Katsu 'No-Chicken' Fillets

 

I don't know how long these had been in the freezer. 

 I scrolled and scrolled back over shopping photos on here and didn't manage to find them before I started getting side-tracked looking at other things ... dangerous time wasting strategy!!  😄

Anyway it must have been a long time, to be honest I didn't hold out much hope for them being super tasty as I have been slowly going off most of the Aldi range of Plant Menu offerings.

So, it was time to give them a go then.

For a start each fillet was a lot bigger than I expected, and the sauce happily came in two sachets so I didn't have to eat them both at once.  One fillet with it's sauce, and a portion of rice and peas made for a very satisfying meal.  There's not that much flavour to the fillet, but the crispiness of it and the lovely flavourful sauce work very well together.

I am very impressed, and I will be buying these again.  As long as they don't  disappear the way the Plant Menu sausage rolls seem to have!!

Sue xx

A Blast from the Past

 

I was searching for an image of a coin purse to use as an illustration on yesterdays blog post, but the only ones I could find online that I liked were copyrighted.  So, I went back in time on my old blog and found an image of my old purse to use instead.

Dangerous stuff, it sent me down a rabbit hole of blog posts from various years, where cash was indeed king as we shopped with limited budgets gleaned from our various sealed pots..

This one was particularly interesting, it's from the era when we all used to share things to get to know each other better.  It suited the times but I'm not so sure we would really do that sort of thing now ... or would we?

 But, I decided I would be brave again and share it with you.

Exposed in Every Way

Sue xx

A Cashless Society

 

I've been using mostly cash for the last few weeks as I have to keep my credit card spending to the minimum, mostly as I always pay it off in full and I really don't want to have to dip into savings any more than I have to, to pay it while I have such a small trickle of cash coming in each month.

Doing this has really got me thinking about what a cashless society we are becoming, and in my opinion it's not a good thing at all.  Look at the meme above and see what we would lose without cash in our pockets.

I was also thinking about how much the bank is actually making from the shop keepers for our credit and debit card purchases.  The highest charge that they have to pay for the convenience of taking money from their customers via card is 3.4%, and the average for credit and debit cards works out just under 2%, it is slightly cheaper for debit cards.

That means if you take £50 as an example, if it were to be spent in cash over and over again changing hands from you, to the shopkeeper, them paying for their lunch or more stock etc. it would remain at £50, but if you were to spend it in the same way over and over again on a card, it would eventually disappear altogether into the pockets of the banks.

Food for thought ... and I have to say I do like using cash.

Sue xx

Mother-in-Law's Tongue Cuttings ... with Bread and Marmalade

 

All but three of my Mother-in-Law's Tongue cuttings now have a good showing of roots, so I trimmed the bottom of the ones that didn't, and gave them all a nice fresh drink of water. I suddenly had the idea that I could actually make two small pots of them and give them to my 'daughter-in-laws' * whenever we visit each couple, or perhaps for Christmas.

*In italics, because neither couple is actually married, but they've been together for so long it feels like they are.

My only shopping this week has been a loaf of this Warburtons brown Danish.  It makes good toast and I fancied some for breakfast earlier this morning.

I opened this jar of Rose's Lemon and Lime marmalade to go on it, as I had finished the last of my previous batch of Compost Heap Jelly last week.  I thought this used to just be called 'Lime Marmalade' so I Googled it, and yes simply lime marmalade is available, but seemingly at almost twice the price of this one ... and did you know you can actually buy it on eBay for £4.10 a jar with only £3.95 for postage and packing!!  😄

Does anyone actually do that?

Reading the label while I was waiting for the toast to pop up I was pretty horrified to see that the sugar content is actually 65g per 100g. 

 Perhaps this wasn't the best breakfast to have before my visit to the dentist this morning ... but I guess at least I cleaned my teeth really well not long after eating it.  I think it's time to dig all my apple cores, lemon ends and various bits of fruits out of the freezer and make another batch of Compost Heap Jelly, at least I use a bit less sugar in mine ... and fewer ingredients too.

Sue xx

Breakfast at ...

 

When we got back from our family get-together on Sunday night I sat outside on the sunny patio going through the bag of the boys baby things with Jason, and Alan had a snooze before setting off for Berkshire and another day at the office ... yes it was another t-shirt and jeans trip to work, which seems to be helping him cope with this additional stream of unpaid toil.

