It's in the bag!

 Hi everyone,

I've been starving poor Dearly Beloved on carbs so he can have a pile of new potatoes with his supper. I'll just eat the plain fish! I grow veggie in bags, any old bags. The potato bags are on their third year. I haven't watered them enough and I haven't got many in each bag.

 I love tipping them out, pulling the roots apart and releasing the spuds from their warm composty home.

 It took two bags to get one bowl full. They are just lovely and we have mint in the garden to cook in with them.

 I also pulled up the shallots, I shall leave them to dry and pickle them this weekend. Another favourite of Dearly Beloved is cheese, homemade bread and chutney or cold meat, such as cold roast chicken and pickled onions.

DB had steamed ruby chard, new potatoes and some salmon (big bag of frozen equates to £1 a fillet from Tesco) for his supper. I'm just loving the garden!

Tarting up tatt!

Hi everyone,

I'll let you into a little of the frugal home decor and release some of my inner Barbara Cartland over the next few days. The tiny side table started life in a reclamation yard at the back of Union street in Plymouth (best known for slappers and kebabs) and was bought originally for £20 as my daughter's school desk for her bedroom. It now makes an ideal lamp stand. The lamps in my sitting room were red clearance labels from TK Max. But the real bargain in the corner is the car boot vase for a couple of pounds filled with flowers bought a few at a time at car boots, jumbles, charity shops and Trago. Tat? but I love them!

 At last week's car boot sale, I bought the two piccies of two different Cornish harbours. Cadwith and Portloe. The stall holder wanted £5 for the pair and I got them for £4, but I still think that was expensive.

I just sanded the frames and painted them with white egg shell and now they are hung in my porch and yes, they are linked together with old paper clips.

 My other purchase last week was a side table, often called a butler tray. It's made of teak and meant for the garden. It has taken several coats of egg shell to cover it, but DB got there in the end (come on! you don't think I do it?)

Here it is, in my sitting room. Next to my £1.20 ebay arm chair and my very old and many times repaired sofa. I paid £5 for the butler tray and thought it was worth that.

No car boot saling today, but I thought I would show you my afternoon walk yesterday. Watergate Bay on the north coast. Beware, be very ware! If you go before 2pm the car park charges £5.60 and due to the one car wide roads to get there, you can not park anywhere else. It's a stunning place, the play ground of millionaires, with the tiniest holiday apartment costing half a million quid! Also, check the tides, at high tide, there is no beach. We get mussels from the North coast, the sea is rougher and the water quality is of the highest standard. They are still a bit small, but have less dense 'beards' when they are young. Rock grown mussels have more flavour than the rope grown type you get in the shops. You can also just help yourself, no one cares and very few people eat them here. I do, and they are worth the trip over to the north coast. Enjoy the views.

 Yours' truly and the headland in the background.

 Measuring the mussels - they cover every rock for as far as the eye can see.

 Still a bit small.

 Crystal clear water, and five hours since high tide.

 Newquay in the background.

 View to the left. Click to enlarge.

 View to the right.

Kite surfers; playing.

Until tomorrow,

Froogs xxxx

Seriously carby homemade fish and chips!

Hi everyone,

I'm just about back on my feet. My legs feel like lead and I'm dragging myself from A to B. I must be better though, after not eating much since Saturday night, I was really hungry today. There is nothing quite like a pile of stodge when you haven't eaten in days. I made homemade fish and chips. I defrosted some Tesco cod fillets, made some gluten free batter. To do this, you need: one cup of gluten free flour, one egg and one cup of milk and a sprinkle of salt and pepper and beat together. Coat the cod in flour and dunk, several times in and out of the batter and drop into hot oil. I managed to do this correctly today by getting the oven to 240 degrees. Served with just enough oven chips.....I usually aim for a cup full! I am now feeling a whole lot better although I have a feeling that the mega dose of carbs after being carb-free for so long is not going to have the best effect on me.

Before.

After!!!! Can you believe that fish and chips is about £6 if you go out for it now!!! It used to be a 'poor man's supper' now it's far from it. Oh well, it's certainly cheap enough to make at home, even if it'll take me until Thursday to digest it.

Thanks again for the get well comments. I'll be back to the frugalling asap!!

