Eating In – Pizzas

Project 333 – What Went Back

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Posted on May 19, 2015

As promised, I will share a bit more of my wardrobe clean-up.

This is an overview of the bedroom on Saturday morning before I started.

It is not looking the best as I have made it to the end of the full-time working week and now it is time to sort things out.

I mentioned in my earlier post that I removed everything from the wardrobe. I made the bed and hung up the jackets from the end of the bed before I started so that I had a clear working space.

Although one of the basic ideas behind Project 333 is to actually remove all but 33 items of clothing from your closet I had never actually done that. I believed that most of my clothes were worn year-round due to our relatively temperate climate. That is still the case and I have not limited myself to a precise number but as we are approaching our coolest months of the year I removed my summer clothes.

Here is the small pile of dresses, sleeveless tops and shorts which I will not wear again until the weather is hot. This is in addition to those items which I have specifically set aside for our trip to Singapore.

I took the time to critically examine each garment and try on a few different combinations to discover what worked together and how I felt about it. A few pieces have been taken by the local recycle boutique on consignment and a couple more gone to the op shop.

This is what I was left with. I will wear these clothes for the next 3 months with 1 or 2 possible purchases.

There are 2 pairs of trousers, a pair of jeans, 2 shirts and a jacket not shown as I was wearing them/they were in the wash. The pile of summer clothes is bagged and on the top shelf along with a couple of bags and 2 sunhats.

It is now easy for me to see what is ‘missing’ so that I can make considered choices when I go shopping.

One of the things that is obvious from my selection of clothes is that I love prints – florals, stripes, spots, checks – I have them all. I can now see that this is what has held me back from pursuing a ‘capsule wardrobe’ as many like to describe it. So many blogs and discussions seem to revolve around plain colours, neutrals and mix’n’match themes. In general terms, they also lean to what I regard as ‘wishy-washy’ colours – cream, sand, khaki, pale denim which do not inspire me. I love (and look best in) black and white as neutrals with strong, clear colour accents – red, emerald green, purple and fuschia and my clothes mostly reflect that.

I feel like my wardrobe works for me.

Cooking Up a Storm

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Posted on May 17, 2015

I didn’t sew today (or this week) but today I cooked. More specifically I cooked this afternoon and evening as I went shopping this morning.

Last night I cooked pumpkin with vegetable stock in the slowcooker. This afternoon I cooked potatoes, fried some onion and added the pumpkin mixture. This made 7 large serves of soup. I had one for dinner and here are the others ready to go in the freezer.

With the remainder of the pumpkin I sliced it up, brushed with a mixture of oil and balsamic vinegar and roasted it. I will use the roasted pumpkin slices on pizzas for dinner on Tuesday night. Two trays ready to go in the oven.

Once the pumpkin mixture was finished in the slow cooker I cooked the chickpeas which had been soaking over night to make hummus.

The next thing into the slow cooker was honey soy chicken. 8 chicken thigh fillets, 3 tablespoons honey and 2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce. Once the chicken was cooked I removed the pieces with a slotted spoon and poured the juice into a small saucepan and thickened it with arrowroot. 4 serves ready to freeze.

After the chicken was done I washed the slow cooker then added kidney beans to make refried beans which you can find in this blog post.

I make my own gluten-free pizza bases and normally make enough for 6 bases and freeze them. There were none in the freezer so it was time to make another batch. Here is the dough divided into pieces. The first 2 bases were already in the oven by the time I took the photo.

Here are 6 pre-cooked bases ready to be bagged and frozen. I use opened out cereal packets to separate things that I am freezing. The dividers can be washed and re-used many times.

I picked lemons and made lemon cordial. You can read more about it here.

I also made more butter mixture and 8 serves of chilli con carne (no photo) as well as dividing up the meat which I bought and packing it into the freezer.

Cooking and preparing meals is a never-ending task but it is good to have a few meals and ingredients prepared to make the job a bit easier each evening.

Project 333 – Clearing the Cupboard

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Posted on May 16, 2015

While this post is not strictly about Project 333, it is about decluttering my clothes so I have kept the Project 333 tag for ease of locating the post in the future. Today I decided to empty the entire contents of my wardrobe and dresser. Here is the empty wardrobe. The first category that I chose to scrutinise was shoes. Here they all are. Yes, all 21 pairs. Now, I don’t really know how that compares with what other people have but it does seem like a lot for someone who supposedly tries to keep things to a minimum. I sorted them and these are the ones I have worn in the past week. An additional 3 pairs in the past couple of months. Winter footwear that has been worn in the last 12 months. Three special-purpose ones that have not been worn in the last year but still get to stay. In fact, while typing this I remembered that the patent heels have been worn in the past year.

This brings the total to 18 pairs which have made the grade and will return to the wardrobe.

Here are the three pairs that are moving out.

Black heels which I had replaced but not got rid of them. They have not been worn since the new ones were purchased.

Red flats which are nearly 3 years old. The heels are worn and they are not overly comfortable.

Pewter sandals which were a mistake as they are really a half-size too small. Hopefully someone else will get a really good pair of sandals that fit them well.