Jason left an hour later and I was left with just Ginger for company, which suited me just fine.  I am a real introvert and after a busy time with people, even family, I do need a day to decompress.  By the time Alan got back late on Monday night I was relaxed again and just about ready to face conversations.  😊

His parting question before he went over to bed was 'Do you want to go for breakfast at ...'  for some reason the word Tiffany's immediately sprang to my mind ... but of course the next words were actually '... Booths in the morning?'.

We did, but it wasn't quite the same.  😄

https://youtu.be/KlZ4fYqjGJI?si=031YAyrmYfKlaK0-

I've loved this film for years, ever since we watched it at Christmas time during the last week of term one year at secondary school.  Do you remember the days when a television on a stand would be wheeled into the classroom, or in this case it was the hall so that the whole school could watch?

I loved the film so much, and lots of us cried when 'Cat' was temporarily left out in the rain.

Of course these days I have my very own 'cat' ... and I breakfast at Booths.  😁

Sue xx

A Bag Full of Memories

 

When we all met up at the weekend to celebrate Finley's 2nd birthday, (see yesterday's post if you missed it), my ex-husband Pete very thoughtfully brought with him a bag full of both our sons early things, he wanted me to have them now.  

Special things like the cards we received when each of them was born, the little shoes that they both learned to walk in, both size 4, both blue.  Their earliest colourings, drawings and writings from school and lots of other little special bits and pieces.

For me the absolute star of the bag of goodies were these two hand-knitted jumpers.  Knitted by my Nana, because she knew that Simon loved to be dressed like his little brother, but with one just a little bit more grown-up and fancier than the other.  At almost 90 years of age she raided her wool stash and came up with the design for these two little slip overs.  Funnily enough I was only thinking of these a few weeks ago and feeling sorry that they had 'gone'

Then last night Jason sent me this photo from his baby album of the two of them modelling them at home.

They were both as thrilled to see them as I was to receive them, and they stirred lots of happy memories.

He also included this lovely little blue cardigan that my Mum made when Simon was born, and that both boys wore as babies.  Aren't hand knitted items so precious for babies and small children. 💙 

Sue xx

Leftovers ... and a Birthday Meal Out

 

After leaving myself with a lonely, single sausage after a sausage bun for my lunch last week, I decided this morning that I had better use it up and free some more space in my freezer.  

I could have made myself a mini single sausage Toad in the Hole, or cooked it up, sliced it and added it to a bowl of pasta for an evening meal, but I was feeling lazy so instead I simply popped it into the Remoska to cook. 

And while it was cooking away I whipped up a mini, slightly cheesy omelette using one egg and a big pinch of grated cheese, and using the biscuit cutter that was nearest in size to my slices of bread as a shaping device.

As you can see it worked a treat, and with the sausage sliced in half made for a tasty and surprisingly filling breakfast.

I'm a bit late in posting today as we enjoyed a real family day yesterday, we were helping my little great-grandson Finley-James celebrate his 2nd birthday.  His birthday was actually on Friday, he had a party with all his little friends and family members on Saturday at a soft-play venue, and then he had a meal with our side of the family and his big and little brothers yesterday.  This photo is of him letting off a bit of steam after finishing his lunch, he needed to he seemingly has the same big appetite that his dad and grandad had at that age.

While Finley-James and his great grandad Pete both tucked into chicken nuggets and chips, for my lunch I chose BBQ Cauliflower Wings served with a lovely cous cous based side salad, absolutely delicious and a bit more complicated than this mornings simple breakfast ... oh and for the record great-grandad Alan had Hunters Chicken and chips.  😀

Now it's all back to normal and menu planning for the week ahead.

Sue xx

Just a Relaxing Sunday Post

 

Abbot's Bay, Derwent Water in the Lake District

Photo copyright Graham Shaw - my brother.

A peaceful, cooling photo for what has been promised to be a hot, hot day.

Cleaning Fruit by William K Blacklock

Something a lot of us are doing at the moment, before jam making, bottling or freezing.

A beautiful green kitchen, and you all know how much I love a green kitchen.  💚

And finally, somewhere to sit and drink the coffee that you make in the beautiful green kitchen.

Hoping you have a lovely relaxing Sunday.  

Sue xx

 

My Back to Basics plan is going quite well.  

True I have spent a bit more than I meant to already this month, and on things that I really didn't need.  But just having the plan on the back of my mind is making me do so much better.

