Published On: October 23, 2024Categories: Mains, Recipes
We do not eat a lot of meat now for financial, and health reasons, but do still enjoy some simple meat meals with the classical potatoes and vegetables, and sometimes gravy. This is a great [...]
Going back to food as fuel and medicine
Published On: October 22, 2024Categories: Uncategorized
Once upon a time our ancestors knew what they had to eat to give themselves enough fuel to work, and the medicine to keep healthy. We have since lost that knowledge. We have also lost [...]
Malt Loaf
Published On: October 22, 2024Categories: Uncategorized
Malt Loaf I love a malt loaf but they seem to have doubled in price in the shops in the last 18 months and so I refuse to buy them. I therefore decided to make [...]
Finding inner peace
Published On: October 16, 2024Categories: Wellbeing
I have been told by people that have known me for a long time that I am a different person since I retired. I really believe that it is because I have found a kind [...]
Strategies for quick, healthy meals when getting home from work
I hear people tell me that they are too tired, or can not be bothered to cook after a long busy day at work and so that is why they use ready meals or pick [...]
Stuffed butternut squash
Published On: October 13, 2024Categories: Mains, Recipes
We have squashes that we have grown in the garden, but they are also cheaper to buy in the shops as well at this time of year as they are in season. Our favourite is [...]
A fruit salad is one of our favourite desserts and we eat a lot of it. We have it with home made ice cream in the summer or custard on a cold day. We also [...]
How did we become so greedy?
Published On: September 30, 2024Categories: Wellbeing
I need to reduce my weight for health reasons as I have not lost some of the weight that I gained during the pandemic. It has made me examine more closely what I consume, and [...]
My Autumn meal plan for this week is all about eating from the fridge, cupboards and garden whilst providing hearty meals. The temperature has dropped dramatically and it is starting to feel chilly. I [...]
I wanted to make something nice for lunch to have with salad from the garden. I needed to make something quickly and have been meaning to make this air fryer smoked cheese and apple quiche [...]
21 Garden jobs in Autumn
Published On: September 25, 2024Categories: Growing Food
We are officially into Autumn now and the last of my summer crops are finishing. I am still hanging on hoping that some of my tomatoes may go red but I have harvested a lot [...]
Experimenting with Amaranth
Published On: September 23, 2024Categories: Growing Food
I grew a new crop to me called Amaranth. I had heard that you could grow it like Quinoa that I tried for the first time last year. I am always interested in things that [...]
Home made ‘Twix’ biscuits.
Published On: September 21, 2024Categories: Baking, Recipes
A memory came up on my FB from 2 years ago when we made short bread to take as a present to my great, great aunt, and for the neighbours who had been keeping an [...]
Mediterranean garlic crust pie
Published On: September 18, 2024Categories: Mains, Recipes
My friend said that she needed to go to the supermarket as she had nothing in to feed the 3 of them tonight. However, she had no money. I had none to lend her. She [...]
Be gentle with yourself
Published On: September 18, 2024Categories: Wellbeing
It took me a long time to learn to be gentle with myself when I was feeling down. I felt like a failure, and guilty. I am writing this today for a friend in the [...]
Utilising the free heat of the sun inside
Published On: September 18, 2024Categories: Saving Money
I have a conservatory on my house. I bought it with some of my retirement money in 2015. It was an extravagance but I had always dreamed of having a garden room. Every one warned [...]
If we can avoid the supermarket and make things ourselves, we will. This is especially true if they are made out of home grown produce. Baked beans are really cheap from the shops but they [...]
The benefits of walking in nature
Published On: September 15, 2024Categories: Wellbeing
I tend to spend less time outside in bad weather and in winter. This is mainly due to the great British weather. Although I have all the correct wet weather gear, I hate getting wet [...]
Feeling Different
Published On: September 15, 2024Categories: Wellbeing
This is a blog I wrote on another forum a number of years ago about feeling different. In lots of ways I feel different to many of the people around me still today. I am [...]
Making different compotes and how they frugally add joy to our diet.
Published On: September 15, 2024Categories: Desserts, Recipes
We have a very tight food budget and so there is not a lot of spare money for sweet treats. Compote has therefore become a treat that we make every week for very little cost. [...]
The fruit that we forage plays a massive part in our nutrition over the winter and means that we can have lovely desserts at low cost. Locally we find black berries, cherries, raspberries, pears and [...]
We felt like something 'dirty' and unhealthy to eat the other day for lunch. We have been trying so hard to stick to a healthy diet but some times I just need something 'forbidden' to [...]
We made this for Mr S the other day as it is low in sugar but does not have any bananas in it (which he hates). It is a healthy recipe that Mr S learned [...]
Changing from a victim mindset to a victory mindset
Published On: September 10, 2024Categories: Wellbeing
A lot of people have asked me recently how I changed my life. How I became happy even though I had little. The thing that made all the difference was swapping my victim mindset to [...]
I am on a quest to eat more healthily. I especially want to cut out sugar. We have an abundance of foraged apples, and I bought some reduced over ripe bananas the other day which [...]
Making an Autumn bucket List
Published On: September 8, 2024Categories: Wellbeing
Every year as Autumn approaches I always start to feel down. The nights draw in, I start to worry about energy costs, and I don't get out in nature as much as I want to [...]
At last I have built up enough tomatoes to make some sauce to use during the winter and so we canned some yesterday. Last summer was the first time that I had tried water bathing [...]
I am still trying to find ways to use the blackberries so that I don't waste them. This black berry balsamic vinegar/glaze makes a lovely dressing for salad, is nice with game, or can be [...]
We are still using up the apples that we have foraged on a couple of occasions and have picked from our garden. I have stored some wrapped in newspaper and preserved some by dehydrating, making [...]
Keeping your home nice on a small budget
Published On: August 28, 2024Categories: Saving Money
My home has started to look tired and shabby. I spend too much time in the garden and don't really notice most of the time! Sometimes I am a bit too ashamed to invite people [...]
Get ready for Christmas now to save money and stress
I can hear people shouting at me now as the word Christmas can feel like a swear word in August. I had the same reaction myself when I saw Christmas items being sold in a [...]
I make fruit leathers as a healthy treat for myself and my grandson. My own children used to love the bought ones put in their lunch boxes for school and so I thought that I [...]
Apple Chutney
Published On: August 25, 2024Categories: Preserves
I have never made apple chutney before but I thought that it would be nice with our home made sausages, in a toastie with cheese, or in a pork mince burger. We have foraged lots [...]
I noticed that last week the energy companies warned us that there might be outages caused by solar storms. I have also read about weapons that could be used in a war situations called EMPs [...]
A few tips to reduce the cost of your weekly shop
Published On: August 21, 2024Categories: Uncategorized
I don't often go in to supermarkets, but when I do I notice how much most things have increased in price. The cost of many items has nearly doubled, and yet our incomes have hardly [...]
Blackberry Jelly
Published On: August 20, 2024Categories: Preserves
The brambles are finally out. They provide a lot of treats and free nutrition for us during the winter and so we go foraging for them nearly every day when they are abundant. Blackberries (called [...]