Sunny Side Up Sunday

Hello Dear Reader,

Today I am grateful for my healthy feet, I know, another, left of centre, not often thought of, thing to be grateful for. My darling Dad always said, look after your feet, they've got to last you a lifetime. Of course he was right!


As I've mentioned before, I work in a hospital setting and I get to see a lot of people who have seen better days and are not at their best. With age and declining health, things, like feet, that once were important or easy to reach are often overlooked and neglected. I hope I am always able to care for my feet.


What are you grateful for today?

Have a lovely day,
👣Fi

Three Years Ago-Home Made Laundry Liquid
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What we bought, spent and ate this week

Hello Dear Reader,

I came home sick on Thursday from work with a tummy bug, it hit me mid morning and lasted till about lunch time yesterday, so about 24 hours of feeling yuk. I made myself ginger tea and sipped on that all day as well as cold water with mint leaves in it to quell my tummy. I like to reach for natural tonics first to see if they will help before using anything from the chemist.

I was surprisingly hungry for dinner on Thursday night so I went ahead and made the dinner that was planned for that night, lovely hubby did panfried coral trout and I made two simple veggie dishes, Upmarket Mushy Peas and some homemade Sweet Potato Chips, both simple to pull together, even though I was under the weather. I was thinking of making an asian style chicken broth, with lots of ginger to help my tummy, but I didn't want to go to the supermarket or spend extra money on groceries, so what we had already planned for dinner went ahead.

I rarely have time off work but as I work in a hospital setting I didn't want to risk spreading it around. Sharing is not caring in this situation. Now on with what we ate at Chez SHI this week.

What we bought

Coles-the frozen veg is for the little woofs, I steam a cup of mixed veg, chop it up and mix it in with their mince and dry dog food.

Northside Discount Fruit Barn

Aldi

What we spent
Coles-$16.70
Northside Discount Fruit Barn-$31.89
Aldi-$34.90

TOTAL-$83.49 YESSS!
What we ate


Saturday-Prawn and Salad Rolls

Sunday and Monday-Homemade Veggie Pizzas

Tuesday-Lamb and Feta Sausages with Thai Inspired Chopped Salad with Yummy Dressing 

Wednesday-Baked Beans and Mushrooms with Vegemite and smashed Avo Toast

Thursday-Panfried Coral Trout with Homemade Spicy Sweet Potato Chips and Upmarket Mushy Peas

And that's a wrap, what was on your family table this week?

Have a lovely day,
💗Fi

Two Years Ago-Easy Passionfruit Tart
Three Years Ago-Mums Lemon or Lime Butter
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This Weeks 5 Frugal Things on a Friday

Hello Dear Reader,

We have some holidays coming up in a couple of weeks and we have decided not to go camping at this time of year as it is just too hot. Once we are set up and on the beach for the day there is usually a lovely cool breeze and the water temperature is always a bit cooler that the ambient temperature. It is the setting up and breaking of the camp that has made us decide to only camp in the cooler months.

Even though it is easier to set up the camp with the camper trailer it is still hard work and one that I don't ever want to do again in the blistering heat. I am just getting too old for that kind of shenanigans, the last time I ended up quite sick from the heat and took me most of the day to recover.

So, we have decided to do a little cruise up the coast of Queensland to Airlie Beach. It is a budget friendly cruise and well worth the money for a 4 day getaway. Yes, it is still hot up that way but we will be at sea for most of it and it is always cooler at sea rather than on land and of course we will be in air conditioning most of the time.

I have written about cruising on a budget before (here and here) and if you keep it simple it is possible to have a great holiday without breaking the bank. Just don't get lured into buying trinkets and souvenirs, take a photo, that is all you need to remember your holiday. We will be cruising with P & O which is the budget cruise line in Australia, the food is still lovely and that for me is the whole point.

We keep to a budget and live frugally 90% of the time so we can enjoy little treats like this, here's how we saved money this week.

1. Made homemade veggie pizzas with homemade pizza sauce on Sunday, they were better quality, so delicious and a fraction of the cost of bought pizzas. I have frozen the rest of the pizza sauce for next time.


2. Saved the seeds from the dried coriander bushes, I say bushes rather than plants as they were huge. I love to save seeds where I can. 


3. Rode to work everyday, it's a win win situation, I get some incidental exercise and i'm not using the car, saving on petrol.

4. Packed my lunch for work everyday, this week I have had fruit salad and yoghurt for morning tea and a chopped salad for lunch.



5. Opened a can of beans to have for dinner on Wednesday when lovely hubby was very late home from fishing. He was supposed to make a prawn stir fry for dinner that night. Now, as you know stir fries take no time to actually cook but a long time to prepare. So instead of getting takeaway, beans with toast it was.



Your turn, how did you save money with week? And what are you saving for at the moment?

Have a lovely day,
💕Fi

One Year Ago-Easy Apple, Walnut and Honey Muffins
Two Years Ago-What we bought, spent and ate this week
Three Years Ago-Home Made Toasted Muesli 
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Decluttering in 2019

Hello Dear Reader,

As you may know I have been doing a de-clutter of my life over the last few years, however last year was de-railed by the epic job of clearing out my late in-laws home, next door to us. You can read about the de-cluttering of our home here and here.

We still have a lot of our adult children's belongings in their old bedrooms, I managed to handover anything of theirs that was stored in my sewing room last year. Our son and his partner have moved in next door and our daughter will be moving down this way either very late this year or early next year. She has hired a storage shed, as she is now the proud owner a lot of the antique furniture and household items from when we cleared out my late in-laws home. So anything that belonged to her from the sewing room has been moved down to the storage shed as well.