Until tomorrow,

Froogs xxxx

Really cheap and low calorie lunch

Thanks to everyone who left messages to cheer me yesterday. I've done what I can to do as much school paper work as I can, and I've done as much to the garden as I can and as much to the house as I can. Good food brightened today.

For lunch today, I made a tomato, courgette and finely diced shallot omelette for both of us. Dearly Beloved had some homegrown new potatoes with his and we both had steamed green beans (courgettes, beans and shallots were home grown). I made a dessert from some lovely rhubarb that I was given yesterday. Before I ate any, being a follower of the Dukan Diet, I checked the 'stats' for rhubarb. 21 calories per 100g, high in fibre and vitamin C and K and calcium and potassium, 4.5g of carbohydrates of which on 1.1g sugars, so in Dukan terms - it's a winner. (Technically it's a vegetable, not a fruit as the sugar content is so low and it's 96% water)

I diced and cooked the rhubarb in a tablespoon of water until soft, allowed it to cool and added 'Splenda' to taste, I didn't want it to lose its sharpness. I then mixed it with a pot of almost fat free cream cheese (you could use Quark) until there were no cheese lumps and then poured it into small bowls and we have two portions each. I left it to set, it is what we call a Rhubarb Fool, you can do the same with raspberries, blackcurrants or strawberries. Fantastic English summer desserts. It was really, really nice.

 I'm feeling vile about myself as my weight has gone back up to 12 stone and 12 lbs, but I'm being very careful about calories intake and making sure I get an hour's exercise a day. It's going to be hard if it gets hot but I'll try and split it into 30 mins in the morning and then the same in the evening.

Until tomorrow,

Froogs xxxx

Scrimping in the warm and dry!

 As I type, the wind and rain is lashing at my hill top house. The rain is being blown down from Bodmin Moor and in from the sea at Looe and Liskeard, in the middle is being deluged. And, do you know what? I bet everyone here is loving it. Fortunately, my poly tunnel is protecting my veggies from the elements and the rest of my garden is getting the soaking it desperately needs. My water butt is filling up and I've put the dust bin outside with the lid off (and a huge stone in the bottom) to catch any rain it can. I've also left two buckets out as well (also with stones in so they don't blow away) to catch the water.

It's a bit chilly so we're back to socks and wooly pullovers and in true Widow Twanky style, my house has laundry hanging to dry from every available space. It's tough gettting work clothes clean and dry for Monday in weather like this!

I've had a dig round in the cupboard and found some more scone mix (bought a while ago from Approved Food) and a half full pack of sultanas and I've rustled up some scones for the freezer. They only take 15 minutes to cook in a hot oven, so economical on energy too. I baked today and yesterday in my mini-oven, and although I had reservations about its baking abilities, they have come out quite well. I've got loads of school prep to do today and I'll be in the lounge by the big window to get any light there is, under a snuggly blanket as sitting still is not good in this weather.

Is anyone else thankful for the rain?

Until tomorrow,

Froogs xxxxx

Busy Saturday and nothing spent!

 It was just a week ago, that at this time, I was wandering around Auray about to go to lunch. Today is just about reality and being frugal and a wee bit eco. Every peeling, shredded newspaper and anything biodegradable goes into our compost, and that is being used to grow our spuds in bags. I use my tea bags and coffee grinds to add nitrogen into our plants. Anything grown in a container needs feeding. I rip open the tea bags and keep the tea and then dig it into the soil and compost around the plants in containers.

 Today, has been extremely busy. I shopped at Tesco (online) and my week's groceries, including pet food, toiletries and cleaning products has come in at £35.75 including delivery. I have lots in my store cupboards to supplement and I'll be using them up for a while. I've also been picking beans and courgettes and they are also supplementing. I've baked a fruit cake for Dearly Beloved to take some to work every day and I'm using up a lot of what we've got.

 Today started with a rigorous house clean. Here in Cornwall, we get a lot of damp and therefore a lot of black mould. I get round this with 21p Tesco value bleach, diluted 50:50 and I spray it on the mould, leave it a while and go back and clean it off. The shower gets mouldy, so do the window frames and corners of rooms, I keep on top of this and usually tackle an area every week.

I've also spent time on recycling today. My towelling bathrobe, that I bought well over ten years ago has all but given up, so I've cut it up this morning for my rag bag. I usually make wash mittens or dish clothes, but I'll keep it for when I need it. One of DB's tee shirts has also given up, so I've cut it into strips to add to the knitted bath mat I'm making.

