Week 4

 

It's the start of my 4th week off work.  I'd love to say I'm feeling much better but actually I'm only a bit better.  I decided to strip my bed this morning, thinking it's a lovely sunny day and I love the smell of sheets dried outside.  I was breathless just removing my duvet cover!!  I'm trying not to be discouraged at how slow this recovery seems to be taking.  Is it age?  Is it my current lack of fitness?  Is it just bad luck?  Who knows!

I got a supermarket delivery yesterday and stocked up on a few storecupboard items.  I did a freezer check and was thrilled to find a wee tub of home grown mixed soft fruit I'd frozen last summer.  I had some in my porridge this morning.  There were strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackcurrants and red currants, all from my back garden.  I remember each day I would eat some fresh and added the rest to the freezer.  It's spurred me on to think about how much I could grow and freeze/preserve if I really put the work in.  I also found a tub of blackcurrants, 2 tubs of chopped rhubarb and 1 last bag of plums.  Not bad going for March!

My lovely mum brought me some compost to get my seeds started so that's this week's task.  Just doing a wee bit at a time then resting.

In my storecupboard check I found some dried cannellini beans, still well within date.  I genuinely like beans and pulses and eat a lot of them, although I tend to use the tinned variety.  Last year I stocked up up on dried beans (soya, cannellini and pinto) because everything I read said they were a) cheaper and b) tasted better.  I have tried several times to cook dried beans and I've yet to make something that actually tastes good!  On Saturday I made soup in my crockpot.  Carrots, onions, rice and pre soaked and cooked cannellini beans.  It was horrible.  In fact it was so inedible I threw it in my brown bin.  I've no idea why it tasted so bad but it's put me right off using dried beans.

Every frugal website and vlog I see always says don't stock up on stuff if you won't eat it.  I'd amend that to find a way of prepping/cooking it that you like before you stock up.  I have 2kg of dried organic soya beans so I need to find a way I can use them up!!