Monthly Archives: April 2011

No Waste Tastes Great 15 April 2011

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It’s Friday Guys! It’s time for 

No Waste Tastes Great

Fridays I take a little time first thing to strip down the fridge and perishables cupboard, clean both of them, take note of anything that needs replenishing, return any items back to the fridge leaving what needs using up on the counter.

Click here to find out more about my Friday Routine

So what is sitting on the counter in anticipation this week?

This week I have 5 apples… and absolutely nothing else… 

Quickly peeled and thickly chopped, coated in a little sugar and popped in ‘Brenda’ my Vegetarian Slow Cooker topped with hot water, they will in a couple of hours be ready to freeze and kept for a nice apple sauce in the future.

As we were away last weekend I didn’t do a weekly shop and all week have been using up store cupboard ingredients to feed the family.  


How’s your fridge looking this week? Anyone want to confess to food waste? Or redeem themselves by commenting on what they are going to do with their leftovers?

I’m sorry this post is a little harsh on the eye! It is of course RED WHITE & BLUE in honour of the Happy Couple.

Many Congratulations to William and Kate!

I’m Back!

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I’m Back Guys! The extended leave was by all intents and purposes an accident…

Let me fill you in… posted 16th April my much awaited Carrot Soup Recipe, with grand plans for a post on Sunday 17th. Sunday is my Faminimalism series. However the post for that day was actually going to be about Faith Jane’s decision to potentially stop blogging. As it was indeed meant to be Faith from Minimalist at Home’s  story that day – but I hadn’t the heart to chase her for her Guest Post when I read

Why I am considering closing my blog

However my post did not go ahead, I won’t go into the gory details, but that weekend wasn’t the best – and the grisly story ends there!

Kind of lost the blogging plot at that point, and decided to wait till Friday for my No Waste Tastes Great. However the Hubby decided an Easter Break was required so off to Sunny Wales we headed. I had the post all planned, I’d completed my Friday Routine and took photos etc…only to find Mother Nature enforced me to take a digital sabbatical. I’d planned to do NWTG from our caravan by the sea – alas no phone signal – resulting in no internet connection. I’m not really a ‘draft’ blogger – I write when inspiration strikes very rarely planning ahead or drafting posts for submission later. It’s all a bit hit and miss with me.

Anyhow’s I’m back and I would like to take this opportunity to send out a HUGE virtual hug to Jenny from Ex-Consumer who is one of the sweetest people I have ever virtually met – and also compared me to William Shakespeare (albeit loosely) in an earlier e-mail – who’d have thought using the word ‘fortnight’ could provoke such a reaction?

:-)

In the words of Arnie and not Willie ‘I’ll be back’…………………..

Slow Cooked Carrot, Ginger and Lentil Soup Recipe

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This is a recipe that I have been promising to post for quite some time!
I first had it late last summer, when a dear friend of mine (who I had converted to slow-cooking) made it for me.

The inspiration behind the recipe comes from Sara Lewis’ Book ‘Ultimate Slow Cooker’ but I have simplified the process and the ingredients further – to the same fantastic results (in my opinion!)…

Firstly a disclaimer – I’m a rough and ready cook in that I do not care much for measuring and following recipes. Experience in preparing food means I trust my gut feel when cooking, and can gauge much of it from touch, feel and what I can see. The ingredients I list below therefore are what I had to hand the last time I did this soup, next time I do it I may add more carrots, less lentils – whatever needs using up – just go with it and see what happens – you can’t go far wrong!

Slow Cooked Carrot, Ginger and Lentil Soup – Serves 4 (good sized portions!)

You will need:

  • Approx 7 Medium/Large Carrots – this will be approx half a kilo, 450g or 1lb
  • 1 Medium/Large Onion (2 if small)
  • 8oz (200g) of Dried Red lentils (Washed thoroughly and drained – use no pre-soak)
  • 2 cubes of Frozen Crushed Ginger – the equivalent of 2 teaspoons or 1-2″ of Fresh Ginger.  I have recently discovered frozen ginger. I was buying fresh ginger but not using it up. Frozen ginger means no waste, less mess and lots of convenience!
  • 1 Vegetable Stock Cube
  • 1 Large spoon (approx a heap tablespoon) of Curry Paste – I use Pataks Balti, Rogan Josh or Tikka Masala paste depending on what I have open in the fridge.
  • Blackpepper
  • Hot Water

Instructions:

1. Peel and dice the carrots and pop in a standard slow cooker

2. Peel and chop the onion and add also

3. Wash and drain the red lentils and add

4. Pop in the two cubes of ginger (no need to thaw) or the fresh ginger

5. Crumble over a vegetable stock cube

6. Add a few grinds of blackpepper

7. Add a large spoon of curry paste and stir all the ingredients together so thoroughly coated and mixed.

8. Pour over enough hot water to cover the ingredients – the slow cooker should be approx 3/4 full – ensure there is at least an inch from the top.

