Getting Ready for Even more Simplicity

 

I forgot to mention at the start of the week, that last weekend I emptied out the three large planters of potatoes that I planted back in August. it was only when I saw Angela's tasty little harvest that I remembered the photographs languishing in my camera.  

 I had noticed weeks ago that the foliage was all really dying back quickly, but I had to smile to myself when I rounded the corner to the shed and saw that all greenery had completely vanished ... nothing to go into my new bargain tiny compost bin then.  😄

We didn't get many potatoes from the 18 planted but what we did get was split between the two of us.  Alan decided to try and keep his for our Christmas lunch, but I thought I would cook up half of my portion for a shared meal that night and I still have the ones in the blue bag to have for another meal.  There might not have been many, but they were delicious, and of course now I have those huge planters to plant either more potatoes in or something else for next year.

And next year I really do want to try and grow more and finally get my tiny vegetable garden into full production.  I now have both the fancy wooden raised beds and these three large planters, and once December is over I should have a good stash of seeds from my Advent calendar.

Next year is going to be a year of real simplicity as I am already making plans to stop spending on anything but the absolute necessities.  The food budget is to be cut to whatever money I have been able to make this year ... it's not been counted yet, so that could prove interesting.  As most of you are aware this year I have sold at two table-top sales and on and off all year on Facebook Marketplace.  I have just made a final book sale via Ziffit and made myself another £22.48.  

A little tip that I learnt this year, if Ziffit doesn't offer you much for your books or DVDs, try alternating with selling via webuybooks.  By doing this I have managed to get quite a bit more money each time!

It all adds up, so hopefully I have enough in my little pots and boxes of cash dotted about the place to cover my housekeeping budget for next year.  I have gotten into the bad habit of squirreling away the money that I have been receiving over the year in dribs and drabs in the strangest of places, and sometimes where I expect to find money in my old Sealed Pot for example, I instead find something completely different.  Salt and spices anyone?

I have no idea how much there is, but I managed to get rid of most of the small change when we did the table-top sale so it is at least in one and two pound coins and notes which will make shopping with cash much easier.

I have tried doing variations of this a few times and I always seem to make it more complicated than it needs to be, so this time I am keeping it really simple and just having the pot of money to dip into whenever I need to shop.  When it runs out, it runs out ... as simple as that.  So, the only real Challenge is not to dip into it too often!!

Sue xx

Vitamin Delivery, a Days Food for Me ... and Then a Real Shock

It's been a week of deliveries this week.

First there was the pasta that I talked about on the last post, then my sons Christmas presents arrived and are currently filling up Alan's hall space. Then yesterday my year's supply of Veg1 vitamins came via the postman.  I buy mine from the Vegan Society, as I'm a member I get 10% off my order ... every little helps and all that!!  

Not eating meat I do need to ensure that I have a good supply of B12 in my system, people that do eat meat have it because the animals that they eat are given the vitamins in their food.  Sadly, most animals no longer get to graze outside enough to have it in their systems naturally as B12 comes from the bacteria found mostly in soil and untreated water.  

Anyway, I now have enough to see me through another year and typing this has made me realise that I have yet to take todays tiny chewable tablet.

You can tell that the weather briefly went much cooler ... although it was 17.5 degrees here yesterday ... as I have once again started having porridge for breakfast most days.  My favourite is with a banana sliced and cooked into it for the last couple of minutes.  Having the banana in the porridge and thoroughly heated up, rather than just sliced cold onto the top is a real gamechanger.

Lunch on this particular day was a delicious hummus and salad bun, followed by a delicious dairy free chocolate bar.

Much too tasty for its own good!!

Tea was of course some pasta.  This time cooked with broccoli and peas and then I stirred through a bit more of the hummus to form a delicious sauce with a dash of the pasta cooking water.  Once in the bowl it was topped with some grated Violife.  

I buy the blocks of Extra Mature and grate it myself.  Ready grated cheese always has something added to keep it flowing separately, usually just cornflour, but I really don't like the taste of that in my cheese, so I just grate a whole block or two at a time and keep it in a lidded container in the fridge.

Sadly, when I went to The Vegan Kind online supermarket to pick up a photo of the chocolate bar, I came across THIS message ... wow, what a shock, and what a shame to lose them just as I was about to put in a Christmas order.  There are so many companies really struggling at the moment.

Well, that was definitely not what I was going to post about when I sat down today, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow. 

Sue xx

So, What Did My Gousto Box Teach Me

 

So, what did my Gousto box teach me?

It taught me that I much prefer simply cooked and simple tasting meals, and it taught me that I prefer a little dash of mustard in my cheese sauce, and that I love sticky onions.

Was my £15 spend worth it, oh yes.  

