Saving money on my food.

Saving money on my food.

cheap food cooking food vegetarian

Hello. I'm having to use the small computer because for some reason I can't access my Blogger Dashboard on the big one. Everything else is fine, but the Dashboard won't load. It could be something to do with the fact I am still on the old XP. I'm not panicking, I can use the little netbook. 

It's been a lovely day, like summer, and I have been pottering about getting a few jobs done. I had some tagliatelle left so I added some borlotti beans, peas, lettuce, and a few pieces of cheese, with a couple of dollops of mayo. It was bloomin lovely, made a filling lunch yesterday. 

Veg is a good price at the moment. I couldn't resist this cauliflower for 45p and carrots 43p from Aldi. A good buy to make cheap meals.

Mind you, Aldi has let me down on the bananas. Look at these two bags, can you spot the difference? The first one I bought yesterday, the next one is from a month or two ago. This one does not have the weight on it.

This one is a 1kg bag. I have been buying these bagged bananas for a long time, they are 72p. I count the bananas because I would rather have 8 or 9 small ones than 6 or 7 large ones. Now they are not selling them by weight, you get 5 bananas in a bag for the same price 72p. What a sneaky way to put the price up. I will have to go to Tesco for them and buy 1kg of small loose ones for 72p.

I got my mower out today for the first cut of the year. I am amazed that this cheap B & Q mower is still going after about ten years or more. I never do anything to it except scrape off the dry grass from underneath it. This cheapo was well worth the money.  

The leaves from the cauliflower came in useful, I made some soup with them.

I added some borlotti beans and spices, and blue cheese and zapped it with the stick blender. It tasted deeeelishus. 

Remember the mayo I bought from the Cash and Carry? Well it is a lovely creamy taste so I bought some more yesterday on my way to town. At 20p a jar it's bargain, even though it is six weeks out of date.

Found some nuts and fruit as well, at 50p a bag. This will be added to my breakfast cereal.

I've had a letter from the TV Licensing people, it's two years since they last wrote. They ask if anything has changed, do I need a licence. The answer is still the same, no I don't. I haven't been onto the BBC iplayer site since they brought in the new rule in September. I get most of my entertainment from Yooootoooob, forums, blogs, and online newspapers.

That's me done for tonight. Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip.

Jade, a lovely lady

Jade, a lovely lady

cheap food cooking dogs experimental food

Hello. And life goes on. I'm holding off going to the shops, though now is probably the best time to go, there will be stuff marked down. I don't need anything at the mo, cat food stocked up, freezer stocked up, and I've enough Brussels Sprouts, potatoes, and carrots to last another week. I had a plate of veg this afternoon, never get bored with that. Sprouts and broccoli drizzled with toasted sesame seed oil, deeeelishhhh. 

Caught a glimpse of a fantastic sunset the other night, view from my bedroom window. A few minutes and it was gone. Twas a beautiful deep red, the colours never fail to amaze me. 

This was my lunch yesterday. The last of the yellow sticker mushrooms and chopped onions, half a tin of chick peas, and an egg scrambled into it. Spices, Danish blue cheese, and cream cheese with garlic. I had it on a microwaved spud. There was enough for two portions. Cheap and bloomin lovely.

Doggy walk this morning, this is Jade. She is a sweetie though you wouldn't have said that if you knew her when she first arrived from a rescue. She had a rough start in life and was very wary of people, leading to bouts of aggression. Both the gardener and the handyman were bitten, but her new owner persevered and she calmed down when she realized that she was safe in her new home.

I am walking her on alternate days for the next three weeks while her regular dog walker is away on holiday. He takes her all over the place, down tracks, across fields, she is allowed to run free with him. I won't be letting her off the lead, although she knows me I don't want to take the chance of her running off. We have a very fast march around the village, stopping to talk to any other dog owners we meet on the way. She is fine with people and other dogs, no sign of aggression now.

Bugsy is still eating, but getting a bit picky. It's good that he chunters and moans about not having the right food, at least he is interested in it.

