Friday Links

Posted on June 3, 2016 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday!  It is an even more happy Friday for me because I’m not at work. This is my last day of planned leave until August so I’m going to make the most of it by having my haircut, doing chores and seeing friends so I can be on the allotment without guilt for the rest of the weekend!

Here are this week’s links…

How my job talking women out of having abortions made me pro-choice.

Because some women regret abortion, that doesn’t mean all women should have the choice taken from them.

Even though the vast majority of women who have abortions won’t regret them, there will always be some women who wish they didn’t end a pregnancy – that’s just the reality. But it’s better to regret a decision than never having the option to make it in the first place.

Regret is tricky. If I knew at 21, that I would be childless at 42, I would probably not had an abortion. At the time, I made the best choice I could with the information I had. Would I have wanted to be tied for the rest of my life to the person I got pregnant with. No, no and hell no. So overall, I don’t regret it. If we’d known Stef was going to die young, we’d have been more serious, earlier but then no Luc and Helene. We all do (or don’t) make decisions that with hindsight we’d change. Being an adult means that we own our choices not that we take those same choices away from others.

Addiction in Utah. The strongest prescribed painkillers I’ve ever taken have been co-codamol, which have codeine in it and are mild opiates. I took them for my foot, I don’t take them for migraines because after a discussion with my doctor, I decided that I’d rather not, the migraines are too frequent. Same with the sleeping pills, temazepam is great when I’m short on sleep and at the end of my tether but they are a short term extreme measure and I use them like that. We need to know what we can get from painkillers before they are prescribed. My view is that painkillers aren’t about giving us no pain, pain is good, it’s our bodies pointing out that something is wrong. This is why I didn’t use all of my painkillers after my foot surgery, I wasn’t expecting to have no pain at all in my foot, I used painkillers when the pain was unmanageable. Everyone’s has a different pain threshold but doctors do need to be upfront about this when prescribing or not painkillers. Pills and the doctors that prescribe them are aids to help you manage pain and health. You need to have a conversation with your doctor about what’s going on and they need to properly explain risks and consequences. I think that its a conversation we all need to be having about our role in our healthcare.

Obama shouldn’t apologise for Hiroshima, he should learn it’s lessons. I have a really British gut reaction to the calls for an apology for the bombing of Hiroshima and Dresden. Which is basically, no. I believe that the bombing were horrific and wrong but I also understand the context. At the time, the Japanese were refusing to surrender and killing Japanese civilians probably didn’t seem like that much of a issue in light of what the Japanese had done to civilians in China, Burma and elsewhere. Again it’s not right but it is an understandable human impulse. If an apology for Hiroshima would prompt the Japanese to examine their role in WWII and look at their war crimes, fair enough but I don’t think it would. What we should do is commit to not having, making or using nuclear weapons, that would be learning…

Landlords need to pass a fit and proper person test. This.

Poland is having a constitutional crisis of which I knew nothing.

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Allotment Adventures: Finally growing more than weeds

Posted on June 2, 2016 by nicdempsey

I didn’t do everything I set out to do this weekend but there was progress

From this img_4330to thisimg_4347That’s herbs (rosemary, sage, marjoram and thyme), tomatoes, courgettes and french beans in.

img_4338img_4340img_4339The beans are not looking so great right now but we’ll see how they do, I just about have time to sow straight in the ground if these don’t work!

I did not weed the raspberries but I did make a decision about the unweeded part of the allotment. Turn it over, cover in weed cloth. That way I can clear at leisure without worrying about being a bad neighbour. The unweeded area is really hard to dig over but we’ve had some rain recently and that should help. So far this is all I’ve doneimg_4346The plan for next weekend is to get some more dug over and under cover, weed the raspberries and get some runner beans and peas in the ground. Maybe there will also be time (and energy) to get another bed going for salad and wildflowers.img_4345There is still lots of work to do but I’m feeling better about it. And I picked some flowers…img_4342

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What I’ve Read – May 2016

Posted on June 1, 2016 by nicdempsey

I really wanted to read this month, so I did! Here’s the list…

The Mane Event – Shelly Laurenston (library ebook)

The Beast in Him – Shelly Laurenston (library ebook)

The Mane Attraction – Shelly Laurenston (library ebook)

The Mane Squeeze – Shelly Laurenston (library ebook)

Beast Behaving Badly – Shelly Laurenston (library ebook)

Big Bad Beast – Shelly Laurenston (library ebook)

Wolf with Benefits – Shelly Laurenston (library ebook)

Bite Me – Shelly Laurenston (library ebook)

I’m going to take these all at once. This was a recommendation from a friend and from Smart Bitches. They were obviously entertaining enough to keep reading and are up there with Nalini Singh book crack, I’ve read all but one. They’re funny and get funnier as the series goes along, my favourite hero’s are the bears especially Bo, who likes a schedule and a list and things being tidy (he’s a fictional creation but I’m pretty sure that Laurenston has met my mother!) if I have one issue, its the female name calling, no one needs to call another woman a heifer but it lessened as the books went on so all good.

