Filling Up Spaces, and Shrinking by the Week

 

I called round to the bungalow with Alan's lunch on Monday, to find that he had been busy filling up the space in my bedroom with the stud walls for the en-suite.  It completely changes the look of the room now.

It actually feels smaller than it appears in this photo and will feel smaller still once the plasterboard goes up and the whole bungalow is plastered in a couple of weeks.  

As a reader mentioned the other day, we are shrinking by the week.  At the beginning the bungalow was 880sq ft or 83 square metres, I think we will have to have a re-measure once all the walls are completed as all the exterior walls will have come inwards by around 4" due to the insulation.

After having a lunch break with Alan, I headed for home to do some more filling of space.

I managed to get some roasted vegetables, pasta and peas and some stewed apple in orange juice, made up to fill that empty shelf in the fridge.  I also took a tub of grated Christmas cheese out of the freezer and opened a jar of pesto to have with some of the pasta for my tea.

It's nice to see it looking a bit healthier in there again with things to give me inspiration for this weeks meals.

Sue xx

Shopping, Using Up the Bits ... and Perfection

 

We went to Aldi on Saturday, as is now becoming a ritual to start the weekend off.  We have a coffee in Booths and then get over to Aldi nice and early before the masses arrive.  Although to be fair our Aldi seems even busier on a Sunday!

I mostly bought just what I needed, which this week was Weetabix, orange juice and paracetamols, but I was obviously influenced by a talk that I went to last week on inflammation and osteoporosis.  Where we were reminded how important it is for many ailments, especially those that include any sort of inflammation to 'eat the rainbow'.

Well I managed to get four colours of the rainbow ... now I just have to eat them more regularly.  😄🌈

My receipt for posterity ... and to celebrate that I am managing to get to the end of my pension-less days by the skin of my teeth.

As I went to the fridge to put my new purchases away I realised just how much progress I had made eating up all the little tubs of leftovers last week.  So, as I always do, I moved the last couple of things off this shelf and gave it a good wipe down.  Cleaning the fridge one shelf at a time is so much easier than having to hoick everything out and do the whole thing all at once, with it beeping at me like a crazy guinea pig.

This week I think I will concentrate more on the bits and pieces in the freezer, of which there are many little bags, tubs and half packets.  I want to batch cook some more meals and all the tiddly bits are just taking up too much space.

While I was peeking in there to see what I had, I spied the blueberries left over from our final Riverford order.  So as I had a very ripe banana glaring at me from the side, it just had to be a batch of Blueberry and Banana muffins*.

I used my usual method of weighing the eggs and then adding the same weight in flour, fat and sugar and as luck would have it, I had the exact amount of flour left in the jar to be able to stick to this criteria.

Perfection. 

Sue xx

*There are no photos of the finished muffins ... we ate them all. 😁

Old Food ... or Leftovers

 

I was reading some comments on an Instagrammers feed the other day, she's the queen of frugality and uses things so well. But, as is the way when someone gets successful online, the negative nellies and keyboard warriors turn up to put their derogatory comments in, and try and get their comments 'liked' by other people.  

One of them said that she wouldn't dream of saving or eating leftovers, and that all leftovers were was 'old food' and should be thrown in the bin.  Wow!!

Happily lots of people were not of that opinion, and I am one of them.

The other night for instance, I was having some spicy potato wedges with a fish portion, and some frozen mixed vegetables and I couldn't quite finish them all.  Did they go in the bin, no they did not ... an idea came to mind straight away so they were quickly cut in half and put into a little tub in the fridge.  

My fridge seems to be the happy residing place for lots of little tubs this week and I am working my way through them all.

I tipped some frozen peas into the pot with the wedges ready for action, took a rather large egg out of the fridge to warm up, and got the little pot of Flora brought home from a meal out ... et voila the makings of a nice little meal all ready to go. 

Ten minutes later it was all in the pan and I was busy making a nice cup of coffee to go with it.

Another few minutes and I had a nice dinner all ready to eat.

That is most definitely not 'old food'.

Do you love your leftovers?

Sue xx

Wildlife ... and Renovations

 

Heron and Greenhalgh Castle Ruins by Dermot Cummins

Isn't this a lovely photograph of a beautiful spot in our town.  I asked the photographer if I could share it and he said I could.  The river is the River Wyre which snakes its way all through our small town.  We are very lucky as well as supporting lots of wildlife, such as the herons and kingfishers, we also have quite a few otters that have returned to the river.

And now, ladies and gentle for your delight and delectation ... yes I am old enough to remember 'The Good Old Days'.  I don't know why I loved it so much as a small child, but it taught me the words of a lot of the wartime era songs, which on occasion I baffle Alan with, here's this months walk through of the bungalow.  

Alan asked me to do another one at the weekend before he fills in all the interior walls with the insulation.  I'll have to have a go at editing all the clips together at the end and make a movie won't I.  😄

https://youtu.be/haO5B4hHrRA?si=o3K-MlEizo7qCopB

I don't know why I talk so softly on these, it must be not wanting to bombard you all with my Mancunian tones in such an echoey environment.

Sue xx

Pies ... and Dates

 

One minute I was looking in the fridge for an egg to make myself a fried egg on toast for my lunch, and the next I was making pies.

I do that sort of thing a lot, it's as though I have a brain that tells me to do something else other than what I actually have planned.  Hey, brain just who do you think you are, who's in charge here ... and where is my fried egg? 😐

Instead I stood looking at all the little tubs of leftovers in the fridge and the roll of ready made pastry that was well out of date, and decided to add them all together and make pies.

The potatoes were actually boiled and in lovely big pieces, but I warmed them up for a few seconds in the microwave, mashed them up with a fork and added in some of the onion chopped into small pieces, and all of the cheese in that tub ... plus a little bit more for good measure.

As I was cutting out the pastry circles I realised that there wasn't going to be the usual perfect fit for my four bases and lids, then I remembered Angela mentioning quite a while ago that the pastry pack sizes were now smaller ... shrinkflation at it's invisible best.  

  Happily though I just about managed to roll out all the scraps to make a circle that just about covered the fourth pie.  No little pastry 'chef's perk' of a couple of jam tarts for me then from now on.  Unless I make my own pastry, which of course I should do.

They are very tasty.

 I had one for my lunch straight out of the oven, I gave one to Alan when he got back from the bungalow after a days work, and the other two are temporarily living in the fridge.  I don't think they are going to make it to the freezer though, they are far too delicious.

Someone asked me the other day if I was still writing the dates on any long term foods that I buy for the cupboard.  The answer, as you can see from this weeks photo is yes.  😊

Sue xx