Pennypincher’s Pantry

I must apologise I have not posted for ages!  I have been really busy at work, anyway I have finally finished for my holidays. I have not been off since February half term, so I am ready for a break.

I have been working through my to do list, so far we have had the new worktops put on and last week, Markie Mark built me a matching breakfast bar. It is made of the same shiny black work top and it looks great. I have bought 3 red stools to go with it and ds2 hasn’t moved from there since it was built last week! (It must be a place where teenagers like to sit??)

I have also had the hall/stairs and kitchen diner decorated, Its just cream plain walls with white gloss paint work. It has freshen the whole house up and everywhere looks clean again, so I am really pleased.

As I am off this week, I am trying to catch up with all those jobs you put off, I have booked the car in the garage for Friday to have a MOT, so fingers crossed it would’nt cost too much, but you never know??

My Best friend, who is also on holiday is coming round with her dd on Thursday for Lunch and a gossip. So I have been thinking what to make for lunch?? I have decided to make chicken ceaser wraps with actifry chips and I am going to bake a lemon drizzle cake.  Looking forward to seeing them and for a good gossip

I am just working on next weeks menu plan , so will post it when it’s complete! 

Finally, ds2 has broken up for the Easter/Spring holidays! It had seemed such a long term this time. I think with the clocks going forward last week, when we lost an hour sleep, we all don’t seem to have recovered in our house.

So I am glad that ds2 is off school. He is going to Easter sports school next week, which he loves and I will go to work short days, but I can cope with that. I break up for  one whole week next Friday, so I can’t wait.

I am still working on my to do list, the decorator has been this morning to give us a quote, he will let us know next week, so hopefully we can get the decorating started when I am off work. I also need to book the car in for its Mot 

We had 3 winners on the Grand National today, first, third and fourth place, so that was quite exciting. It s the only time that we have a flutter, but I do love the excitement of it all!!

Ok, I had to step back into the treadmill ( work) this morning, after being off for 4 days for Easter! Ohh! it was a shock to wake up at 7 am–  ekkkkkk!!!  I felt Crabbit, as Wendy says from a wee bit of cooking! It wasn’t too bad once I got there and woke myself up a bit, in-fact by the time this afternoon came I felt quite good about myself that I had actually done something productive!!

Now I am back into work mode I am going to focus on  my to do list, so far this year, we have:

1)  had a new bathroom fitted thanks to our plumber Chris (but not managed to fit wall panels yet, so not quite finished) 

2) had a new black shiny worktop fitted in kitchen, thanks  to Markie Mark x

But my list is still really long and I need to get organised and arrange the following:

1) buy wall panels for bathroom and get Markie Mark to fit them, hopefully next week

2) get a quote to have my hall and landing decorated, nothing flash just emulsioned and glossed

3) have a breakfast bar built with matching shiny worktop, markie will also do this

4) sort office out and buy a new desk that will fit in small gap

5) buy new oven with ceramic hob, ( already priced this £329  in Comet for silver Neworld model) 

5) sort out back junk/utililty room and create a shabby chic walk in space.

Ok, that is  just the immediate to do list, just wondering how long it will take us to organise and pay for , hmmmm,

Boy, it’s cold here, we had snow over night accompanied by the most horrendous gale. It kept us awake most of the night! brrrr!!!!

There is more wind’s and snow forecast for the North East UK tonight, the forecaster are predicting 5 inches of snow by Easter Sunday! I don’t mind the snow if I am not at work. Me, hubby and ds2 have been and stocked up with coal, so we are going to have a big fire tonight and snuggle up on sofa with our lab!!

I have just finished next weeks menu plan and Mr. T has just delivered the groceries, so I am feeling organised and relaxed!!

Saturday: Home made lasagna, jackets and salad 

Smoked salmon pate and garlic pitta breads whilst watching sat night tv 

Easter Sunday:  Breakie: egg macmuffins with mushrooms and coffee in bed.

Easter Sunday Lunch: Free range chicken,  hm yorkies, mash, roasties, mixed veg and sprouts

Snacky tea: cheese and ham toasties with salad

Bank Holiday Easter Monday: green Thai curry and brown rice

Tuesday: Home made meatballs with spaghetti

Wednesday: Fish fingers, mash and beans

Thursday: actifry wedges, egg and beans

Friday: salmon , roasties and veg 

It’s Good Friday and we are having Fish and Chips for Tea. I know they sound very unhealthy but I have recently purchased one of these:

Its a Tefal actify, we bought it last week and it’s amazing. It produces great chips and you have to use a tablespoon of Olive oil to cook them!!!

A normal portion of chips would be 147 calories cooked in the actifry and only 3g of fat, so better than oven chips!!

So tonight we are going to have a healthy fish and chip supper!!!

