This is possibly the poshest de-scaler that I have ever used.
My kettle was suddenly furred up, a very rare occurrence here in the north-west of England, so I rummaged in the cupboard for some bog standard vinegar. There was none to be had, I checked Alan's under sink cupboard as he tends to have sachets of de-scaler under there, nope none at all.
So I bit the bullet and tried it with some of my very out of date Apple Cider vinegar. Oh well better for it to be used in some way as I had never gotten around to using it much in recipes ... I hate vinegar flavours. Why had I bought it then, I have no idea!!
It worked but it took four boilings of the kettle whereas malt or white vinegar takes two at the most.
Making Alan's dinners and teas while he has been working so hard at the bungalow, means that I am going through the contents of the freezer satisfyingly quickly. The bottom drawer is now full of homemade items rather than convenience foods and as they are used up only a few of them are being bought again.
Fish fingers are a good emergency standby for a quick and tasty, even if slightly naughty lunch, so they will be replaced ... occasionally. 😁
These garlic Plant Menu Kyivs are also a good standby, but I don't eat them very often these days, so again another occasional purchase from now on I think
Rummaging around definitely has it's advantages, as I found a single block of homemade soup and half a garlic baton yesterday ... it made for a very tasty lunch.
The weekend got off to a really good start with some of the homegrown tomatoes providing a very tasty breakfast alongside a few chopped onions from the freezer.
Very simple. but at the same time very, very tasty.
Then we called round to the bungalow for me to do a quick video walkthrough for Alan's Renovation Records. He's enjoying watching them all back, when he actually gets to realise just how much work he has managed to get through over the course of this year. This video shows a real jump forwards in the shell of an old bungalow actually turning into our future home.
Then we called up to Morecambe, there was no seaside walk this week though as we were returning three boxes of tiles that we had over ordered. At £30 for a box of two tiles it was a journey that was well worth doing, it will nearly pay for one of the five doors that we will be ordering this week. 😄
This shopping is looking very different from my usual photos as I broke all the shopping rules. I went shopping hungry, I had forgotten to make a list and I just wandered around trying to remember what I actually needed ... cheese, bread and deodorant. So there were far too many treats, and my main excuse is that I was hungry by the time I got to the supermarket after delivering Alan his lunch at the bungalow, hence all the little treats for me, but hey ... I will most definitely enjoy them over the course of the coming week.
I also got Alan's chocolate bars for his lunchtime puddings for next week and some chocolate cream eclairs as a treat for last night. My man is feeling very tired and in need of treats at the moment. The chicken is for Ginger, he has a little fresh chicken with every meal now, he's worth it. 😸
I did manage to stay inside my current £50 a week budget, but there's not a lot of actual meals there is there. Thank goodness for the freezer and cupboard stocks which I need to work through anyway.
A lot of what I bought was on offer in one way or another, so it was a good shop really. I also treated myself to the Radio Times as there is usually a lot of the dramas that suddenly appear on the television at this time of year and I wanted to see what was going to be available to either watch or record.
Another convincer to buy it was this card.
So I immediately scanned the QR code when I got home to see if I could get the offer, the small print had said I couldn't as a former subscriber, but it all went though straight away. So instead of paying the cover price which is currently £5.75 ... gulp!! I will get ten issues for just £1 each and then I can cancel it if I want to.
Scan it from here if you want to make use of it too.
I apologise for not being able to leave any comments on all the blogs that I read daily, and I understand if you too are unable to leave comments on my blog. But Blogger in it's wisdom is playing up yet again. I have reported the problem ... we'll see what happens.
I was asked by a blog reader about the charity book table that I buy from, and donate to, in our local Booths Supermarket Well it was nice and quiet in there this morning when I called in to get Alan a bottle of milk so I took a quick photo.
It's not always this full, indeed at the start of the Bank Holiday weekend it was very depleted. But usually when this is the case, a lovely townsperson will go through their own book collection and donate some books.
I am in the habit of tidying up the books as I look through them, as are a few other people. I am being very particular these days and I have definitely donated more books than I have bought. There is a poster on top of the boxes telling you which the current charity is, it usually changes each month and they are always local good causes. The poster also suggests a donation of £1 per book. Some people give more and some give less, so I suppose it balances itself out. You just pop your cash in the yellow collecting box on the far right of the photo.
I called round to the bungalow as usual at lunchtime with Alan's dinner, I've been doing this every day while he has been so busy, as well as cooking his evening meals.
This was the state of play at the beginning of the Bank Holiday weekend, he then grouted this half of the living room.
This was the state of play at lunchtime today.
So much has happened so quickly. Alan had spent the morning doing the plumbing for the kitchen water heater which is in the corner cupboard to the right of the window, while the kitchen fitter got all the base units in place, then Alan switched to the floor tiling in his bedroom, he's changed his mind about having carpet in there. It's all starting to come together very nicely.
I was stood in Morrisons in Morecambe, just inside the doors where there was a huge display of doughnuts. Ooh, I thought they look nice, what a lovely sweet treat.