It's oh so easy to let things slide isn't it, you start by not always writing shopping lists or menu plans, and maybe eating slightly too much because you have cooked too much, and then not saving the leftovers for the start of another meal.  So I have been thinking a bit more about things this week, and using my purposeful leftovers.  The remaining two portions of baked beans after this breakfast the other day were incorporated into lunches.

The top photo simply adding two hash browns from the freezer to the plate.

Then a nice baked potato with the final pot of beans and a sprinkle of cheese.

While I have been a bit remiss about making out shopping lists, well I only needed two items so I decided not to write them down, even if I did come away with a couple more ... I have been good about following the menu plan.  

As you can see from this photo taken at the end of last week, I ate all bar two days meals directly off the menu plan.

So they were added straight to the top of the next menu plan.

The burger was delicious, with added onion, homegrown tomatoes and cheese.

And the 'Wrap Pizza' was delicious and very satisfying.  It made good use of a small tub of pasta sauce and half of a small tub of Mediterranean vegetables from the freezer

I switched around the fish fillets and new potatoes instead of the pie, that was destined for last night as it was just far too hot for pie and gravy, but apart from that I have been just as good at following my plan this past week.  

Will I make the soup tomorrow ... perhaps not for the same reason, but the beauty of a menu plan is that it gives you ideas when you just cannot think straight at the end of a long and perhaps busy day.  It doesn't have to be written in stone and rigidly adhered to, and sometimes it can simply be beans on toast again.  😁

Sue xx

When Life Gives You Lemons ...

 

When life gives you lemons ... buy more yellow stuff to match them.  😄

I called into Booths after having my haircut first thing yesterday morning.  It was so hot outside and deliciously cool in the store so I followed the cool air.  I mainly wanted some lemons and a banana, so I think I got away quite lightly with only three other things leaping into my trolley.

It was so lovely and cool in there that I decided to go upstairs and treat myself to a coffee.  Between the coffee and a glass of tap water I managed to stay in the cool of the café for almost an hour, replying to comments on previous blog posts, doing my Wordle and my Woodoku daily puzzle and generally enjoying the chilly air-con.

Then it was back home before my ice-lollies melted in the heat of the car. 

I struck gold, well coffee-ground gold in the café for the first time while I was there.  

They have a basket at the end of the counter that has a sign saying 'Coffee Grounds for Your Garden, please help yourself'.  I have never seen any in it, obviously going in so early in the morning is the way forward, so I might have to call for another cup of coffee early one morning.  😉

Coffee grounds can be a beneficial addition to your garden, improving soil structure, providing nutrients, and even deterring pests when used correctly.

Benefits of Coffee Grounds

1. Nutrient Content: Used coffee grounds contain about 2% nitrogen, along with trace amounts of phosphorus, potassium, and micronutrients like calcium and magnesium. These nutrients can help promote healthy plant growth. 
2. Soil Improvement: Coffee grounds can enhance soil structure by improving drainage and aeration. As they decompose, they contribute to the formation of humus, which is essential for healthy soil. 
3. Microbial Activity: Adding coffee grounds to your compost or soil can stimulate microbial activity, which is crucial for breaking down organic matter and enriching the soil. 
4. Pest Deterrent: Coffee grounds can help deter slugs and other pests, making them a useful addition to your garden. 
5. How to Use Coffee Grounds

• As a Soil Amendment: Sprinkle used coffee grounds directly onto the soil or mix them into the top few inches. Aim for a layer no thicker than 1/2 inch to prevent compaction and water resistance. 
• In Compost: Coffee grounds are considered a "green" material in composting, meaning they are high in nitrogen. They should make up no more than 15-20% of your total compost volume to maintain a balanced mix with "brown" materials like dried leaves. 
• For Specific Plants: While coffee grounds can benefit many plants, they are particularly good for acid-loving plants like azaleas and blueberries. However, they may not be suitable for all plants, so it's essential to monitor how your plants respond. 
• Precautions

• Avoid Fresh Grounds: Do not use fresh coffee grounds, as they are high in caffeine and acidity, which can harm plants. Always use used grounds that have been brewed.
• Monitor Application: Over-application can lead to compaction and create a barrier that prevents water from reaching plant roots. Use coffee grounds sparingly and assess your soil's needs before application. 
  By incorporating coffee grounds into your gardening practices, you can enhance soil health and promote robust plant growth while recycling a common kitchen waste product.

1.                           

 I thought that this might be useful.

Sue xx

The Cupboard Under the Stairs

 

Not that I have too many at the moment.