Only a Kiss – Mary Balogh – (library book)

Survivors club part 5, I love this series, I love that no-one gets cured, they each pair bring out the best in each other and commit to working through. Which is to me the most romantic thing you can do, not to expect perfect but to commit to working together.

Foxglove Summer – Ben Aaronvitch (library book)

I actually really enjoyed this. I liked that Peter was out of London because it absolutely echoed his emotional state, he was all at sea. It was a bit of a holding book but I think it was important because despite his cocky, know-all persona, he’s not always got the answer but he always tries. I think that’s the comparison, Peter is police because he’s good, Lesley was good because she was police and whether Peter could stand up to what Lesley experienced and still be good, I think this book was trying to show that he would. He sacrificed himself, ok he was hoping for rescue but he could have walked by didn’t. Lesley went to the ‘dark side’ now and she’ll try and keep Peter out of it because she cares about him, but seemingly all the other horrors that the Faceless Man will inflict on people that aren’t Peter, she’s ok with because it will eventually get her what she wants (her face back). You can also see Peter learning more and growing and thinking about the big picture. So I think the next book will be interesting.

Getting His Way – Erin Nichols (bought)

I love this series. this was interesting because both hero and heroine have unrealistic views of each other and learn to let that go. This was the book I read in the bath on a Friday night, all of it in one shot, which equates to 2 and half hours in the bath. My life is all rock and roll.

Keane’s Challenge – Iain Gale (library book)

The second Keane. Keane is a bit of a wonderboy, good at everything but slightly disturbed by how good he is at being a spy. I think it’s also quite good at showing what a new and innovative thing ‘exploring officers’ were. It’s been compared to Sharpe but Keane is Irish and doesn’t know who his father is, I always find this amusing Wellington was a snob, he liked to promote useful, intelligent sons of the aristocracy (look at his staff!) and while not above using good men, I can’t see that Keane would be so much trusted by Wellington. I am pleased that Keane isn’t one of the many heros of the 95th, if as many men served in the 95th as there have been books written about men serving in the 95th, well, the Peninsula would have been over run with British! That aside I enjoyed the book, Gale knows his stuff and sometimes it made me laugh out loud (Wellington’s opinion of the cavalry “No point sending them in. Once they’re off, they’re off, and we lose them. Good in the saddle, but damn uncontrollable fellows, every one of them” – couldn’t have summed up Wellington’s general opinion better if he tried!). I’m looking forward to the next one.

Much Ado About You – Eloisa James (bought)

This was one of my Barter Books purchases and look at cover, so very like my Georgette Heyer’s. I haven’t found an Eloisa James book that I’ve disliked and this is no exception.

The Countess – Lynsay Sands (library ebook)

This was a Smart Bitches recommend and I’ve had it on reserve since. It is completely crazysauce. There’s a lot going on and it all makes sense at the time but afterwards, you’re just sort of sitting there going “huh?” It was perfect travel reading, I read it on the train journey to France this month and completely bonkers. I could have done without Americanisms like ‘pants’ for trousers but this is not a book to be taken seriously except in one place. The heroine suffers from what we would deem coercive control something that if you’ve been listening to The Archers like what I have you will be familiar with. I really liked that the heroine didn’t just snap out of it once she was free of it but that it took her time and courage to trust that the romance wasn’t going to be like her marriage and that she was fine just as she was.

Controlled Burn – Shannon Stacey (library ebook)

I like Shannon Stacey books so when I saw that this was available I borrowed it to ‘take’ to Paris with me. I liked it but it felt rushed to me and ended all at once and I felt that there was more to know and see. However, another perfect train book.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Ransome Riggs (library book)

I’ve had this on a list of things I want to read for a long time. Then I saw the trailer for the film and thought I ought to get a move on and reserved it. God, I love the library. It’s not at all what I was expecting and I really liked it. I have the next two on order…

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Food and Budget Update: 21/05 to 27/05/2016

Posted on May 31, 2016 by nicdempsey

Time to talk about food and budgets. My food week runs from Saturday until Friday. I went to Paris on the Friday and didn’t get back until late Sunday night, which is why this week appears quite short.