Then I looked at the list of ingredients ... and immediately changed my mind. 😐
So when we got home I rewarded myself, and Alan, with a nice fresh salmon and pasta salad. It was so tasty I didn't even need a sweet treat of any description.
Later on determined not to waste the crusts off my loaf of bread, I made some garlicky croutons to go into a bowl of soup for my tea. I left them slightly too long and had slightly charcoal-y croutons. Still edible but not the luscious little pillows of bready garlic-ness that I was hoping for.
Just a catch up post of the shopping that I have bought since my last shopping post. Time seems to be running away with us at the moment and I have fallen a bit behind.
19th Sainsbury's - £43 exact
I spent quite a bit on this shopping trip last week, but I treated myself to a new travelling coffee cup while they were on offer, and some hair dye, also on offer ... which I have still not round to using yet. The Linda McCartney meat free products were all on special offer '3 for the price of 2' so I was careful to choose three products that were all the same price. I'm not falling for that get the cheapest one free malarky!! 😄
And ... as you will notice my favourite toilet rolls were back on a reduced price offer, it was good timing as my last rolls were just about to run out so I bought a pack of those as well.
As well as buying my things I got a couple of things for Alan which are also on that receipt. I've been picking up a few things for him each time I go out while he's been so busy at the bungalow.
The receipt for posterity.
Aldi - 22nd - £13.83
Going to the shops twice in a few days meant that I really didn't need much at weekend when Alan was going for his main shop. So I just got the things that I had run out of and a little treat of a bunch of simple flowers.
The receipt.
The 'warning' that I mention in the title of this post is about the blogs listed on my, and many other people's sidebars. Blogger in it's annoyingness is more often than not failing to update when a new post is published. So you may see the name of a blog that you follow on my sidebar and see from the title that it's a post that you have already read the previous day or earlier. BUT ... .if you click on the blog name rather than the post title it will more often than not take you to a brand new post that hasn't yet been updated by blogger.
It's a frustrating thing if you just quickly scan the list and think that you have nothing new to read, when in fact there are lots of available posts just waiting to be discovered.
If you read my, or anyone else's blog on your phone, you can get to see the blog list by scrolling to the bottom of any post and clicking on 'View Web Version', then you will be able to view blogs as though you are on your laptop or main computer.
This for me has been the year of the cucumber, and considering how hot and dry it has been this year I am amazed by how many cucumbers I have managed to get off just one plant.
As fast as I pick them another takes it's place, growing like an alien under the cover of the leaves, surprising me a few days later by already being ridiculously big. They are tasty thank goodness, and have been my snack of choice whenever I get the nibbles, well it saves on buying any biscuits.
I have a confession to make ... I have never actually made a wrap!!
I always make sandwiches, I do buy wraps but I use them as thin pizza or quiche bases or to make homemade 'nacho style' crisps, never have I made a wrap in place of a sandwich until this week that was.
I had run out of fresh bread and needed to make Alan's lunch, the thought of driving backwards and forwards was too much so I got some wraps out of the freezer, thawed them to warm them and make them more pliable, and had a go. The one you see on the plate with a bite out of it was my trial wrap ... it worked, although I struggled a bit with the folding at first.
I loved it. Now I don't usually buy them for me when we are out and about although Alan has them regularly, I find the ones you get in the shop seem to be all bread and hardly any filling, mine were much more filled and so much more balanced.
I also have to confess that the 'chicken tikka' flavoured pieces of chicken that I used in Alan's wrap had been bought in error for Ginger, he has the plain chicken regularly but I doubt that's he's a chicken tikka flavoured kind of cat. 🐱
Alan had no qualms in using up the chicken, I had already admitted to the error of my ways.
Two wraps for Alan's lunch and I made another one for me while I was practising my new found rolling techniques. As you can possibly just about see, I got super good at it by the time I made Alan's. 😄
Lunch 1 - Homemade Vegetable Soup and a toasted crust of bread.
My lunches, frequently also called dinners here up North ... .with me it depends what mood I am in ... are quite simple affairs. I've been trying to get away from just sandwiches at every midday meal and have also been attempting to use up the bitty bits from the fridge and freezer at lunchtime. The more I delve in the freezer drawers the more I seem to find.
Also leftovers, and the last one or two of anything make for brilliant lunches.
Lunch 2 - Fishfinger Butty and homegrown tomatoes.
Lunch 3 - Leftover Rice and Roasted Vegetables.
Lunch 4 - A Tomatoey Vegetable Medley
Lunch 5 - Homemade Soup and half a Garlic Bread
Lunch 6 - A Sausage Bun with Ketchup
One thing most of my, and our meals have had in common this past couple of weeks has been the addition of courgette. We are in the midst of a yellow courgette glut and I am determined to keep up with the output this year.
Sometimes just a few slices and sometimes a whole lot more.
Lunch 7 - A Vegetable Omelette
It's been a very tasty seven days. Now I have just started on a 'Week of Teas' ... we will see how long it takes me to photograph seven nights of evening meals. I keep forgetting ... I have a lot on my mind ... but no-one wants to see a half eaten plate of food, so I will persevere. 😄
It should imagine you've all heard of Triple Cooked Chips, available for quite a cost at lots of cafés and restaurants these days.