It made me think and it made me want to let go of so many of the bad food habits that I've been slipping into just recently.  Now is the time to head back to simplicity and my new Wartime Rationing Challenge ... and what a perfect and at times tasty way to find out.  So, for £15 it was worth it, would it have been worth the full price of £42 ... NO!!

Our evening meal on Sunday eaten in front of the television watching an episode of McDonald and Dodds was the Classic Plant Based Cheezeburger with Sticky Onions.  It was supposed to be served with a side of chips, but we both decided that would be too much.

Instead, I added the small bag of mixed leaves from the pack to a handful of homegrown leaves and one of my homegrown cucumbers, and a couple of extra cherry tomatoes from the plant outside the back door were added to the tomato trimmings that I had after taking off the 4 slices that I needed for the burger.

It was delicious, and the extra salad and no chips was the perfect amount for us both.  Alan is a real salad fiend and will choose salad over chips every time we are out for a meal.  His is the larger salad on the left ... I get jaw-ache with all that chomping if I eat as much as him. 😄

I had saved one of the recipes that was the quickest to make for us to eat during the Queens funeral yesterday, this was the Plant Based Broccoli Cheeze Pasta.  It was absolutely delicious and in my opinion the star of the four meals.  I managed to make it in just over the quoted 10 minutes, while the Queen's coffin was on the way to Windsor.

We had it with a glass of wine and a toast to Her Majesty.

Wasn't it a brilliant day, and in my opinion the only thing that is spoiling it for me now is the constant nit-picking of mostly American 'journalists' who are just determined to fan the fires of old news and create rifts that are mostly not even there.  Here in the UK, we do this sort of occasion so well and I am honoured that this is the second State Funeral to be held in my lifetime, although of course I have no memory of the first one ... did we even have a television in our small family home then?

The meal I had on Saturday was the Tofu Fish, Chips and Mushy Peas.  

The least said about this one the better.  Alan had said a firm no to this particular meal, so it was just for me.

The chips were fine and luckily, I could have both portions, although cooking them in the required amount of oil and in the oven made my little lodge smell like a Chippy for a full 48 hours afterwards.  The peas were lovely not mushed up, oh how I hate mushy peas of any description, slightly squished maybe but mushed ... never!!

But Tofu Fish I did not enjoy at all, I was brave and used the Marmite in the batter and rather amazingly that was the nicest part of it, but I have never been a tofu fan, and this has cured me of any desire to try to get it into my diet.

The final meal should have been this one, but to be honest I just cannot face all the faffing about with the Aubergine Pickle so I will be simplifying it right back to Coconut Dahl and Rice ... and enjoying it my way.

So, getting the Gousto box for that brilliant price was really worth it for the lessons that I have learned this week, and to really bring it home to me that eating simply IS the way forward for me, whether it be wartime rationing as is the plan or simply eating foods that do not require a multitude of steps to bring forward a flavour.

I guess I am just a simple girl ... and perhaps I had forgotten that.  

Sometimes you need a little reminder.

Sue xx

Simplifying the Cupboards - Part One

 Almost exactly a year ago (1st July) my kitchen looked like this, and I moved in two days later, it really does seem so much longer ago than that!!  

Since then everything has pretty much stayed in the cupboards in the same place that it was put into, and although I've sorted a couple of times the contents of the cupboards have been pretty much the same.  So ... I thought what better time than on a cool and blustery June day, one year later to have a proper empty out, and a good ... but slightly late ... Spring clean and look at anything that hasn't been used in that time frame. 

So shelf by shelf the cupboard was emptied.

I can't do more than one shelf at a time as I only have the one worktop to put things on 😄

Everything in front of the toaster, kettle and food processor was on the bottom shelf of the cupboard.

And everything here has not been used in a year or longer, so is going to a new home.  

One of them to a home very close by, as Alan claimed the green dish to make Shepherds Pie in as his other one is currently in the freezer.  I'm quite happy about that as I love that dish ... even if I haven't used it for a long time.

Next I managed to empty two shelves, as I could use the small worktop ledge in front of the boiler for the few things that were on the top shelf.

The contents of the middle shelf.

The things that I'm letting go of.  I must stop buying things just because they are green!!

The slow cooker is on Facebook Market place for a rock bottom price, hopefully someone can make good use of it in these times of soaring fuel costs.  I have never used it as I just don't have the sort of meals that need cooking in one.

The things from the top shelf.  

Most of the jars went into the recycling bin.

Then I had a brainwave 😁

I have never been able to reach the top shelf properly, hence there being so little stuff kept up there.  Until very recently I have not been able to manage even the two levels of my little kitchen steps. So what was on it had to be clutched at with fingertips, so I always ran the risk of dropping a jug on my head.  So while I was wiping out the cupboard I noticed that there was one more set of shelf support holes about three inches lower, and after checking I realised that my little wooden boxes would fit into that gap.

