At the beginning of the year, my dad suffered a heart attack, we are very lucky that he is still with us but the heart attack has been very difficult for us as a family to deal with. My dad recovered pretty quickly but he was left unable to drive or work for at least a month. My parents live in a little village that hasn't got great connections, so I spent a lot of time helping out or keeping my dad company whilst my mum was at work, although it meant I had very little time to myself what with that, having to take Mr Badger to and from work and the chores of everyday life with a toddler in tow it was nice to spend some quality time with my dad.
Shortly after my dad returned to work I started feeling a bit run down and extremely tired, I put it down to having a cold coming but the cold never came. On the whole I rarely get ill, but there has been regular times in my life where this has happened. I was suffering from a Hidradenitis suppurativa flare up which can happen when I'm run down and just so happened to be looking into foods that could cause a reaction with auto immune diseases when I came across a girl who had managed to put her auto immune diesease into remission. She has Lupus an auto immune diesease that I wasn't at all familiar with, interested in how she put it into remision with diet I started to read, it was like a light switch turned on, as I was reading I was ticking off these symptoms that I'd been having on and off for years, things like the tiredness but also joint pain, migraines, but most importantly, the butterfly rash across my face. I've been to my previous Dr several times with these symptoms and every one has insisted I was tested for diabetes, every time the test came back negative. This time my current doctor was a lot more helpful, I explained how I had come across it and he was more than happy to order the tests. It's been a couple of weeks since then, my first round of tests showed that I am severely deficient in vitamin D which can, in itself cause fatigue, another part of the test showed that my ANA also came back positive and the way they are stained indicates Lupus but I have to have some further tests to confirm it. Part of me hopes for a diagnosis, just so I can tackle this head on, but we shall see.
Anyway, this is why I've been AWOL, but you'll be pleased to know I'm back and bloggier than ever!
Sunday, 16 March 2014
Monday, 27 January 2014
Wholewheat Pitta Bread.
I've always fancied having a go at making some pitta breads but always thought it was going to be a bit of a faff. How wrong was I! These are so easy to make and ridiculously cheap, 22p for six! I will definitely be adding these to our regular menu as they are just so lovely and simple to make.
You'll need:
9oz Wholemeal Flour
7g Sachet of Dried Yeast
6floz Lukewarm Water
Method:
Mix the flour and yeast together in a bowl and make a well in the middle.
Add the water until it starts to form a dough (you may not need it all)
Kneed for 5-10 minutes and divide into 6 balls.
Roll out the balls to a thin pitta shape and place on an oiled baking tray. Remember your dough will rise so you need to roll it thinner than you think.
Pre heat oven too 250C/230Cfan/Gas 9
Leave in a warm place until the pittas have doubled in size.
Bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes or until they are just starting to colour.
Place them on a wire rack to cool.
Enjoy!
You'll need:
9oz Wholemeal Flour
7g Sachet of Dried Yeast
6floz Lukewarm Water
Method:
Mix the flour and yeast together in a bowl and make a well in the middle.
Add the water until it starts to form a dough (you may not need it all)
Kneed for 5-10 minutes and divide into 6 balls.
Roll out the balls to a thin pitta shape and place on an oiled baking tray. Remember your dough will rise so you need to roll it thinner than you think.
Pre heat oven too 250C/230Cfan/Gas 9
Leave in a warm place until the pittas have doubled in size.
Bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes or until they are just starting to colour.
Place them on a wire rack to cool.
Enjoy!
Saturday, 25 January 2014
Living with no heating.
Okay, I'm going to let you in to a little secret.....
We have no heating.
By this I don't mean out boiler is broken or we're waiting for an engineer, we just simply don't have central heating that works properly. When we moved into our new house it was the middle of summer and blistering hot, the thought of heating didn't even cross our minds, so when it started getting a bit chilly around the end of October we popped the heating on a few times, imagine our horror then our MONTHLY bill arrived and was £195! I did some research and it turns out that our storage heaters are not on E7 which means they don't run on a cheaper night rate, nor are they connected to a timer to make them come on at night, you have to turn them on manually, wait for them to heat up and then get your heating, extremely expensive if you forget to turn them off and they don't really kick out enough heat to get the room about 15C. Brrrr!
Since then we've been and bought an oil filled radiator for £25 and we have run two of these every day, sometimes all day and haven't had a bill higher than £90 and are getting less.
