The weekend weather forecast for Central Scotland was wet and windy. It was certainly windy but the rain never appeared so this meant I've had a productive day in the garden today. The girls enjoyed a bit of free ranging.
I planted my Epicure potatoes. 1 potato per pot in 4 of them and 2 teeny ones in another. Emma was determined to get in on the act!! OH and my lovely mum got some to plant too so we'll see who grows the most 😉
I cleared my newest raised bed, it was full of weeds. This bed had my salad crops and peas last year. It needs topped up with some fresh compost from my Recycling centre (they take all our garden and food waste and turn it into free compost). I'll do this during my Easter break.
There are still a few leeks in the winter bed. I used some this morning to make soup. They're not very big but they do taste lovely.
This is my most productive bed atm with purple sprouting broccoli, curly kale (in the middle) and spring greens. This will be my salad bed this year once I've eaten everything!
I did some tidying up and weeding at the front. My purple heather is thriving a bit too much!! Once flowering is over I'll chop it back a bit. Despite the local dogs stopping to pee on it (!) it seems to like where it's growing.
Last night's whisky peppered steak for OH and me! You can't really see the flames of the whisky in this pic. It was very tasty 😋
I did go to Sainsbury's yesterday as I was out of coffee, loo roll and shampoo!! I stuck to my list and spent £65!!! That included a bottle of wine (as it's my birthday next week and OH is away so we kinda celebrated last night) plus a few major store cupboard items. That should see me through the next 2 or 3 weeks (I hope!) I managed to get a reduced organic chicken. After cooking I stripped all the meat off it and made stock with the bones last night. Today I made Chicken and rice soup and put all the wee scraps of meat back into the soup. I got 6 portions so that's lunch sorted all week!
The rest of the meat will be portioned up for freezing/using this coming week. So far my meal plans are:
Overnight oats/porridge with fruit for breakfast and soup for lunch each day.
Monday - Chicken stir fry
Tuesday - Pulled beef and veg in a wrap (one portion left in freezer)
Wednesday - Birthday meal with family (provided by my lovely mum)
Thursday - Salmon and veg dish (I've got some cooked salmon lurking in the freezer)
Friday - eating out with OH
Saturday - chicken pot luck
Sunday - leftovers
Only 2 more weeks until the Easter break. I'm really looking forward it. So far I've got no plans other than planting lots of seeds and painting DS's bathroom. And sleeping a lot!!
I've been out in the garden too today but just to pull out all the dead winter stuff, no veg yet. I've also got a few leeks still growing from last year which I'll need to use soon as I need the tub they are in for this years veg. I've never been able to work out how to make stock with roast chicken bones, do you just chuck the whole carcass in a pot? Do you use any stock cubes or anything too? Lets hope April brings some warmer temperatures to encourage us out into the garden for planting!
ReplyDeleteYep, I just put all the bones in a big pot and cover with water. Nothing else. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2 hours. Sometimes I do it in the slowcooker. Then I strain and cool the stock overnight so I can skim off the fat. Then I make soup by adding rice/veg etc and some Marigold stock powder. My mum uses a chicken stock cube but you could just add salt if you wanted
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