9. Another good stir, pop the lid on, put cooker on low and leave for 8 hours. I actually tend to cook my soups overnight so they get left for up to 10 hours some nights and are still okay.

10. When all the ingredients are fully cooked, using a hand blender, blend the contents directly in the pot. Be careful as the liquid is hot.

If you are serving straight away and wish to make the soup creamier you may wish to add some milk (to desired taste)and stir thoroughly. If reheating later I wouldn’t add milk until reheating stage. I don’t always add milk, although milk is a good way to calm it down if too much curry paste has been added.

This soup can be kept refrigerated for 48 hours or frozen for up to a month. Never reheat in a slow cooker!

*Don’t forget that as tempting as it may be to lift the lid and have a stir or a sniff of the lovely aroma, that everytime you do it will increase cooking time by 20 minutes.  Reduce the need to stir by always ensuring that you have stirred well when adding everything initially.

** Please note that I am not a qualified nutritionist or professional cook.  My recipes are what I put together at home and all amounts etc… are approximate. What I write is my own experience of cooking the recipe.  Ovens and ingredients do vary – just go with it,  have fun and apply common sense at all times!  Practise makes perfect!

No Waste Tastes Great 15 April 2011

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It’s Friday Guys! It’s time for …

No Waste Tastes Great

Fridays I take a little time first thing to strip down the fridge and perishables cupboard, clean both of them, take note of anything that needs replenishing, return any items back to the fridge leaving what needs using up on the counter.

Click here to find out more about my Friday Routine

So what is sitting on the counter in anticipation this week?

Once again it’s CARROTS! 

And this is going to be the end result of what I do with those carrots – the nicest soup (even if I do say it myself) that I have ever tasted!

I am writing a recipe post as soon as I have finished this one.

Slow Cooked Carrot, Ginger and Lentil Soup Recipe

How’s your fridge looking this week? Anyone want to confess to food waste? Or redeem themselves by commenting on what they are doing to do with their leftovers?

Faminimalism – Marianne from A Life Set Free’s Story

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Marianne and I have been blogging buddies since I first joined the community, she writes over at A Life Set Free – so sit back, enjoy her story and head over to her place to find out more… Over to Marianne…

Faminimalism – Marianne’ s Story from A Life Set Free

I’m Free!

When I was 22, I moved from New Jersey to Colorado with everything I owned in my car. (Ok, not everything, I left a lot behind at my parents’ house, but everything for my life moving forward). I had a ’89 VW Jetta, so you can imagine I didn’t bring that much stuff with me.

Soon after I arrived in Colorado, I moved to the mountains to live the ski-bum life. I lived in employee housing, which was pretty much a glorified, furnished dorm/apartment that I shared with 3 other people. I made close to minimum wage and I spent all my days snowboarding, partying, and hanging out. Life was good. It was easy, it was minimal, and I was broke most of the time.

What Happened?

Fast forward about four years and I am living in Boulder (a smaller city) and engaged to my now ex-husband. I had just started my very first “real” job as a web designer and was making a somewhat decent salary at that time. By this time, my fiance and I had slowly begun to accumulate more stuff. We had furniture, we had decorations, we had collections, and we had kitchen stuff. It was around this time that I started to shop more for clothes. I used the excuse that I had a “professional” job now, so I had to look professional (even though everyone at work mostly wore jeans)!

By now, I started to acquire an addiction for clothes, shoe, and home shopping. It was never anything extravagantly expensive, but it was a lot. This addiction lasted quite a few years and I managed to accumulate quite the collection of stuff and debt. A wedding for 100 people didn’t help either.