SHOPPING 

I deliberately didn’t do a big shop  I had Monday off work and went to Lidl then spent about £4.50 on carrots, and the basics for a chana masala (hey I like it and it’s useful!) I didn’t take a photo of the shopping so you’re just going to have to trust me!

COOKING AND EATING 

I was completely out of sorts on Monday and my stomach was a bit upset, probably from the excess of good food and wine all weekend. I had toast and eggs on Monday for ‘breakfast’ and cheese on toast for dinner.

Tuesday was a bit of a disaster, I bought a sandwich for lunch and resolved to do better for the rest of the week. For the rest of the week, I had eggs for breakfast and lentil, feta and chickpea salad for lunch.

Tuesday night dinner was the lentil, feta and chickpea salad. No photo because I am an airhead and forgot!

Wednesday night was pasta because it is the ultimate in ‘I’m not feeling creative and I don’t want cook but have to’ food. This was aubergine, onion and seeds

Thursday night I ate breakfast for dinner. Poached eggs on toast are currently my default setting..

Friday was pizza

LESSONS LEARNED

I am not good when I’m tired and grumpy and there’s not a proper plan! I know this and I was much more prepared for the week (which is this week).

Best thing I ate was the French set yogurt at the weekend. I love French supermarkets because of their yogurt aisles!

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Life Happened: French hangover

Posted on May 30, 2016 by nicdempsey

Last week was much harder than it should have been. I had Monday off to go to the doctors and do things that didn’t get done because I was in Paris at the weekend, so off to a good start. I didn’t get nearly as much done as I probably should have.

I got to the doctors and I was early which is a miracle given the appointment was for 9am! I met Kathy for lunch, had a long phone call with my brother and another later on with Christelle and went to the allotment but I was tired and out of sorts so not much work got done.img_4315But look at the amazing poppies! Later on, I had to go back to the allotment to pick up the spare tomato plants that Ian (another allotment holder) had given meimg_4316Tuesday was back to work. I was up early all over the weekend but that 6am call on work days is soul destroying.

Although moaning about a 4 day work week is on something I’m allowing myself to do, I knew that I needed an bit of an energy boost to get through the week in a more positive frame of mind. So on Tuesday night, I came home and cooked dinner and made lunch for the next day. Knowing I was sorted allowed me to read until bedtime, with some short diversions for Round the Horne and Jonny who came round briefly to gift me with some courgette plants from his greenhouse. They are monsters…img_4318My week didn’t get any worse, in fact it was significantly meh. There was no reason for this, work was fine, home was fine, even with the living room looking like a greenhouse! I was fine. I was also stupidly tired, frazzled and generally out of sorts. By Thursday morning, I was pretty much resigned to getting through the week feeling that I had gotten out of the wrong side of bed and I just needed to get the hell over it.

On Friday, I had an appointment with the physio, my left ankle has been very sore for a couple of months, I think it’s probably the readjustment of all the bits of my foot since the osteotomy last year but has been going on for long enough and is painful enough that it was worth getting it checked out.

Then it was the weekend and I did weekend things! Allotment, housework, dinner at Mike and Christelles, garden centre, Ma came for dinner.

Today is a bank holiday, so more allotment and hopefully a better week at work!

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2016 Goal Recap – May

Posted on May 28, 2016 by nicdempsey

We are almost at the end of May and it’s time to talk about it.

How did May go? Quickly, it was a very busy month. I took on the allotment, went to Paris and was more active generally and a lot more sociable, I saw and talked to people who I wasn’t related to every weekend in May, which is a level of social butterflying I’m not sure that my introvert soul could cope with every month but it felt good.

Money felt like less and more of a problem. I had a good grip on where it was and how much, I just didn’t feel like there was that much of it but this is a problem I have generally, there is always lots of things to buy and never enough money to buy them all!

Other than that I’m feeling pretty good. I’m going to go through the annual goals and the May Little goals because it’s time to look at the annual ones rather than just to say ‘I feel on track’ but I do feel on track, I feel more positive about life generally and more in control and more happy than I have in a while, summer making a difference and good things happening.