Post-honest-de-clutter

So, what remains? I had dwindled down my clothes to a point where I wear almost everything on a frequent/seasonal basis, apart from a couple of good outfits and as I don't go out much, they simply don't get an outing. However, yesterday morning, as I went through my side of the open wardrobe I was more honest with myself than I have been in a long time. I have gained weight over the years and my body shape has changed forever, it is time to give up the dream of ever fitting a few lovely and treasured items of clothing. So this morning I took those items, along with some others and put them in the car to drop off to Lifeline when I can.

Amongst these items above are 2 beautiful tops I bought while in Paris, with my late MIL many years ago, a lovely and expensive pair of togs I bought for our first cruise, again many years ago (there is no way they would fit me now) a beautiful vintage style dress I wore while Ballroom dancing in Norfolk Island two years ago (again, how was I ever that thin!) along with 3 tops, a pair of jeans, a pashmina that has seen better days, a few coat hangers and a bag that actually belonged to my late MIL (it was still brand new with tags when I found it next door during the clear out) but I know it really isn't my style so I will never use it. 

I had 15 pairs of shoes (now 14), including Ugg boots, a pair of winter boot, hiking shoes, wet shoes, work shoes (runners) and a pair of thongs. I pretty much wear all of these shoes but on closer inspection a cherished pair of grey and black pointed toe shoes (again from Paris in 2004) were put in the bin, it was time, they were old, well worn and loved and looked it.


I have already gone through every cupboard in the house and de-cluttered it but will do it all again this year to see what else I'm not using frequently enough to warrant keeping it. Maria Kondo has resurfaced as the Queen of de-clutter and I may, indeed, use her mantra of "Does it spark joy" to help me on this journey.

Over to you, are you de-cluttering this year? What method do you use?

Have a lovely day,
💖Fi

One Year Ago-Moroccan Spice Cottage Pie
Two Years Ago-Sweet Potato, Spinach and Lentil Curry
Three Years Ago-Here Comes the Sun

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Whipped Cream with Candied Walnuts

Hello Dear Reader,


I wanted a gorgeous topping for the little Apple and Cinnamon Pancakes I made last week, and as usual, I didn't want to have to make a special trip to the supermarket. So, I had a scan through my pantry to see what I could come up with.

I already had the bottle of cream in the fridge, I just wanted to make it a bit more special than my usual vanilla whipped cream. I spied a big jar of walnuts and brown sugar, yes that would work nicely, thank you. To echo the flavour of the pancakes I also added a pinch of cinnamon. So Whipped Cream with Candied Walnuts was born.

I am thinking that this combination could be used in so many ways, think sandwiched between a soft and airy sponge, spooned over a warm scone or piled over stewed fruit. It is a winning combination of softly whipped cream and super crunchy and just sweet enough walnuts, heavenly.

Ingredients for the Candied Walnuts, 1 cup of whole walnuts, 2 tablespoons brown sugar and a large pinch of cinnamon

In a small, heavy based, non stick, frypan, on low heat add the walnuts, brown sugar and cinnamon, give it a stir every five minutes for about 15 minutes. By that stage the walnuts should be quite crispy, now add a few drops of water and I really do mean just a few drops, the mixture will sizzle a bit. Keep stirring until the moisture melts the brown sugar and starts to coat the walnuts

Keep stirring until there is no moisture left and all the sugar has dissolved and has adhered to the walnuts, don't be tempted to add too much water or turn heat up during this process

Scrape candied walnuts out onto a cutting board to cool

Once cool, chop walnuts, but not too finely

Then you just whip the cream in the usual manner, I used 350 ml of cream, with 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence and 1 teaspoon icing sugar. Spoon whipped cream into a suitable bowl then top with candied walnuts. I used a serving bowl that was not too deep so that with each spoonful you got a good ratio of whipped cream and candied walnuts.

Try not to eat it all in one go!

Have a lovely day,
💕Fi

Three Years ago-Raspberry Yoghurt Cake
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Apple and Cinnamon Pancakes

Hello Dear Reader,


Do you, like me, have half jar of apple sauce left over from Christmas? And were you wondering what to do with it? Well, wonder no more. Today I bring you a fabulous little recipe that came about because I hate waste of any sort and I wanted to bring something home made along to our combined, monthly, morning tea at work, last week.

I thought that apple sauce would work beautifully in some soft little pancakes and I was right, oh-so-right. These tender, little, low line, pancakes are a joy to make and eat. The batter is made the same way you usually do, adding wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mixing well. The applesauce adds a beautiful texture to the pancakes, leaving them lovely and light but moist and dense at the same time, they are also not overly sweet leaving you free to add any sweet toppings of choice.

Ingredients for Apple and Cinnamon Pancakes, clockwise from middle right-2 cups of milk, 40 grams of butter, melted, 2 eggs, 3/4 cup apple sauce, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 cups plain flour and 3 tablespoon white sugar

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar

In a large jug whisk together the milk, eggs, melted butter and applesauce 

Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and whisk well, making sure there are no lumps. If you have time, let batter sit for 30 minutes

Cook pancakes in the usual manner

Flipping when large bubbles appear on the first side

The yield from this mixture gave me 32 smallish pancakes, but you can cook them whatever size your heart desires

I served mine with Whipped Cream, Candied Walnuts and Maple Syrup, I will post the recipe for this divine topping tomorrow morning. 

Have a lovely day,
💗Fi

One Year Ago--Apple Dutch Baby
Three Years Ago-Excess Worm Food
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