The Problem

The problem is that I didn’t see anything wrong with this way of living. I thought this was what everyone did. We were getting married and so we needed to have a house that was decorated nicely and we needed to look good when we went out or went to work. We had to impress everything with our wedding decorations because that’s just oh-so-important, is it not? This is what you do as an adult, right?

Sadly, the answer is yes. You thought I was going to say no, didn’t you? But actually, this is what most adults do. They go out and buy stuff to live up to that life that we see every day in magazines, television and movies.

Now of course, that doesn’t mean that it’s right! (Now that’s more like what you wanted to hear isn’t it?) ;) No of course not, but it’s so easy to get sucked into that lifestyle when EVERYBODY’S DOING IT.
Well then, some of us wake up one day and ask “What is it all for? Why do I spend every day at a job I hate, away from friends and family, just to seemingly make ends meet??”

Unraveling the Mess

Then slowly but surely, bit by bit, we try to unravel the chaos. And that’s where I’m at now. I’ve just woken up and I’m starting to unravel it. Last year, my new fiance ;) and I decided that we were no longer going to buy just stuff. We only buy things that we need and we are trying to get rid of all the junk in our home. I will admit, we haven’t gotten very far yet on getting rid of the stuff, but at least we’ve stopped the flow coming in. I’ve just begun reading Tanja Hoagland‘s 30-Day Clutter Bootcamp and it has so much insight on how to get rid of your stuff!

And I believe that’s step one on the path to minimalism.

Family, Children and the Environment

This is a post about Faminimalism right? Well, you may or may not know this, but we are trying to have a baby as we speak. I’ve thought a lot about how we will instill the ideals of minimalism into our children and I think it’s just about setting an example and explaining why we do things the way that we do. I am lucky that we are starting out with the ideals before we have children so that we don’t have to undo years of consumerist-training.

Bea at Zero Waste Home seems to have succeeded at this quite well. Her family’s lifestyle goes way beyond just minimalism. She feels that they need to make the smallest carbon footprint they can and I agree with her. After all, what’s left after we use up all the earth’s resources? I hope I can follow in her footsteps towards raising a minimalist and zero waste family in the (hopefully) near future!

Marianne blogs at A Life Set Free about eliminating the constraints of debt, stuff, location, and the status quo. Her latest series is getting to know the people who make a difference in our world.

Simple Meal Plan 10-15 April Plus An Apology

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Firstly an apology! I have fallen off the blogging wagon big time this week. Leah’s Birthday had been very both very time-consuming and extremely enjoyable…

Hence I have not yet posted the Carrot Soup recipe but I will be soon…

Simple Meal Plan 10 -15 April ( a day late – oops!)

Sunday

  • Lunch – Ham Rolls with Salad
  • Dinner - Pasta in Tomato and Basil Sauce

Monday (Meat-Free Monday)

Tuesday

Wednesday

  • Lunch – Tuna Rolls with Salad
  • Dinner – Roasted Gammon, Mash and Steamed Vegetables

Thursday

Friday

No Waste Tastes Great!

There will be another post later today – Marianne Yates from A Life Set Free is up with her story

No Waste Tastes Great 8 April 2011 – Leah’s Birthday

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Normally on a Friday it is No Waste Tastes Great…

But today it’s Leah’s 6th Birthday, so I was ultra organised this week.

Just a few carrots left to use up – no problem! once again my favourite slow cooked soup recipe comes to the rescue.

Friday wouldn’t be a Friday without a food photo…so here we go…

I’ve been a bit busy this week. I may be SimplyBeingMum – but we don’t do simple Birthdays at Chez Wright. We go for it BIG time!

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY LEAH

Busy weekend planned…Pizza tonight for a few classmates then a swimming party tomorrow…

  • Will be back later today with the soup recipe, which will be posted on this blog under No Waste Tastes Great.
  • Simple Meal Plan tomorrow
  • Marianne Yates’ Faminimalism story on Sunday

Enjoy the sun – if it’s shining where you are?

Have Fun!

Ps – Got to share this! Just overheard my Mom say to my Sister (they are here visiting the kids and I have nipped off to type this…)

“She does all this for the kids (**presume referring to the balloons, table decs etc and general birthday paraphernalia**) and she is managing with one pair of jeans! “

A bit of background to my Mom’s comment – I have two pairs of jeans that get washed and worn. Last night one pair went into holes.  I now frequently wear my clothes out (jeans, tops etc… as I wear them over and over and over) . I am still in my PJ bottoms today and I am waiting for my remaining one pair to dry. Made me laugh anyway!

