Friday 27 January 2012

No Waste Tastes Great - 27th Jan 2012

Top Shelf - spread, cheese, soya cream - all fine
Middle Shelf - bananas (in the yellow bag!) and grapes
Bottom Shelf - beetroot, blueberries, cooked veggies, breakfast casserole
Left Drawer - condiments
Right Drawer - few sprouts, some broccoli, half a swede (see below pic)
Door - butter, crumble mix, baileys, water (Mums), praline, soya milk, vanilla soya milk, pear juice, diet coke, punch
The cooked veggies and the breakfast casserole are tonights tea. The grapes and some of the blueberries will be made into a fruit salad along with orange, pear, plum, apple and tinned pineapple (and a banana last minute) for pudding and probably brekkie tomorrow. I might try a few blueberries with the crumble topping and see what happens as well!!

I'm at a hen do this weekend which means I'm out for lunch and dinner tomorrow and breakfast on Sunday. The veggies will last a while yet so they will be fine for Sunday night.

So although the fridge isn't bare there isn't any waste and that's the idea!!

Friday 20 January 2012

No Waste Tastes Great - 20th Jan 12

A good week!

Top shelf - spread, cheese, cream - all easily in date
Middle shelf - EMPTY
Bottom shelf - beetroot, can of coke - both fine
Drawer - condiments & EMPTY
Door - butter, crumble mix, Mini Baileys, water (Mums), soya milk, vanilla soya milk, ginger beer (Mums), cider, punch, cider - all fine

I will admit to having thrown the truffles away yesterday but everything else that was leftover from last week got eaten!

I'm out for a meal tomorrow so I intend to do a meal plan and shop on Sunday.

Monday 16 January 2012

Reminder

I just bought myself one of these - I feel I need a reminder at the moment!


Saturday 14 January 2012

Re-evaluating

I applied for a year long job in America - I didn't get it, BUT, when laying in bed dreaming about what it might be like if I did get it I started rethinking what of my 'stuff' was REALLY important. What would I want to take with me? What was important enough to keep that it would warrant the cost of storage here in the UK? And therefore how much of the stuff that I still have could go?

Some time back I posted the following quote...

'Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.' by William Morris.

simplybeingmum - posted the following comment... 'I'd go as far as to say - it has to be useful as well as beautiful to be kept! :-)' and I'm starting to think, that to a certain degree, maybe I agree with her!! 

So as it's a new year, I think I'll work my way through my flat again and re-evaluate my stuff and see what else I can sell or donate...

Spending update Dec/Jan

I appear to have done rather well this month and have to admit I don't really know how!!
So

£200 transfer
£5.00 in my wallet
£22.19 change
£68.32 in the bank
£295.51
I did spend some of my eBay stash of money during the month (which is the whole point of having it but I know I spent some on stuff that it shouldn't have been used for!) so I've also put £50 back in there and I made about £25 on eBay this month.

I'm going to try and be a bit more methodical this month and see where the money goes!

Friday 13 January 2012

No Waste Tastes Great - 13th Jan

 Not bad

Top shelf - spread and soya cream, both in date
Middle shelf - some Baileys truffles (got to try them and see if they're still edible!)
Bottom shelf - Beetroot, Coke, cider, mushrooms
Drawer - condiments and empty
Door - 3 x eggs (in date), butter, crumble, Baileys, water (Mums), Soya milk (in date), ginger beer (Mums), punch, cider

The mushrooms and egg will be turned into an omelette tomorrow with a bit of cheese so the only waste might be the truffles!

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Shoes...

So I went to my local Clarks on Saturday and success was mine. They had the two versions (pink and blue) of these shoes that I had seen, plus (bonus) a more generic pair (not sure if they would count as slightly bronze maybe!)
These have the benefit of being a more neutral colour so they'll go with just about anything. Add to that the fact they were 50% off and I reckon it's a win-win situation.

Friday 6 January 2012

No Waste Tastes Great - 6th Jan 2012

I MUST meal plan or I have waste!!!

The ham from last week went in the bin and as you can see from the pic below the milk is still in the fridge so that will be hitting the sink imminently!!

Top shelf - spread (the one on top is just about empty), Nutella bread pudding, soya cream (unopened and in date)
Middle shelf - the tin has 10 homemade Baileys truffles in it, open tin of baked beans
Bottom shelf - beetroot, pear cider, mushrooms
Drawers - condiments and veggies
Drawer - 2 x carrots, 2 x parsnips, some sprouts, some spinach and a tomato (under the carrots!)
Door - 4 x eggs (in date), butter, crumble mix, min Baileys, water (Mums), milk (going down the sink), praline, coke, 7Up, soya milk, ginger beer (Mums), punch, more cider!!

The Nutella bread pudding is for pud tonight. Made from this recipe and highly recommended! That's why there are eggs left which I will come up with something to use them for!!
The beans will get used up for beans on toast tomorrow.
The reason the veggies are left is that I bought the relevant bits to make the Sweet Potato and peanut curry (hence the mushrooms and spinach) as well as buying a few extra veggies. I then proceeded to eat the curry several nights in a row so the other veggies got left behind!!  They are all in Lakeland green bags so will last for a while yet but will get eaten over the next few nights!
The truffles were made from this recipe on Weds eve so will last a few days yet!