These last few months I've worked hard trying to keep the house nice and warm and prepare for when the temperature really drops in February and now have a little routine that is working well and keeping the house no lower than 18C with is quite comfortable.
One thing that I have found absolutely essential is when to open and close your curtains, if its still dark when you get up, don't open them! You will lose so much heat just from opening or closing them at the wrong time, as soon as the sun starts to go down you need to draw them, it really is that simple. Make sure all of your windows are covered, it's were most of your heat will escape, if you don't have curtains make them out of anything you can, we spent about a month with a shower curtain in our bedroom window, it might not look pretty but it will help keep you warm.
Another tip (which is a no brainer really) put on a jumper. You can't expect to be able to sit around in your underwear and be warm when you have no central heating, it just isn't going to happen I'm afraid, wrap up in your dressing gown, put on socks and just dress snugly.
I use lots of ways to heat up the house that I will cover in more depth in the near future but unfortunately I have housework to be getting on with *sigh* which, incidentally is another great way to keep warm!
We have no heating.
By this I don't mean out boiler is broken or we're waiting for an engineer, we just simply don't have central heating that works properly. When we moved into our new house it was the middle of summer and blistering hot, the thought of heating didn't even cross our minds, so when it started getting a bit chilly around the end of October we popped the heating on a few times, imagine our horror then our MONTHLY bill arrived and was £195! I did some research and it turns out that our storage heaters are not on E7 which means they don't run on a cheaper night rate, nor are they connected to a timer to make them come on at night, you have to turn them on manually, wait for them to heat up and then get your heating, extremely expensive if you forget to turn them off and they don't really kick out enough heat to get the room about 15C. Brrrr!
Since then we've been and bought an oil filled radiator for £25 and we have run two of these every day, sometimes all day and haven't had a bill higher than £90 and are getting less.
These last few months I've worked hard trying to keep the house nice and warm and prepare for when the temperature really drops in February and now have a little routine that is working well and keeping the house no lower than 18C with is quite comfortable.
One thing that I have found absolutely essential is when to open and close your curtains, if its still dark when you get up, don't open them! You will lose so much heat just from opening or closing them at the wrong time, as soon as the sun starts to go down you need to draw them, it really is that simple. Make sure all of your windows are covered, it's were most of your heat will escape, if you don't have curtains make them out of anything you can, we spent about a month with a shower curtain in our bedroom window, it might not look pretty but it will help keep you warm.
Another tip (which is a no brainer really) put on a jumper. You can't expect to be able to sit around in your underwear and be warm when you have no central heating, it just isn't going to happen I'm afraid, wrap up in your dressing gown, put on socks and just dress snugly.
I use lots of ways to heat up the house that I will cover in more depth in the near future but unfortunately I have housework to be getting on with *sigh* which, incidentally is another great way to keep warm!
Monday, 20 January 2014
Five Day Frugality!
How many times do you find yourself nipping to the shop for a bottle of milk and coming home £10 lighter?
Well for me it's regularly, I'm really really terrible for impulse buying, especially when it comes to food, then I get home look in my shopping and think "Why on earth did I buy that? Crap, I forgot the thing I actually needed!" It absolutely burns money, I have never sat down and added up actual figures from receipts but I estimate that I can easily spend £25 a week on "milk". It's ridiculous seeing as I make a weekly meal plan and budget, but it seems I forget that just because I've bought what I've budgeted for doesn't mean everything else doesn't completely blow the budget.
So today I'm challenging myself over the next five days to spend no money whatsoever. There is of course exceptions for direct debits, or absolute essentials like petrol, nappies and milk (JUST MILK!) but ultimately my aim is to just not buy anything. Nothing from the shop, nothing online, nada!
Wish me luck, I think I may need it.
Well for me it's regularly, I'm really really terrible for impulse buying, especially when it comes to food, then I get home look in my shopping and think "Why on earth did I buy that? Crap, I forgot the thing I actually needed!" It absolutely burns money, I have never sat down and added up actual figures from receipts but I estimate that I can easily spend £25 a week on "milk". It's ridiculous seeing as I make a weekly meal plan and budget, but it seems I forget that just because I've bought what I've budgeted for doesn't mean everything else doesn't completely blow the budget.
So today I'm challenging myself over the next five days to spend no money whatsoever. There is of course exceptions for direct debits, or absolute essentials like petrol, nappies and milk (JUST MILK!) but ultimately my aim is to just not buy anything. Nothing from the shop, nothing online, nada!
Wish me luck, I think I may need it.