HOME

  • Decoration. In 2016, I need to paint the bathroom, bedroom and living room again. I’d like to tackle the bathroom before June but the other rooms will have to wait until I have full use of my foot again! I haven’t done any of this, I think this is going to have to wait until after the summer because right now, the allotment is where most of my time and money will go…
  • De-clutter. I want to have another clear out of the cupboard of doom and have a serious look at what’s in the kitchen. Kitchen was done in January and the cupboard of doom is more tidy than I thought my current plan is do this when I have a week off in August, because one of things I really need to do is sort out some more suitable storage for things like the spare duvets etc.
  • Deep cleaning. I will assign a weekend every three months to deep clean the flat. In this weekend I will scrub the floors, clean the oven and windows and all that stuff I’m not good at remembering to do! This is going well, the flat is tidy and at time of writing I have a clean oven, defrosted fridge, clean windows and floors!

Little Goals – Home

Defrost the freezer. Done, it killed the hairdryer, look I had a two hour window over a very busy weekend. Fortunately, I had a spare hairdryer because I got two for my 39th birthday!

Re-grout the bathroom tiles. I did this a couple of years ago and it’s just beginning to mold and look tired. Time to re-do them. Haven’t got around to that but they’ve had a bloody good scrub and look much better.

DSCF5044FINANCE

  • Tracking. I’ve been using a spreadsheet, that Ma (the queen of the spreadsheets!) helped me set up. It tracks what goes in and out of my bank account and what’s left. It also helps me plan for the year. In 2016, I will be consistent about using it. I’m totally on the tracking thing. It really works and I really like the weekly text from my bank which helps keep me there!
  • Food Budget. This one is already in play, in 2016 I will set a food budget of £15 a week and I will record my spending and eating on this blog each Tuesday. Any money I don’t spend each week will go into the change jar, which is sealed and won’t be opened until 1st December 2016. I’ve gone over the budget a couple of times, but this has been brilliant for me, the weekly updates are helpful in keeping me on track and I’ve become more mindful of being creative with what I have in the house.
  • Overdraft. I have one and I want it gone, so I will pay it off in 2016. I’m halfway there. This is about to get tricky as my rent goes up in June and I’m £40 less well off each month. I’ve written about this a lot on and off but I gained £10 a month because of changes to tax but am losing £50 a month to a rent increase. Just to know that the rent increase is low and I am eternally grateful to my landlord for being so reasonable but we are in a housing crisis and this is how they pan out.
  • Credit Cards. I won’t use them in 2016. I reserve the right to use them in an emergency but I can’t plan for those… Less success with this target, they have been used, it was sort of a family emergency and I’m not saying anymore than that!

Little Goals

  • Have one week this month were I only spend £10 on groceries. I think a week of ‘less’ is good for making sure that I don’t have too much food in the house. That was this week and I’m thinking that the last week before payday might always be a minimal spend week because it encourages me to use things up and be creative.
  • Stay on track. I’ll have to pay for the allotment this month and the temptation to buy all the gardening things is immense! So I need not to. This is for financial as well as mental health reasons. Progress on the allotment needs to be slow and steady so I stick at it. So I have to practice patience as well as fiscal prudence! I did it, it wasn’t fun but I did it.

IMG_3249BODY AND MIND

  •  Walking. Walking more was a game changer for me in 2015 and I want to get back to that, obviously that will depend on how my foot recovery goes. So I need to have small, long term goals for this, a) by the end of March 2016, I would like to be walking either to work from Paddington Station OR from work to Paddington Station, that’s about 35 minutes a day. b) by the end of June 2016 I would like to be walking both ways and getting my 10,000 steps a day. I’ve not been walking to or from the station to the office. The good news is that I’m doing about 70,000 steps a week, so am hitting an average of 10,000 a day. I’m not fulfilling the exact target but I’m in the ballpark and happy with this.
  • Body Balance. I love doing this when I do and my work gym membership resumes in July. So I’d like to go to one class a week in July and August and then resume 2 classes a week from September. This isn’t going to happen. I don’t think my foot is at all up to it and the money for gym membership is for this year going to be used on the allotment. That’s how it goes but I’m shelving Balance and will look at it again in 2017.
  • Yoga. The evening routine is good for me so by the end of February, I want to be doing this at least twice a week. I am doing this at least once a week, with the decision not to resume other classes, I need to get into this more at home and it will be a little goal for June.
  • Volunteering. I want to start attending the volunteer allotment days in June and this year use the two CSR days work gives me. I’m sure that my Mum can find a use for me either at the foodbank or the homeless project! I’m a little bit ahead of myself, I went back at for the May session at the allotments and will continue through the year. Ma reckons that I will be needed at the food bank during or just after harvest festival because that’s when they get deluged so I’m holding off until then. 
  • Books. The 12 book target was good but restrictive last year, I’m going to give myself a bit more leeway and have 24 books this year. I’ve bought 8 books so far this year, I’m feeling good about that.
  • Work Uniform. This year I want to have a work uniform, but not use it as an excuse for buying more stuff. I need to wear office clothes 4 days a week so I will create 6 outfits for work make sure that 4 of them are clean and ready to go for Monday morning. This was a genius idea, it makes life much easier and as the only new clothing or footwear I’ve bought this year has been a new pair of jeans, I feel it’s helping me make the best of the clothes I have.

