I imagine could be a good thing for the people who live there.

 

 

We were pleased to find that the Turner gallery (pictured above) was completely free to enter and we went in and had a look around.  There were some fabulous bronze sculptures in the foyer.  Without wanting to diminish the works, they reminded me of the old Weebles (the toys that wobbled but never fell down).  I always wanted these as a child, but never did get them for some reason.  (I digress)  There was also a very impressive display of work by 11-18 year olds from local secondary schools.  Some amazing work from people of such a young age.  It was very inspiring.

After going upstairs in the impressive enormous lift (big enough to hold 100 people!), we took a look around the main exhibitions of a modernist American artist and, of course, JMW Turner.  We then took a look in the lovely shop (some beautiful things in there), and then stopped for a drink in the café, before getting back to the dog who was patiently waiting in the car for us.

Whilst OH moved the car, as parking was a little expensive near the gallery, Little Bird and I took a mooch down the front and popped into an interesting little second hand shop.  There were some lovely things in there, but I just came away with a few new spools of cotton.  They cost £1 for 3 and they always come in handy or can be used for basting if they don't match any project I'm doing colour wise.  That's another great thing about Margate.  They have some super interesting little shops to look around, which always makes a visit enjoyable.

We had a great day in Margate and will be returning again, possibly to visit other exhibitions and use the beach in the summer, although dogs aren't allowed on the main beach from May to September.  We might have to look around for a beach where we can take her in the summer.  If anyone knows one in the area, please let me know.

Y is for Yellow

A very short post today.  I treated myself to a little pot of spring cheer the other day.  These little tete-a-tete narcissi just hit the spot in terms of giving indoors a little lift and didn't break the bank.

Joining in with Mum at Mum's Simply Living blog attempting a series of posts utilising the alphabet backwards.

Last Week

Last week, I had a pretty good week, despite the weather being dire.  As a consequence, I spent quite a bit of time at home getting on with things I've been meaning to do for a while. 

I finished sewing the strips together for the front of my double quilt/eiderdown.  Here's a picture. 

 

 

I was quite happy with the results so far.  I still need to wash the old duvet I'm using for wadding and sort out the back before I can sew it all together.  Unfortunately, I cut some strips from the vintage sheet I was going to use and it ended up not being big enough.  Silly thing to do really, but I found another sheet that was big enough in my vintage linen collection, so I'm going to use that instead.  Better to use it than it just be stored under the bed.

In addition, I started work on some lavender bags for OH's wardrobe which had a moth infestation.  It's a good way to use up some of the many fabric scraps I have and I already have some lavender to put inside, so it won't cost any more money. I'll probably make a few extra ones for my clothes drawers too, as I sorted out a whole pile of fabric to use.  I may also make some for small extra gifts next Christmas if all goes well, but I will probably do those nearer the time so that the lavender scent doesn't wear off in the mean time.

In addition to the sewing, I also had a good week sorting out my 'desk' at the kitchen table.  From time to time it gets increasingly cluttered and looks very messy, which can be a bit off putting if we have visitors.  I decided to invest, from my business funds, in a lovely little set of drawers from IKEA to hide it all away, so the kitchen feels much tidier on a day to day basis.  Here's what it used to look like before I got the drawers. 

Everything was visible, with some things piled on top of others, so it was a bit of a cluttered hotch potch.  Now, it looks like this

and is much preferable and so much more functional too.  The other good thing is that as it is on castors, I can just wheel it all into another room if we have visitors, completely out of view, so we can use the table properly.

Most of what I use on a daily basis is now tidied away out of view, but still within easy reach.  The little unit cost £45, which is quite an expense for a tiny business, but I think it was worth it.  Sometimes you do need to separate work and home as much as possible to keep the clutter down and everybody happy.

Finally, I managed to get some more free tickets to the Ideal Home Show at Earl's Court in March, via Money Saving Expert, so that will be another inexpensive day out which I'm quite looking forward to.  All in all a pretty productive week.