I can't wait for our holiday.  After the year we've had, we're desperate for something to look forward to !!

This is where we'll be cruising after a week's all-inclusive stay in Palma.  We've been to Rome before (docking at Civitavecchia) so we'll probably stay aboard that day.  Don't get me wrong, I love Rome - I cried when I got to Trevi Fountain because I'd finally seen something so beautiful that I'd only seen on tv for so many years. But it's a long coach ride into Rome from the port, so I'm loathe to do that again

The weather was so mixed here yesterday.  The morning was showers, thunder, then the heavens opened at lunchtime.  The evening was actually lovely. I found the whole day very muggy andhard to breathe though, and the thunder didn't clear the air as I'd hoped.

Hopefully we'll get some decent weather on holiday. It's going to be a very different two weeks than the rest of the year, going from enforced frugality hrough the loss of Dave's job to two weeks of sheer decadance!!

xx

My tomato border

In the 'dog yard' a it used to be called before I claimed it for my grow-your-own, hubby has made me two raised beds.  You can see one of them above, as yet not filled, and around it I have a border of gravel.  On this gravel I have pots of courgettes, but mainly tomatos-  Little Sweetie, Maskotka, Roma and Tamina.

Hopefully the gravel will help to deter the slugs!

We had the homemade pizza, made my my elder daughter.  It was actually very good! :-)

Meal Plan w/c 24/06/12

Sunday
Roast Chicken Dinner

Monday
BBQ Chicken Pizza

I've bought two fresh pizza bases from the pizza counter at work (75p each).  I'm using one for garlic bread and the other will be topped with leftover chicken from yesterday.  I'm lucky - my elder daughter works on the pizza counter so she's going to do it for me ! :-)

Tuesday
Burgers and chips, peas and side salad

Wednesday
Spaghetti Bolognaise

Thursday ( my full day at work - start at 8, finish at 5)
Fish finger sandwiches for me and hubby, shoestring fries for Lucy, St James Beef with potato wedges for Mickey

Friday
Chips, egg and beans

Saturday
Breaded turkey steaks (recipe from work) in wholemeal baps with potato wedges and side salad

Filling the Freezer

When I get paid (on a four weekly basis) I do a big shop at work - Sainsburys - and a shop at Bookers, as I still have the wholesale card for them from when we had the pub.  The majority of the shopping from Sainsburys is the Basics brand. All good quality, just not the perfect slices/shapes that seem to be in demand from other brands.

The Bookers shop consisted of -

4 x 9 luxury toilet rolls £7
1 kilo lean stewing steak - diced fresh for me from a whole piece £11
2 kilos lean minced steak £10
1 1/2 kilo lamb steaks £11
1 A6 tin of tomatoes - HUGE!!!  £1.50
5kg pack of chicken breasts £19.99
5kg pack smoked bacon £5.59
3kg pack of bacon bits £2.99

I then have a huge cooking session that day, to fill one of my two freezers - I have one to store pre cooked meals, the other to store ingredients, meat, bread etc.

On Friday I made -

Stewing seak - 8 portions of St James Beef (a rich beef casserole), 10 beef and ale pies

Minced steak - 8 portions bolognaise sauce, 2 big lasagnes, 4 individual lasagnes, 1 big cottage pie, 2 small cottage pies

Lamb steak - half I turned into 8 portions of lamb rogan josh, the othe half is in my freezer ready to turn into minted lamb steaks

the tomatoes I share between the bolognaise and the curry, with a helping leftover forhubby to have with bacon and cheese :-)

Chicken breasts - my Mum and sister had two kilos of these, the rest I turned into 8 portions of chicken curry, 8 portions sweet and sour cicken, 8 portions and barbecue chicken, with quite a lot remaining to be made into whatever else we meal plan.

Bacon - I divided this into three, froze two and kept one in the fridge as hubby quite likes his bacon sandwiches!

Bacon bits - I froze 2/3rds  of these and used the other third in the St James Beef to give it another layer of flavour.

Don't get me wrong - I actually LOVE cooking.  But by preparing so many meals in advance I know that

a) There's always food in the house, regardless of my money situation
b) There's always something in when my fussy nineteen year old doesn't like what I'm planning for tea
c) If I really don't feel like cooking or have time, there's a meal available

I then try only to buy milk, bread and fruit and veg during the week.  Easier said then done when I can't avoid  the temptation of the supermarket because I work in one !!

Clare

One year later.....positives

OK, the positives are harder to think of!! lol

I'm closer to my sister now.  She was fantastic when we had the pub and through some of our other problems.

Dave doesnt have to work in his own job anymore.  It changed him, he wasn't a nice person at times when he was there, due to all the problems and stress.

We have a new dog - Ollie.  Another Golden Retriever, we fell in love with the breed :-)

Hubby got me a greenhouse and made me some raised beds, the darling.  I'm in absolute heaven when I'm in there.  I can't believe how successful I've been so far with the seedlings etc.

My younger daughter is as wonderful as ever (but her school is a whole different matter!!!!!)

We have a cruise/stay holiday to look forward to in October.  Paid for before Dave lost his job, we're going to make the most of it. It may be the last holiday we get for a while :-(.





Hmmm...I'll keep working on this list!

xx

One year later.....negatives

Well....it's over a year since my last blog post.  And it's been a crap year.  Seriously.

My daughter's uni course fell through, so she's pretty much had a wasted year.  She starts uni this September now, fingers crossed nothing ELSE goes wrong!

Our dog Jorge died - we took him to the vets with what we thought was arthritis, turns out it was a tumor on his spine and had to be put to sleep straight away.  Walk in with a dog expecting Metacam tablets, walk out with just his lead.

Hubby lost his job.  So we are now down £34,000, but at least he doesn't have to work somewhere he hates anymore.

We took on a pub!!  Stayed there for three months, then left because of the total lack of support from the brewery.  We would have been haemmoraging money if we'd stayed.

My mother-in-law died - this was pretty much the final starw for hubby. She'd had altzeimers for a long time, but we think it was her kidneys in the end.

A massive blow up argument with hubby's family.  Enough said.

Then finally, our beloved cat Henry disappeared two weeks ago.  We've done everything we can to find him, and I think I have to accept that he's not coming back.

So I'm going to try the blog again, maybe it will give me something positive to concentrate on!!

xx