Saturday, 18 January 2014
Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup.
You'll need:
1 Butternut Squash
1 Sweet Potato
2 Med Carrots
3 Sticks Celery
1 Onion
1 Garlic Clove
2 Veg Stock Cubes
Ground Coriander, Black Pepper & Nutmeg to taste.
Serves 4. 40p per serving
Method:
Preheat the oven to 190C, cut the squash in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds, place skin side up on a baking tray and roast till the skin begins to shine and the flesh is soft. This makes the skin just peel off and roasting it adds flavour.
Finely chop the garlic, onion and celery and fry off gently in a large pan. Meanwhile peel the skin from the squash and chop into large chunks, peel and chop the sweet potato and carrots and add to the pan, cook for 5 minutes then add the squash.
Crumble the stock cubes onto the veg and pour over enough water to nearly cover, put on the lid and leave to simmer until everything is nice and soft.
Once everything is soft, turn off the heat and leave to cool slightly before blending, once blended stir in the spices to taste.
Serve with some crusty bread.
Sunday, 5 January 2014
Tasty Wholewheat Loaf.
I love bread, there's nothing better than on a cold day tearing up a slice of bread and dunking it into a thick soup, however I do not love what is in bread, shop bought bread to be exact.
Here are what's in one of the top selling UK brands of wholemeal bread.
Wholemeal Wheat Flour, Water, Kibbled Malted Wheat, Wheat Protein, Yeast, Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Salt, Malted Barley Flour, Vinegar, Soya Flour, Emulsifiers: E471, E472e; Preservative: Calcium Propionate (added to inhibit mould growth); Flour Treatment Agent: Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C).
Here's what's in mine.
Wholewheat flour, Water, Yeast, Olive oil, Dark brown sugar, Salt.
Yep, that's it, 6 ingredients, you can also completely omit the salt if you want to. It's taken me a while to get this recipe right, we've had dry bread, soggy bread, crumbly bread, sunken bread and finally we have this lovely soft bread and best of all it only cost 88p!
You'll need:
16floz Lukewarm Water
1.5lb Wholemeal Flour
3 tbps Olive Oil
2 tsp Dried Yeast
3 tsp Brown sugar
1 tsp salt
50g Seeds (optional)
I was given a bread maker and it's fab, if you don't have one I can highly recommend getting one if bread is something you eat a lot of, if you do, throw it all in and set it to "quick" (the booklet will tell you to only do white bread on quick, but I've tried on the wholewheat setting and it's turned out horrible and heavy every time.
Dont have a breadmaker?
Don't worry you can still make this.
Put your dry ingredients in a bowl and make a well in the middle.
Add the oil and most of the water and mix into a dough. (add more water if necessary)
Kneed on a lightly floured surface for a good 10 minutes, until smooth and elasticy, put in a bowl and cover with cling film and leave in a warm place (I use my airing cupboard) until doubled in size.
Pre heat the oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas mark 7.
Turn the now double in sized dough onto a floured surface and kneed again to knock the air out.
Shape the dough into rugby shape and put in your loaf tin.
Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise again in a warm place for 30mins.
Bake the bread for 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 190C/fan 170C/gas mark 5 for a further 30 mins, the loaf should sound hollow when "tapped on the bottom" *snigger*
The bread will last for 3 days (yeah right!) in a air tight container.
Enjoy your tasty bread.
Here are what's in one of the top selling UK brands of wholemeal bread.
Wholemeal Wheat Flour, Water, Kibbled Malted Wheat, Wheat Protein, Yeast, Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Salt, Malted Barley Flour, Vinegar, Soya Flour, Emulsifiers: E471, E472e; Preservative: Calcium Propionate (added to inhibit mould growth); Flour Treatment Agent: Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C).
Here's what's in mine.
Wholewheat flour, Water, Yeast, Olive oil, Dark brown sugar, Salt.
Yep, that's it, 6 ingredients, you can also completely omit the salt if you want to. It's taken me a while to get this recipe right, we've had dry bread, soggy bread, crumbly bread, sunken bread and finally we have this lovely soft bread and best of all it only cost 88p!
You'll need:
16floz Lukewarm Water
1.5lb Wholemeal Flour
3 tbps Olive Oil
2 tsp Dried Yeast
3 tsp Brown sugar
1 tsp salt
50g Seeds (optional)
I was given a bread maker and it's fab, if you don't have one I can highly recommend getting one if bread is something you eat a lot of, if you do, throw it all in and set it to "quick" (the booklet will tell you to only do white bread on quick, but I've tried on the wholewheat setting and it's turned out horrible and heavy every time.
