Yes there is such a thing as a free lunch!

Today Mr C decided to come home for his lunch and requested soup. Luckily the "freezer fairy" (as in tightwad Gazette) was full to brimful with all sorts of odds and ends (celery ends, cooked potatoes, half a tin of tomatoes, runner beans, half an onion, half a fresh tomato), so I tipped it all into a saucepan, adding some chopped spring onions that needed using up and a tub of stock from the freezer (yipee more space) simmered until soft, seasoned and then blitzed in the food processor.

Please excuse the state of my cooker, but it has been in almost constant use now it is chutney season! It has since been cleaned:)



Further exploration of the freezer resulted in some lovely tomato and herb bread, left from our last visit to the farmers market, which went down very well with the soup. We had ice cream for afters (left and rescued from the family barbecue a week ago) all items I, sadly, would have thrown away years ago, so a free and tasty lunch. What a blessing!

Needless to say the freezer fairy (an old tupperware lidded jug) is clean and ready for use again!

Breakfast- hm muesli and soya yogurt, tea

mid morning snack - a lovely orange from last weeks organic box

Lunch - as above hm soup, tomato and herb bread, ice cream

Afternoon snack - 2 little kit kat eggs (from apoproved foods - naughty but nice) tea

Dinner - hm veggie lasagne and salad - from garden and bottom of the fridge, hm fruit salad

5 a day - dried fruit, orange, various veg in hm soup, courgettes and tomatoes in lasagne, garden salad, hm fruit salad (mango, blackberries, apple, pears)

The approved food order has just turned up so I now have curry paste to last a good long time, organic carrots, dog toys (for Christmas gifts for friends pooches) cake mixes, sweeties for cake decorating, Christmas cake frills, fruit teas and coffees for Mr C! This was paid for on Wednesday last week!

Other than going out briefly to walk Penny on her first walk after the op (round the block) I have not been anywhere to spend any money! So no spend day

Todays harvest from the garden and a catch up

This is what I've managed to harvest today and I still have several courgettes and runner beans from yesterdays pickings to deal with! The freezers are filled to brimful so somethings got to come out of there! I think it may well be more of the frozen blackberries to make some more jelly! Just need to urgently find some more jars! lol!

I have been away from the blog for a few days while Penny has been getting over her spaying op! Poor little thing didn't know what had hit her and spent most of Friday night and Saturday whimpering. Thank goodness the vet gave us some painkillers for her. On the first day she was still spaced out from the general anesthesia. Several times in the night I woke to find her sitting bolt upright with very big eyes just staring into space! She has just had her first check up at the vets and is healing well, just 1 more week, another check up and hopefully back to normal Penny madness again.:)

A quick catch up on our spends:-

Thusday 3/9 - we ate out to celebrate a friends birthday.. Lovely meal and Mr C budgeted for this out of entertainments allowance ( can't go out again for a while though!) so for me it was a no spend day!

Friday 4/9 - spent the day searching for a replacement car (to take our minds of Penny having her op) very tired and short of time we stopped for a sandwich lunch at Wyevales - very nice but cost a whopping £14 :o we also shared a portion of fish and chips £5 in the evening as Penny needed our time and attention so total spend £19

Saturday 5/9 - Tea and toast for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch but a shared portion of chinese takeaway as we were still so very tired! total spent £7

Sunday 6/7 - Penny much better so visited a friends Church for Communion and discovered they have 2 collections! Also bought a couple of cards and stayed for a cuppa and a biccie (everyone so very friendly and had a lovely time) total spend £5

Monday (today)

Breakfast - hm muesli, milk and tea

midmorning snack - cheese and apple

Lunch - tuna salad

Afternoon snack - slice of lemon drizzle cake and an orange

dinner - butternut squash and bacon risotto
plum crumble (made earlier in week)

5 a day - plums, butternut squash, orange, apple, salad, dried fruits

total spends today £4.99 (I bought a toy for Penny at the vets! Had to take it away again as she was getting too excited and rushing around!)

Jammin

I've been busy recently making Jams and chutneys! I have been lucky enough to be given plenty of apples and plums from my lovely neighbour. So just the price of the sugar(which I had in) for the jam and the vinegar, onions and spices (already in store) for the chutney. The problem now is finding enough jam jars!

