Monthly Archives: December 2011

Happy New Year! Here’s To A Great 2012!

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I’ll do my “Happy New Year” now even though there’s still over 6 hours to go in the UK until Midnight.

Thank you all for reading this year (and maybe the end of last also?).

It’s a privilege to be able to blog, and to actually have someone out there read what I write is pretty amazing – so thank you!

I’m half ready myself (waiting for some clothes to dry), and am set to put the food out on the table.

The Kids are very excited, and have their ‘disco room’ ready to go…

There’s a chance I may update Facebook later with more photos, but if I don’t see you there, then I’ll be seeing you in 2012…

Have Fun Guys xxxx

Today I Am… 28 Dec 2012

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Hi Guys wanted to show my face and ramble a little, and thought the ‘Today I am..’ type post would be a good way to do that…

We still aren’t back from ‘Christmasland’ yet, so not in the normal routine, the normal blogging schedule will resume on Friday.

(did anyone in the UK see David Mitchell’s sketch on Michael McIntyre’s Christmas Roadshow talking about Christmasland? – very funny!) 

Today I am…

1. Typing this post whilst listening to the above on iplayer (I love stand-up comedy!)

2. Helping the Kids work their way through their presents, opening boxes and reading instructions…

3. Baking a carrot birthday cake for my Big Sis after being inspired by Rebecca’s comment last Friday…

4. Taking a little time to read Courtney Carvers post How To Make A Love List

5. Dropping First-Born off at a friends as they are going bowling and on the way back collecting my Mom so she can come and spend some time with Second-Born…

6. Spending some time tidying up the house and trying to work out how to get the photo’s of my fab new camera onto my PC!

7. I had planned to get someone to Sky+ Extreme Cheapskates on TLC as one of my favourite bloggers Katy was to appear on it – but apparently her segments been cut – read about it here

Anyhow I’m off to start that cake – what are you up to today?

No Waste Tastes Great 23 Dec 2011 / Plus Today I Did…

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It’s Friday Guys – It’s time for No Waste Tastes Great

Click here to find out more about my Friday routine

Okay so it’s a little later than usual and I’ll explain why further in the post but for now let’s get down to business…

Simply Being Mum’s Friday Fridge

Top Shelf – Spreads, Cheese, Ginger and Garlic (I’ve hidden the buttercream so Lauren can’t see it :-) )

Top Middle Shelf – Pate (for Christmas day), broccoli and green beans (to be eaten tomorrow for dinner) and a chocolate mousse (which will also get eaten tomorrow)

Bottom Middle Shelf – Spicy Butternut Squash Soup (I posted the recipe on my Facebook page on Tuesday (this was eaten at lunch after photo taken), 2 onions (will be chopped and frozen tomorrow), grapes and cucumber (which will be eaten at lunch tomorrow with cheese rolls).

Bottom Shelf – My 2kg Turkey Joint which I purchased from Aldi (I’m not having a whole turkey or even a crown this year in order to reduce the potential for waste). Eggs (in date and will last for the various dishes I have planned), and 2 sausages which will be used for toad in the hole – tomorrow night’s dinner)

Door – Milk and OJ (in date)

And that’s where we are. Tomorrow’s meals are catered for and then it’s Christmas day.

All sorted! How’s your Fridge looking this festive Friday?

Anyhow in honour of The Frugal Girl (who’s not posting Food Waste Friday today) I thought I’d share a ‘Today I am’ post – although mine is now ‘Today I did’…

  • Second-Born turned the PC off whilst the Hubby was transferring a lot of data, and it all had to be done again – taking up the WHOLE of the morning (hence the reason this post is so late!)
  • This afternoon I did an Aldi shop for my remaining bits and pieces
  • The Kids and I went to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks at the Cinema.
  • For dinner we popped into Pizza Hut (their happy hour was on! and Daddy got a doggie bag)..
  • Today I got rather excited as we invested in a Canon SLR. This *should* mean the end of rubbish fridge photos! Fingers crossed!
  • Finally I have just written my NWTG post! Better late than never…

What did you do today? Please share!