 I spent a while this morning compiling my menu plan, based initially on what's in the house to last us until Wednesday, when my Tesco delivery arrives between 8pm and 10pm. It's £2.50 cheaper to have it delivered 'off peak' and I can't buy any extras if I don't go to the shop!!

Here's the weekend menu plan

Saturday lunch - Chicken cooked in honey and mustard sauce - 3 for £1 from Aprpoved food and part of my spare food stock (next to no sauce for me courtesy of Monsoir Dukan's advice) with salad - I cooked twice as much last night.

Supper - Corn beef hash for DB (remainder of tin into the fridge to go in his sarnies next week) I'll have some dry fried courgettes with a dash of garlic, with a tin of sardines (21p Asda cheapies - I have several tins of these stashed away) and we'll both have green beans from the poly tunnel with theses.

Sunday breakfast - scrambled egg (I just microwave it) and eat it plain, whilst DB will have his on toast.

Sunday Lunch - beef stew made with carrots and onions, some gravy (don't tell Pierre!) and DB will have some of our early new potatoes with his - I won't.

Sunday supper - steamed smoked haddock (piece reduced to £1.19 in Morrisons) with spinach (out of the freezer) and DB will have some new potatoes and I won't!

Monday Breakfast - oatmeal pancakes for breakfast and DB will have cereal and miilk.

Lunch - DB will have corn beef and homemade chutney sandwich with a piece of fruit cake - I'll have a pot of Tesco Value cottage cheese.

Monday supper - 100% beef burgers with salad, DB will have some homemade oven chips with his - I won't!!! (simple - we eat the same, I eat less and fewer carbs)

Tuesday Breakfast - both can have a ham omelette.

Lunch - DB will have sarnies and cake, I will have a tin of sardines, some toms and a yogurt.

Diet will liven up then as Tesco order will arrive!

 Many people have said very complimentary things about my debt repayments, and my determination to live a simpler life. It does bring its benefits. We eat less so we're healthier. We amuse ourselves so we are less and less reliant on money and we know we can live on very little. This in turn means we don't dwell on what we don't have or might not have in the future. We enjoy the little we have and get on with life. This has had a positive impact on our mental state and we think, as often as we can, about the good things in our life.

 I've had a really good work out in the house this morning. I've cleaned the inside of all the windows and got rid of all the mould around the window frames. I've washed all the clothes and bucket by bucket, watered the borders in the garden and even had some spare to pour onto the lawn. I've showered and washed my hair, as ever, standing in a big blue plastic box and poured the water into spud bags.

It's a busy life, but extremely rewarding. The 'down time' today will include: getting out with some music and getting at least a three mile walk into my day, reading my library book, catching up on the paper DB found on the train last night and walking the dogs.

Busy Saturday and nothing spent..................what a perfect day!

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxx

I'll admit; I'm a cheap date!

Take a chicken breast per person, cut almost in half and flatten out, cover in a plastic bag and then gently use a rolling pin as a mallet to flatten it out even further.

 Our supper was not cheap! It shouldn't have been. This May marks the fifteen years we've been together and part of the reason that we've just about got enough money together to go for a week's really quite plush holiday. Anything is plush when you can't afford it. We've worked like troopers today. The whole house is clean, all the down stairs floors have been washed, all the windows have been cleaned, so has the car and the drive and paths are all swept and tidy. Careful shopping, after a bit of research has been split between Asda and Lidl this week. Our shopping bill has almost doubled, due to the high protein content and we can't get away without spending around £50 - £60 a week!

We don't eat out, I've given up drinking and Dearly Beloved drinks one bottle of beer a week! Good food keeps us going. I was having a coffee this morning, whilst watching Gino D'Acampo cooking and I've tried to do something similar. He stuffed chicken with minced wild mushroom and other yummy stuff, which I haven't used, but I've used his cooking method.

I used Quark, which I had drained over night to thicken, added a clove of crushed garlic and a two finely chopped shallots, a sprinkle of parsley and mixed together before stuffing the chicken.

 I then, in the financial absence of Parma ham!!! Wrapped each piece in smoky bacon, after firstly cutting off any fat.

 I then tightly wrapped it in cooking paper and formed a kind of Christmas cracker to keep it all together.

