SN2N: Day 2

Today I looked at breakfasts and fruit, turned cream into something else, and made progress in the garden and office. Plus, more thifty tips and handy hints below. :-)

In the Kitchen...

My most common breakfast is a smoothie. Which got me thinking....how much of my preferred ingredients do I have on hand? How long will they last? What about for making museli for my husband? And what about fruit in general?

So, I did a stocktake of breakfast ingredients, and made a fresh batch of museli.

And, a stocktake of fruit - fresh, frozen, dried and preserved. 

I had a bottle of cream, a bit past it's best before date, which I bought for Christmas but didn't use. I decided to turn it into cultured butter and buttermilk - I will be using the buttermilk for some lacto-fermation in the near future. 

Lunch was more of yesterday's rice salad and coleslaw, and I had a snack of some kale rice crackers and hummus. 

In the fridge I found some left over cooked carrots, beans and broccoli. With the addition of a little of this and that, I turned them into a fresh, delicious vege dish for dinner, which I served with some steak.  Yum!

I had the last of the chocolate cake with some coconut yoghurt for dessert. 

I checked on the cucumber pickle ferment I set up yesterday - it was starting to bubble, and now the veges have softened slightly, I added a rock in a plastic bag to keep them below the surface. 

And I did some rearranging and set up a table out on the deck, where I will put my crockpot tomorrow with a batch of beef stock to cook overnight - that way it won't be attracting flies into the house. 

In the Office....

When I grocery shop, I use a Master Grocery List. This list is on my computer, and contains everything I normally buy. Before shopping, I use it to do a stocktake of what we need, and then refine the list for taking with me. (Full explanation and downloadable list HERE). Since I'm not shopping for a while, and am slowly checking over what I have in the cupboards, I decided this was a great time to update my master list and make sure it has everything I buy on it, and to remove anything I no longer get now the kids have left home. I am also ensuring that the items are in the most efficient order - grouping like items even more closely together. I started today by reworking the toiletries and fruit sections. 

I also spent quite a bit of time today gathering up and dealing with the accumulated piles of paper in my office. It's a new year - time for a new start and a catch up on filing, small to-dos etc. When I start back at my (from home) full time office job next week, I want a clear, fresh start! 

A clear desk and an organised paperwork system also helps us be more thrifty - bills get paid on time, avoiding penalties, needed papers can be easily retrieved, and one feels more in control, and therefore more relaxed. How about you, reader - how's your paperwork looking at the moment?

In the Garden....

It was very hot today - too hot to do much outside until evening. This evening I decided to make a start on clearing the jungle that'd grown around (and over) my poor little lemon tree - nearly smothering it in bindweed. I dug out docks, pulled up grass, and got down on my hands and knees with a weeding hook to remove as much bindweed roots as I could from around the tree. The bindweed (convolvulos) itself is most easily removed from a tree by cutting it off at the base, and then pulling the twining vines up from the TOP, not the bottom. I removed a HUGE wheelbarrow load of weeds, and how at least one can see the tree and find the lemons! It started to rain a bit - so will leave it to hopefully get a bit of a soaking (here's hoping!) and then sprinkle citrus food and water in before mulching with bark. Still some more bindweed on the fence to get - will get in there tomorrow.

The tallest of my sunflowers is now 2.5m and still growing - I've never got them past about 2m before. It's way outstripped the trellis I planted them next to, so tonight I cable tied some bamboo stakes to the top of the trellis, so I could soft tie the sunflowers to them. It's possible we'll get some stormy weather in the next couple of days, and we regularly get high winds here anyway, and I don't want the sunflowers snapped off or blown down! Can't wait to see how big their heads will be when the flowers form! 

Today's Thrifty Tips & Handy Hints

Take reuseable bags with you when shopping at New World: They will give you a 5c discount per bag off your grocery bill. Speaking of reuseable bags - those bags that the supermarkets and other stores sell are made with plastic-based materials; they are not biodegradable, and not as green as one would hope, being made from virgin materials in far off places. So if you're thinking about stocking up on reuseable bags ahead of the coming ban on plastic bags by the major supermarkets, look instead for ones made of natural materials such as cotton and jute, or make your own at home out of old t-shirts, cotton fabrics, or even re-fashioned feedsacks. There are lots of ideas online, and I may post a few of my own in the future.

Organise your freezer by grouping like items together, and use boxes to hold them in a chest freezer. I stack white bankers boxes upright, with a label written on the side (freeze things flat first, then stack packs of meat, chops, bananas etc in the boxes). I use banana boxes without lids in the bottom of my freezers to hold items (the lids make them a smidgen too long to fit), and stack a second box on top. This just fits under the baskets. Extra baskets are not very expensive, and help make good use of space too across the top. Do leave enough room to slide them to the side when you want to reach something underneath. Ask the manager of your local supermarket's produce department to keep a few banana boxes for you (make sure you collect them when you said you would).

Create your own Master Grocery List by making a list of every item you normally buy in your kitchen, bathroom, laundry etc, and then grouping them together according to where they are located in the store you frequent most often. A list will help you remember everything you need, aid in planning what you can afford, and help you avoid temptation or unnecessary purchases. 

Tomorrow....

Tomorrow I'll post the recipe for making wonderful stocks, and also the info about eggshells. 

I'll also be talking about kombucha and one form of homemade vinegar. 

We'll look at some good ideas for dealing with bones, and a simple recycling idea that will help start your winter fires.