Dont have a breadmaker?
Don't worry you can still make this.
Put your dry ingredients in a bowl and make a well in the middle.
Add the oil and most of the water and mix into a dough. (add more water if necessary)
Kneed on a lightly floured surface for a good 10 minutes, until smooth and elasticy, put in a bowl and cover with cling film and leave in a warm place (I use my airing cupboard) until doubled in size.
Pre heat the oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas mark 7.
Turn the now double in sized dough onto a floured surface and kneed again to knock the air out.
Shape the dough into rugby shape and put in your loaf tin.
Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise again in a warm place for 30mins.
Bake the bread for 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 190C/fan 170C/gas mark 5 for a further 30 mins, the loaf should sound hollow when "tapped on the bottom" *snigger*
The bread will last for 3 days (yeah right!) in a air tight container.
Enjoy your tasty bread.
Wednesday, 1 January 2014
New Years Resolutions.
Happy New Year!
I've never really been one for new years resolutions, I kind of just go with the flow and don't give much thought ahead to the coming year, but now I'm a grown up with my own house and child, I don't think that would be the brightest idea to just wait and see.
#1. Plan ahead.
Especially meals, I started to meal plan at the end of last year when money was tight, I sat here, cupboards bare with £12 in my pocket, 3 mouths to feed and 2 weeks until pay day, I pulled everything out of the cupboard and listed everything I had, to my surprise I managed to make 16 separate dinners and was able to easily make my £12 stretch for lunches too, I won't lie we ate a lot of pasta that week, but we ate.
#2. Cut the crap.
Food wise, sometimes when you're skint it can be all to tempting to buy crap, over processed, packet mix, tinned everything, I cook mainly from scratch so we don't have many dinners that come out of a packet, but when it comes to chocolate, breads or refined carbs, we do eat a lot, which is something I'd like to get away from. So we'll be swapping regular pasta for wholewheat versions, baking our own breads, replacing regular treats with a small treat once in a while, cut down on refined sugars and try to completely cut out anything highly processed and eat much less meat.
#3. Move more.
I won't lie, I'm a lazy Badger, I'm a fan of staying in where it's snug and warm and like to save adventures for when it's nice and dry, so I'm going to buy myself a mac and some wellies and brave the storm whilst reducing my carbon footprint.
#4. Be a gentler person.
Sometimes in life I find myself being a little harsh or a little thoughtless, whether that be to others, the earth or even myself. I often catch myself after a using a harsh tone, throwing out something that could of been recycled, criticizing myself and think to myself "why did I do that?" It doesn't take much just to me that little but more mindful.
So these are mine, now what are yours?
I've never really been one for new years resolutions, I kind of just go with the flow and don't give much thought ahead to the coming year, but now I'm a grown up with my own house and child, I don't think that would be the brightest idea to just wait and see.
#1. Plan ahead.
Especially meals, I started to meal plan at the end of last year when money was tight, I sat here, cupboards bare with £12 in my pocket, 3 mouths to feed and 2 weeks until pay day, I pulled everything out of the cupboard and listed everything I had, to my surprise I managed to make 16 separate dinners and was able to easily make my £12 stretch for lunches too, I won't lie we ate a lot of pasta that week, but we ate.
#2. Cut the crap.
Food wise, sometimes when you're skint it can be all to tempting to buy crap, over processed, packet mix, tinned everything, I cook mainly from scratch so we don't have many dinners that come out of a packet, but when it comes to chocolate, breads or refined carbs, we do eat a lot, which is something I'd like to get away from. So we'll be swapping regular pasta for wholewheat versions, baking our own breads, replacing regular treats with a small treat once in a while, cut down on refined sugars and try to completely cut out anything highly processed and eat much less meat.
#3. Move more.
I won't lie, I'm a lazy Badger, I'm a fan of staying in where it's snug and warm and like to save adventures for when it's nice and dry, so I'm going to buy myself a mac and some wellies and brave the storm whilst reducing my carbon footprint.
#4. Be a gentler person.
Sometimes in life I find myself being a little harsh or a little thoughtless, whether that be to others, the earth or even myself. I often catch myself after a using a harsh tone, throwing out something that could of been recycled, criticizing myself and think to myself "why did I do that?" It doesn't take much just to me that little but more mindful.
So these are mine, now what are yours?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)