Todays menu was:-

Breakfast - hm muesli and milk for Mr C/just a yogurt for me (not feeling well)

Lunch - Cheese and chutney sandwiches, crisps clementine for Mr C/Soup for me

Snack - Lemon drizzle cake (leftover from party)

Dinner - Sausages (in the remoska) mash potatoes, runner beans and carrots followed by clementines and pears

Hot soy milk drink for supper

5 a day - runner beans, carrots, pear, clementine, orange juice

More runner beans from garden to freeze down - the veg draw in the freezer is nearly full now!

Church today followed by helping at toddler group so no chance to spend there.

Total spend - £20.44 on an approvedfoods order! well they had snowmen toys for dogs (4 for £1) so enough for all my doggy friends :) also organic carrots, choc, sweeties for decorating cookies/cupcakes for MS centre, fruit teas, coffee and christmas cake frills.

Hello again!

Yes I have had to take a long break from blogging, again. I feel much better now but have missed you.

My daughter came home with the dreaded swine flu last month! I nursed her through it using plenty of anti bac sprays to avoid it speading. She had tamiflu and it started to work almost immediately. It was rotten for her but not so bad if you know what I mean, I guess she was lucky and didn't have any complications! We seem to have avoided catching it although we did both have a tummy upset so maybe a mild variant? Hope you are all keeping well and have avoided this virus.

I started a couple of new treatments this summer, a new painkiller, which so far has no side effects unlike the last one which made me feel sea sick whenever I stood up! : ( I also started to have oxygen therapy under pressure at our MS centre. Whether it is the pain being eased or the oxygen I don't know but I am getting more done now so it is all good.

We even managed a holiday to Spain with our oldest friends (best man and his wife from 33 years ago!) His brother has an apartment out there so with low fees and Ryanair it was affordable. We all managed to swim every day which was great exercise for me and we also did a fair bit of walking so something was definately working for me.

Bank holiday weekend we had our family over with a few good friends and celebrated our birthdays (Mr C's is only 3 weeks after mine - we are the same age for those 3 weeks every year to his joy! Then he becomes a year older than me again!) We tidied the garden and had a barbecue! It was a lovely day. Then I did the accounts! Shock! we had spent nearly £200 on food and drink! On the plus side there is now plenty of chicken, burgers and sausages in the freezers and more than enough beer and wine for Christmas! It does however mean that money is going to be tight here for a while.

Our sons wedding is now only 4 months away and we have our friends sons wedding in October. Mr C still wants/needs a replacement car which will not be cheap and the hall stairs and landing are desperately in need of re-decorating! So I have to get strict with the budget again.

From today I will be avoiding any unnecessary spending and keeping a spending diary! Yikes! The first step is a menu plan for the week taking into account any leftover fresh food from the barbecue and of course whatever is delivered in the organic box tomorrow (too late to cancel it) and also what is available in the garden - right now a butternut squash, spinach, tomatoes and runner beans. Oh and I also have a fair stock of food from Approved foods deliveries - mainly packet soups, baked beans, savoury rice and cous cous!

Todays menu:-

Breakfast - home made muesli with a gooseberry yogurt for me/with milk for Mr C

mid morning snack - clementines and a digestive biscuit

Lunch - Cheese and coleslaw filled rolls (leftovers from barbecue)1/2 a grapefruit I have 2 left from the last organic box delivery so needs using!

mid afternoon snack - very small piece of birthday cake and a cup of tea (tea bags from approved foods)

Dinner - Pasta bake - using up sliced cooked sausages and a very spicy salsa (again leftover from the barbecue! Salsa is the large container from Approved foods and it is powerful stuff!)served with plenty of salad. Lots of water with this I think! :) ice cream to follow.

5 a day - dried fruit in the muesli and as a snack, grapefruit,clementines, orange juice drink, salad.

My Home made muesli is easily made:- 500g oats, generous handfuls of chopped dates, sultanas, figs, sunflower seeds, few linseeds, anything I fancy and have to hand really. I make this at the beginning of the week and store in a cookie jar.
I have a good supply of oats in and plenty of dates, seeds and sultanas. So that with toast and marmalade/jam is breakfasts sorted!

Total spend today - prescription charge £7.20