The weather is really awfull here,  the weather man says that snow is on its way! We only have one bag of coal left, so I think I am going to have pop out and get some more.

We are all off work for 4 days now, until Tuesday, so I plan to do lots of blogging!!

Hope everyone is well

I have been home from work since 2.30 this afternoon and I have had to bring the laptop upstairs on top of the bed! The reason being is that Markie Mark is fitting a new worktop in the kitchen for us. Our kitchen is quite old and it just consists of pine cupboards and an old fashioned pantry. The old work top was a cheap one and it has been on for the past 10 years! It scratched and looks quite scruffy, so we have bought a new one, its a bit like this one 

I am hoping that it will give my tired kitchen a face lift and inspire me to do some more cooking and baking!!! well a girl can dream can’t she!! :)  

Anyway, it is not quite finished but thank you markie mark, you are a star xxxx

Gosh, I haven’t been onto my pantry for ages!  I have been working very hard at work and don’t seem to have time for my blogging!!! argghhh! So roll on Easter,I will be off for four whole days!   Yay!

Hope everyone is ok?? I have just completed my menu plan for this week, I have only completed it up till Good Friday!

Sat:—- Green thai curry, brown rice with mini nans!

Sun:—–Nigella’s blueberry pankcakes

Lunch—curried parsnip soup

Tea—southern fried chicken, sweetcorn, rice and peri peri sauce

Monday:—slow cook braising steak, mash and carrotts

Tuesday:—-wholewheat pasta, mince in garlic and tomatoe sauce with jackets/ salad

Wedneday:——cumberland sausages, oven baked with roasties and beans

Thursday:—sweet n sour chicken with brown rice!

Have a good week everyone! 

Here in the UK, it’s  Mothering_Sunday. My Mum was quite religious, a member of the  New_Apostolic_Church, so I always sent her a card and flowers. She died 12 years ago last Thursday, I have placed some sunny daffodils on my Kitchen table next to her photo. 

I was woken by oh who asked me what I wanted for breakfast?

He then served me a great breakfast in bed of organic scrambled eggs and bacon on wholemeal toast, then I had a long soak in a bubble bath and ds2 gave me a bottle of rose wine , a lovely card and the Sunday morning papers!!!

So far I have had a lovely day, I have been really lazy just laying around reading the papers!! aahhhh!  I think I want all my Sunday’s to be like this!!!   

For the past week I have been searching every Aldi shop in the area for this cream, apparently it’s fab and stops wrinkles forming and also repairs those already present. ( its contains antioxidants and q10)

It was voted best cream in a blind study and is as good as some very expensive ones. It costs just £1.89 a pot, but it’s very hard to get hold of at the moment. Here’s what the celebs said about it:

“In the Sunday Mirror’s Celebs on Sunday 2008 Beauty Survey, our Siana Anti-Wrinkle Day Cream (£1.89, 50ml) was the winner out of three under £20 mass market anti-ageing creams tested. Our cream received high praise from testers: “I was asked if I’d had a facial, my skin looked so fresh. I think it must be expensive”; “My skin feels firmer, brighter and refreshed”.

Aldi  also do a fantastic Anti-wrinkle Night Cream (£1.89, 50ml).

 The Sun reported: Two thousand volunteers blind-tested the day cream for another magazine and voted it one of the most effective complexion smoothers. ‘I was asked if I’d had a facial,’ one enthused. ‘I think it must be expensive.’

At the beginning of the year, 890 jars a week were being sold nationwide at Aldi. Now more than 20,000 a week are being packed into trolleys, with dozens of branches selling out.

Manufacturers say the cream includes all the same ingredients as more expensive potions, including the enzyme Q10, which mimics the body’s ability to protect against premature aging.

The night version includes retinol complex to stimulate cell growth.

Aldi’s cream follows the success of the £17 Boots No 7 Protect and Perfect Beauty Serum which was a sell-out last year.

I have gotta have some of this!!  

I have been on holiday all week with ds2, its half term, so we have been doing some major chillin!  I have recharged my batteries and must say this morning, I am full of the joys of spring!  I have pottered around in my kitchen all week and tided as I went along. I still have a list of jobs that needs to be done, but hey, that always the case isn’t??

My best friend’s hubby came last weekend and very kindly fitted a new bathroom suite for us, it is just plain white and crome, but compared to the 1970’s avocado suite we have suffered for the past 13 years, this new one is utter bliss!! We were able to buy the suite with our Christmas money from the in-laws, so thanks to them also!

So I want to thank, Chris, who is very generous, as he did not charge us anything, he was here all weekend ! He is a first class plumber!      There are some lovely people in the world and he and my best friend are definitely some of them. When we get paid I plan to take us all out for a meal, as a way of saying thank you !