Getting the house sorted

This is a very quick update.

I'm still not employed, so I'm really started looking at part time work so at least I've got something coming in!

Since I last spoke to y'all we have done a lot of rearraning in the house.

Massive purge of rubbish
6-7 bags of books - Oxfam
2-3 boxes of random brick a brack - Charity Shops
Second Hand Games - Totally £160 worth, traded in at Game and Gamestation.

Lounge totally moved around
Sideboard, Bookcase and sofa moved about

Kitchen
New blind installed

Bedroom
Loads of clothes off to charity shops
New bed purchased and installed
Bedding and towels placed in storage bags under bed
New shelf put up

Bathroom
Bath repaired (floating screws had come loose)

Its really starting to look like a home :)

Grey Days

I love Autumn, I don't love the greyness of it all, but I love the last embers of the sun, and the harvests, and the readiness for winter.

I love also, this picture. I saw it first the day I heard my sister was pregnant with my nephew. It was right



Recently I've been thinking a lot about if I actually want to go back to work. I'm a nicer person when I'm not in an office, so I think the trick is, for me to look for a job not in an office. This might mean a lot less money, but since I already know I can survive on less money than I have had, and I know that office work often makes me unhappy, what have I to lose?

And now time for a Random Cat Pic

Today I can't seem to get motivated to do anything... but I'll get on with something as soon as I've posted this.

What a gorgeous kitty, huh? You can't really see, but she's chosen to sleep on the woven newspaper place mat I made a few weeks back.

Under Pressure - And a cat helping!

YAY!

Okay, at 31 I should, perhaps, have used a pressure cooker before, but my Mum always was a little suspicious of them so I grew up of the opinion that they would blow up as soon as they entered the kitchen.

Anyway, the pressure cooker I bought at the start of the year has been taughting me from the cupboard under the stairs since I bought it. Today, myself and it had a rather frank conversation about the fact I *was* going to use it, and it wasn't going to explode.

I put my presoaked beans in, and 15 mins later I had a big bowl of cooked chickpeas. Gosh, they taste yummy. I keep going back and grabbing a few out of the bowl.

Why did no one tell me how easy this was?

Diva decided to help me by guarding the empty box. Yep, thanks cat :D

Shopping - Friday 19th June

Well, living on the shopping budget isn't so hard really. It makes me
question what I buy, and I very rarly throw any food out now.

This weeks shop was

Aldi 0.69
Lidl 3.40
Morrisons 5.60
Tesco 11.49

This comes tooooo 21.18

However, 4.86 of that was a monitor cable, which brings it down to 16.32!

I also got some hot pepper sauce which is redeemable by post costing
1.49... which I will send off for as I'm pikey ;) This will take it
under £15. Yay!

I also realised that Morrions sell fresh water packed tofu for £1.09,
rather than tesco selling it 1.50. I often use silken tofu in place of
water packed simply because of the cost issue. Now, I won't feel like
I need to do that anymore.

Anyway, other than that... still not really looking for a job yet. I'm
just enjoying living for a bit.

XOX

Take care y'all

Friday Update

Just done the weekly shop

Lidl = 3.49
Aldi = 4.34
Tesco = 10.83
= 18.66

There were a few extra items on the list, and a few items that were
left over from last week in the fridge, so balenced.

Just finished making a big batch of veggie burgers, recipe from 'Vegan
Bites' blooming heck, they are tasty! It made 4 huuuuuuugh burgers and
one mini burger I'll split with my hubby when he gets home... they are
a bit fallapart, so I think they might make better 'snack' patties,
but it would make a lot! Perfect for me to take to the next family
gathering though :)

Might try to convince my parents we need a family barbeque... I could
take a disposable for the veggie/vegan amoungst us... or make the 3
meat eaters (v 4 veggies/vegans) have that, and we will steal the main
thing ;)

My Burthday!!!

Great day already (Hey, I'm not being sarcastic!)

Mr Derious got up and made me coffee, and bought me up my presents.
Not having a job at the moment, I've been cutting back on buying
things on impulse, so presents seemed a lot more special then normal
:) Anyway, I had

The new Peaches CD
Vegan Bites
Veganomicon
Coraline - The graphic novel
Coraline - The non-graphic novel - (Would that be PG? ;) )

Its really nice that despite the fact he's not vegan, he fully
supports my veganism :)

My other in law had sent me a package in the mail... and I've been
looking at it the past few days... reallllllly wanted to open it.

I did, and it contained a lovely card, a little slate broach with a
froggy on it, and a vegetarian cook book she promised me from her book
shelf.

Anyway, I'm off to Warwick Castle now... I think I shall take some
nice pictures.... if any are good, I shall do some posting later :)

Where did the day go?

I've literally, just in the last 15 mins or so, sat down.... however,
I seem to have got nothing done today.

Got up
Made Breakfast
Went to Tesco
Washed up
Made Jam
Made Tempeh (my, does hulling beans take time)
Took washing off line
Put new washing in machine
Hung out second load
Prepped apple stuff for breakfast

And that's it! Seriously, it's take me all day to do that!

Now, I need to go make a slug trap and then I'll considered getting
hubby to come into town with me when he gets back from work, as there
is about a 1 in 5 chance I'll go mad if I don't get out at some point
today to somewhere other than Tesco!

