More progress

Maybe I spoke too soon in suggesting Spring has arrived.  Today we've had sunshine, rain, sleet, snow and wind!  Today was a non working day and I had hoped to get more of my shed painted before assembling it.  But so far all I've managed is to paint the sides and door (twice) before running out of pink paint.  I've still got some blue left over from the raised beds and green from the fence so it'll now end up being a multi coloured shed!

Things are growing in the polytunnel.  My spinach, peas and courgettes are now showing leaves.  I get ridiculously excited every time I go in to see what's popped up next.  I've got some Growbags now with tomato plants, 3 cherry tomatoes (Moneymaker) and 3 plum tomatoes (Roma).  Some for salads and some for sauce.
 

I've planted the runners from my lovely Mum's strawberries.  They came from her old allotment.  I now have some outside and inside.  It'll be interesting to see if the polytunnel ones produce earlier and how many I get.

I made a big slowcooker batch of Chicken Cacciatore.  Very healthy but very tasty and only 2 SmartPoints per chicken breast. Total weight loss is now 6kg (13lbs) with 5kg to go.  People at work have noticed and commented on the loss mainly because my clothes are looser!  Now there's a good excuse to spend some money on eBay!! ;-)

Orange chicken

 

I tried a new recipe in my slow cooker.  I found this Orange Chicken recipe on Pinterest using marmalade as the base.  I have a glut of my whisky marmalade in the store cupboard so in the spirit of using up what's in there, I gave it a go.  I also used some of the frozen chicken pieces.

 

Orange Chicken

 

7 chicken pieces (I didn't even defrost them)

3/4 cup of marmalade

1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

2 tablespoons Tamari soy sauce

3 tablespoons brown sugar

 

Quickly brown the chicken pieces and add them to the slow cooker with a splash of water.  Combine the other ingredients and add.  Cook on High for 2-3 hours (less if not frozen I guess)

 

It was very sticky and had a slight BBQ flavour.  The 7 pieces fed 3 of us with stir fried rice and veggies.

 

 

I quickly popped into Sainsbury's this afternoon after gym with OH (he needed milk and cat food but ended up with 2 full bags of shopping AND realised he'd forgotten the cat food!!!)  I got a kilo of mince with a yellow sticker and also had a coupon for £1.06.  So only paid £3.43.  It's currently bubbling away as a batch of bolognaise sauce for the freezer.

And look who's been stealing my raspberries!!! I know grey squirrels are the scourge of our native red ones but he was so cute despite being caught in the act :-)

Back to work

Back to work tomorrow, that's the first time I've said that for 5 years!  Thanks to feeling so poorly for the full 2 weeks all my big plans for doing stuff to the house have gone out the window.  Ah well!  But I have spent time thinking and planning.  I re wrote my About Me page (linky at top of blog) which helped clarify what I want/need to do with this opportunity of returning to paid work.  In a nutshell, I have no pension other than a tiny one with a few years worth of part time teaching contributions.  So my reason for working is simply to build up savings for my retirement.  I have potentially 20 years of teaching in me so could put away enough for a decent retirement. Simple when I look at it now.

 

In my internet wanderings I came across this beautiful necklace with the Latin phrase alis volat propriis.  The English translation is She flies with her own wings.  I thought this summed up beautifully what I want to do with my life.  Having a little bit of Christmas money left I decided to buy it (changing the pearl for a red crystal as I don't do pearls).  Can't wait for it to arrive :-)

Remember my black fridge freezer?  I'm delighted to say that it's fully operational and already filled with lots of home made ready meals and supermarket bargains.

I had a voucher for £15 off a supermarket delivery worth £60 so bought 1.5kg of steak mince and 2kg frozen (British) chicken breast pieces.  The mince became 6 cottage pies, 6 portions of taco mince and 6 Burritos.  Half of the chicken became 6 generous portions of chicken in white wine casserole using up leftover half bottle of wine from Christmas Day and a load of veg lurking in the fridge. The other half is still to be cooked.

There are also 7 portions of turkey soup and 4 portions of basic risotto, all portioned up perfectly for me to take for lunch.  There's a microwave in the staff room so 2 weeks of cheap lunches ahead!

Today's plan is to make some pizza dough (if I can dig out my breadmaker!!) and a vat of tomato sauce so the Teenager has pizzas on hand.

Hopefully I'll get everything done and be tucked up in my wee bed by half ten tonight, ready for that 6.10am alarm tomorrow morning.

Chicken casserole

Once upon a time I only bought organic chicken and vegetables.  I was lucky enough to have a lifestyle that could support buying luxury ingredients without thinking about the cost. Now I don't have the budget but still believe in eating well.

Sainsbury's are currently selling 500g bags of frozen chicken breast pieces at 2 for £5.  That's 1kg of chicken breast for a fiver!! And it's British chicken.  I thought it was worth investigating.  I also picked up a pack of reduced veg with Jersey Royal potatoes, Tenderstem broccoli and Chantenay carrots for £1.25.  So I created a chicken casserole for well under a fiver that feeds 4 :-)

Chicken Casserole

500g frozen chicken breasts, defrosted and cut into large chunks

1 pack mixed veg

1 onion, chopped into large chunks

1 red pepper, chopped into large chunks

500ml of apple juice

hot veg stock

Chop the pepper and onion to roughly the same size as the potatoes and carrots so they cook evenly.

The chicken comes in fairly big pieces (not a whole breast) so chop them into big chunks so they don't fall apart in the cooking.

Brown the chicken in a large non stick pan (I use a wok) with a tiny drop of oil.
Put chicken into a large casserole.

Add a little bit more oil to the pan and add all the veg except the broccoli.  Gently fry for a few minutes until the veg is well coated and sizzling.
Add the apple juice and bring to the boil.  You could also use cider (I didn't have any!!)

Carefully pour everything into the casserole. 
Add enough hot stock to make sure everything is covered in liquid.
Put the lid on and put in a hot oven for 45 mins.
Check veg is tender and chicken is cooked through.
Remove from oven.

Add the broccoli and replace the lid for 5 to 10 mins.  Don't put back in oven. Let the broccoli steam in the casserole's own heat.
Serve with crusty bread.

I can confirm it reheats beautifully the next day.