So with Alan's help I lowered the top shelf, then I put some of the bitty bits into the boxes and finally had a top shelf that I could reach safely.

Result!!

So now I have everything that I use, easily and safely accessible with no more moving things to one side to reach other things, and I know the cupboard is nice and clean as well as being calm and simple to look at when I open the doors ...and yes I might have opened them a couple of times since I finished just to peek inside.  😃

Sue xx

Sofa ... Before and After

This was the living room before I emptied the sofa and tidied up a bit for the Facebook Marketplace photos ...

... and this is it after the new rug went down and the chairs were delivered on Friday morning.

I absolutely LOVE the simplicity of the room now and the added space I have suddenly got.

And the comfort is brilliant ... can you tell how pleased I am  😁

 

Skint, but pleased.

Sue xx

 

My Lovely Lavender Sofa Has To Go

 

My gorgeous sofa has just been listed on Facebook Marketplace and I'm more than a little bit sad. 😢

Alan and Jason tried valiantly to get it up to the top floor of Alan's house, the idea was to turn the en-suite guest room up there into a proper sitting room for our house-sitters and future potential Airbnb use, but the tight turn into the room at the top of the stairs proved to be the undoing of the plan and they had to bring it all the way down again.  

For now the sofa is upended in Alan's kitchen while we put it's legs and cushions back on then and then hopefully someone will want to grab the bargain of the year.  We did offer it to my other son Simon, but I fear the colour was just a little bit too girly for the new home he is setting up for himself.

The new chairs with much better support for my back are being delivered tomorrow morning, I'm really hoping that they will be more comfortable for me.  I also had to go out and buy a new rug as this one just looks dreadful with the new colour scheme ... so it's all change after just seven months.

There's also a lot of sorting out and decluttering going on at the moment as we are doing a Table Top Sale next weekend and we are going to be literally loading Alan's car up to the gunnels with stuff that has been waiting in the spare room sine we moved in, and also things from the Lodge that I have been sorting through after realising that I really just do not need them.

Anything that I have not needed since I moved in is going and it's going to be simplicity all the way.

Sue xx

My Growing Space Has Gotten Smaller and Smaller ...

A bit of sunshine and all us green-fingered folk are itching to get planting aren't we  🌳  

But there's an icy edge to the breeze at the moment, and although I got Alan to tip the three bags of compost that we bought last year into the new raised bed ready for some planting next month, I quickly covered it with opened out bags that it came in, weighted down with some leftover bits from building the bed last year so that the soil underneath can warm up ready for planting next month.

 I did pinch a bit of the newly opened compost to put into these little pots to start off some seeds though.  It was nice sitting in the sun on the patio dibbing away and sowing the seeds.  Mostly vegetables but a couple of pots of flower seeds too.  And that larger green planter in the background got some flower seeds sprinkled into it too.

Taking that top photo which shows the whole of my growing space for this year made me think back to my previous vegetable growing areas.

This one was when we lived in Oxfordshire on our first farm, this photo shows just the vegetable beds behind the house, we grew all our own  onions and potatoes here, the pigs used to love home grown potatoes.    We also had a 12ftx 25ft polytunnel next to the small pig enclosure and orchard and another assortment of raised beds behind where I was stood to take this photo filled with more onions, salad crops and lavender ... lots of lovely lavender.

This was the first growing year at our rented small holding, utilising the plastic beds that we had brought with us from the first farm.  The wind had kindly ripped down the polytunnel and left them all exposed for us to disassemble.  Here we just had about 5.5 acres, mostly given over to field and chicken enclosure.

And look who's photo I found in the same file as the last one ... a very young and pretty Suky.

And of course most of you will remember our small holding in North Wales before we moved back to England.  Lots of growing room on the hillside along side the little orchard and Summer chicken run. 

 With the green Net Tunnel, designed with a wire mesh bottom layer to keep the pesky hillside rabbits off some of our salad crops and with space for the Blueberries, so we could eat them instead of the birds ...

... and the polytunnel, filled with the tender indoor type crops, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, spinach, and delicate leaves etc.

These two tunnels were also 12ft x 25ft as it was a size that really suited us.

My new growing space is just 6ft x 8ft ... and that is the total floor space, the actual raised bed is much smaller. So I can see that I'm going to have to get very inventive this year.  My main plan is to use the wooden bed for salad crops... spinach, lettuce, radish, spring onions etc and then have some French beans in the small black planter on the opposite side, with some Bags for Life being lined up along side it for a few potato plants.  Oh and a couple of large pots for courgettes.

