Bits and Bobs Day

It has been a messy day so far, and this post is somewhat long-winded as a result; apologies for this in advance.

We woke up to disaster in the dining room.  The cats had knocked over some things I had sorted to one side to incorporate into cleared storage.  OH threw his hands  up in horror!  Fortunately it is not as bad as it seems and did not take much to sort it out at all.  There were no breakages.  Molly and Mischief were most put out that they could not get in their beds!  All sorted now.

The sun is out, the wind is rough  Breakfast has been eaten.  This is what I have been having for my breakfast for the past week:

Pills have been taken and post has arrived.

I received notification via email about a week ago indicating that I must keep Government provided Covid tests to hand as early diagnosis of Covid.  With my host of medical conditions it would appear that I am considered "treatable" if diagnosed early enough and have been sent a specialised Covid Testing kit consisting of seven tests in the kit.  

Apparently, if positive and after reporting it via the Government website the authorities then contact you direct to implement the treatment.  It must be one of the Government supplied tests that are used in the registering to trigger the automated process apparently. Those tests bought over the counter from Pharmacies do not trigger this process.  Hopefully will not need to use these, but one never knows.  This is another reason for me to keep away from large crowds etc.  Not that I cope well with lots of people these days.

As I needed a bit of shopping OH then took me to a supermarket namely Morrisons.  Cannot remember when last I went for a little shop around. Morrison's is okay but I do not like the Peterborough store. I never have, especially after having shopped at the Stamford store for quite a few years. I prefer the Cornwall one.  They do however have an offer on with nuts at the moment.  Two bags of any type of nuts for £4.  I have come away with some Hazelnuts 200g in weight and some Brazil nuts175g in weight for use in I think baking.  Thinking white chocolate and Brazil nut cookies here.  The recipe has been speaking to me for a couple of weeks.  I did not have enough to make though. 

I understand from what I have read, that if you have a couple of Brazil nuts in a day, they help to provide some of the lesser known vitamins which keep our systems going and are a source of selenium.  Selenium is particularly helpful with auto-immune conditions and inflammation as I understand it. More details here for those requiring further information; there are several benefits to these: Health Benefits of Brazil Nuts  

Equally Hazelnuts also provide similar properties. One of the issues I have with pain and inflammation is controlling the "free radicals" in one's system which in high numbers cause a lot of inflammation to the system. Unfortunately some of my medical conditions exacerbate the "free radicals" and my system attacks itself. Not very helpful when it is trying to deal with other issues as well. Blueberries or Cranberries are good in keeping this under control, but from reading the attached article it would seem that Hazelnuts are also good for this as well. Will be able to change things up a bit and give a bit of variety.

Health Benefits of Hazelnuts

I like nuts and am particularly interested in adding more of these to our diet in various ways.  You just have to have a few, not loads and loads i.e. in moderation on a daily basis i.e. perhaps a couple a day - Brazil nuts. However, I appreciate that this strategy may not be open to some of you because of nut allergies/intolerance by either yourself or family members.  Food is not unhealthy it is what you do to it that makes it so and therefore looking to food to help control a condition to me makes more sense than popping pills.  Here speaks a person who has been on medication since seven years of age. 

I prefer the Butcher for buying most of our meat.  Sometimes due to lack of funds though you cannot do what you want to do and go and top up, especially if you have other ingredients you need to source that are not Butchery orientated.  This is another reason why I try and get at least two times two meals out of whatever I make.  If I had the freezer, I would freeze up the second meal to drag out another day, but as that is not the position at the moment, you have to find other ways around things.   

We have as I have mentioned before changed our shopping habits quite a bit to make the most of what money we do have on the food front. This means that I do not do a big shop like we used to once a month.  I have to "cherry pick" what I want and try and get it for the best price possible.  I have always been one to buy ingredients in any event and would add an extra bag of this here and there so that I always maintained a stock.  That is not really happening at the moment which out of necessity means that I am not stocking up properly on long-storage food items. I have quite a base of dried ingredients but it is the tinned items, flour and sugar amongst other things that will need topping up.  I have recently used up stock that was coming to its Best Before Date on the Tin can front.  There will come a day quite soon where I will have to address this.  

I am grateful though that at least we are fed reasonably well with a hot meal once a day.  My over-riding Rule is, no matter what happens, we have to have that one hot meal a day, especially so in the winter months.  That has always been a family Rule and I think it is one of the many reasons why my Grandparents' worked so hard in working the land and providing for themselves and the family.

More and more I am only going shopping when I have a list of items that I do need and which we have run out of and only buying those items. It is quite easy because of the way that the shops set up their stalls/counters to go off piste with this, especially if you have children with you wanting this or that but then again that is the intention of the supermarket's selling strategy. It is done for a purpose.  That is why there are normally sweeties lurking around the till area.

Today, we came away with a pack of doughnuts for 85p (5 doughnuts in the pack). Very unusual in itself as I do not normally buy cakes or things like that these days as I set too and make them from scratch if needed.  I have found from past experience when I had a house full i.e, my two step children who lived with us full time and could outstrip any adult food wise, It just pads things out that little bit more especially scones or sausage rolls or the cheese and bacon pockets that I make.  

When it comes to cake making there are a couple of recipes which I find very useful.  Both are Batch recipes for making cakes and variations especially if you have children and (adult children) in the house with a bit of a sweet tooth.  