Well, I had some a few weeks back when we went out for lunch to a local garden centre. Alan was having a sandwich and side salad, he's a real salad man and always has been, and as I wasn't terribly hungry I decided to just have the side of chips to share with Alan along with some mayonnaise for dunking purposes.
The side of Triple Cooked Chips was £5.
Admittedly you did get a good sized portion, so much so that even with Alan having a few and me dunking away to my hearts desire, I couldn't finish them off. Alan laughed when I fished a small poly bag out of my handbag and put the remaining 7 chips into it, I told him for that price ... for any price for that matter ... they were coming home with me.
They were popped straight into the freezer when we got home.
Then the other day I found a box in the freezer with just two fish fingers in it, not really enough for a fishfinger buttybut then when I spied the chips in the same freezer drawer, my lunch idea materialised quickly.
My simple lunch a Quadruple Cooked Chip and Fish Finger Butty ... and very nice it was too.
To lots of you this will probably be the most boring post you have ever looked at, but I did it with a purpose. I wanted to photograph my breakfasts each day as a visual aid to remind me at a quick glance the variations that I am having in my current diet ... and by diet I mean way of eating ... I am not on a diet. I dislike that the word has been hijacked over the years to mean a weight-loss type way of eating.
It's not strictly chronological as I forgot on a couple of mornings to photograph what I ate, or remembered halfway though and realised that no one really wants to see a half eaten bowl of scrambled eggs, or a slice of toast and jam with two huge bites out of it. But the things I forgot to photograph were not the end of the world, so as soon as I reached the magic seven days of photographed breakfasts I called it a day.
Breakfast 2 - Stewed Apple and Weetabix
Breakfast 3 - Strawberries and Weetabix
Breakfast 4 - Cheesy Scrambled Eggs on Toast
Breakfast 5 - Weetabix with Strawberries and Homegrown Blueberries
Breakfast 6 - Tomatoes and Red Onion on Toast
Breakfast 7 - Cheesy Scrambled Eggs with a Buttered Crust of Bread
I do eat other things occasionally and not always what is considered to be 'breakfast' food. I have been known for instance to have dahl and rice, or soup and toast. Breakfast doesn't have to mean cereals, fruits or something on toast. In Winter porridge makes a regular appearance, but the weather has been far too warm for porridge this last few weeks.
Of course all these breakfasts were served with the obligatory cup of black coffee. I like at least two cups to start each and every day. First I have just a cup of coffee, and then an hour later coffee and breakfast. It's the civilised way to do things. 😄
Now I am in the process of doing the same thing for my lunches, but in the meantime ... what's your favourite breakfast?
It was just a normal, simple day ... but I photographed it.
Starting with breakfast of what I already had on the go, some orange juice and a Weetabix with the last of the stewed apple from the freezer. I must do some more, stewed apple and Weetabix goes so well together. It's good to start the day with two of my five a day, and yes these measurements of orange juice and apple were the exact amount needed to qualify.
Don't worry about it being dry I did add a good splash of soya milk after I took the photo. 😄
The while the washing was whizzing around in the machine I got out the pegs and put the line across the garden. I never take the washing machine for granted after washing everything by hand for many, many years. Some things are worth appreciating.
All pegged out.
It wasn't terribly sunny but the breeze kept everything moving and it was all dry for late afternoon and put away by bedtime,
While the washing was drying, I did a bit of tidying, a run through with the hoover and had a bit of a top up of the spice tin.
It's always good to check what I have and what I might need to buy soon. I have just about enough of everything at the moment, and spares of the things that are almost running out. The onion granules ... the tub with the spoon in ... are running low, but they are a bit stuck together so I need to chop at them with the little spoon for a while whenever I need some. I will persevere until they are all gone and then I have a new pack waiting to be broken into..
Lunch was a nice simple affair of scrambled eggs on toast with my usual coffee.
It was eaten in front of the television while I watched a 'new to me' YouTube channel called The Hidden House. It's a lovely relaxing watch, especially over some tasty food and a coffee.
Later I sat outside and read a bit more of my book. I do want to get this one finished so I can take a nice new read away with me for the weekend. I'm nearly there.
For my tea I had decided on some pasta, so I had a bit of a pasta cookathon so that I would have some more for later in the week. It just makes sense to make three times what you actually need, if I don't use it all it can go into the freezer before we go away.
I had found half a tins worth of tuna in a little tub in the fridge, so I had a simple tea of pasta, peas and tuna liberally sprinkled with grated cheese. It was very tasty, again eaten in front of the television this time watching The Chase.
I am really looking forward to having a dining table when we move into the bungalow!
I was feeling peckish halfway through the evening, so I raided the fridge and had half a tub of my recently stewed rhubarb with the last of a tub of yoghurt. Swiftly followed by another black coffee.
Yes, I can drink black caffeinated coffee just before bedtime and still fall asleep within minutes. 😁
Just an average sort of day in my life, but photographed as I lived it.
