Week Commencing 28 February

We are on week 1 in the menu plan this week.

I have had a quietish day today, went into town to open the boys bank accounts which they wanted, with cash point cards, then to KFC for lunch and finally to a friends for coffee.

The weather has been very wet and dreary.

I heard on the news earlier that fresh vegatables will be more difficult to comeby as alot of farmers in Lincolnshire have fields of crops which were ruined in "the big freeze". The farmer interviewed was the owner of the organic farm where I get my veg box from. This will make it more imperative to try and grow more in the future.

We had one last day off school due to teacher trianing, and will all be back tomorrow, until Easter.

Freezer Update

I defrosted the big chest freezer yesterday, and apart from a couple of loaves of bread which had to be given to the birds there were no surprises.

Unless you count the 2 large carrier bags of bananas (approx 50) Banana Cake anyone?

There was also more rhubarb and blackberries than I thought but they will be used soon.

The freezer doesn't seem as full now but that might have something to do with the 2 inches of ice which were in the bottom.

I have to take the car to the garage today but will make a big batch of Banana Cake later, some of which can go into the freezer for the future.

I will sort the larder freezer tomorrow, but at least there is now space for the contents to go into the chest one whilst I sort it.

Half-term holidays

The boys and myself are on half-term from school this week.

We won't be doing much, just kicking back and chilling.

There are a couple of jobs I need to do; I have 2 large freezers, a shop size chest freezer in the shed and a larder freezer in the kitchen; my plan was to defrost and organise the chest freezer, but Dave left the door on the larder one ajar at the weekend so although nothing spoiled, it now needs defrosting as well.

The boys are planning on having lie-ins most mornings, and then just chilling with their friends.

Week Commencing 14 Feb 2011

The menu plan is now running on a 4 week rotation so I won't bore you all with the details every week; I'll put the 4 week plan up on the sidebar.
Suffice it to say we are on week 3 this week.

Dave is still working long hours which means that most of the household chores, running around is left to me.

The weather here has been mixed to say the least, with wet cold days, dry clear cold days , and windy sunny days.

Laundry has been and will be pegged out onto the line weather permitting, or the indoor airer if not.

I have had to order some more heating oil but I'm hoping this will now last us until the summer and we will be back on track, don't really want to have to find an extra £300 for 500 litres.
We usually have 500 in July/August and 500 in February, well this winter we had to have 500 in November as well, although there was a little of that left but not enough to last through and the minimum order is 500 litres.

I will be sorting through my seeds soon and deciding what to grow this year. Some things we had too much of last year but others not enough so I need to try and get the balance right.

Garden Produce

Last night saw us eating leeks taken from the garden which had over wintered beautifully.

These I sauteed lightly in butter and served with our gammon, we also had mashed swede and carrot.

I have been very lax on the decluttering front but did make a small start yesterday afternoon, and cleared a pile of magazines; you know the ones you read and then keep for future reference to never return to.

Hopefully this will now spurr me on and i can get this moving.

menu plan w/c 7 Feb

Mon - sausage & chips

Tues - gammon, mash, veggies, parsley sauce

Wed - lasagne

Thurs - beef casserole

Fri - chilli & saffron rice

Sat - burgers

Sun - roast lamb and all the trimmings (boys will have chicken)