Check me out!

 Over the years I have collected a range of recipes to help me lose weight. 

I attend Slimming World and achieved my target weight in November 2022.

Read more here

Would welcome any comments

It started with the mackerel pate!

 I LOVE mackerel pate so when I saw a SW recipe I decided to try it. I was very sceptical as I have never used a crab stick before. The recipe was :-  "One tin of mackerel in sweet chilli sauce or could be tomato sauce, 8 seafood sticks and a good dollup of quark/ fromage frais/cottage cheese. And season to taste. Blitz in a processor or stick blender. Makes a lot! "

                                       

I gave it a try- and indeed it made quite a lot. We had it as a starter and I had lots left over.

I chilled the remainder in the fridge and on Sunday made some scotch eggs with the mixture.

I grilled the scotch eggs as the mixture was cooked. Amazing! I took a couple to a fellow SW friend - yes they were a hit!

                                                         

                                                 

I had some with a green lentil salad.

I had made a vegetable soup - pease pudding, couple of veg stock cubes so I blitzed one in - amazing chowder.

Further uses - as a filling in a baked potato.

Will add more ideas. 

Kitchen update!

 Really pleased!

Kitchen stuff

I have been deliberating over  the kitchen for a few years now ie how to finish it off! Ceramic tiles were the thought for the past few months but have now decided to go for tongue and groove for behind the units/drawers up to the Rayburn where we will have a metal sign due to the heat generated from the Rayburn. I also fancy being a bit more adventurous with colours - dark seems to be the fad and with the white units this should work?

The shelf was replaced with wall cupboards as was theshutter cupboard.

Off to look at more colour charts! 

Watch this space!

Monday 6th February.

Getting back into blogging is something I haven't found easy so the way I am going to approach it is through a journal type  approach and set out tasks for the week.

We are busy at the workshop so tomorrow I will be packing an order to be posted to Scotland. The company are established customers of ours and we have visited their premises a couple of times when we toured Scotland on our motorbike. It's all very technical stuff and obviously conversations are on another wavelength. One of the main scientists sounds like Adam Clayton - the bass player in the group U2! Now I suppose I am a bit of a fan when it comes to U2 so when Les the scientist starts talking with Jon I close my eyes and imagine it's Adam Clayton as it's the nearest I will ever get to be near him or be in the same room, be it a laboratory!  Over the years we have built up a rapport with our customers and I always pack in some sweets with the order and a scientific quotation! We always get a comment! Jon is visiting a new customer on Thursday which is a great start to February.

At home I have the task of finding some wall tiles for the kitchen -  will take before and after photos but don't hold your breath it may be a while. 

The tiles will go from above the sink

Across the back of the Rayborn to the wall cupboard. The colour of the Rayburn is a possibility for the tiles but the grout will be a very dark grey due to the dust from the Rayburn.

I did feel inspired by the egg cups - will trawl a few tile shops over the next few days!

Tomorrow is Slimming World - hopefully it will be my 14th week in target - ironically a group of us are going out for pizza afterwards to celebrate the various successes we have between us.

Zumba today, tomorrow and on Friday.

Meals this week - I prepared a cottage pie and a bolognese sauce yesterday so this will see us through the week.

Meeting on Wednesday - village hall stuff! Least said the best but let's get it sorted!

Jobs at home - cupboard sorting! Before and after photos to help me with the mammoth task!

Friday 3rd February

 Week 6 of 2023!

On the work front :-

Good to note we have a new customer - some injection mould tooling as well as lab specimens. This is what a specimen looks like - On the left is a "tensile" which is used in testing proceedures. The others have names too, a sharpie a dumbell and a creep bar! Glad you asked! 

On the home front I have started the kitchen sort out, aiming to do one cupboard/drawer each day! The tiles are finally happening and I want to make sure there is nothing on the worktops except the toaster and the kettle. Tiler is coming sometime in February so I have something to work towards.