Little Goals

  • Three times a week walk from the station to the office. Need to redo this one for this month. Nope this didn’t really happen, due a sore foot.
  • 7,000 steps a day every day and 10,000 steps 4 days a week. I don’t think that I’m up for 10,000 steps every day but I need to push this a bit and see how much I can do! Done and done. I’ve done an average of 7,000 steps a week which is more than the goal and that was with a couple of days knocked out cause of migraine or not leaving the house (working from home), so I’m feeling really good about this.
  • Daily exercise. 20 squats, 2x 30 second planks, 10 sit ups, 10 press ups. I managed four days a week average and I was at the allotment digging a lot! Again not brilliant but pretty good.
  • A dry (ish) month. I had a lovely holiday and although we were more restrained with food and alcohol, we had daily gin and daily wine. I feel that my liver needs a rest, so I will limit my drinking!  I had totally dry work weeks and limited myself to within my units even when I had two gin and tonics after a hard day on the allotment! This was good, the test comes tonight when I’m at dinner at Mike and Christelle’s. Mike is the wine terrorist, wine just sneaks into your glass when you least expect it!

 

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Friday Links

Posted on May 27, 2016 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! This Friday involves less traveling to the Continent and more physio but life can’t be all exciting glamour sometimes you have to go to physio and do the laundry!

Town halls aren’t to blame for homelessness.

Austerity is about selling of public assets

The power of saying thank you

An adopter and foster carer on family ties and doing the right thing. I’ve always argued that we let children down when we don’t tell them the truth. The detail of that changes but the essential fact is that children in care whether they end up adopted or not, need to know the truth of what happened to them and of why they were taken away from their birth families. We also need to admit that it’s not ideal. In a perfect world there would be no need for adoption but we don’t live in a perfect world and we need to be honest about that.

Brexit and lessons from the Duke of Wellington. Some of the comments on this are hilarious.

Men who live as dogs. I tend to take the view that people should be allowed to do what they like if it doesn’t harm people but I’m perplexed…

Mount Vernon new exhibit on Washington and slavery. Good. Mount Vernon is interesting but the slave quarters stayed with me, I couldn’t and still can’t get my head around them. I know that Britain’s history of slavery is not straightforward either but I think the ability to say ‘this person did great things but also did objectionable things’ is important.

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Carrot and bean fritters

Posted on May 26, 2016 by nicdempsey

I seem to have come across lots of recipes for vegan fritters recently. Anna Jones in the Guardian and this recipe on the Kitchn. I read them and filed away the knowledge for another day because I didn’t have all the ingredients. Then as I grated all the nearly but not quite dead carrots in the fridge on Saturday morning and wondered what to do with them, I remembered the refried beans in the freezer. I tend to make a big batch of refried beans and use them to bulk out slow cooker soups and stews in the winter like  freezer soup, divide them up into 200g (ish) portions and freeze them.

I thought what if I mixed the refried beans with the carrot, would they make good fritters. The answer to that question is yes and I had another easy, cheap, quick and tasty meal to add to rotation. Yay!

I made these twice this week and served them with salad and a yogurt sauce/dip. I weighed everything the second time around for this post although it’s worth noting that fritters are very adaptable to circumstances so I’m pretty sure that a tin of beans mashed up would have similar results (although maybe add some spices to make them more interesting!). I haven’t tried them with a bought tin of refried beans but I’m pretty sure it would work although it might require more flour to get everything to hold together. I prefer my fritters to have more vegetables than anything else, you may want something more structured in which case I suggest using less carrot or more beans! This made enough for two people. The yogurt dip I didn’t measure but it was my standard yoghurt/dried oregano/onion granules and powdered garlic mix (sounds weird works really well) but any kind of dip, maybe even ketchup if that’s your thing would work.