I did not cull a great number of my shoes as most of them do get worn on a regular basis. This was a useful exercise as it made me consider each pair and the value of keeping them. I have also identified the next pairs which will go over time and I will be giving more thought to the shoes I buy in future.

Over the next week I will be sharing some of the other discoveries and decisions I made when I emptied my wardrobe.

Meanwhile, I would love to hear about your shoes – what sort? how many?

Where’s Wally?

A Packed Lunch

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Posted on May 11, 2015

I pack our lunches (and breakfasts) each day for work but I am usually in a rush so the camera is the last thing on my mind. This morning I had a little more time and I remembered to grab the camera.

This is what GMan took today. Banana, apple, 2 Vitabrits and psyllium husk, 2 slices bread, almonds and raisins, baked beans, grapefruit.

He always has 2 pieces of fruit, dried fruit and nuts for snacks. Lunch can be baked beans, flavoured tuna, salad, soup or leftovers. He generally has Vitabrits for breakfast but I had prepared a grapefruit yesterday so the Vitabrits were kept for tomorrow.

Sometimes I feel like I am packing the same old thing every day but we are happy to take our packed lunches and save around $10/day each on bought lunches. That is $200/fortnight that we can use for other expenses. The other benefit is that it is all packed in reuseable containers and ziplock bags so we are minimising any waste.

We are lucky that we both have access to refrigerators and microwave ovens at work.

Do you take a packed lunch?

Sew My Stash Sunday – 15

Friday Flashback

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Posted on May 8, 2015

Tonight I want to share this post from 2011. It is rather timely as I have noticed that one of the consistently highest categories of our spending is ‘house and garden’. There is always something that needs doing.

This morning I went to Maleny. I had several things to do and they all cost money. I began to think about this and realised that we would have none of these expenses if we lived in the city. Mind you there would be other costs, and wild horses would not drag me back to suburbia.

I picked up our 4 new point of lay pullets, otherwise known as the new chickens. Here they are.

Then I paid for the repairs to the ride-on mower.

The Duke had managed to break a link in the steering when he last used it. We have sloping land which is scattered with volcanic rocks (boulders, actually) which are mostly submerged and other obstacles such as large tree roots. We need this mower as there is a lot of grass to keep mowed. Here is part of the backyard.

I took Psycho Dog to the vet as I had found another 2 paralysis ticks on him this morning. He had one a couple of months ago which made him quite sick but luckily this time he is not too bad. It will still cost me quite a bit for the antidote.

I have bought a new tick collar (due for one) today, also.

My final purchase for the day will be online. I am going to buy a set of dog clippers so that I can keep his coat really short as that is the only feasible way to be able to find the ticks. The cost of the set of clippers is less than one dose of tick antidote so a cost-effective purchase. Previously, a friend would clip him about every 4-5 months but because of the extreme tick season this year he needs clipping about every 3 weeks. She is no longer doing it so I have decided to do the clipping myself. He is a border collie with a thick, double-coat which makes it almost impossible to locate the ticks. We live in a tick-prone area but the ticks are particularly bad this year. Perhaps it is because of the wet summer we had last year?

This is what Psycho Dog looks like when he is clipped. I think he is quite handsome.

Finding the Freezer

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Posted on May 7, 2015

Well, it wasn’t the actual freezer – more like the contents!.

Today I was working from home and late this afternoon I went looking for a chicken casserole in the freezer to have for dinner. I do not keep an absolute inventory of the contents of the freezer but generally have a pretty fair idea of what is in there. I could not even remember what type of container the casserole was in but I eventually found it.

While I was looking for the casserole I found a few odds and ends that needed to be used up and the drawers needed cleaning as well.

Here are the contents of the top drawer.

The drawer was washed and ready to repack.

Organised and ready to replace.

The bottom drawer finished as well.

This was the freezer section of my main refrigerator in the kitchen. We also have a small bar-sized freezer downstairs. There are are few food items but it is mostly frozen water which we stored during the storm season. This could be thawed and used and the remaining food transferred to the freezer in the kitchen. I will do that on the weekend and then defrost the small freezer.

This is what I have in the freezers at the moment.

Salmon – 6 serves
Chicken – 4 serves
Diced beef – 4 serves
Mince – 2 serves
Sausages – 8 serves
Bacon – 6 rashers
Frozen peas – 1.5 packets
Home-made bread – 6 slices
Tomato pulp – 500ml
Honey/soy sauce – 100ml
Broccoli stalk – 1
Zucchini slice – 2 serves
Cherry tomatoes – 2kg
Chopped basil and tomatoes – 2 ice-cube trays
Ground coffee – 500g
Mango puree – 1.2 litres
Guava puree – 1.5 litres
Berry juice – 800ml
Pumpkin soup – 5 serves
Celery soup – 2 serves
Crushed bunya nuts – 2 kg
Ice – 10 litre

When I re-read the list it is evident that my freezer contents are mostly meat and storage of some of the things we grow – cherry tomatoes, basil, mangoes, guavas, bunya nuts and pumpkins. Sometimes I have more prepared meals.

How do you keep track of what is in the freezer? What sorts of things do you store.