Thank you all for commenting on the previous post, a lot of  opinions, and stories on how you spent your Christmas, and what it means to you. I think it's a topic which will emerge year after year. As people grow older and families grow up, ideas of what Christmas is about are bound to change. I liked it when I was young, but stopped liking it when I was in my late twenties/early thirties.

I had a very late lunch today, so I'm just about ready for a small meal. Don't need a full dinner, so spaghetti hoops on toast will be enough.

The computer is playing up a bit, I uninstalled Skype because it was slowing things up and I don't use it, but I must have done something wrong because now I can't access my favourite sites from the top bar. Will have to look into it, or get the little computer out. Bloomin pain.

Thanks for popping in. We'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip.

Happy with my bills

Happy with my bills

cats cooking decluttering food money saving

Hello me hearties. I haven't got any fresh veg left because I want to eat out of the cupboard and freezer for a few more days. I have plenty in the freezer to keep me going, seems daft to leave it in there forever and a day, it's got to be eaten sometime, might as well be now. 

Frozen chips indeed. Yes I bought a bag of these as something different, can't remember when I last bought them, that long ago I have forgotten. Yes, a bag of potatoes would have been cheaper, but I don't make real chips in a pan at home, I don't have a chip pan, and I'm certainly not doing them in a frying pan on the hob with all that oil spitting all over the place. These oven chips are cooked under the grill, turn once. Half a tin of spag hoops, and two scrambled eggs, my dinner tonight. I just fancied this and it was very nice. 

I am sorting out my spare room, aka the fabric store, plus all manner of stuff I collect because it might come in useful. It's going really well. The ladies at crafty club took some of my excess off me this morning, things I knew I was unlikely to get round to using. I've found some bits for the charity shop as well.

Three bills dropped through my door last week which will be paid tomorrow. I'm not too bothered by regular bills because I know more or less how much money they want from me. I email my gas and electricity readings in monthly, and they use these to calculate an amount. I last emailed on 25th September and the bills were dated 5th October, so there is a bit of a gap there. I see they have estimated what I have used during that gap, and they are pretty close so I am happy to pay them.

I get both gas and electricity from SSE, they are the suppliers, but my account is with Ebico, a not for profit organisation. I have no penalties for paying quarterly, and I have no standing charges. Everyone pays the same price per kwh. So, my gas bill is for £4.04, and my electricity bill is for £36.75. My electricity bill is always more than gas, probably because I have this computer on a lot. It rises slightly in the winter due to lights going on earlier.

My gas bill is obviously low in the summer months because I don't have any heating on. It will go up a bit in the winter. I think it is so low because I have been having a lot of meals which require little or no cooking. A lot of salads, and one pan meals, the shorter the cooking time the cheaper the meals are. Even a pan of veg stew made with fresh veg only takes about ten minutes on the hob, and if I use a big pan to make four portions, three of those will get heated in the microwave.

I only heat a tank of water if I am going to have a bath, why do I need to have a tank permanently full of hot water? I can boil a kettle to wash a few pots in the sink or wash my hair.

The other bill I have received is for £28.10 payable to Severn Trent Water. This covers the period from April to October, and is for surface water drainage. I will get another bill shortly from Anglia Water, it will be around £37, that's for clean water into the house, and a small amount of that will be sent on to Severn Trent for removal of dirty water through the sewers. Being on a water meter works best for me because I am in control of how much I use.

All cats are in for the night, they don't seem to want to go out much these days. Mayze spends a lot of time on my bed, she loves snuggling under the top cover, I often find a bump in the bed when I get in. Heidi is due for a vet visit later this week, we are getting to the end of her tablets. Best let the vet check her over and get some more. Bugsy is still camped out on the living room table right next to me. Boy does he yowl when I don't serve up the right food. Today they got a treat, I buy bags of cheap frozen white fish and microwave it for them. They love it.

Right, I'm off now. It's not yet 7pm and dark already. I still have to go and do my walk. I could have a day or two off but I don't want to drop behind. The extra I did last week has boosted my total, I will finish October over the target. Hope you are all keeping it up, no slacking now the weather is getting cooler. A good fast walk will keep you warm.

Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Toni My Story, by Toni Mascolo. Book review.

Toni My Story, by Toni Mascolo. Book review.

book review cooking

Hello. A book is a good place to get lost in, and I'm afraid that I don't always make time to read. I pick books from the library and often they only get a skim read, picking out a few pages. The last couple of weeks though I have needed to fill my brain with distractions and a book is a good way to do that. 

I like rags to riches stories, and I had heard of Toni & Guy the famous hairdressing conglomerate, but knew nothing about it's origins, so I chose this book. 

Toni Mascolo was born in a small town near Pompeii in 1942. His father was a barber. The whole family moved lock stock and barrel to London when Toni was 14 years old. They rented rooms in a large house which was occupied by several other Italian families. Toni's first recollections of an English school was to find no order or discipline, noise and wild behaviour was normal. He was shocked at the difference to his previous school in Italy. 

When he left school he worked with his father in a hairdressing salon. At the age of twenty he was devastated by the early death of his mother, and being the eldest son, he took over the role of keeping the family together. 

Jumping ahead a few years, Toni and his brother Guy opened their first salon in 1963, in Clapham Park Road. In ten years they bought two more salons, at Streatham and Mitcham, and realized that to establish themselves as leading London hairdressers, they had to move to the city. It's interesting to note that he said no one wanted to publicise a suburban salon, and the area around their salons was changing with a huge influx of immigrants moving into that part of South London. He said it was like introducing a nation into a nation when they all arrived at the same time. Funny how this is a talking point at the moment, history moves in circles.  Now, after half a century of amazing expansion, there are more than 500 salons across the world. 

On the whole I enjoyed the book. I enjoyed reading about the early years, the last few chapters focus mainly on the expansion of the company, which would be of particular interest to anyone looking for lessons on how to grow a business. Give it a go.

Yesterdays dinner. Onions, chick peas, mushrooms, half a tin of tomatoes, and Quorn sausages, on two microwaved potatoes. I made two portions and about to have the second for lunch today. 

The sun is shining and I'm off to road test the boots shortly, so I'll say tatty byes for now.
Toodle pip

Get it down you, it will do you good

Get it down you, it will do you good

cooking experimental food food

Hello. I wish the kids were as easy going about food as I am. I've got the oldies, Bugsy and Rocky hanging around my feet because they are not happy with the food I have just served up. They think if they whinge enough I am going to cave in and come up with a fresh bowl with something different in it. Sometimes I do,  to get a bit of peace from them. Tonight they are just going to have to eat what is there, I am fed up of throwing food away. 

When we were little we had to eat whatever mum dished up, and some of it was pretty awful. Some of the meat dishes were unrecognizable as meat, gawd knows which bits of the animal she was giving us. I often felt sick moving it around on my plate and was almost in tears. We moaned a bit but it was eat it, there is nothing else. I remember tripe, I definitely had to go without that day. Later on when I went to big school I looked forward to school dinners, especially puddings which my mum was not very good at making. 

This portion of frozen stew does not look very appetizing, but I know what's in it so it will be tasty. 

This is something I had the other day, simple veggie burgers in buns with potato salad and houmous. It was ok for a change because I couldn't be bothered to cook, but I could have managed on just one, I was too full afterwards.

As you know I often chuck a few things in a pan and scramble two eggs into the mix. I like these simple one pan meals. Here is left over steamed veg from the previous day, I made too much, with a handful of frozen broad beans and some chick peas.

Underneath the beans and chick peas is a portion of cheap noodles, with Danish Blue cheese on the top. It looks more like a side dish you would get at a restaurant because I put it into a bowl instead of a plate. This was my dinner one night last week.

I like to mix and match my food, I don't need recipes to follow, I make it up as I go along. It makes life more interesting to invent new concoctions. Anyone else have a slap dash approach to food as I do, or do you need to have all ingredients close by to create a masterpiece?

Thanks for popping in, We'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Anything goes with pasta.

