The last couple of weeks have been a time of rest and recuperation for both Darren and I I was sick for a week with side effects from a vaccine and a cold that sent me to bed. Darren came down with a bad cold about the same time. I've been feeling well for three days now and Darren has almost recovered.
We were grateful for a well stocked freezer of home made meals to keep us going. We are also grateful for a clean, tidy and organised home that gave us the opportunity to just sit and recover. No dirty washing or dishes piling up around us.
Although I've been absent for the last couple of weeks, my frugal list is very short and sweet. There were days when I couldn't do a single task around our home.
So here it is - our frugal list
* We picked kale, silverbeet and lettuce from our garden to go with a few of our meals
* Pruned our Hebe bush and used the branches to brighten our home.
* Made 2 kilos of brown sugar from scratch.
* Made a quadruple batch of ANZAC biscuit dough. Some was baked and the rest of the dough went into the freezer.
* Made a big pot of spag bol sauce from 1 kilo of beef mince. I added TVP to stretch the meat and added grated carrot and lots of silverbeet and kale. From the pot of meat sauce I was able to get 21 single serves. We ate it fresh that night and the rest went into the freezer. Batch cooking at it's best.
* Gratefully received 2 pumpkins. Darren cut and cooked one of them. The flesh was drained overnight and portioned into containers to freeze. It will be used to make lots of pumpkin scones in the future.
* Gratefully received some oranges and mandarins from Megan's trees.
* Saved the washing machine rinse water for the next load of washing.
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| Making ANZAC biscuit dough |
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| White sugar and molasses makes brown sugar |
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| Fresh kale and silverbeet from the garden |
Glad you are feeling better. Thank you for writing your blog, I read it each post, but don’t normally comment.
ReplyDeleteHi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing.
Sorry to hear you have both been unwell. It is a relief to be able to rest and recover without worrying about the chores. As frustrating as a 6th lockdown would be, you are well prepared. There was panic buying here in SE Qld but it calmed down in a day or two. I think most people have tried to stock up on a few things here and there. Feeling grateful we did this, as we headed into a lockdown last week.
Take care and hope you are both feeling 100% soon.
Rachel:)
We are in lockdown in Brisbane and it is very worrying that it's the children who are now been affected. We are due to come out of lockdown 4pm tomorrow [Sunday] and I don't think we will or should just yet. Whilst our "in the community while infected" is low 2-5 cases I think another 4-7 days would give us some sort of insurance given Vic has now had 29 cases today after there 7 day lock down. Stay safe.
ReplyDeleteHi Wendy. i am intrigued at making brown sugar. What ratios do you use please
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to read you are feeling better now, Wendy. It sounds like you really needed time to rest and recover. We have spent very little $ this week. We are in the Brisbane lockdown and staying home. This week:
ReplyDelete* homemade meals included fried rice, chicken fajitas, spaghetti bolognese, chicken and vegetable pie and silverbeet pie
* homemade snacks included weetbix and oat slice, banana muffins, choc chickpea biscuits
* used up two tins of chickpeas from pantry for biscuits
* picked silverbeet, spring onion and parsley from garden for pie
* bought sewing pattern from online shop for $14.50 saving $4.50 off Spotlight price
* cleaned dishwasher with vinegar
* read books borrowed from library before lockdown
* writing my daily to do lists on backs of old envelopes
* saving shower warm-up water to use in wash machine.
Stay safe and well, Wendy.
Meg
Good to hear you’re back on the mend now Wendy. Take care. 😘
ReplyDeleteGood morning, glad you're on the mend. With social distancing, hand washing/ sanitising etc we have been lucky as no colds for about 2 years now, but little grandchildren are a constant source usually! Back in lockdown, our cupboards have never been so well sorted. Missing seeing my family am freezing excess lemon juice,finishing some 'ufos' from the craft cupboard and made a batch of miracle spray. Hope you're all coping on the other side of the bay
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of making brown sugar myself. Thank you Wendy
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're on the mend. We've been picking & eating a lot from our garden, and also trading neighbors. We have so many zucchini (courgette) & our neighbor has Persian basil, which my husband loves. We also traded some of our extra spicy peppers for shisito, which are so delicious blistered on the barbecue.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, we've been doing the basics of making meals at home (I also try to batch cook a few things, and freeze leftovers), selling things on eBay, etc.
Our frugal thing: we don't call our pasta sauces by their proper names (e.g. 'bolognaise'), we just have 'red sauce', 'white sauce' and 'green sauce', and I add whatever I have in the fridge/pantry.
ReplyDelete