I am doing excellent shopping

Last night we went to Aldi after Mr Derious got home from work, and
bought a whole heap of veggies, so today's big shop consisted of

Soya Milk 60p
Tofu £1.50 Water Packed (Seems expensive from Tesco! Will look in
Morrisons for their price for next time)
Canned Kidney Beans 14p
Chickpeas 36p
Arrowroot £1.09
Mushrooms 87p
Onion (red) 12p
Bramley Apples 94p

I also remembered I needed either baking powder or bicarbonate of
soda... and of course, bought the wrong one (durr) at 75P

So, my shopping trip cost me £6.37

I bought some stuff yesterday, and some stuff is left over from last
week, but all in all, pretty good :)

I also have cooked pies in the fridge/freezer, enough for 5 days of piey fun :)

So, all in all, good.

This morning I got up with the hubby, at the porrage that I had soaked
overnight in Kefir, then went out to Tesco at the same time he went to
work. It was soooo empty! I had all but finished the shopping by the
time he texted me to say he was at work.... then came home, did the
washing up, strained the kefir, and prepped the plum jam, and plopped
the Seitan in the marinade for tonights noodle toss :)

Now, I'm off to get dressed in summer clothes, walk into town, then
mayby come back and do more tidying.

Elderflowers and longer walks

Today didn't have such an aspicious start. We overslept, and I didn't
have long with my Husband before he had to go to work. We still had
time for breakfast (Panfried rice and tofu, with wholemeal bread) but
not long enough to open up to the day together, and as such, it seems
a bit odd. Anyway... breakfast was had, and off he went to work.

I checked the kefir, which seems to be coming along nicely (yay!) and
took my sandwhich out of the fridge... packed a bag, and got ready for
the day.

I made the mistake of putting on the PC after doing the washing up,
and as such, nothing got done untill about 10am. I hung out the
washing, received a parcel from the postman (I didn't open it, as it
was from my mother in law, and doubtless a birthday present), then
walked into town. On the way, I spoke to my mum on the phone.... I'm
going to go see her Tuesday, which will be nice :) I was looking for
plumbs, as I saw a really interesting recipe for kefir plum jam
online... however, the cheapest was £1 from Aldi, but I wasn't sure...
so I went looking elsewhere. I shall go pick some up tomorrow.

I did however buy
35p - Plastic Tea strainer
£1 - Rhubarb (which I've made into a tart, now in the oven)
29p - Pepsi
70p - Close dated alpro soy milk
60p - Morrisions soy milk
£1.15 - Organic Popcorn (only to find cheaper, non organic stuff in Morrisions)
34p - Dandilion and Burdock diet pop
45p - 'Stay Fresh' bread

So, all in all, not loads

On the way out from Morrsions I spoke to one of the charity
collectors, who encouraged me to join their ranks... and walking back
I collected some elderflowers, which I'll dobtless find a use for.

Now, I'm just waiting for my OH to come home... he seems late. I know
he's busy today though.

Edit > He's home now, and we both really loved the pie tart... I'm really pleased as I kinda made it without a recipe

Today, I took 12907 steps :)

Where did the afternoon go

Well, the chickpea pate on sourdough was very nice.

Now, I spent the afternoon going off to the supermarkets, failing to find any reduced products, then coming home and prepping dinner, making lunch for tomorrow, and steaming some rice. That shouldn't have taken 4 and a half hours, surely?

Anyway... now going to make some envelopes, and smuggle snacks into the cinema... Don't tell them ;)

Day Two

Well, today I didn't get off my booty straight away, not actually doing anything until just before 9am. I then tottered into the kitchen, made two batches of caramelised onions (One with a honey and balsamic glaze, the other just plain) and then emptied and refilled the freezer, throwing out some homemade veggie marshmallows, which had just plum refused to work.

After that, I reseasoned my cast iron skillet (which has just beeped in the oven) and started on the cupboards. About 10 mins ago, the front door knocked, and there is a nice postman there with my kefir grains. The pot had broken in the post, so they were leaking... but I think they will be okay. They are now sat in some soy milk.

I know some vegans might be a bit 'oooooh, naughty lady' because these were originally cultured in milk... but hey ho... how else am I to get kefir? I think it'll be a nice change from yoghurt in cooking/smoothies and cheaper too.

Next up, I'm going to eat the last of the licorice, and then get on with the rest of tidy the cupboards. I suspect I'll go up to the supermarkets after I've spoken to my husband at lunch, and see what they have on special.

I've also found I'm overwhelmed with broccoli stalks in the freezer, so I might have to think of something to do with them. I mean, how to prep them... the obvious thing is to eat them, but how? World of possibilities awaits me ;)

About Me

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."

The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger

Well, I'm not going to do a big long introduction. Either you know me, or you don't. I'm probably not going to give this URL to anyone... I'm writing it for me, but if you stumble across it, and find my strange utterances of interest, then I'm glad to make (or keep) your acquaintance.

About a year ago, shortly before my 30th birthday, I started a new job. It seemed, from the outside, perfect. A year later, and it had really got to me. I turn 31 on Monday, and I've recently left my job to find something new. I don't know if that'll be a full time job, or something part time, or even volunteering... exciting isn't it?

Everyone keeps telling me how 'brave' I am for jumping ship without a lifeboat. I suspect this to be a kindly way of saying 'Are you out of your tiny little mind!!! It's the worst economy since the mammoth fur industry crashed' They may well be right. All I know is yesterday was the first day in a very long time I didn't wake up thinking 'Holy heck... I need to go back to that place again'

I shall be filling this blog up with tales of excitement, such as what I'm doing with the day. Expect a lot of updates about snogging cats. I'm not looking for a job for a little while.... I'm looking for me instead.

I also have a sister blog, all about vegan foods... check it out if yummy eats are your thang.

Ps. Despite the introduction, I'm honestly not a serial killer... much.