Christmas Dinner 2012 – The Plan (because there always is a plan!)

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There are just 4 days to go until at 2pm we’ll be sitting down for Christmas Dinner at Chez Wright.

((I don’t have a photo for this post – so have used the photo I took last year of our outdoor Christmas tree – We had snow! I was rather proud (and surprised) at how well this photo came out!))

This year I’m anticipating 8 adults and 2 Children seated…

As a fanatical meal planner, Christmas Day is no different to the other 364 days in the year. It’s planned for. And the aim is to keep waste to as much of a minimum as is possible on such a day.

So what’s the plan…

Well…

Guests will be met with Slow-cooked Mulled Wine and Home-made mince pies on arrival.

The mulled wine recipe is taken from my current favourite slow-cooker book by Sara Lewis. It’s a lovely mixture of red wine and cranberry juice with spices. The mince-pies the Kids and I will make fresh Christmas Eve as part of our Simple Christmas traditions.

I don’t do a starter, as it is typically a rather large and varied meal.

Christmas Dinner will consist of:

1. Maris piper potatoes slow-cooked to soften then roasted in goose fat.

2. Fresh carrots cut into batons and steamed

3. A stalk of sprouts removed from the stalk and steamed

4. Fresh parsnips roasted in olive oil and sprinkled with dried rosemary

5. 2 heads of broccoli cut into florets and steamed.

6. Home-made cauliflower cheese (consisting of 1 head of cauliflower)

7. Home-made yorkshire pudding – 2 per person

8. Pigs in blankets (sausages wrapped in bacon) – 2 per person

9. Slow-cooked gravy

10. Turkey! Of course!

The side-dishes are all being made by my Big Sis, and will consist of cranberry sauce, stuffing and bread sauce.

After dinner we will be eating the Christmas Pud I made the end of November with custard or brandy sauce. The alternative will be panetone bread and butter pudding with Irish Cream flavoured double cream.

The equipment I will be using is:

1 x Large Slow Cooker to soften the potatoes (Big Ben)

2 x Standard size Slow-Cooker’s for the mulled wine and gravy (Lil’ Bill and Brenda)

2 x 2-tier steamers for all the vegetables (I’m borrowing 1 from a friend as I only have 1)

All the vegetables will be prepped and kept in covered containers in water overnight in the garage – it’ll be cold enough! The pots will also be prepped and stored in the slow-cooker overnight in water.

The cauliflower cheese has already been made and frozen (from some I had left over) and will be taken out Christmas Eve to thaw out overnight.

The pudding batter will be made fresh Christmas morning and stored in the fridge in 2 pyrex jugs – this will make about 24 small puds.

I am borrowing a slow-cooker off my Mom to slow-cook the Christmas Pud for 2 hours – it’s a large pud so will cover all those who eat it. My Big Sis is making the panetone bread and butter pud in advance and will bring it round to be reheated after dinner.

This year I am buying Turkey joints, pre-stuffed. I swore last year was the last I would throw any turkey away, even if it’s just the carcass. We don’t carve the turkey at the table, so it won’t ruin the effect!

I haven’t finished the shop yet, so do not have a total cost, but most of the ingredients are pretty basic, and made from scratch (keeping the cost down). I will update this post when I have a total.

I’ll take some photos on the day and post to Facebook!

What am I going to do with leftovers?

Well the aim is to not over estimate. However if there are leftovers, they will be chilled and reused on 27th, as I am hosting another dinner – this time for some friends who are visiting.

How are the Dinner plans going at yours? All in hand, or still much to think about?

