Days 12 & 13: getting in the swing

Almost halfway through my challenge, and I feel I am finally getting in the swing.  This is making me more aware of a number of things that I wasn't conscious of before, like how much milk I consume, the amount of convenience food I eat, how little I 'cook from scratch' and how much food stuff I buy because 'it looks interesting'.  I also realise how infrequently I use the freezer for anything other than bought frozen food, ice cubes and wine chiller 'vests'!  Now, of course I have a fair amount of ready-prepared food in it and this week I shall be using some of that for meals rather than 'proper' cooking.

I spent much of Monday in my sewing room, making templates for felt Christmas tree decorations for the Tuesday needle and natter group.  My local community centre is home to a daily play-group/nursery as well as the library and various itinerant exercise classes and the playgroup are planning a Christmas Fair on the 17th November to raise funds.  I have been delighted to find that the needle and natter group have a wonderful relationship with the playgroup  (more about this anon) and have asked that we join them to offer a 'drop-in' knitting facility in the tea room for the duration of the fair.  They have also offered us the opportunity to sell a few things of our own, hence the templates.
So having spent the day slaving over cardboard and felt, I didn't want to cook on Monday evening, just eat.  Out of the freezer came one of my pre-prepared pizzas, it was topped with extra cheese and a few sliced mushrooms and into the oven it went.  Normally when I want pizza, I buy it, probably spending around £3.  My homemade one cost pennies to make and was jolly good (even if I do say so myself).  I'm not sure I shall go back to buying them when this challenge is over.

Tuesday (Day 13) dawned bright and dry but decidedly cool.  The forecast is for snow on the hills at the weekend and minus 1C overnight on Sunday, the promise of which is making me hanker after the delights of the sort of dinners they used to serve at my school, mince and tatties, shepherds pie, steak and kidney pudding, and heavy, hot desserts (spotted dick, rice pudding, chocolate sponge).  All of which is a bit strange as 1) I've been a vegetarian for over 30 years and 2) I don't have much of a sweet tooth and rarely eat pudding!  However there was no time to pander to these strange food desires today as I was to be very busy.  The needle and natter runs from 10-12 and the whole group have been invited to share lunch afterwards with the playgroup.  Some weeks ago some of the children had written to our group asking us to make some clothes for their new dolls, all of which had arrived naked 😯! Said clothes duly knitted, sewed and delivered and the playgroup proffered the lunch invitation by way of a thank you, with the menu including soup made from the vegetables from their own garden and sandwiches and cakes.  Needless to say this 'free lunch' was attended and much enjoyed by yours truly. I stayed in the community centre for the afternoon (after popping home to check on the chickens), for a WI session on Hardanger embroidery, something I have seen and admired but never tried.  Anne Muirhead showed us some wonderful work and gave us a super introduction to this beautiful craft.  I am tempted to do a bit more, but such adventures may have to wait until after production of Christmas tree decorations has finished.

Lovely Liz from the needle and natter had brought me another bag of veg from her garden, this time red onions and beetroot.  She apologised that the beetroot were a bit old and might be woody, but I'm not about to turn down any gifts that might be edible, so I'll be having a go at making something yummy with those later in the week.  I took the opportunity (as the wind rose and the temperature fell) to remove the very last of the 'tumbling tigers' tomatoes from the two plants I had in the garden.  The vines died days ago, but the fruit had hung on, but I thought another stormy evening would see the end of them.

I used the tomatoes up for my evening meal, along with an onion and a few olives, a tablespoon of capers, some finely chopped, rather sad kale (sorry chickens, I was going to give it to you), a couple of handfuls of pasta and some frozen beans for another one of my 'chuck it in a pan pasta' dishes.  Fast and tasty, and the combination of legumes and grain provided me with a complete protein, which can normally only be found in meat products.  It's interesting that most cuisines around the world have at least one dish that provides this vegetarian classic combination.  In the Caribbean you'll find 'peas and rice', in India dahl and rice, 'risi e bisi' in Italy, hummus and pita is another and in the UK?  Beans on toast!

However, the weekend's chicken-feeding provided me with a little supply of complete protein, and I'll be using these during the week.  Perhaps it's time for that other classic UK dish, egg and chips!

If you'd like to sponsor me for this challenge and support  'Start-Up Stirling' you can do so here!