 


Mothering Sunday UK 2011

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I had a completely different post planned for today, but sometimes you just need to know when to down tools and get some rest. Tonight is one of those nights, in fact I am so tired I can hardly type.

Today is Mothering Sunday in the UK. It’s been a busy day!

1. Early wake up call, two very excited children with handmade cards for Mummy jumping on the bed. Daddy vacuumed the glitter off the bed twice afterwards.

2. The BigTop was in town so we headed off to the circus. However I  spent most of the performance sitting in the car with second born, who took an instant dislike to the whole thing. Children can be so unpredictable, this was the third circus we had visited in less than 12 months, no issues previously, third time not so lucky.

3. Choosing Tea at Big Sis’ house – all very lovely as always. But as always we all ate too much and are subsequently very very sleepy!

Kid’s are now tucked up in bed (and me not far behind – it’s not even 9pm yet!), so just a quick post from me with a couple of photos to mark the occasion…

Firstly the card I sent my Mom – it is really difficult to get a card with ‘Mom’ on it in the UK – it’s normally Mum, Mother and even Mam but hardly ever Mom… Luckily there is a very talented lady in our Village who makes cards for the local florist and she had thought to include…

My Big Sis went one better and actually cross-stitched her handmade card with Mom on it… Forgot to take a photo of that one though….

Had to finish with the two pictures I took of the kids and their handy work. Didn’t realise how blurred the one of Dan was, but he’s a little monkey and will never ever stay still… I was lucky to get this shot…

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY EVERYONE

Simple Meal Plan 2-8 April Plus A NWTG Link!

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As usual on a Saturday I post my Simple Meal Plan for the upcoming week.

I plan for 6 days of meals, with Friday as my free day where I take part in The Frugal Girls Food Waste Friday and my very own No Waste Tastes Great Challenge.

Because I’m a simple gal, I order my groceries on-line for the week ahead and they are delivered. This also means I do not have to step into a supermarket – hurrah! No impulse purchases and queuing for me!

I budget up to £100 per week to cover everything… and pretty much I keep to it apart from holidays and when I am doing extra catering.

Breakfasts consist of, cereal, toast, pancakes, bran loaf.

I usually list all the pudding daily, but this week I am going extra simple on those (and I am skipping them altogether in a bit of a push to lose my Mum Tum – yes again!). Puddings/Desserts this week will consist of yoghurt, fruit, ice-cream, and cake and custard .

Saturday

  • Lunch – Ham Rolls and Salad
  • Dinner - Omelettes and Steamed Vegetables

Sunday (Mother’s Day in UK)

  • Lunch – Jacket Potatoes with Tuna and Salad
  • Dinner – “Choosing Tea” at my Sisters for Mothering Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

  • Lunch - Light Lunch out as PlayDay!
  • Dinner - Pasta with Tomato and Basil Sauce and Garlic Bread

Friday

Friday is our beautiful Daughters 6th Birthday, so I am hoping to have cleared the decks of any potential food waste in anticipation. We are planning dinner out with a few of her friends for Pizza! With a Swimming Party on Saturday with her classmates to celebrate!

The impending birthday does mean I have a cake to bake this week – bet you never knew I am a secret cake decorator………….. oh I am sure to post the pictures of my work of art!

:-)

On a Saturday I like to include some great reading recommendations or some links.  I have a confession – my reading this week has been almost non-existent – shocking! I really need to free up some more time!

So my link this week is to my other blog No Waste Tastes Great where I have posted the Slow-Cooked Chicken and Mushroom Pie recipe. It is so very very simple – really simple.

Back tomorrow I hope with my Mother’s Day post – that’s the plan anyway.

Anyhow I can hear a glass of wine with my name on it calling me, and Al Murray is hosting “Live at the Apollo” – that’s going to be worth watching!

No Waste Tastes Great 1 April 2011

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It’s Friday Guys! It’s time for …

No Waste Tastes Great

Fridays I take a little time first thing to strip down the fridge and perishables cupboard, clean both of them, take note of anything that needs replenishing, return any items back to the fridge leaving what needs using up on the counter.

Click here to find out more about my Friday Routine

So what is sitting on the counter in anticipation this week?

Continue reading →