Here’s a couple of posts I ran last year if you’d like to read more:

<a href=”http://simplybeingmum.com/2010/12/16/the-simple-christmas-guide-christmas-dinner-part-1/“>Simple Christmas Dinner Part 1</a>

<a href=”http://simplybeingmum.com/2010/12/20/the-simple-christmas-guide-christmas-dinner-part-2/“>Simple Christmas Dinner Part 2</a>

Don’t forget I am now updating daily on Facebook

No Waste Tastes Great 16 Dec 2011 / Plus Christmas Food Questions

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It’s Friday Guys – It’s time for No Waste Tastes Great

Click here to find out more about my Friday routine - Written almost a year to the day!

Simply Being Mum’s Friday Fridge

Top Shelf – Spreads, Garlic and Ginger – there is Cheese also but just as I was about to photograph the fridge I removed to the cheese to start making lunch. We’re having cheese sandwiches!

Top Middle Shelf – 4 Yogurts in date and will be eaten next week.

Bottom Middle Shelf – Head of Broccoli, Head of Cauliflower, Chopped Melon, Grapes, Quarter of a Cucumber and 3 Carrots.

Bottom Shelf – Nothing!

Door – 1 (in date) Egg (I’m out of milk and juice oh no!)

So what’s the plan?

Lunch will use up the melon, grapes and cucumber. I’ve already decided (upon finding 2 large potatoes) that I am going to make fishcakes (there’s fortunately 2 frozen cod fillets in my nearly empty freezer). We are going to all have these for dinner with some cauli, broccoli and the 3 carrots (no takeaway for us tonight). I’m then going to save about two-thirds of both the cauliflower and broccoli and with my remaining cheese make a cauli/broc cheese bake and freeze it for Christmas dinner.

This brings me onto Christmas Dinner. This is my planning weekend.

Whether there will be any interest in this I’m not sure, but if anyone wishes to ask any questions about preparing a Christmas Dinner or how to reduce Christmas food waste, I’ll happily run a post on it early next week. Kind of like a Questions and Answer post. It’s likely I will post about how I’m planning to host Christmas dinner at Chez Wright, and may incorporate it into that if I do get any questions.

How’s your fridge looking this Friday? Is it quaking at the thought of trying to cram in extras in preparation for the Holidays, or is it all decluttered and ready for some tasty arrivals?

No Waste Tastes Great is bought to you with continued thanks to The Frugal Girl and the original inspirational Food Waste Friday

I’m now posting daily on Facebook - all sorts of bits and pieces that don’t always make it to the blog!

Simple Christmas Traditions – Simple Gift-Giving

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Hey Last Christmas by Wham just came on the radio as I started typing! My very favourite Christmas song ever – Thanks Radio 2!!

It’s Christmas Guys! Cue Sleigh Bells!

We like to lead a simple life over at Chez Wright, but the tradition of Christmas still includes the exchange of gifts for us.

As I said we keep it simple, that includes how we do gifts. I call it my “Christmas Box” system. This is how we do it for the adults in our close family. Our Kids get a visit from Santa ;-)

(The Hubby and I don’t exchange gifts – Santa drops off one small token for each of us so that the Kids get to see us open a gift on Christmas morning)

This is how my ‘Christmas Box’ system works:

  1. One box per person
  2. In that box there is:
  • Something to eat (normally chocolate)
  • Something to drink (normally alcohol)
  • A pair of socks (well it wouldn’t be Christmas without socks would it?)
  • An experience (gift voucher for those that shop, a theatre/event ticket for those that like to be entertained, a book or DVD for those who prefer a physical specific item)
This year the plan was to make each box by taking a used box and sticking pieces of Christmas paper to it and gluing over. However on one grocery trip to Home Bargains (affectionately known as Bargo’s at Chez Wright) I spotted this:
A bargain (that’s why they are called Home Bargains!) at £3.99 for a large great quality box that can be used by the recipient time and time again.
Then it just got better, as I opened it, I discovered 3 other boxes contained for the price.
How could I resist? (I’m partial to browns and creams – have you noticed the decor in the background?)…
These boxes are part of the gift themselves and can be reused. Next year I will be making all the boxes but will allow a little more time (one box can take three days to complete including drying time!).
The Kids and I have made a couple of our own decoupage boxes… First-Born’s teacher is the recipient of one.
Hats off to Home Bargains (Bargos) once again… This gift cost less than £5!
This system works for me because we do exchange gifts at Christmas but I hate shopping. It’s simple to get all the consumables in one trip when I get my groceries (even the socks can be purchased from most grocery retailers). The vouchers, tickets, books and DVD’s can be ordered online.  All items are contained in one box so it looks neat and is very easy to hide away from my Kids prying eyes as I store them before the big day.
When the gifts are exchanged there isn’t hours of opening presents, and when the recipient takes them home they are all contained in one box. Very simple in my opinion!
The added bonus is I’m not cluttering anyone up, 50% of the items can be consumed, the socks are a usable item, and the experience can be taken at their leisure after the holidays. The beauty of gift vouchers is that everythings reduced in the New Year so it’s better value for money for those who like to shop!
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I’ll be doing another post on card-exchanges (we don’t send cards we make a donation to charity instead). There will also be photos of the completed gifts as it is still to be wrapped up (ribbon, twine and home-made gift tags) – pardon the pun!
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Don’t forget I’m updating daily on Facebook! Yesterday I even found time to take this photo (to upload) as I sat waiting for Mom and Big Sis to join me for another of our Christmas traditions – a pre-christmas pub lunch:
Over on my Facebook page there’s also a video message I received from Santa this morning… see even if you believe in a simple Christmas there’s still room for a little of Santa’s magic :-)

So…How Did I End Up Shopping At Aldi?

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Let me take you on a journey…

Sit back and relax…

Firstly I posted about reducing grocery spend and a dear reader, Sharron, whose opinion I respect suggested I may want to check Aldi out. I wasn’t convinced it was for me, but I like to think I have an open mind and believed Sharron may know her stuff. It went on the back-burner.

Then this post went up over at The Frugal Girl. Kristen is one of my very favourite bloggers and I trust her opinion. In 2010 I read a review of a book that she’d been badgered to give by the author. Her honesty and willingness to share objectively with her readers was never in any doubt for me from that moment. You can read the review here. If you want to check my comment out it was under my pre-blogging peusdonym SimplyJo.

Upon reading The Frugal Girl’s post on her trip to Aldi’s test kitchens, I commented and Aldi UK contacted me. They very kindly offered to send me a few samples of some of their award winning products. I accepted. To attempt a grocery shop at Aldi was on the ‘to-do’ list, so it would be great to get a preview of some of their products.

Then Aldi went up in my estimations ten-fold by kindly agreeing to send Sharron (my dear reader) some samples also. After all, Sharron had recommended them.

A few weeks passed, and I still hadn’t tried out a grocery shop at Aldi. I was keeping to my reduced budget of £50 rather well, albeit it was taking 4 to 5 separate locations to achieve this.

Then I had a bad day. Arms dropping off and brain ache, I began questioning whether there could be another way? Could I get my groceries from one location and stay in budget? The cogs started whirring.

Eventually I did my grocery shop at Aldi, managing to get all the items on my list apart from lasagne sheets (I still don’t understand why these aren’t stocked – bizarre!) and milk (delivery hadn’t arrived). The total spend came in £8.89 under budget.

Last Friday I did my second shop at Aldi and spent less than the previous week.

And I grabbed a bargain – A £19.99 running jacket reduced to £7.99…

Whilst there I picked up the majority of the ingredients and foodstuffs for my Simple Dinner Party.  I’d already made the meringues and had a few storecupboard items to hand.

The cost of the ingredients for the main and dessert came to;

£23.24 – Aldi

£32.51 – The Supermarket I would have used normally

A saving of 28.5%

(Please bear in mind this cannot be scientific – it is an estimate, but it’s as close as I can get it!)

I’m keen to let you know what Sharron and I thought of our samples, but this is a long post as it is and it’s bedtime in the UK (I thought the background to it all was important before I start talking about product. ) …so it’ll have to wait for another day :-)

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