Writing isn't coming particularly easy at the moment - need to focus and clear my mind! Lots of inspiring blogs out there however!

Thursday 2nd February!

 Well it has been a week since I wrote anything here - yet again my plans down - so I WAS planning to write something every day and it just hasn't happened. I had the bright idea today to recap on January so I looked through my photos on my phone and felt I hadn't really taken many so now I am going to make sure I have take more photos to remind me what an interesting life I have! 

Our rescued hen Agnes continues to do well. This afternoon I let her have a snack whilst I cleaned out her shed. 

We got our new settee a few years ago vowing to keep it dog free!

I am 13 weeks at my Slimming World target. Quiches are a fabulous meal - this one I made yesterday (Wednesday) 5 eggs beaten up with a tub of fat free cottage cheese. I added cooked mushrooms, spring onions, celery, a tin of chopped lean ham and lots of peppers. Absolutely awesome! Discovered some jalapeno pepper essence and it certainly gave it a kick!

We had a tootle over to Whitby on  Monday - it was very quiet but very cold. Must make a note not to go on a Monday as quite a few of the shops were closed.

Had to laugh when Jon put the shopping away - spring onions and brussel sprouts in the fruit bowl lol! We do have lots of fruit though and it's good to see we actually eat it all and none end up being thrown out.

Yes - no dogs on the settee!

We have been to the beach but not as much as we should! This is on our doorstep and is a proper hidden gem.

Thursday 26th January

 Neighbours

Meet Anne and Glyn.

Anne and Glyn have lived in the village for a year now. When the previous neighbours moved out and I saw that the new people had moved in I took a welcome card to give to them. Glyn was on the drive and said that his wife was in the house and I should go and introduce myself, which I did. It turns out Anne and I have known each other from over 20 years ago when I was doing my wedding stationery and Anne had a shop selling fascinators and hats so we would meet up at various networking events and wedding fayres.

It has been great to have good neighbours we had the neighbours from Hell for a couple of years but thank goodness they moved - they lived next door to Anne and Glyn! When Anne and Glyn first moved in and we realised we knew each other I didn't mention the neighbour from hell - a week or so after they moved in Anne invited me for a cuppa. As I walked over the threshold Anne said "Right, tell me about him next door!" Yes within their first few days he had caused problems - but as I said they have moved now no doubt causing problems!

Meet Shirley

I have known Shirley for years - we met at pottery class. It was just a flash in the pan for me - pottery but Shirley still goes and has produced some amazing pots. Shirley and her family moved here again just over a year ago. 

It will be great when we get back to the busy village hall events - just waiting for the AGM and we can get things moving!

Wednesday 26th January

Everybody needs a Brenda!

 This is my friend Brenda. Many years ago I taught her nephew and when Jon was looking for somebody to sweep up at the workshop I suggested Chris. He swept up for Jon for over 5 years and when he applied for college Jon wrote him a reference.

We kept in touch with him long after he left college and often helped out in the workshop or with any projects Jon had on the go even though he was working fulltime. The family never forgot and so when his auntie moved to the area from West Yorkshire she made friends on Facebook and became a regular visitor at the workshop at a time when we were moving premises. Brenda became a great friend and I introduced her to Kitchen Therapy and Walking Footblall, she also loved helping out at the village hall.

Last year we were going away and she offered to look after our house, in particular to look after the dogs. Brenda not only kept all the dogs happy she hoovered every day and power-washed the patio!

This photo was taken over Christmas when we went for supper and drinks with Jacky and Keith. Anne and Glyn also went - Brenda is so kind and offered to taxi us all. Everybody needs a Brenda - but she's ours!