 I cooked it in the mini oven for 40 minutes. Check your own oven, every one is different and may need more of less time.

 I then made a dressing to go with the chicken and the salad. I peeled and de-seeded half a cucumber, finely diced it, added a tablespoon of mint sauce (sugar free) to a single portion size of plain fat free yoghurt. I loosened it with lemon juice and then decided, after tasting it, that some dried corriander would liven it up....and it did.

 It certainly tasted better than it looked..

Here's the cooked chicken. The quark in the centre was a bit of a disaster, when yoghurt products are cooked, they tend to seperate and the bottom of the roasting dish was just full of water, but the garlic, parsley and chopped shallots could be tasted in a burst at the centre of the chicken.

Here's the final result! Romantic meal for two. Homemade, frugal, carb free and it was totally delicious!

How's the Dukan diet going?

The Dukan diet recipe book advocates using very small amounts of corn flour to thicken sauces made with skimmed milk. You can of course make your own sauces but if you have a really close look at labels you can find some extremely low calorie, low fat altrnatives.  

If you see the above product any where, it has 26 calories, 1.1g of carbs that sugar and no fat in a reconstituted 100g serving. You can make it with water or soya milk. I just make it with water. I had about 100 calories worth tonight as a bit of a Friday blow out.

You can also buy low fat versions of bacon. Just sift through the bacon on the shelves, turn the packs over to see the bacon and look for the pack with the very least bacon. Dry fry it in a very hot pan and you won't need to buy the 'healthy options' version. Just use your own discretion and cut off any fat.

So what did I do with all this??? I made  bacon and courgette layered with cheeseless sauce. It did, however, have a cheesy flavour and I will buy this product again. My lovely Vegan friend, Foster Mummy gave me some to try and I've been hooked ever since.

I added a layer of the cheese sauce to the mountain of bacon and then layered with courgettes that I had fried in a dry pan with some one cal spray. I made far too much cheese sauce and managed to leave most of it (fed it to dog!) and I will use just one tablespoon and 100mls of water next time.

The end result was amazing! I'm turning into a courgette connoiseur and I use them to bulk out many meals and they are so cheap, plus, my poly tunnel is full of them!

The Dukan diet is going well, although I'm now stuck at 12 stone 13lbs, I'll be happy with a 1lb a week weight loss! I'm easily sticking to the exercise and look forward to plugging in the i-pod, putting it on shuffle and getting out for a brisk walk. It's not long ago, that I would get into my pjs early and 'settle in' for the evening. I now get to around 8 pm and that's my cue to get my trainers on and get walking. It's amazing what just the loss of one stone (and a pound!) does for my mobility, I don't get so puffed and exercising is much easier.

How's it going? It's fine.


Just as an add to the list of 'homemade' - here's the home made tartare sauce I made today for Dearly Beloved to have with his Fish and Chips (one lonely battered fillet left in the freezer, got used up today)

Finely chop two shallots, four small gerkins and a hand full of parsley. Add to virtually fat free mayonaise, add lemon juice and lots of black pepper and you have tartare sauce. Nothing like the lumpless bland stuff you can buy. It's easy peasy to make and because the mayoniase is sugar free and fat free, it's technically Dukan friendly, though I won't be eating any.

Until tomorrow,

Froogsxxxx

Take the night off Brenda!!!

 Hey!

In true stingy git style, my diet and exercise regime is as cheap as the every day life I live. The food I'm eating is slightly more expensive but seeing as I only eat at meal times and my meals are shrinking, then the costs have balanced themselves out. I feed Dearly Beloved exactly what I eat, with some carbs, usually rice and he has a larger portion. My exercise isn't costing me either. I'm alternating between a night with Bendy Brenda and an hour long walk. Yes, you heard right......I'm up to hour long walks now. We have a staggeringly long hill in Liskeard that runs down into a valley and up they other side of Liskeard called Charter Way. It's a ring road, and only put there in recent years and as yet, it doesn't have a pavement, so I had to walk in the cycle lane.

It's the type of hill that once you've committed yourself to it, that once you're half way, there's no point turning back and coming home, you might as well keep going and finish the journey. So there I was in my charity shop shoes, my sale rail tracky bottoms and car boot sale hoody and it was great to get out with music blasting in my ears and know that my weight loss journey is also in the style of frugal.

