Half term plans

Storm Dennis is currently the UK hard, and I'm quite happy to be inside my warm cosy house, snuggled up on the sofa with my laptop. My back and hipsare complaining about mopping at work the last two days (that's all I can think of to attribute the pain to - using muscles in different ways than what I usualy do?).

There are a hundred things I could be doing today, but instead I'm listening to my body and resting. It's been a bit of a crazy six weeks of one thing after another (To quote my husband,"Is there ever something not wrong with you?")

We have some fun things planned for the half term. I have a whole day mapped out to spend with my lovely friend Evey, while Menard steps up to the plate and wrestles the kids (It's possible I don't actually understand the rules of baseball or wrestling there ;) )
We also plan to travel to see my best friend from university and her delighful daughter. I love spending time with them, and hope she's up on her Dr Who knowledge as both the kids have been watching past series on netflix. (To be fair, it's her hubby who has all the knowledge, and I'll do my best to help her answer any questions the kids throw at her!).

There will also be homework completing, rocks to decorate, an Egyptian costume to finish and two rock star costumes to work out (thanks school with all your dressing up ideas). Oh and two poems to memorise, Jaiden also has lines to learn for his school show.  And I have some bits to do for my work too.

I want to plan meals around what we have in the freezer and cupboards, to run them down a bit and perhaps save some money. I need to survey the school uniform siuation and probably all the clothes belonging to me and my two children. And I hope there might be some sewing for fun, as well as some mending that needs doing.

Busy busy. But hopefully some blog posts will be produced too..

Ooh, and I have an idea for some informal interviews with a few of my friends, to share with me how they do things to live more sustainably, or how they balance doing all the stuff! More to follow soon...

Thinkings from my brain part two

I am very lucky to be able to share though my work, in the scheme a local supermarket have for sharing some of their unsold food from the day before, which is collected by someone at work, and then shared out with families who use our facilities. Because I hate food going in the bin, if there's any left at the end of that day, I can often be seen taking home a motley collection of bits and pieces to share with my neighbours and cook for our dinner!

I think, so long as you can detach yourself from the idea of the perfect carrot, anyone can take a slightly sad carrot, wash and peel it, and give it new life in a meal.  It may be slightly sad and wanting, but it can still taste amazing!

For example, things I do with carrots who've seen better days...
*Throw into soup. My favourite recipe is a butternut squash, carrot and cumin recipe, but to be honest you can't go too far wrong just throwing things into a pan with some homemade stock, or just hot water and a stock cube. My only advice would be, don't go too big if you're being experimental (unless you have some willing friends or family who'll help you eat up a vat of soup) or have some pots handy for freezing in portions. If I were super amazing, I'd use glass to freeze portions in, as is it, I tend to use plastic pots which get used umpteen times before they're recycled, so that's something anyway.
*Risotto is another fairly easy recipe to throw random veg into. You can always serve with bacon or sausages if you need your meat in the meal.
*Roasted veg. Any number of root veg can be thrown into a bowl and tossed in a little oil and herbs, then roasted on an oven tray. If you use what you've got, then eat time it will taste a little different, but it will most probably be delicious!
* Grate into other dishes. Things like courgettes and carrots are so easy to grate into other things. Bolognase, chilli, omlette filling, sausage casserole....
*Put it in a pie! I make chicken and veg pie. I'm a working mum, so don't judge when I say I usually buy the pastry (reduced, if i see it!).  A little chicken can go a long way. I either use leftovers, or poach some breast or boneless thighs. You can make a white sauce easily, or to be honest, I quite often use a tin or two of chicken soup (some of those came from work too!). Use loads of veg, saute together, starting with the stuff that needs longer cooking, like onion, or chunks of carrot, or grate the carrot in, and it'll cook quicker.
*Use it in baking. Carrot cake, muffins, most recipes are very versatile. You'd be surprised what I've used up in muffins, unless you know me in person, in case you might not be surprised!
*Throw them (peeled) along with an onion/celery/some herbs or peppercorns and some chicken bones into a saucepan or slow cooker and make your own stock. Add a dash of acid like vinegar or lemon to draw the nutrients out of the bones. 

There you go, at least six different ways to use up slightly (or very) sad carrots. What ingredients would you like ideas for? I might just have some ideas to share...

* By very sad, I mean the ones that are actually going a bit black on the outside. If they're not total mush, you can actually use a decent peeler and scrape that stuff off and still use the carrot. Ok, it won't be as good for you nutritionally as a fresh grown one, but it's still probably better than other things you might choose to eat. I dare you to give it a go!

Thinkings from my brain part one

I've been reading a lot lately about reducing plastic use. I'm definitely not an expert in this, just sitting here, I'm looking around my room and I can see all sorts of plastic around me. But I definitely think it's something that every one needs to think about seriously. Recycling is not enough (although it's definitely the right thing to do with any plastic you have already that can be recycled) but we need to ultimately cut down on using plastic altogether.
Things I've tried to do so far -
* Reusable containers in the lunch boxes. I take a lunch to work every day. The kids have one maybe once a week, when they really don't like the school lunch options that are available.
I have a bunch of plastic (yes, still plastic) reusable pots which we use for sandwiches and fruit like grapes or raisins, rather than using plastic bags that will be thrown away after one use.
- more things I could change - working on sending homemade things like flapjack/cookies rather than sending things like cereal bars that we sometimes buy and send.

*Similar to the last one - reusable drinks bottles. Sophia has a metal one that she got for a birthday, from a company called One Green Bottle, I believe.  My sisters are both further ahead on this with me. We also have some plastic bottles which get washed and refilled many times before they are thrown out. (Some are systema, bought ones, a couple are purchased drinks that are reused). Again, not the best solution, but better than throwing a plastic bottle in the bin every day.

* Plastic containers/glass/plate on top options for saving leftovers. I could pretend that's because I've stopped using cling film, but actually, I've always hated the stuff and avoided it like the plague. So really I was just ahead of the pack on this one, right?!

* Shopping bags. I've got a lot of reusable bags. Some are plastic, some are better fabrics like cotton. ideally they'd all be organic fair trade cotton or something, but I settle for reusing what I have now, and making better choices if I do have to buy any more.

I'm sure there are others, but there are also people doing this far better than I, so get googling, and if I find any good resources I'll try to share.