Guess What

Guess what I've been up to today with a

pile of this...

and a pile of this

Have you guessed?

So as you can see I've had a jolly day washing 3 changes of bedding and a basketful of clothing. Thought it was going to be a glorious day for washing but oh no, mother nature had other ideas. The skies opened after the first load was on the line only 20 minutes. So, I dashed outside and do what I always do when it rains. Put up an umbrella. A rather large umbrella.

I always stick the umbrella over the washing if it looks like rain. It still dries but takes a bit longer. Luckily the rain stopped after about an hour and stayed dry for the rest of the day. I do have a dryer but it is very rearly used even in the winter because it is so expensive to run. In winter clothes are draped over an airer and left to dry in the dining room. A day of washing and ironing was as exciting as it gets for me today. Hope you had a more interesting day than me today.

Food costs

Hi all, I just dropped into the Frugal Down Under blog and she was commenting today on her grocery bill http://frugaldownunder.blogspot.com/2011/06/weekly-grocery-shopping.html  I was really surprised at the amount of food she purchased for the amount of money she paid. I converted the Australian dollars into British sterling and her $137.51 bill was £90.39 in our currency. Now I know we all moan about food prices but I don't think I will moan as much after discovering how much some countries pay.

I'm lucky where I live because we have a free range egg farm a few miles away and I buy all my eggs there each week. They have a honesty box in a shed where all the eggs are laid out on a table and you drop your cash in the honesty box on leaving. They sell their eggs very cheaply, a dozen is £1.50 but they also sell eggs which they call seconds because they are too big or too small or the shell may be a bit bumpy. Who they supply to don't want these so these are sold at 1 dozen for £1.00! This is great for me because I do a lot of baking so it makes for cheap bakes and a meal can always be rustled up with a few eggs.

So tonight's meal was egg based and a veggie meal. We had SAVOURY TOMATOES served on potato cakes with mushroom and thyme. The potato cakes were made with leftover mash from yesterdays meal and I mixed an egg yolk into them and seasoned so they were dirt cheap to make. The mushrooms were cooked in olive oil and a knob of butter with garlic and thyme and seasoned well. The savoury tomatoes are simply scooped out beef tomatoes cooked for 10 minutes in the oven then season the shells and drop in an egg yolk. Whisk up the egg whites until stiff, season and add a handful of cheese of your choice and fold in. fill the tomatoes with this mixture and return to the oven for 10 minutes. 

We had 2 potato cakes each and when you cut into the tomato the yolk is still lovely and runny so the potato cake soaks all that up.

Right must dash time to go to work. Bye

Menu Week 27/06/11

We ended up having a BBQ yesterday instead of the planned roast dinner. The weather was so hot a BBQ was more fitting so the pork shall be eaten today. We made a cheesecake for after our meal yesterday which was lovely.

 
Very rich and indulgent. I made a raspberry coulis which I poured on top of the strawberries. Delish!

MONDAY - Roast pork loin, mashed potatoes, yorkshire puddings, sage & onion stuffing and vegetables

TUESDAY - Savoury Tomatoes served on oven baked potato cakes with mushroom & thyme

WEDNESDAY - Beef & Ale casserole with mashed potatoes and greens

THURSDAY - Mushroom Tofu loaf served with tomatoey beans & mushrooms and greens

FRIDAY - Turkey nuggets, mash and beans

SATURDAY -Homemade pizza, wedges and homemade coleslaw

SUNDAY - Roast chicken, jacket potatoes, corn on the cob and coleslaw

Our first meal this week, roast pork loin dinner. We ate this outside on a very hot and humid evening.

Bargain Buys

Hi all, had the usual busy Friday volunteering at the charity shop. I got a bargain too for £3.30. It's a Next signature top with the new label still attached with the price tag of £35.00! 

Well, I could not pass a bargain like that now, could I? I've tried it on and it fits lovely and will go great with my white linen trouser. Really pleased with that buy. I also bought a DVD of Evita. This is one of my favourite films. It's years since I've watched it.

This DVD was brand new too. It still had it's cellophane and security strip on. I bought this for £1.50.
I called into a charity shop a few doors down from the one I work in because I saw a beautiful cake stand when I passed this morning. I asked the girl in the shop if I could have a look at it. It turned out to be a plate which when turned over had a couple of cracks through it. So that got left in the shop.

Anyone bought any great bargains today.
Bye for now

Junk Drawer

Come on, admit it, how many of you out there own a junk drawer? Bet nearly everyone who's reading this will admit to owning one. Me included. This is my junk drawer AFTER I took out 2 mobile phones and five! phone chargers.

Before

The mobile phones will be taken to the charity shop I volunteer in tomorrow. We have free post envelopes that can be used to send old mobiles away to be reused or recycled. The five chargers were taken Tuesday to Sainsburys. They have a scheme on at the moment which lasts until the end of August where you can drop off old chargers in store for recycling. I have transferred all the junk I want to keep into my new kitchen drawer using old margarine tubs to compartment the drawer for different things and make it a lot easier to find things.

After

Voila, one tidy junk drawer. It feels great decluttering something that is such a mess. I recycled lots, paper, plastic, phones and chargers. I also got rid of a bag of junk and rehomed things to their proper place like tools to the garage and paper hole puncher to the office. It always seems like a big task, but to be honest I think it took me about half an hour. Now, anyone mess up my junk drawer and there will be trouble!

For our meal tonight we had creamy pesto chicken. I was going to do boiled new potatoes but had none in so made sauteed  potatoes instead which they all loved. The creamy pesto chicken is made by mixing half a jar of red pesto with half a tub of mascarpone cheese. I then split chicken breasts and stuff the creamy pesto mix inside then coat the fillets in breadcrumbs and then roast in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil on top.

 
 We had these with steamed peas and roasted cherry tomatoes. I will use the rest of the mascarpone cheese tomorrow in a tuna tomato sauce to use on pasta. 

Menu Week 20/06/11

MONDAY - Chicken, lemon & courgette pasta with homemade garlic bread

TUESDAY - Mince & onion pie, roast potatoes and vegetables

WEDNESDAY - Sausage, egg, chips and beans

THURSDAY - Creamy pesto chicken, peas, roasted tomatoes & potatoes

FRIDAY - Creamy tuna mascarpone pasta with homemade garlic bread

SATURDAY - Chicken/tofu fajitas

SUNDAY - Roast dinner

Gosh, feel drained. What have I been doing you may ask. Searching out new car insurance! I used a comparison site who brought up plenty of quotes but then when you choose one and delve deeper, more questions to answer and the quote changes.What a chore this is. I got some quotes and went to my current insurer and told them I would be leaving them if they could not better their quote. They couldn't better it so I'm leaving them.

Anyway, I have now found another company to insure with and have saved myself £135.83. It's a pain changing insurances but it's worth it when you end up saving cash. So that's that done for another year. Think I need to walk the dog now to clear the head. Back later.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all dads out there. We are all having a relaxing day just lazing around and just enjoying doing nothing. We are watching movies and catching up on blogs and hubby is doing a little weeding in the garden. It's been a miserable wet morning but the day is gradually getting better. I'm still getting over a horrible cold and to top it off I have a cold sore on my lip now, great!  Hope you all are having an enjoyable Sunday. See you tomorrow.