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SN2N: Day 2 - What's for Breakfast?

2/1/2018

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I usually have a smoothie for breakfast, and occassionally cereal. My husband prefers museli. How are we off for those and other options?
We've got about 1 1/3 boxes of Cluster Crisp cereal. The homemade container of homemade museli my husband likes is nearly empty. Time to check ingredients for that and whip up a new batch!
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I've got two bags of whole-grain oats; I use one bag as the base for each batch of museli. We've also got most of a bag of quick-cook oats, good for making porridge. 
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Ingredients for making museli - fortunately I stocked up on these a couple of months ago. I buy most of my nuts and seeds in bulk from Gilmours, but buy linseed from the bulk bins at Pak 'n Save - I need more of the latter. 

Delicous toasted museli recipe HERE. 

My husband likes rice milk on his museli (and in cuppas, and to drink). We have a couple of packs left, and then it will be time to make our own. 

​I like almond/coconut milk in cuppas/cereal - one pack left, then will be making my own.
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My breakfast most days is a smoothie - my go-to combo is a banana, some frozen berries, a couple of kale leaves from the garden (or other leafy greens) and some coconut milk. The coconut milk will run out within a couple of weeks - then I will have to make my own. Fortunately I have lots of frozen bananas and berries, and abundant kale in my greenhouse. 
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Ok, so breakfasts fairly sorted - will have to start making our own non-dairy milks soon, and when the next couple of batches of museli get eaten, then will have to either buy more rolled oats, or switch to porridge for a while. I'll let my husband make that choice.
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SN2N: Day 2 - Fruit Stocktake (Fruittake?)

2/1/2018

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The 5+-a-day folks say we should eat 2 servings of fruit a day (and at least 3 of veges). If I'm not shopping for a while, what will I do when the fresh fruit on hand runs out? What other fruit servings do I have available?

I decided to do a fruit stocktake - or should that be "fruittake"? 

Fruit doesn't have to be fresh to be good for you (though obviously that's optimal). It can also be frozen, dried, canned/preserved or juiced. Here's what I found we have available:
Fresh fruit: 
12 manderins (keep for ages in fridge)
2 mangos (50c each from Countdown last week)
13 green-ish bananas in bags
2 very ripe bananas (use in smoothies)
20 apples
Lots of lemons on small tree in garden
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Canned and bottled fruit (items shown presentative only - couldn't be bothered getting everything out the cupboards!)
10 cans peaches in juice
1 can applesauuse
19 large jars and 12 dressing jars of homemade applesauce (it's yum! use the recipe and make some!)
1 catering can pears in water
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Dried fruit:
3 small packs apricots
1 1/2 packs sultanas
2 1/2 packs dates
1 1/2 packs mangoes (gifts from Fillopino friends)
Small jar of homegrown dried strawberries
Small roll homegrown grape leather

Mostly used in homemade museli, occasionally things like rice salad, or to make things like carob balls. Very occassionally a small handful or a few pieces to snack on.
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Frozen fruit:
5 kg blueberries
1 1/2 kg mixed berries
1 kg blackcurrants
Container home-grown plums
Small bag homegrown Chilean guavas
1/3 icecream container home grown strawberries
1/2 icecream container homegrown blackberries

2 bankers boxes + 2 bags bananas - bought in bulk when supermarket had *damaged* bananas - most of which were perfectly good except for skins. I free-flow froze them on trays, then bagged and packed in banker's boxes - which conveniently stand up in the chest freezer, allowing me to stack rows of various things in boxes and pull what I need at a time. I mostly use these in smoothies, but over winter got out of the habit of using frozen ones as I didn't want the smoothies so thick and cold. Time to get using them again!
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Other:
1 litre apple juice

Garden - future fruit:
There are also some strawberries and blueberries not too far from ripening in the garden, a decent crop of Chilean guavas a few months away, and immature feijoas, apples and pears growing. My watermelon and banana melon vines are young, but will have fruit in a few months. The grapevines have lots of bunches on them - so long as I get nets on to keep birds off.

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Seems we won't have too much problem getting our servings of fruit for a while! I usually have a smoothie made with a banana and some frozen berries for breakfast. We can use applesauce on cereal or porridge - or on yoghurt, or by itself - and make snack items with dried fruit. Canned fruit can be used on breakfast or in desserts.

I hadn't realised just how much frozen berries I had, so rearranged the freezers a little to group them together - a small quantity for first use in one drawer of our upright freezer, and the rest in one corner of the chest freezer. If you can't rearrange your freezers completely at this time of year (hard to pull everything out as it will defrost so fast in this heat), then do it a little at a time. It's way more efficient to group like items together - so you can easily see what you have and find what you need. 
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SN2N: Day 1 - Toiletries Stocktake

1/1/2018

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Today I decided to go through my bathroom cupboards and check how much I had of all the usual toiletries, so I would know what will run out first, and therefore where to focus my first efforts on making my own alternatives. After discarding empty containers, setting aside items belonging to my daughter and our boarder, both of whom moved out recently, I grouped remaining items together. Turns out I must have been very concerned about biting insects at some point - as I have 4 containers of bug spray!! Which I almost never use. If I'm in the garden and mozzies start to be a problem, I just grab some rosemary and rub it on my skin. Hmmm. Let's see how else I'm stocked for things we do use.....
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Soap - plenty of regular bars plus 2 natural ones and an antibacterial bar (which I would not have bought) and 2 1/2 refill packs of liquid soap.

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Three bottles of shampoo, four of conditioner, and a bottle of all-in-one. Plus some baby shampoo (might give that to my DIL) and a hair treatment thingee. There's also half full bottles of shampoo and conditioner in the shower. I had stocked up recently when there was a really good price on Pantene, though ended up giving some of it away.

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                      Two bottles body wash, which only my husband uses. 

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My favourite facewash has run out, but turns out there are plenty of others to use up. I don't like them as much, but will work through them, discarding any I react to (I have sensitive skin and multiple allergies). With three daughters, various things got accumulated!

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Maybe I should start using toner again? Halfway through the Olay (my preferred moisturiser). Again, others I could use up. Will see how they go.

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Oral hygiene - check! Mouthwash nearly out. Will see if my husband would like me to make him up some. 

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Shaving is clearly not going to be an issue any time soon.

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I stocked up on toilet paper when there was a good recent sale. Plenty to last a while!

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Various healing creams
​Not pictured - 1 1/2 containers of body lotion.
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Bug spray, sunblock, foot odor products, lice shampoo (handy when I've been delousing chickens!), nail polish remover
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Misc smellies, deodorant, Q-tips, epsom salts, eye wash
Hmmm...ok, so no desperate needs in this department! It will be good to use up some of the extras, or pass them on. We will see how long the shampoo/conditioner lasts, and meanwhile decide what alternatives to try when it gets low, and look at mouthwash options if needed. Otherwise, just keep an eye on stock levels and go from there. 
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