Links are here: 

Batch Baking Sandwich Cakes

Batch Baking Altogether Cake Mix

These cakes can also be used up in pack-ups as well and remember if you make a couple of batches of jam tarts, coconut cheesecakes, apple pies, fruit pies as well, you could have quite a selection for them to eat during the week, which works out far cheaper than buying straight in from the shop.  There are also things like Chocolate Coconut, and Refrigerator cakes and Tiffin that can be made as well and served in slices.  Baking always used to be done on a Sunday morning whilst the Sunday roast was cooking which we always had about 1:00pm.  Then we had Sunday afternoon tea about 5:00pm Usually a couple of buns maybe with some Salmon on or Potted Dog (i.e. Potted Beef) and crisps.  Some fruit and cream, and then sausage rolls, scones, Sandwich cake or Butterfly cakes.  There were also plenty left for packups or for finishing off tea during the week.

I tend to see what is available in the shops or Butcher's when I go, and create the menu from what is available (also taking into account any left over bits and bobs which are in the fridge or Pantry), tinned goods, dried goods and what veggies I have in. I tend to plan three to four days ahead, and I use up any left-overs of veggies in stir fries, soups, stews etc.  There is always a meal to be had somewhere along the line.  I do miss having my freezers though, as literally just used to go shopping in the shed for whatever meals we were going to have.  Tended to buy in bulk or certain items direct from Butchers which kept the price down a bit.

Last week's Sunday dinner was a lovely piece of beef for £15 which came from Morrisons.  Had another look today and they still have that offer on for the beef and still had some good looking joints.  I have come away with quite a thick piece of rolled Pork shoulder today for £10.    There should be some nice crackling for OH from this and maybe some Pork Dripping as well.

Buying a joint, should provide a few good meals to keep us going and also sarnies with apple sauce. If I had a freezer I would be ideally vacuum packing any left over cold sliced meats for use either in sandwiches or indeed turning into a main meal.  However, no freezer at the moment so one has to do what they can with what they have available to them. Also bought some sausages, bacon, mince and a couple of Rib Eye steaks (steaks we are having this evening).  Am going to do some chips for OH. I will have a steak and onion sandwich. We have a large mushroom that needs using up, and some salad leaves as well so they will go into the mix and be  used up as well. Salad stuff is pricey, and so if I do not think am going to use the leaves up I will dehydrate them and turn them into a green powder. There is no need for any waste.

I am pleased to say that have been very pleased with the meat we have bought thus far.  As I indicated the Beef we had last Sunday was delicious.  The Rib Eye steaks I cooked this evening, were really tender and cut like butter.  Just the way I like them.  I try never to over-cook steak.  OH has his rare and I am medium rare. The price £4.99 a pack of one.

OH's tea, homemade chips, fried onions, fried mushroom, Rib Eye steak and a fried egg.

My tea, Rib Eye steak and fried onions.

Popping into fresh bread. I cut the steak into thin strips, and then mix with the fried onion and then pop another piece of bread and butter on the top.  Slice in half and then munch.  Very tasty as I cannot always eat a full steak.

Very tasty it was too.

As I have access to the veg shop, I did not buy hardly anything by way of veg; some sweet potatoes which were a good price which they are not locally so a bag of these came home.  I like sweet potato which has been microwaved (like a baked potato) and also like it roasted with fresh Rosemary.  £1.59 for this bag.  They are £1.99 a kilo at the veg shop.

A block of cheddar for £5 which is supposed to be a vintage cheddar.  Not bad but not tangy enough for me.  However it will be used up in general cooking.  Will go well with a Cottage Pie and a Lasagna.  Bought some minced Beef, 750g for £4.89 should get either the Cottage Pie or Lasagna out of this or alternatively make some "minced beef" pasties (just replacing skirt beef with mince and then adding in some carrots, peas, and leek in small pieces.

Also bought some cream cheese with prawns in which is a favourite of mine.  Cannot get very often these days.

On the bread front bought some very large Tiger Bread Buns.  One of these is the equivalent of two standard buns.

Also bought a Cob loaf and some doughnuts which were supposed to be jam but are custard.

Bought a couple of other things as well, some pears, sausages, bacon, Butter, milk the usual suspects. Also managed to get some of the Vegan Bouillon that I use for making gravy.  If you have not tried this you should, as it gives a bit more flavour to gravies, stews, casseroles, and stocks.

I am hoping to do some more shopping next week, but again this is not a given.  I will have to have some more veggies though.  I adjust what we have and slip in "scratch meals" inbetween everything else and literally make the most of what we do have stretching it as far as we can.  If I go shopping next week I do need to get in some bread flour and sugar, so shopping days are very much geared to what is needed not what we would like to have.

I would prefer to support smaller shops where I can, but in reality I have for sometime cut back on supermarket shopping my situation requires that every so often I do have to go and "cherry pick" those items that I am after from one or several.  Gone are the days of the big supermarket shops for the time being.  However, as soon as I can I will be having freezers again, and buying my meat as I used to do.  I always remember that my Mum had a housekeeping budget and also a freezer budget.  The freezer budget was a set some of money that was always there so that she could take advantage of buying in items when they were on offer etc.  The following month she would try and save some of the housekeeping to pay back what she had spent without scrimping.  Sometimes the budgets merged, but Mum did not spend the freezer budget each month and often where she could she would add to it.  Proved very helpful for buying in half a pig etc.  Different times though.

Trouble is that we have had a large choice for so long where our food has been a lot cheaper and now in many a case it is double what it used to be if not more.  I am keen this year to preserve as much as I can,but yet again this is down to the pennies being available when I need them which they sometimes are not.  It is ebb and flow and you have to work with what you have.  There is no right and wrong way, just as long as it works for you.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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