10.03.2018

The foundations have set and they are starting to build today. Well as soon as they pump the water out.

All the building materials at the front.

The assessor came out on Thursday for her revisit and she has agreed to a cash settlement. Once again they haven't contacted me when they said they were going to. I really don't know whats wrong with this company.
I really thought we had closer and we could get on with getting our house back in some order.

I am going to have to email them and copy in the ombudsman again.

No spend days Tuesday was a megger fail.
£42.00 Petrol
£74.00 Pets at home we had to buy a new cat flap for the builders to fit into the new wall. And the cat food was on special offer so I bought some and will save money in the long run.
£6.85 in tesco on a bottle of wine for the stifado.
£122.85 Megger fail!

Wednesday No spend day
Thursday No spend day
Friday No spend day. 

Today I need to buy a mothers day card and some flowers.

Easy Banana cake

I whipped up a banana cake yesterday before I went to work, because I had bananas that were going too dark for anyone to eat.
We like our bananas firm and yellow in our house.

This was it when I returned

Ingredients

Vegetarian

∙ Serves 8

Produce

·         2 Bananas, ripe

Refrigerated

·         1 Egg

Baking & spices

·         3/4 cup Caster sugar

·         1 1/2 cups Self-raising flour

·         1 tsp Vanilla essence

Dairy

·         125 g Butter

·         1/4 cup Milk

Method

• STEP 1Melt the butter, sugar and vanilla in a medium-sized saucepan.
• STEP 2Remove from the heat.

STEP 3Add mashed bananas and stir through until just combined

• STEP 4Add egg and mix well. Stir in the flour, then pour in the milk and fold in lightly.
• STEP 5Bake at 170C for approximately 40 minutes.

• 
  

Beef Stifado

I made a Beef Stifado in the slow cooker yesterday and it really didn't disappoint.

We love Stifado. We have had it all Greece, some parts of Greece use Rabbit I won't eat Rabbit but Geoff will have it and he says its just as nice.

Just when I added the shallots

Ready to eat. 



This is the recipe I use.

Ingredients

For the marinade:

• 2-3 sprigs rosemary
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 2tsps dried or 2 tbsps freshly chopped oregano
• 125ml red wine
• 2tbsps red wine vinegar
• 2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 3-4 cloves
• 1-2 cinnamon sticks, broken into large pieces

For the beef:

• 750g-1kg  diced beef
• 6tbsps light olive oil
• 500g shallots or small onions, peeled
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 2tbsps tomato purée
• 1 beef stock cube
• Orzo pasta, to serve
• Oregano leaves, for garnish

When searing meat, don't turn it too much as that reduces the temperature of the pan. Allow one surface to brown, then turn, until seared all over.

Method

1. Mix together all the ingredients for the marinade, then stir in the beef, cover the bowl and leave in the fridge for a few hours or, preferably, overnight.
2. Set the oven to 180°C/356°F/Gas Mark 4. Heat 2 tbsps of olive oil in a large pan and cook the shallots, or small onions, for 7-10 mins, until they start to turn golden, then remove them from the pan and set aside. Drain the beef as well as possible, reserving the marinade juices.
3. Heat 2 more tbsps of oil and cook half the drained beef until it's seared on all sides and starting to turn brown, then transfer it to a casserole dish. Heat the remaining oil, cook the rest of the beef and add to the casserole.
4. Pour the marinade into the pan and add the chopped tomatoes, tomato purée, the stock cube and 100ml water. Bring the mixture to the boil, then pour it into the casserole over the beef. Season. Cover the dish and cook in the oven for 1 hour.
5. Add the shallots or onions to the casserole, re-cover and cook for a further hour, or until the meat is tender. Serve with orzo, garnished with oregano leaves.

07.03.2018

Back to work today after a week off. The joys!

Once again I am up a silly o'clock wide awake. I will be ready for bed again at lunchtime.

I have put Beef stifado in the slow cooker for dinner. I just have to cook the vegetables when I get in.



The concrete went in yesterday for the footings. They are going to finish the footings on Friday and work the weekend to catch up with the build.

This came up on my time hop yesterday. The cheeky boy.

We named and shamed him.


My name is pudding and I just stole a whole bag of dreamies and ate every one. 

menopause/Thyroid

I went to See my GP yesterday. Or I should say I saw a new younger GP. Who thinks I am overmedicated and that could be causing my menopausal symptoms. He said after looking at my records that it looks like I have been overmedicated since 2013. He said I should always ask about my test results. I always ask if everything's OK. But I thought there's no use arguing with him about it if my doctors not told me and not changed my prescription.
So blood tests on Friday and another appointment on the 23.0.2018 to see if he needs to change my prescription.

Do you know it's Frozen Food day today? that's good because we can use some of my stock pile out of the freezer. 

It's going to be a busy day here today the concretes coming to fill the hole in the garden in. It looks like a swimming pool at the moment we had heavy rain overnight. 

Spent yesterday £00.00

05.03.2018 Spa day

So I have got up to this all weekend. Today is worse because it rained yesterday.

Thank god for massage

I am of to a spa today with my youngest daughter that she got me for my birthday.Today was the first day they had available when she went to book it in January.Only a month late we are going to pretend it's 5th February.

I went to the supermarket yesterday and managed to spend £19.36 I only needed two things but because the fabric conditioner was on offer I bought some of that which will save me money in the long run.

No spend days start today! 

04.03.2018

The big build as we have started to call it has come to a stop until Tuesday when the concrete is going in for the foundations. It was too cold on Friday. Apparently it's going to be a bit warmer next week.
My back garden looks like Steptoes yard plus a big hole.

 The big hole. With the paving slab going from the cat flap to the path so the cats don't fall down the hole.

 Steptoes yard

I have been trying to have no spend days for  a few weeks now failing miserably most days. I thought if I blog about it I might just manage it. So I am going to do a weekly post about it on  a Sunday.
I have got a little note book that I am going to note down if I spend and what on.

Today is a no spend day we are having a roast and it's all coming out of the freezer and cupboards. I need to get the  cupboards as   empty as I can. The kitchen is getting demolished in a couple of weeks. EEEKKK!

I am also going to get my backside into gear and start ebaying again,and try and get rid of all this treasure that's cluttering up my house.

|I have sold two things on Sphock this week so I have made a start.