What

150g grated carrots

220g refried beans

2 tablespoons plain flour

Olive oil for frying

How

  1. Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix together thoroughly.
  2. Heat oil in pan and when hot scoop spoonfuls of the mixture into the pan and flatten with a spatula.
  3. Cook for 2 to 5 minutes, you want the fritters to develop a crust so they don’t fall apart when you flip them.
  4. Flip them and cook for another 2 to 5 minutes.
  5. Continue until you have used all the mixture.
  6. Serve with salad and yogurt dip
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Allotment Adventures: In the weeds

Posted on May 25, 2016 by nicdempsey

After a weekend away and some rain I will admit to being apprehensive about what I was going to find on the plot on Monday. Would the lavender be dead already, would the weeds have taken over again?

The answers were that that lavender is still alive and the weeds are all over the place. The top of the allotment where we really worked the weekend before last looks really good.img_4314the poppies are lovelyimg_4315 but the weeds on the rest of it….oh god the weeds.

I need some quality time out there and that was not going to happen on Monday.

This coming weekend though is a Bank Holiday and it’s time for some serious work so we can plant stuff so this is my list for the weekend.

Things that must be done this weekend

  • Weeding, digging and measuring out beds.

This whole area needs to be cleared and dug over. My ultimate plan is to have raised beds, so it seems sensible to measure them out and add compost and feed to those areas and put bark around them to suppress the weeds. Longer term, the beds can be made on those areas.img_4234-1

  • Weeding and tying up the raspberries.

This is actually going to be a tough job because the weeds are rampant but the sooner it’s done the better!

  • Planting out the french beans, courgettes and tomatoes, that I have. (I’ve been given 8 cherry tomato plants from Ian at plot 212 who had some spares!)

I really need to get some stuff in the ground.

Things that can wait but would be good to do this weekend

  • Planting out herbs

I want to buy and plant out herb area, it’s not urgent but it would be useful to have some permanent plants in the ground so I don’t have to worry so much about the weeding.

  • Runner beans and peas

These are going straight in the ground by the poles. So I’d like to get some netting strung from them and get them planted.

  • Wildflowers at the top of the allotment.

I have some wildflower seed and I’d like to sow it around the poppies at the top of the allotment.

  • Emptying the water butt.

There’s a butt next to one of the rhubarb plants that needs to emptied and covered with nets to stop stray vegetation going in, I need to get on that.

There’s probably more but I think that’s plenty to be going on with!img_4316

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Food and Budget Update: 14/05 to 20/05/2016

Posted on May 24, 2016 by nicdempsey

SHOPPING img_4229I was very busy this weekend, which explains the very quick and blurry photo of my shopping. I was really pleased that on Saturday morning the only vegetables left in the fridge were some carrots, which were peeled and grated for use in other things. Sainsburys value peppers finally stopped having green ones in them and were from the Netherlands instead of Israel! Total cost was £14.75, £8.30 in Lidl and £6.78 in Sainsburys.

COOKING AND EATING 

Saturday lunch was carrot and bean fritters with salad. It was a totally made up recipe and worked much better than I was expecting.

Saturday night dinner was egg rolls. I haven’t made one of these for ages and this week I rediscovered my love for them as you will see.

Sunday breakfast was toast. And Sunday lunch was lentil cottage pie with peas and spinach.img_4260

I really like it when I feed other people within my weekly budget and this week over the weekend Christelle and Ma were around for lunch on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

I did make some rhubarb muffins on Sunday which were pudding on Sunday night and my work breakfasts for the week. In fact food for work which was only four days looked like thisimg_4265

Monday night was lentils and pasta. I’m still working my way through the huge amount of lentil bolognese that I made to use up all the vegetables before I went on holiday.img_4263On Tuesday night, I had more pasta, this time with sausage, spinach and mushrooms. This is what happened when I’m tired, something easy to cook and eat.Wednesday night I had carrot and bean fritters with a yogurt sauce and salad.

Thursday was my last night at home and Ma and I had pizza, this was supposed to be sausage and spinach because it’s Ma’s favourite but I forgot to take the sausage out of the freezer and then I forgot to take a picture of it!

The rest of the week, I was either in or travelling to Paris so no cooking and all food was outside of the budget!

LESSONS LEARNED 

When I’m tired even when I have planned to eat something else, pasta is often the answer, two days in a row. Other than that, I’m feeling pretty good about my food choices and budget. What I think I didn’t do was account for being away over Friday to Sunday, because it felt like there was a lot of food left in the fridge when I left. It all survived the weekend and will be used this week but I could have planned better.

Best thing I ate this week

The rhubarb muffins, they were amazing, I could eat them all the time.

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