Wednesday 4 January 2012

Sweet potato and peanut curry

I thought I'd post this as it is delicious and deserves to be seen!! It's a recipe from my local Veggie cafe - Fortify Cafe - they can also be found on FaceBook. I halve the recipe and when I made it tonight I got 5 portions out of it!!

Sweet Potato & Peanut Curry (vegan, gluten free, contains nuts)
This curry is so popular in the café that we’ve had to make it a permanent fixture on the menu!

Ingredients
2 tablespoons of sunflower oil
1 onion, chopped small
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 fresh chilli or 2 teaspoons of ‘lazy’chilli from a jar
6 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 2cm cubes
250g of mushrooms, halved
1 tablespoon of curry powder
1 tablespoon of ground coriander
300g of fresh spinach or about 8 pieces of defrosted frozen spinach
2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
150g peanut butter

Method Fry the chopped onions, garlic & chilli in a large pan.
Stir in the spices, add the sweet potatoes and mushrooms and stir again.
Add a little water to prevent sticking and cook for 10 minutes at a time until the potatoes are just going soft (it will take about 20/30 minutes for the potatoes to cook but be careful not to overcook as sweet potatoes go mushy very quickly!) Add the tomatoes, peanut butter and spinach and stir well.
Serves about 6/8 people....enjoy!

32 High Street, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1JF T: 01622 670533 E: fortifycafe@hotmail.com www.fortifycafe.co.uk

Cravings (cont'd)

I thought of another one...

Quality over quantity- I have never had a lot of spare cash so a lot of my purchases have been cheap and cheerful, done the job then hit the bin (or the recycling, or the charity shop!). Now I'm realising that I don't so much stuff I'm starting to realise that although more expensive doesn't always mean better quality it can be worth holding back on a right now cheap version of something until I can afford (or find) a better quality version. I threw away a pair of cheap and cheerful smarting pumps yesterday (thanks to discovering the holes in the bottom as it had been raining). My usual idea would be trip to the market or the cheapie shoe shop. Instead when passing a more reputable shop this morning I saw a very nice pair that I think would do a better job and be more versatile (which is essential when you are trying to pare down!). At £20 they are probably double what I would normally pay but the are also half price in the sale!! I popped in in my way to the station and tried a right foot which seemed very comfy. Will sleep on it and pop to the local shop at the weekend. That way I'm not rushing in, I'm giving myself a chance to have a think and maybe look elsewhere, and if they aren't there when I go back then they weren't meant to be mine!!!!

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Cravings...

...no I'm not pregnant but I have been craving things over the last week or so...

Savoury food - yes I may have gone a bit mad with the sweet stuff over Christmas (but that's all part of the fun). I find myself now leaning towards something savoury rather than another chocolate out of the tin!! Although I doubt I'd say no to chocolate if it was on offer!!

Alone time - With weekends away, work, spending time with family for Christmas, work, spending time with family for New Year and back to work I feel I haven't had any real 'me' time. I don't begrudge spending time with family and I have to go to work to pay the bills but now I'm looking forward to sorting some time just for me. To get things done or maybe to just lounge around, read and chill out.

Clearing out - My Mum took a picture of me on Christmas day (brandishing a new kitchen knife!) and it struck me that there is still too much 'stuff' about. The photo looked far too busy.  Too many colours and items clanging for attention. It's funny how seeing it in a photo gave me a different view of something I look at several times a day!!

A new me - well maybe not a new me but a better upgraded version - a beta version if you will (there may still be some bugs and hangs but we're working on it!). I've read a couple of books lately that have got me thinking. I'm still not sure where this thinking is taking me or what the outcome may be but the old cogs are grinding away.

Exercise - well sort of. I've been meaning to do some exercise as right now I do none. I walk places as I don't drive but I live in a flat so I don't even have stairs to walk up. I asked for and received for Christmas a dance work out DVD (thanks R&C) that has five 10 minute workouts on it. My theory is even I should be able to do 10 minutes when I get home. If I can do that for a bit a couple of times a week then maybe I can do it more times a week, or a bit longer when I do do it. Baby steps though, lets see if I can manage it at least once this week to start with...

Stability - those that know me will know that my whole job world is a bit up in the air. Although I have a contract through to the start of 2013 there have been some changes at work that make me wonder if I'll stay that long...either way I will have to look at my income and outgoings. The pros and cons of staying where I am or moving back to where I was (or maybe going somewhere completely new). The potential money issues with the sale of my flat (negative equity).  Right at this point in time there isn't really a lot I can do to try and stabilise any of this and I don't like that feeling. There are way too many ifs, buts and maybes. Hopefully after a few weeks of the new work broom I'll know if I want to make the changes sooner or wait it out...

And I'm sure there are more things that aren't occurring to me whilst I sit here writing this post but maybe they will later!!

How are you feeling as we enter 2012? Do you see changes ahead? Are you happy with your lot? Do you find January a blue month after the hustle and bustle of December or a chance to recharge? Please leave a comment, it proves to me I'm not just talking to myself!!