A Thrifty Morning

With the changes ushered in by recent events my work pattern has altered quite radically. People have shuffled into new spots as I've adjusted arrangements to try and meet people's requirements. I have lost my alternate Tuesday off which I hope to be able to reclaim if things settle a bit more further down the line, but I have gained a free Tuesday morning every week. It's proved to be a useful gap because I get up early and am home from the Co-op by 7.30am with the weekly shop. I've yet to go back to Tesco and am frankly not bothered. We've done the sums and reckon that with a monthly trip to Lidl we're buying less and wasting nowt, but spending about the same as before. I much prefer the ethics of the Co-op anyway and this has forced me to walk my talk and change my habits.

I don't know if I should be admitting this [as a non lover of cooking], but the rest of my mornings are not getting wasted either as I'm using the time to either batch bake or cook ahead with any food that needs using up. This week's efforts have produced another variation on the slowcooker lentil and coconut curry I did a couple of weeks ago, but this Slimming World recipe gave me the chance to use up my sweet potatoes. There's two dinners worth for all of us now lurking in the freezer.

My parents gave us a big pot of double cream last weekend which I whipped and then sweetened with some sieved icing sugar and flavoured with instant coffee mixed with a little water. It's not quite got the texture of icecream, so I prefer to think of it as iced cream, but it still hits the spot if you fancy a bit of naughty calorie laden dessert!

One lot of yellow stickered roast chicken turned into Coronation chicken to go in wraps for supper and that was it I was all "kitchened" out. It was with great joy I plumped my ample rump into a chair and spent the remaining time doing some more hand stitching on my bathroom blind before heading out of the door to go and earn some real money!

A few photos from Chester tomorrow.

Arilx