24th January

Tuesday - Zumba first thing with the gals. I drove this week so Anne and I travelled in together, meeting Jacky and Sharon there. I must admit I am getting "into" zumba as I become more familiar with the moves. Easington is a relatively new class, just a couple of miles away new faces too. Class is an hour with a period set aside for toning. Must admit I ached after last night's session - as did Anne so I am hoping it is doing some good. Last Friday I went to Walking Football. I hadn't been for quite a while following an injury I sustained during a session. It was quite severe and I had to go to physiotherapy for a few sessions, at my own expense. I had attended the sessions from day 1, encouraging others to go too - I was even instrumental in a bit of match making! (Still going strong and gloriously happy I add too!) As the group has grown and developed the pace of the game has increased as has the speed of the balls etc. I think my confidence and strength has decreased and I am thinking about not going for a while, sticking to zumba instead! Yes there were new faces there but with no proper introductions not many knew me. Let's see. When I was a Member Pioneer for the Co-op one thing I did learn was the roles we play when doing any community initiative/project. One important role is that of a "connector." We don't have to organise, manage and attend everything that comes along but we can "connect" I look at the people who I connected with and introduced to Walking Football, it now being an important part of their social life and I am happy with the part I played. They have grown and developed over the past year whilst I took time out. Maybes accept and move on Denise? Tuesday is also Slimming World and that means weigh in. I am 11 weeks into my target and let's just see what the scales say! Looking back at some photos I can see the difference and will continue with the regime! Chilli featured heavily this week due to a culinary incident in the kitchen. The good thing however is Jon is enjoying chilli soup!

Photos below 1993? 1996, 2002, the last one is me last Christmas.
 

I have bought this for my friend Shirley. I met Shirley at pottery class so it's appropriate for me to sign the book with a personal poem. When you open up this package Shirley, on Christmas Day. Think about when we first met it was over a pile of clay! I was relatively new to pots so I was making the gaffs You supplied the encouragement we had so many laughs. Now we are neighbours as well as life long friends Just shows the benefits of pottery certainly knows no ends. +

23rd January 2023

I am not going to call it a New Year's Resolution because it's not new year anymore and January is just flying out the window like it hasn't got a care in the world for those around it like me! I decided to write something every day but that idea went out of the window so I am clawing any good intentions back and making a start today. It is 3.30pm and I am going to write for 30 whole minutes! My life seems to be a series of incidents, the most recent being yesterday in Asda! I was shopping with my pal Brenda who is taller than me - as most people are. As I was stretching up to look at the clothes the rail came unhinged sending clothes everywhere in the aisle. Ofcourse we were laughing but managed to get the rail sorted and Brenda was able to hang all the clothes back up easily. This had brought attention to ourselves so we moved on to the gents coat section where I found a jacket for Jon. Yest again the rail system was designed for an average 7 foot shopper and as I scrambled through the small sizes I came across a medium - sending several small ones onto the floor again! Having decided this was perfect for Jon we made our way to the self check out via the vegetable section! Being a brussel sprout type of gal I noticed some rather succulent specimens so I got 2 bags. At the check out we scanned everything and it was here Brenda suggested we have a cuppa. Obsessed as many are with the notion of not buying plastic carrier bags, Brenda came up with the idea of stuffing the sprouts into the jacket pockets - which I did. I made sure I had the receipt as we made our way to the cafe. We had our tea/soup in Brenda's case and made our way to the exit. The alarm was so loud it startled both Brenda and myself - so much once again we started laughing. I could see some ex-pupils looking on with interest and an ex-teaching colleague passed, laughing at our situation. Security arrived and ascertained the alarm had gone off because there was a security tag on the jacket which WOULD have been removed at a conventional manned check out, but because we had decided to go to the self check out, the tag had remained on the jacket. The security guy by ths time had the jacket and was unzipping the pockets - can you imagine his face when he came across the sprouts? Thank goodness I had the receipt and I also pointed out that if I was to shop lift it wuld have been for something far more valuable than 2 packets of sprouts - possibly a turnip or some red cabbage! He didn't seem to have my sense of humour but Brenda and I found it hilarious - remember the alarm was still clanging out at this time. The receipt was sufficient evidence, the tag was removed, the alarm ceased and Brenda and I left the building! 3.45pm.