Saturday 26 November 2011

No Waste Tastes Great - 25th Nov

Top shelf - spread
Middle shelf - condensed milk
Bottom shelf - beetroot
Left drawer - condiments
Right drawer - empty

I think this week makes up for last!!

I am away Sunday and Monday so it's dinner out on Sunday and breakfast out on Monday. Another clear the freezer week I think. Need to make room for some Christmas goodies!!

Thanks again to Jo for keeping me on track...

Saturday 19 November 2011

Paradox of Our Times

This came round on one of those powerpoint round robin emails and really struck a chord with me. 


Today we have bigger houses and smaller families,

More conveniences but less time.

We have more degrees, but less common sense;

More knowledge, but less judgement.

We have more experts, but more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired.

Read too little, watch TV too often and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.

We talk too much, love too little and lie too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life;

We've added years to life, not life to years.

We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers;

Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.

We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy it less.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbours.

We've conquered outer space but not inner space.

We've split the atom, but not our prejudice,

We write more, but learn less; plan more, but accomplish less.

We've learned to rush, but not to wait;

We have higher incomes, but lower morals.

We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies but have less communications

We are long on quantity but short on quality.

These are the times of fast food and slow digestion; tall men and short character; steep profits and shallow relationships.

More leisure and less fun; more kinds of food but less nutrition;

Low incomes but more divorce; fancier houses but broken homes.

This is the paradox of our times today.

That's why I propose, that as of today, you do not keep anything for a special occasion, because every day you live is a special occasion.

Search for knowledge, read more, sit on your front porch and admire the view without paying attention to your needs.

Spend more time with your family and friends, eat your favourite foods and visit the places you love.

Life is a chain of moments of enjoyment, not only about survival.

Use your crystal goblets.

Do not save your best perfume, use it every time you feel you want it.

Remove from your vocabulary phrases like “one of these days” and “someday”.

Let's write that letter we thought of writing “one of these days”.

Let's tell our friends and family how much we love them.

Do not delay anything that adds laughter and joy to your life.

Every day, every hour and every minute is special and you don't know if it will be your last.

If you're too busy to take the time to send this message to someone you care about and you tell yourself you will send it

one of these days”

just think...

one of these days”

you may not be here to send it!

Friday 18 November 2011

No Waste Tastes Great - 18th Nov




OK - so I think it's safe to say this week was a big fat FAIL!!

I was away at the weekend and developed a cold which kicked in on Sunday night. Consequently the meal planning didn't happen. My Mum picked me up some veggies on Monday and my intention was to eat some stuff out of the freezer through the week. FAIL - comfort takeaway food won out for most of the week.

Top shelf - spread
Middle shelf - still some of that condensed milk, Brussels sprouts, swede
Bottom shelf - beetroot, carrots, parsnip, leftover Indian takeaway from dinner tonight (Bombay potatoes, chicken korma, rice, mango chutney, mint raita)
Drawer - condiments
The veggies are normally in the drawer but I got them out for the photo!

The leftover takeaway will be tomorrows dinner and the veggies will get cooked up Sunday night. I'll probably have half for dinner then and fry up the other half(ish) as bubble and squeak on Monday.
Will sit down properly and do the meal planning and shopping this weekend.  The diet has gone out of the window the last couple of weeks so hopefully the planning will help me get back in the 'groove' for that too in the run up to the Christmas over indulgence!!


Tuesday 15 November 2011

Spending Update - Oct/Nov

A good month!!

£200 transfer
£12.00 in my wallet
£40.26 change
£41.79 left in the bank

£294.05 - the most so far!

It's a short post because I've got a stinking cold and am feeling very sorry for myself!!

Friday 11 November 2011

No Waste Tastes Great - 11th Nov

So how good am I?

Top shelf - spread and cheese
Middle shelf - slow cooked condensed milk (this version was made with 'light' condensed milk, I'll try the sweetened version next time but this is still delicious!)
Bottom shelf - beetroot
Left drawer - condiments
Right drawer - empty

A friend suggested celery soup to use up the leftovers I had last week. I used this recipe as a base but added in the chilli and parsley that I also had in the fridge. I've put it in the freezer but the little bit I tasted seemed pretty good!!!

I'm away for the weekend so will be eating out for lunch and dinner tomorrow and breakfast, lunch and probably dinner Sunday!! Shopping will get done at some point on Monday but it won't be very much as I've got quite a stock of meals in the freezer (as I live on my own I often freeze leftover stews etc for later) to work through!!



Monday 7 November 2011

A year ago...

A year ago my wardrobe looked like this...


This is my wardrobe tonight - one year on...
OK - so I do need to give a bit of an explanation as I may be stretching the truth a little bit!!!

This is what I've worn over the last 4 weeks. It doesn't include underwear, outerwear or pj's!

Nowhere near as much as I would have thought.  I work in an office so it's smart(ish) clothes during the week. I wear uniform on a Tuesday (don't ask) so I can wear what I want to work then get changed there. Weekends tend to be jeans and slobbing out Sundays!!

I've been through all my clothes several times and sold loads of stuff on eBay and taken loads of bags to the charity shops in town.  Even after that I still have all this left...


  
The first picture is more shoes/boots, the second my chest of drawers (mostly full) with t-shirts and more jumpers on top, third hanging stuff that didn't get worn and fourth is my long dresses and spare uniform.

Obviously what I've worn over the last four weeks doesn't include anything particularly summery or very dressy as I didn't have many nights out!!!  What I have proved though is that what is currently in the wardrobe is perfectly adequate for a 'normal' month. Now I just need to go through the stuff in the four pictures above pick out what I want to keep for the summer and be ruthless with the rest. I mean REALLY ruthless!!

Sunday 6 November 2011

No Waste Tastes Great - 4th Nov





Another pretty good week I think!

Top shelf - spread, cheese and ham
Middle shelf - zilch!!
Bottom chelf - jar of beetroot, half a marrow, some celery, carrots, parsley and a red chilli
Drawer - condiments

I only took the photo Sat lunchtime as I was out overnight Friday.

Some of the ham and cheese went in toasties for lunch today and the rest of the ham will go to work tomorrow for lunchtime naan.

Some of the marrow and carrots will get eaten up along with some potato tomorrow as I have some posh sausages now that I won via Twitter!!  Thank you Rook & Sons!!

Just got to decide what to do with the celery, parsley and chilli!