And of course I can't forget my little tin bath at the front door, which is very handy for snipping herbs from when I'm in the kitchen, so it adds another couple of foot of growing space.  I might put a few garlic cloves in here too, all that wasted space makes me want to fill it a little bit more.

My newly sown seeds were basking in the early morning sunshine when I pulled back the curtains this morning. 

Sue xx

A Simple Leftovers Meal

 

I'm loving using the last of things from the fridge and seeing the space appear and in this instance it was the last two slices of  the 'No Pork' bacon and the last of the cream.  There's still another portion of the Tenderstem broccoli to use up ... most likely for tea tonight ... but last night I added just enough to my dish to give it a good hit of flavour.  There are lots of the tomatoes left which I am going to roast with the peppers and some onions to make a tub of roasted veg to add to a couple of meals for the week ahead.

While I chopped the veggies the onion and pasta were already cooking away on the hob to give them a head start.  Once the onions had softened I tipped everything else into the pan along with a good squirt of the garlic puree and left it all to putter away for ten minutes.

A very easy tea cooked in less than 15 minutes and extremely tasty with the addition of a splash of the pasta water and the addition of the last of the cream which is not something I do that often ... perhaps I should 😊

Sue xx

Simple Breakfast, Simple Tea

I'm going really well with my no shopping at all at the moment, even in the fridge there are lots of things to munch my way through and so there's no need or temptation to shop at all.  I have been having a single slice of toast first thing in the morning, I have to as my tablet can't be taken on an empty stomach and that's all I can face first thing, so it's meant that I have been missing some of my more usual breakfasts, porridge, yogurt and muesli with banana and now and then a good old bacon bun.

 

So in a heroic effort to use it up, this was my early lunch yesterday, and there's enough left for an action replay at the weekend 😀

I also needed to use up these two slightly squidgy tomatoes, so I based my tea around them.  I simply chopped them and the little red onion, sautéed them together and then added the full pack of noodles. 

It made for a simple, quick and very tasty evening meal.

Now to do something with these very wrinkly apples.  I dread to think how long they have been in the fridge.  I've just checked and the top apple is our homegrown apple and that's been in the fridge since 1st October ... the others were already in there!!

Sue xx

Sending Letters By Pigeon Post

 

On her blog, Tracing Rainbows the other day, Angela mentioned receiving a Pigeon letter and my curiosity was spiked.  I just had to go straight over to the website ... and wow I fell in love with the designs.  Just look at this one from one of my favourite artists, original Angela Harding artwork just beautiful in every way.

Of course if this had been 'normal times' I would have picked out a couple of designs and ordered some straight way but it's my year of No Spending, so I had to bite the bullet and simply add them to my Wish List.  At least Alan might have a clue about what to buy me for my birthday!!

Summer Meadows Design, just another of my favourites and there are lots to choose from.  If you are as interested as me why not nip over here to read all about The Pigeon Story.

💖💖💖

This is not a sponsored blog post ... none of mine ever are if you are wondering ... but I have acquired quite a few new readers recently so I thought I would just point this out. However, I do like to shout out about useful and beautiful things that I come across in anyway in my day to day life and leave a link for you to discover more about them yourself if that is what you would like to do.

  

Sue xx

Making Things Last

I almost called this post 'Just a Squirt' and then stopped myself at the last moment ... I don't want any unsavoury characters dropping by!! 😆

I took these photos the week before Christmas when I was refilling the dispenser bottle and they have sat waiting to be used.  I started using these pump dispensers when I moved into the Lodge and they have worked out brilliantly well for making the contents last far longer than they ever have before.

I fill them up from whatever washing up liquid I have in stock, last time the Fairy liquid was on special offer so I bought two of the larger ones, but I'm never averse to using Aldi's or a supermarkets own if they are cheaper.  I think it was either the end of October or right at the start of November when I bought the bottles and this is still the first of them, so as you can see it's lasting well.  Just two or three squirts into a bowlful of hot water gets all my pots nice and clean twice a day, and I always leave the water there for soaking any pots that I've used in-between washing up sessions.  Doing my pots just twice a day means less washing up liquid used and less hot water wasted, thus keeping the bills down too.

It's a similar story in the bathroom with any shampoo I have decanted into a dispenser bottle, just two presses and I have the perfect amount of shampoo for my short hair.  The little dispenser actually holds over half of this seemingly large bottle of shampoo.

So once I've filled the dispenser the bottle goes upside down into the shower caddy for use in there, and this of course also makes sure that every last drop of the shampoo gets used from the bottle.

Waste not want not, and I have two more bottles of this shampoo also bought while it was on offer before Christmas, it will be interesting to see how long I can make it last. 😀

Sue xx