Six weeks + 3

I could be tempting fate by saying this, but after a really busy day yesterday (busy for me, normal for most people), I'm actually not feeling like I need to spend all today in bed recovering. It would be nice if, when you are run down, you just magically woke up all fit and sprightly one morning, the reality is very different, everything feels like a real slog, and the simplest of tasks just do you in. Then all of a sudden you start to realise that you are not feeling quite so tired as before, that you can wash up without resting for two hours afterwards, and to be fair, I used to have to rest after eating at the beginning of all this. This, however, is the risky point, now is when you trick yourself into thinking that you are back to your old self and go shopping all day, and gardening, and or anything else you can think of and put yourself in bed for two days. So we will take things easy today and see how we feel later, then if all is well I may go shopping all day tomorrow instead!

I had a marathon cooking session yesterday, I made a tikka marinade for my chicken (I quartered it myself, which actually means I hacked it apart), then once that was in the fridge I carried on with one of my money saving ideas. We are all feeling the pinch, I feel particularly guilty at not having worked for ages, partly because of being ill, then knowing I was having an operation, nothing seemed sensible, plus there aren't that many jobs out there anyway. So a couple of months ago I found a recipe, when I was trawling the internet looking for money saving ideas, to ease my guilty conscience, the general idea was to make a huge batch of a mince mixture, padding out the mince with lentils and oats (yes porridge oats), then adding different things and splitting the mixture up and adding some more, you end up with about four meals worth of mince using one portion. I was very sceptical about the whole process, but you know what they say about trying everything once, so off I go chopping, and dicing, and cooking, following the instructions to the letter (that alone will shock most people) till I had a huge saucepan (stock pot) full of this mixture, now I had to let it simmer for a while, plus I was quite bored so I went on the computer. An hour later, alerted by a dreadful smell in the kitchen I realised that my money saving exercise had probably cost me a new stock pot, never mind the ingredients, so I gave it up as a bad job. Then last week I had an idea, I know I should be really careful about these things, still I wondered if I could do a similar thing, but use soya mince to pad out the actual mince (I was never really convinced about the oats). So I made a huge batch of chopped stuff (onions, celery, peppers and carrots) and flavourings, then I cooked 500g of mince and a pack of soya mince, then I made a bolognese sauce for dinner tonight with about a third of these mixtures and some mushrooms, and chucked a selection of tinned beans and spices into the rest of it to make a huge batch of chilli. I know this is sad and I'm going into too much detail, but if it works OK and I need to do it again it may help me to have actually written it down somewhere. I am well known for "creating" meals which my family really enjoy only to find I'm unable to repeat the success, because I have no clue what I put in them. Anyway I'll let you know, or not depending on how it all tastes.

Just to make things different yesterday I didn't fall out with anyone, I know we are at reduced capacity with Will being away, but still you have to be impressed. Neil and Xander, however, fell out big time, I blame Neil for putting the pressure washer down temporarily, and for having a face, as without these two things occurring Xander wouldn't have shot him in the face with the pressure washer and started a riot. I knew there was trouble when Xander came in and went to bed, he's always done that, whenever he is upset, or injured, up to bed he goes until he feels better. So I tried to play peacemaker, although it does have to be said there is a reason I fall out with everyone so often, (lack of patience and tact) so I'm not sure I was the ideal candidate to attempt to broker some kind of peace deal. I think it may have been when I said that I hadn't had lunch yet, to Xander that I realised my head wasn't really in the game, focussed I was not. Well Neil and Xander made up eventually, OK so Neil had to go upstairs and fetch him down, but I like to think that like a reluctant jar, I loosened him a little!

Today it is just us two (Xander and me) with Will away and Neil back at work, I do like bank holidays but I'm going to spend all day today thinking it is Monday and be very surprised when tomorrow is Wednesday. I'm bad enough knowing what day it is with the kids being on holiday from school, I don't really need the extra help with extra days off for Neil as well. Still I'm sure we can find some fun things to do today and if we go out at least there won't be any arguments about who gets to sit in the front, oh the joys of children.

I would just like to add a quick note, I always proof read my blog before I post it, it doesn't eliminate mistakes but it does reduce them, today it was a good job as I had actually typed "cooked 500g of mice" which really would have made quite a difference to the recipe!