Surreal...

I have been rather quite on here but sticking to my overall plan of saving and being generally good with cooking healthy foods all from scratch, focusing hard and trying to forget on what is happening in my 'real' life. Mum has been diagnosed with cancer... not just one tumour but actually two... how lucky is that? Tomorrow is the D day, she is going to find out if her surgeon can operate.
Huge bag of emotions in my head, something else that I have never experienced. On top of that I am trying to run my home, work full time and stay sane. I feel so sad and lost for words, it's all  swirling in my head.... I keep thinking that I don't want her to suffer, she is already weak and size 6.
I live long way from her so it so difficultly to cope with this long distance and I feel resentful that I can just put everything else's on hold and be there.

I got up early to morning at 5am so I can prepare for day ahead and gather my thoughts... will make some lovely rolls tonight, organic flour... I can't think of anything else.

I'm back after short break, no I did not go on holiday but simply too much work and family. I wish I went on holiday though... maybe somewhere Mediterranean hmm....
Bach to reality, still very much into my New Years resolution and I can honestly say I still have not bought anything else except food, which is amazing achievement for me.
I have been experimenting with making bread, cooking batches of food and generally trying to save like crazy for my new kitchen, bit slow process but I don't want to have any debts so best to save first.
Work has been so hectic this week, lots of driving, I'm so glad it's Friday..... I feel very tired and negative at the moment,  tomorrow I will try to get out and do some gardening, I'm hopeful...... we had thunder and lightning tonight I'm hoping that it will all clear by the morning.

Bread rolls for lunch

I have made some bread rolls this week, absolutely great for lunchboxes, family favourite.

600g of bread flour
160ml of milk
200-220ml of water
15g of fresh yeast,
 2 teaspoons of sugar
12g of salt
30g of oil, can be sunflower or olive oil.
Mix yeast with warm water, not too hot, add sugar and leave it for few minutes while you measure other ingredients.
Mix flour with salt in a large bowl and add  yeast mixture and followed by rest of the ingredients. Mix all until it forms dough, transfer everything onto the flat surface and knead for 10-15 minutes, I do 10 min normally, great for uppper arm workout! Dough should be wet but not sticky.
after the work out put few drops of oil into the bowl and put back the dough into the bowl, cover with it with clean tea towel and Rest it for 1hr in warm place.
After 1 hour the dough should be at least 2-3 times the original size, take it out knead for couple of minutes to get the air out, add your favourite seeds, cheese, or olives, shape it into snake like shape about 3inch thick and cut into 3 inch pieces, or larger if you want large rolls.
Form rolls and place on the baking paper about 3 inches apart, cover with tea towel and  let it rest for further 30 minutes.
Meantime heat up the oven, once rolls have doubled in size, place in hot oven and bake for 15 min on gas mark 180C.
Lovely fresh but also great after freezing, I have made few batches,  I store mine in plastic boxes so when I take them out freezer I just have to leave them out and not worry as everything is in sealed container.
Good luck, again very cheap recipe, I have used flour from Lidl 75p for 1.5kg, about 45 rolls,  bargin!

Busy weekend

After the life's dramas last week, weekend went relatively well, most of the weekend I've spent making all sorts of foods for the week ahead, mostly bread, biscuits and muffins for lunchboxes. I have reviewed my freezer last week and compiled list of items, so I'm determined to clear out everything that I have in there including several meals that I've prepared in anticipation of work emergencies.
I feel much better when I'm organised at home as work can be so unpredictable and consuming that mostly I feel out of control, so it's nice to look at my lovely freezer list and feel content.

Anyway today was major baking day after yesterday trial run of making bread rolls. I figured it out that I can make 36 large rolls out of bag of flour so very economical. Needless to say the rolls were absolutely delicious, so I have left out some for lunches and I have froze 2 batches for later in the week...yes I have added these to my freezer list... the reason I'm also so pleased, I never had a freezer list before usually I dig deep and defrost chilly instead of curry and so on....

I also made some cranberry muffins and butter buiscuits with some chocolate....hmmm... heaven!
Anyway here are some picks...

Ricotta pancakes

It's Friday!!!

I am so pleased it's Friday! Best day of the week, even when I was a child I always loved Fridays, it means the whole weekend ahead.....bliss...

Today I had coffee with my friend, just perfect way to round up the week, I really needed to just talk nonsense; cooking,  knitting and our fascination with recycling plastic zipper bags.  We both had some crap time last week or so worrying about our mothers but It sounds like both are now back complaining so things are slowly getting better, phew...

Terrible wind outside right now and the weather here looks very unsettled... hope not too much damage as my neighbours have scaffolding up over their roof so it will be interesting night ahead...

Cooked review of the week tonight, everything that is left in the fridge from last week with some lovely cheddar cheese, browned under the grill, heaven..

Such a good news!

Just a quick note, mum's results came back today and her biopsy is all clear, what a great news!  she told me her legs were like jelly when she went in to see her consultant, but she sounded so much better tonight.
She now needs to have a scan on the 11th Feb, she still can't  eat solid food, no meat or milk but at least that part of her body is ok and it has been given all clear.
I feel so much happier tonight....

First months savings

So this is the first month I have not bought anything that I don't need, overall spending for this month is £400.00 for food and petrol,  I think it's fantastic as my usual spend would be average £1400 per month. The funny thing is I'm mot sure what I used to buy, lots of things that I did not need, clothes, coffees, cakes, shoes... money just disappeared.
My aim is to save enough money to buy new kitchen and do all the building works required on our home. Today I have ordered all the units and worktops as discount offers were ending today. I am so pleased as our original quote was again reduced by 22.5% which meant saving of £1120.00 so happy!

We have also decided to buy our own appliances, handles and hinges as these items purchased from this supplier were very expensive and you can get exactly the same much cheaper, in case of handles at 50% cheaper.
The kitchen would not be delivered for 6 months as we won't need it until June because building works will need to be completed first and really None of it will start until I have better understanding what future holds for my mother. However it's lovely to take my mind  of things and plan my kitchen.

My mothers test results tomorrow...

I ate lots of cake today none of it made me feel any better, just huge and bloated.... no self control here I'm afraid, I'm so rubbish at it, especially when it comes to home made chocolate brownies.

Strangely I have not missed shops.... hmm....my husband started taking me more seriously now as initially he thought it was one of my little phases. Still it was lovely to pay in full for our kitchen today and not take get ourselves in debt over it....

This picture is of someone's web page, so pretty,  roll on summer!