Anything goes with pasta.

cooking food garden vegetarian

Hello. It's been another hot 'un today. Some time spent indoors, housework and sewing. Yesterday I made a veg stir fry, I started it off with an onion and a potato, chopped small in a pan in some oil. Then I added some of this out of a bag. I don't very often buy it, not that bothered about stir fries, but I got it for a change. It turned out quite nice. I added some veg granules and garlic powder for flavour. 

I fancied some pasta and made enough for three meals. Two portions with the stir fry, and one portion with scrambled eggs and grated cheese.

When the sun wasn't quite so hot I went outside to clean the roof on the summer house. It's quite a balancing act to reach up there. One foot on the step ladder and the other on the pallets while hanging on with one hand and scrubbing with the other. Those darned pigeons don't half make a mess. The perfume wafting past my nostrils from the lilac bush was just divine. It's a shame it's hidden away in the corner of the garden. I have a white one as well closer to the house, but it doesn't smell as nice as this.

I got up at 5am this morning, so I'm starting to fall asleep now. I'll say Goodnight. Thanks for popping in. We'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip

Ten good reasons why I don't use the oven.

Ten good reasons why I don't use the oven.

cooking money saving

Hello hello hello. Continuing with my Ten Good Reasons Why....series. This one saves me money, which is a good enough reason for me to adopt this little foible, and make it part of my life. A lot of the things we do on a daily basis become habits. Some of them bad habits like eating the wrong crappy food, or good habits eating healthy food.  I like to think that this little habit puts me on the right road to saving money, and giving me a healthy diet, therefore I see it as a good habit.  

Picture source 

Ten good reasons why I do not use my oven.

1. I don't like cleaning it. Anything that cuts down on housework is a plus for me, I don't want to spend time and effort in cleaning my oven, so I don't use it.

2. I don't want to bake cakes, bread, or biscuits. Why? Because I am weak willed and would scoff the lot as soon as it came out of the oven. I regard these as treats, so it's better for me to not have piles of sweet stodgy food in the house, and to buy the occasional treat from a shop.

3. I don't want to roast meat, or make pies and pasties, or lasagna, or anything else that needs to be bubbling away in a pot in the oven.

4. An oven uses too much gas for one person's food, and adds to the cost of the meal. To use it efficiently it needs to be full, and I am never going to fill mine.

5. I don't need to use the oven. I have a four ring gas hob, a grill, and a microwave. I can make everything I want to eat on those appliances.

6. I don't want to cook my food to death, the least amount of time it is on the heat the better. I don't want to be opening the oven door several times to check if it is done, too much of a hit and miss affair for me. Over cooking ruins it and costs money. Under cooking and it needs to go back in for a bit longer. I have no patience when it comes to waiting for food to cook. I want to look in the pan on the top, prick the food with a fork, turn the veggie burger over under the grill, or watch my food through the microwave door.

7. I want quick to prepare meals, the kitchen is not my favourite place to be. I like eating simple food which is not mucked about. I have no recipe books, have no need for them. No cooking meals are even better., put things on a plate straight out of the fridge. Take the oven out of the equation and it frees up preparation time to do other things.

8. Most dishes which are baked, roasted or casseroled in the oven need some kind of oil, fat, lard, sugar, salt, or sauce added, all things I want to cut down on. I try to avoid those in my diet.

9. I don't prepare huge amounts of food in one go, I only cook for one person, me. I will make a pan of veg stew on the hob, using one gas ring, but this can be done quickly. Chuck everything in, stir, ten minutes and it's done. Test with a fork, remove from heat asap.

10. I don't want to spend time scrubbing food off baking trays, roasting pans, and burnt food stuck on casserole dishes. Waste of time and money. Heat some water, use pan scrubber and wash up liquid. I don't do that.

So there it is. Ten good reasons why I don't use the oven. Why don't you try not using your oven for a month? Use your imagination to think of other ways to cook food. Reduce your time in the kitchen and spend it doing something you like doing. Of course, if cooking is your hobby and you enjoy it, then carry on.

Thank you for popping in. We'll catch up soon.
Toodle pip