I felt so smug. I walked past the WW group at kicking out time. They all shuffled out with bags of crappy artificial shite that WW sell (I am such a cynic of their marketing) and I'm sure the same old birds passed me who were there when I went three years ago and they still looked like strangers to exercise and healthy living. The only think I think any of them have lost is a lot of money! I certainly won't be signing up to that malarky again.

I've taken to exercising within an hour of eating, so I don't allow myself to eat to feeling stuffed, but just comfortable instead. Today, is a veggie and protein day. I'll call my invention Spanish chicken, just because it was flavoured with garlic and smoked paprika. I pan fried (in a dry pan, of course) a chopped shallot, a courgette, a yellow pepper and we had one chicken breast each. Once it was cooked, I sprinkled it with lemon juice.

Thanks again to everyone who dropped by to say hello, it's always good to hear from you,

Until tomorrow,

Froogs xxx

Mountains of food!

 When I was a kid, the five portions of veg a day were unheard of. Funnily enough, we didn't get rickets! We ate what was seasonal, in the garden or cheap to buy at that time of year. In fact, there was always cabbage! I don't know if you share my memory on this one, but cabbages were huge! The outside leaves that were slightly moth eaten, were chopped up, stuffed in a pot along with potato and vegetable peeling and stewed up and fed to our chickens. In fact, the chicken were fed all of the left overs...................then we ate the chickens! Cabbages and root vegetables lasted right round to spring and oh joy of joy! spring greens took over! That went on until the salad started. By this time of year, all of the apples that were stored on boards in the loft, where the apples were individually wrapped in tissue paper, were decidedly wrinkled by now and really only any good if you peeled them. The rest came out of kilner jars or the freezer. Day after day after day, we ate mash, cabbage, carrots, swede, parsnips, kale, spinach or purple sprouting broccoli without an orange or banana in sight! It did us fine thank you very much.

The consequence of this upbringing is that I really don't have a taste for fruit and as I'm breathing in and out and sitting here at the same time, the lack of fruit hasn't killed me either! I predominantly get my nutrition from vegetables and I like to eat as many green leafy vegetables as possible.

Supper tonight, was an entire head of spring cabbage, a green pepper, an onion, a quarter of a bag of prawns and a quarter of a bag of Quorn (some one asked me what Quorn was, so here's the product link and information) and a teaspoon of Chinese stir fry paste and a splash of water. Everything was sliced and fried and then the paste was stirred through, after that a little water was added that steamed everything through.

It's mainly veggies and as I only eat veg on alternate days, I make the most by having a mountain of it. I know I could take multivitamins but there really is no substitute for cheap and seasonal veggies. I'm sure I won't need breakfast tomorrow!

Many thanks to everyone who is standing on the side line, cheering me on, waving the flags and making me feel as if you are right beside me patting me on the back. Thanks very much. If being frugal isn't enough of a challenge, then trying to lose weight, not spend money and pay back a mountain of debts at the same time is doubly hard. I've really enjoyed the comments and thanks to all of you who have become followers, it's lovely to know that you enjoy reading what I write.

Until tomorrow,

Froogs xx

Dukan bolognaise and the 'new' piece of exercise equipment

 I'm at the end of my second 'carbless' week. The suggested alternative for pasta is courgette. Peel strips off it with a vegetable peeler and fry in a squirt of one cal spray and a crushed clove of garlic. It was surprisingly good.

I made bolognaise from low fat ground beef, onion, green pepper and mushroom, I added some tinned tomatoes, herbs, garlic and some tomato puree to thicken. I am a sad bugger because I actually measured a tablespoon of 2% fat grated cheddar! It suggested 20g for heavens' sake!!! Only drug dealers have scales that measure amounts that small! The next time I'm in France and going to look for scales that measure such tiny portions! I bet posh spice has some in her kitchen!

Hi Foster Mummy, you asked what I was standing on. It's a lateral thigh trainer, you step and twist at the same time, so it makes your legs and tummy muscles work at the same time. Big bird Brenda is on the DVD and she is so irritating I could slap her, 'You're really feeling it now?'. What she should be saying is 'You can't breath now can you!' I picked it up from Freecycle locally and I'm on the look out for other gym equipment.

When I get a spare minute or if I'm watching telly, I step away on it. I've only used it three times and I can already see my knee caps so the pudge is starting to move!

Until tomorrow,

Froogs xxxxx