But poor Alan after supposedly retiring back in February is still working through the last of our final contract ... and without pay!!

The company he works for had very kindly paid him upfront for our final contract so that we could set the wheels in motion to legally close down our limited company.  But then more and more has had to be added to the workload, and now because he is an honourable man and a lot of it is teaching people how to do the work that he used to do, he is ploughing through it.  

Thank goodness my side of things is all done and dusted.

With Alan being away this week and me having no dogs to walk, talk to or look after it has felt very strange.  Ginger is not quite the companion that Mavis was.  His needs are few and very simple, and he has taken to sleeping in the cupboard under Alan's stairs so I'm not even seeing that much of him ... although it is lovely and cool in there so I could join him.  😁

The photo of Ginger is an older one ... he's not around for me to photograph at the moment!!

Sue xx

Never Put Off Until Tomorrow ...

 

Twelve days into August and I am still reading my first book of the month!!

I have times like these where the book is waiting and for some reason I am not quite in the zone to pick it up.  It's not that it is a bad book, perhaps it's not quite gripping my attention the way some previous ones have, but it is good enough to finish and I am determined to do so.

I have my little pile of three more books that I picked out at the start of the month to be read during August, and I have since added another to the pile, but first I need to finish this one.

The charity book table and shelves ... yes the choice has grown now ... at Booths has been full of such a wide selection of books for the past few weeks.  People are obviously having a good clear out and donating lots, but I have been good and not bought a single one.  I look every time we go in there, just in case there is a real treasure to be had, but I am trying to be a lot more discerning at the moment and not add to my already heaving bookcases and piles at home.  

But I always look.  😁

Edited to add:  I have just found out via the Booths Facebook page that Booths charity book tables have raised over £71,000 pounds between them for their locally nominated charities from last August to this.  Wow!!  ❤️

Now I'm off for a read.

What are you reading at the moment?

Sue xx

Comparing the Baps/Buns/Barm Cakes/Bread Rolls

 

Only continue reading if you are prepared for lots of bready comparisons ... you have been warned.  😄  

I mentioned on yesterdays post that I had bought two packs of four buns.  In Booths where I bought the first pack they are usually £1.40, but currently on offer at £1.25, and then ten minutes later what should I spot but very similar looking buns in Aldi for just 69p.

I just had to get them to do a comparison 

Aldi - Baked in Britain.

Booths - 'Craft Baked in the UK'.

Does posher talk cost more, or is it just craftier?

Aldi - Vegan and Freezable.

Booths - Tick, tick ... and also a source of protein and fibre, as is virtually all bread.

Aldi - The usual long list of ingredients present in bread, which of course makes most of our shop bought breads UPF.  

At home I would just use flour, yeast, salt, water and oil ... maybe all this is a sign that I should!!

Booths - A seemingly longer list of additives, until I realised that they have broken down the ingredients of the flour as well.  Virtually all the additives in our breads are now mandatory, with folic acid being brought into the group last year.

So the lists are actually very similar.

Aldi - Four buns weigh in at 245g or 8.6 ounces

Booths - Four buns weigh in at 287g or 10.1ounces.

Making each bun approximately 10g or 1/3 of an ounce heavier.  😄

The most important part of the comparison ... in my opinion ... the taste test, so I had one of the Aldi buns for my breakfast yesterday.

My opinion - very nice but not much substance.  Very passable.

I had one Booths bun from my last pack which was still lovely and fresh, the additives obviously work!!

So I decided to have that for my lunch with three Linda McCartney Lincolnshire style sausages ... I was hungry, I usually only have two.  This leaves me with a leftover sausage and a whole other blog post!!

The bread roll was definitely much denser in texture and somehow more satisfying.  Although strangely the flavour of the bread was 'lighter' than the Aldi version and let the filling flavour shine through more.

So the all important question after all that waffling and pondering which will I buy in the future?

Of the two I think the Booths, and sadly the most expensive ones are my choice.  

Although I wish they would bring back the Stotties from the Welsh bakery, which they seem to have sold for a few months and then stopped and are now producing these ones under their own label instead, and they have them on the shelves in the same place that the Stotties used to live.

And very confusingly the back of the Booths 'Bread Baps' wrapper states that they should be called Barm Cakes ... they are after all made in Lancashire according to the pack.

Well I found that interesting, sorry if you didn't.

Now I need to make some of my own buns and taste test them. 😁 

Sue xx